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[00:00:00] Sarah: Hello, welcome back for another great episode. My name is Sarah Karakaian.
[00:00:08] Annette: I am Annette Grant. And together we’re–
[00:00:10] Both Annette & Sarah: Thanks for Visiting.
[00:00:12] Sarah: Let’s kick off the show like we do each and every week, and that is celebrating one of you, our amazing listeners, who uses our hashtag, #STRShareSunday, on the gram. If you use it on Instagram, we will find you, and then we will celebrate you by sharing you here in the podcast, on our Instagram on Sunday, and then to our entire email list. Annette, who are we sharing this week?
[00:00:32] Annette: This week we’re sharing one of our just amazing Hosting Business Mastery members, Dmitry.
[00:00:40] Sarah: Dmitry
[00:00:41] Annette: She has been with us for, man, I don’t even know how long now, but she shows up call after call. I just want to say, shout out to Dmitry for showing up and taking action. And we are sharing her property @ae.premiumrentals.
[00:00:55] And everybody take note here because we know that it’s great to diversify, and this is exactly what Dmitry has done. She has a very amazing loft that she hosts bridal getaways, baby showers, dinner parties, board retreats, film production set, and more.
[00:01:12] So she is making sure, hey, this is the spot if you want to have this set of activities going on. So I want you to check out her property because she really can accommodate what she’s saying in her bio. The design in here is top notch. And throughout her Instagram, she’s showing those exact moments.
[00:01:33] She’s showing a bridal party enjoying themselves. She’s showing the board retreat. And so if you’re going to say that’s what you host, it’s great to back it up with those actual photos. And guess what, if you haven’t had someone book specifically for that yet, get some models in there. You have friends–
[00:01:50] Sarah: Invite a company to enjoy it on you so that you can also get some feedback from them. They win. You win.
[00:01:57] Annette: Yes. She also encourages everyone that stays to create some content too. But check her out because this hasn’t been STR Share. We haven’t really done too many people that actually invite and host parties or film production, so check this out.
[00:02:14] We want you to get your mind thinking in a creative way, like some of these posts that Dmitry has, and DM her. Let her know. I’m sure she’ll share some of her knowledge with you about how it’s been hosting all of these events. But again, check out @ae.premiumrentals. Give her some love, and then don’t forget to use the hashtag, #STRShareSunday, so we can share you also.
[00:02:38] Sarah: All right. With today’s episode, again, your network is your net worth. Annette and I preach that all the time, and we are good friends with the CEO over at HostGPO, Jeff Iloulian. What up? And Jeff was like, you need to meet this woman, Kristie Wolfe. She’s a rock star. And Annette and I both–
[00:02:57] Annette: uh, duh. We know.
[00:02:58] Sarah: Grabbed each other. We were like, we’re well aware of who Kristie Wolfe is. And if you are not aware of who Kristie Wolfe is, that’s okay. But after this episode, get ready.
[00:03:06] Annette: Actually, I want to say don’t even wait till after the episode. I want you to go to her website now.
[00:03:10] Sarah: Unless you’re driving or on the treadmill.
[00:03:12] Annette: No, seriously. I want you to see, because I think if you can have the vision, the imagery of what she’s talking about throughout this episode, make sure to go to her website, kristiewolfe.com at C-R-I-S-T-I-Ewolf.com.
[00:03:26] Sarah: You’re so wrong. It’s K.
[00:03:27] Annette: Oh, I was so excited. I was so excited. K-R. I’m so sorry, Kristie. I’m staring at the screen that has it spelled. That’s how excited I am. And we also just want you to check all that out so you can see what she’s talking about in this episode. One little caveat I want to say. When you see her places, you will see they are in remote areas. And in order to get Kristie on the show, she was in a remote area.
[00:03:48] So we just want to let you know that there might be a section or two where her Wi-Fi breaks up. It might be a little harder to hear her, but this episode, it’s going to have you doing some game changing things in your business and the way that you are thinking about growing your business.
[00:04:01] But I just want to let you know that if there’s a little bit of audio from her side, it’s just because she was sharing her time with us in one of those very remote locations. Sarah, what’s the one key takeaway before we dig in? Because I want to make sure that people understand the gold in here. That is something that– Kristie’s going to help you with your operations and the way that you hire in the future.
[00:04:22] Sarah: She just changes one word. You got to listen to the episode to find out what that one word is. But she really does flip a role on its head by changing what she calls that role, and it’s really helped her in her operations. And I love that switch in mindset. It really just adds not only as a designer and as a builder, but business is very creative.
[00:04:44] And sometimes you have to step back, get out of your own way, get out of your head, get out of what everyone else does and put things on their side, put them upside down, look at them backwards, look at them at night, look at them during the day. And I really think that was my takeaway from this entire episode.
[00:04:58] But yeah, she really changes one word for her team, and it’s really helped her with her operations. But this entire episode is the next level. Listeners, get ready for an amazing treat.
[00:05:07] Annette: Yeah. And Kristie is not only the builder. She is the designer, and she crafts some of Airbnb’s most sought after and wishlist, unique stays. She has tree houses, hobbit holes, and even a Potato hotel. And her focus is on creating unforgettable guest experiences, not just accommodations. And she has earned thousands and thousands of five star reviews over the last decade.
[00:05:30] Sarah: Kristie, welcome to the show.
[00:05:31] Kristie: Thank you for having me.
[00:05:32] Annette: Kristie, you’ve been on our list for so long to be on the show. You are just such an inspiration. I know, not just to Sarah and I, but so many hosts around the world and guests, but let’s go back to Kristie wanting to build and then starting with your first short-term rental. We want to hear all of the things, every little detail.
[00:05:55] Sarah: Were you born with a hammer in your hands? How long did it take to get one there? Yeah. Tell us everything.
[00:06:01] Kristie: Well, it was a long time ago. Let me take you back. So my first rental, I’ve been hosting, I think for 11 years now, and I built my first one about a year prior to that. So I had built a tiny house, a really crummy tiny house, not a fancy tiny house that’s popular now. And I had one of the first blogs and stuff about tiny houses.
[00:06:25] So it’s fun that now there’s this whole short-term rental thing, and before we had this little tiny house community, which was really cool. But mine was, I can’t relate, just enough. It was a shed on wheels. It cost me $3,000. Everything was used, but I had eliminated my bills, and I was only making 12 or 13 bucks an hour at a recycling factory at that point.
[00:06:48] And so I kicked around the idea of one night about building a tree house. I really wanted to do that. I had grown up remodeling, so it wasn’t the first time I had a drill, or hammer, or anything like that. My mom was super handy with our houses, and so I had learned from her.
[00:07:07] But my tree house that I built in Hawaii was the first thing that I built from the ground up. Typically, I was doing remodels or additions, things like that. And I got on Craigslist because I knew I wanted a tree house. It seemed like a tree house should be in a jungle. And so I had never been to Hawaii, but I looked up on Craigslist for land, and I found a lot that was $8,000.
[00:07:33] And I called the guy up, we hit it off. Him and his wife were trying to liquidate all their extra stuff by the time they were 40. And this land was something that they had just never done anything with, so I got a steal of a deal. I think I put $1,000 down, and then I paid $200 a month, zero interest for three years.
[00:07:51] And essentially, I flew over there not knowing anything. Had to whack through the jungle to find my lot, built a tree house, and I was thinking, I put all my money into it, which was hardly anything. And my thinking was like, if this works, I can replace my factory job income on eight days a month.
[00:08:16] And if it doesn’t work, my family and friends have a tree house in Hawaii. So that seems pretty cool. And so I went over there and built it, and it was pretty much successful from the start. And then I was able to take that money and put it into the next one and next one.
[00:08:30] Annette: Let’s slow down because, man, we could talk about probably each property independently. Really quick, just because Sarah and I have had the opportunity to talk to you before, I want to give the listeners, you said a little bit about your mom and how she did some remodeling.
[00:08:46] Because I think it’s important– we have so many women listeners and how important it is for their kids to see what they do. Can you share some of those little things that you would see your mom doing when you were coming home from school and things that you started to notice about doing the work yourself?
[00:08:59] Kristie: Such a good point about having little kids because this is just how we were raised, so I thought everybody’s mom was like this. And then I think when I was eighth grade, my best friend’s mom hired a painter to come and paint trim in the house. And I full-on expected there was going to be an oil painting or something. I’m like, you hire painters? That’s an occupation? Had no idea.
[00:09:26] So yeah, for us it was just completely normal. I grew up in the ’80s, ’90s, and so we didn’t have a Home Depot in our town, a smaller town, and we didn’t have the internet. So how she figured things out was literally renting books from the library, talking to people. So that blows my mind.
[00:09:46] But she was always remodeling our houses. We had a big family. There was eight of us, and my dad was a school teacher, retired now. And it was out of necessity. She wanted to make our houses be able to fit the amount of people in these small places. So it wasn’t like HGTV flipping of houses, but essentially she was remodeling them, making them suit our family.
[00:10:11] The first basement remodel that she did remodel, she only had a 10-dollar black and decker jigsaw. So all the studs, everything was cut with a jigsaw, but yeah, she just figured things out and everybody had to pitch in, and so just grew up being handy.
[00:10:29] Annette: Awesome. And that tiny home, you said it was a shed, but you outfitted the inside of it, or did you frame it too?
[00:10:37] Kristie: Okay. So it wasn’t actually a shed. I did frame it. It just resembled a shed on– I bought a used trailer. Everything was used, but it was cute. Back then people didn’t really know what I was doing.
[00:10:52] It sat where the Potato house, one of my future ones, like the fourth one I did, I think, Airbnb, it used to sit right there. And the only thing out there is the National Guard. So the arms men would come and think that I was like a taco stand or a coffee shop. It was so not in the zeitgeist yet.
[00:11:13] And I was like, no, this is my entire house. I’m not selling anything. Yeah, it was quite the adventure. And of course my mom helped me with that. It was just a weekend thing that we threw together. And then she actually flew out with me to Hawaii and helped me get to where I had a roof and she caved out–
[00:11:33] Annette: She was like, you’ve got a roof over your head. I’m out of here. You’re safe.
[00:11:37] Sarah: Okay. I have a question about your mindset when you did the Hawaii tree house. I know that you wanted to replace your factory job. The replacing of the factory job, was it the rent that you were going to get? Was it the real estate appreciation? Kristie then, what was your mindset around that investment?
[00:11:57] Kristie: Actually, I’ve worked in several factories, and I actually love factory work. Sometimes I dream about it, so it wasn’t a disdain for my job by any means, but this is definitely way more up my alley in the creative aspect and the hosting aspect. I really like building, designing, hosting.
[00:12:19] I think, just having a lot of passion, it clicked off a lot of things. Where factory work clicked off a couple, but I really think that being involved in every step of the process, I’m excited every day. I love all of it. It was like, I didn’t hate my job, but this was a dream “job.” And back in that time, I hadn’t stayed in Airbnb.
[00:12:42] None of my friends had ever stayed in Airbnb. This was like circa 2013, I think. And so it was just a big, let’s see. This would be cool. It was nothing further than that. It was probably a three-day decision, which actually going forward with all my builds, they have been made very quickly. I am like, idea, this. Okay, let’s do it. So it’s rapid.
[00:13:12] Sarah: I just wonder if that has a lot to do with your success, Kristie, because you don’t have that analysis paralysis. You just believe in yourself, and you’ve invested in yourself. And we all know that we are our own best bet. So tell us how it went. We know now Hawaii’s restrictions around short-term rentals are incredibly intense.
[00:13:33] Materials. Getting materials in Hawaii is tough. It’s a remote island. It sounded like the build went off without a hitch, but how did the rental go? Was it great? Was it more than you expected? Less?
[00:13:46] Kristie: I think with every build, it’s been nothing but hitches.
[00:13:50] Annette: I was going to say, I was like, was there even anything out there?
[00:13:54] Kristie: No, it’s solar-powered, rainwater catchment. Actually, in Hawaii, it’s an awesome place to be off-grid. Wouldn’t recommend any more because of all the restrictions. It’s very hard. So I think when places have imposed a lot of restrictive, it only gets worse.
[00:14:12] So I have built in lots of states and lots of counties, and so the difference of building in a place that is pro short-term rentals is just way nicer. So I will always choose that now. But when I think back about what was hard, is navigating. I didn’t travel a lot growing up. We were very poor. We’d go camping, maybe, in our city.
[00:14:42] And so not being well traveled, going to Hawaii, not being able to pronounce anything, and in terms of culture shock, I actually find this is one of the really fun things about how I build in these rural areas. Not even in just being Hawaii, but going to Oregon and building on a lake where the mail comes by boat and stuff.
[00:15:06] It’s so fun figuring out what makes that town click and getting to know people and your neighbors. And just all the little discoveries that are there, I think is really fun. But it was also really challenging in Hawaii because, knew nobody. Had to buy a vehicle, so I bought an 800-dollar truck that broke down everywhere on that island.
[00:15:28] Now when I go back and I drive around, I’m like, broke down there. Broke down there. And so it was things like that. Also, I build, I would say, 95-plus percent myself, but even going over there, trying to hire somebody with chainsaws to clear me an area, they’re on the island time, so it was very chill.
[00:15:48] I couldn’t hire anybody to do anything. So then I had to hoof it to Home Depot, buy the smallest chainsaw they had and do it ourselves. So it was a lot of that, just navigating the town, figuring out, yeah, supplies, where I’m going to get them.
[00:16:06] Previously, I got so much used stuff, but there’s really only so much there that I had to buy a lot more new than I would have before, but it is still the thing that is fun about when I go into a new city and figuring out where to eat and just how the town ticks.
[00:16:28] Annette: How long did it actually take you to get the Tropical Treehouse from buying it on Craigslist to hosting your first guest? What was the timeline there?
[00:16:35] Kristie: Well, this goes to my fourth property, the Potato hotel. So I had bought that land, and then friends sent me this job listing, which was to travel around with a six-ton Potato on the back of a semi-truck as a Idaho Potato ambassador or [inaudible] and I was like, this is a dream job.
[00:16:55] I’m absolutely going to try for that, and I got it. And so I got to travel around the US for eight months, so I wasn’t able to go to my property yet. What was really cool is by doing that, you don’t have any expenses, really. You’re staying in the hotel every night. You get a per diem. People are hosting you. They’re feeding you. A lot of French fries at these different events.
[00:17:19] Sarah: Dream job.
[00:17:19] Kristie: Yes. And so I was able to save a little chunk of money that I spent every penny I had in Hawaii. So there was a three-month break between tours. When that tour ended, I went and built my tree house. And the thing about supplies is it was all done, but I needed some ABS type, and the island was out of it, and I could not get it. And so I had this like one last thing to hook up, but I had to fly back home and go on another tour.
[00:17:52] I would say the build took me about three months, and then when I came back from my other tour, it was about a week, and then I opened it up. And like you were saying about the zero forethought, there maybe is a little, but I got so lucky with this first one that the vibe of it was very romantic.
[00:18:16] When I tell you I did not consider that it would be honeymooners staying here, I did not consider that. It was just the look that it ended up being. And then most of the people that stay have been honeymooners. So I got super lucky with that.
[00:18:34] Sarah: I love that. Your portfolio, you mentioned that you like to go on your own tour and you go into these towns. You meet the people. You learn how they get their mail and where everyone goes to eat. How many different areas do you have short-term rentals?
[00:18:51] Kristie: Six. I think I’m building my seventh.
[00:18:56] Sarah: So you have Hawaii, Idaho, Oregon, what other states?
[00:19:00] Kristie: Washington. I have three of them in Idaho, but they’re in all different climates, environments of Idaho. It actually takes me longer to drive to those than it does to get to Oregon on the coast.
[00:19:13] Sarah: So I’ll tell you, Kristie, we have the pleasure of connecting with a ton of hosts from all over the country and the world, and one of their top concerns is remote hosting. And you’ve taken that to the next level where, literally, even if you’re in Idaho, you have– all your other properties are now remote for you.
[00:19:32] So we’ll get to the whole operations of your short-term rental in a minute, but I want to talk about building, going out to these different areas. Is that by design, Kristie? Are you not wanting to have all your short-term rentals in one marketplace for diversity? Is it just your wanderlust wanting to go to different parts of the country, and what challenges did you not foresee by choosing to invest in your real estate this way?
[00:19:59] Kristie: Well, I spend a lot of time in my truck, which was an unforeseen consequence of spreading out all over, but it actually helped me a ton when COVID happened. Couldn’t have predicted that with the different shutdowns and things that I was still able to operate in different areas. And when I had done the tree house, much to everyone’s amazement, it worked.
[00:20:23] And so they’re like, build 10. Just do a row of them. I’m like, that would’ve killed me during COVID because they shut down completely for two years. But for me, it was like, oh, well, I did that. Now I want to do something else. And so I’m just chasing, I guess, my own curiosity. So typically, I start with a build in mind.
[00:20:42] So the next one was a hobbit hole in the ground. And so I went looking for land that fit that landscape. And back then, I had so much success in Hawaii that when I was looking for my hobbit hole land, I was thinking, okay, this has to be an area where tourists are already going, which is probably a lot of your listeners think, like, there’s got to be a crowd already here.
[00:21:04] And so I did buy in this very amazing little tourist town. Their short-term rental season is 100 days. Everybody who I had over or that I bought supplies from, they’re like, you’re not going to rent it in the winter. We’re completely rented all the time because they were so set on, this is a lake town. You’re only going to be 100 days.
[00:21:29] My thinking was totally off base that I had to have people coming there. I think I built that in 2015. So since then, I know of one guest who was coming to Chelan that stayed at the Hobbit Hole. Everybody else has come to Chelan to stay at the Hobbit Hole. And that’s something you see over and over again with unique.
[00:21:48] So the third property I bought is a fire lookout in a town of 400 people in Idaho, a town that I had never heard of being born and raised here, and it’s not close to anything. Everybody flies in and then has a two-hour drive ahead of them. And again, we are completely booked. I don’t want to tell everybody to go do that, but if you build something cool enough, then people will plan their trip around staying there instead of the opposite way.
[00:22:20] And yeah, again, we’ve stayed booked. It’s an off-grid place, and I don’t seek out these rural places. It was just out necessity– the ones that I could afford. So trying to find land cheap enough that I could make work was really the guiding factor.
[00:22:38] Annette: I like how you’re doing this in the order here. So it was the Tropical Treehouse in Hawaii first, then the Hobbit Inn in Washington, the Crystal Peak Lookout. And then is the Potato next?
[00:22:52] Kristie: And then the Potato is next. Yeah. Go ahead.
[00:22:57] Annette: Yeah, dive in there because, I’ll be honest, that’s actually how I found out about you originally, was the Potato. I actually thought this one was the first one. So this one’s old news compared to these other ones that are really, really cranking. So is this the Potato you took around the country, you were eating the fries in?
[00:23:15] Kristie: It’s the same one. Yes. And I can’t believe that the Potato is becoming my legacy, but it is. So when we were on tour, it was only supposed to go for one year, but then it then it was a huge success that you still have a potato out on the road. So since it was only going to be one year, I was like, oh, they should give me this Potato and I’ll put it in my backyard of the tiny house.
[00:23:42] And so I was scheming from first thing on tour. The Potato has the secret door that the tourist couldn’t see, and there’s stairs down into it, and it was just like, this [Inaudible], dark basement, basically raw wood.
[00:24:01] And we just had our lockers, and our luggage, and the promo materials in there. It wasn’t finished in any sort of way, but they had built it out of concrete thinking that it would only go for a year. After so many years, I think seven, on the road, it took me a lot longer to get my hands on it than I thought it was going to be.
[00:24:20] They upgraded to a more roadworthy, fiberglass version. And when I got wind of that, I still had a pretty good relationship with the Potato Commission, and so I reached out to them and said like, hey, what are you going to do with it? I have a pretty good idea. And at that time, my places had been in magazines and TV shows, and things like that, and so I had a bit of success. And they didn’t know what they were going to do with the old one either, so I relieved them of it.
[00:24:54] I went and presented to the Commission, which is Farmers and Shippers, and they all said, yeah. And they gifted it to me. I thought I might have to buy it. They gifted it to me, and I actually ended up moving my tiny house, putting this Potato front and center, and not in the backyard. And when I look back on my old notes, because I had been thinking about it for years at this point, it’s funny to see the things that have changed and the things that stayed the same with my original vision for it.
[00:25:27] Annette: What changed the most with your vision of the Potato? The Potato vision. That’s something I didn’t think I’d ever say.
[00:25:33] Kristie: Yes.
[00:25:33] Annette: How did your Potato vision change over time?
[00:25:36] Kristie: The thing that comes to mind is the styling of it. I thought it would be burlap and country, and I went a totally different direction with the interior, and it’s light and bright and pretty instead of really honing in on the Idahoness of it all.
[00:25:57] Sarah: Paint us a picture. Is it like Kristie in the middle of, we’ll pick Utah next with a hammer in one hand and then your iPhone in the other, answering guest messages? How do you build? Because you build, you said, 90, 95% of your projects, and then now you got to operate these things and you’re booked out. So how does that work?
[00:26:20] Kristie: Yeah, when I’m in a build, it was really hard to do both, but I hired Guesty, or I bought Guesty, or whatever, from before I even had guests at the tree house because I knew that I didn’t want to be answering guest emails. So that worked for me for many years. I still have them, but after six properties, I was getting too many of the one-off questions, or special circumstances, or whatever.
[00:26:48] So I did hire an assistant about eight months ago, and now she handles that so that I can just be removed. A lot of times there’s not cell signal or wherever I’m building. And now I can really just be in it and then at night when I’m shopping and researching things, then I can handle some of the operational stuff. But I have great caretakers in each location that handles the day-to-day things. They’re all amazing. Yeah, the assistant now.
[00:27:19] Annette: Are your caretakers, your turnover team, your inspector, your maintenance? Because that term caretaker, a lot of hosts don’t use that term. They have a cleaner or a handy person, doing the maintenance. So caretaker, what’s that description in Kristie Wolfe’s world of these off-grid properties and remote properties?
[00:27:38] Kristie: I actually found several years into it that putting an ad out for a housekeeper wasn’t sufficient. And the quality of people I was getting was not what I was wanting because really the cleaning of it is the least. Not that the place doesn’t have to be clean, but it’s something anybody can do.
[00:28:00] I am the messiest girl in the world, and I can turn over an Airbnb. I can be clean for an hour and a half. So that was way less important than being reliable and being on top of things that are going wrong and really caring about the guest experience because my places are packed with a bunch of random things that all have to be there that maybe a normal Airbnb wouldn’t have, trinkets.
[00:28:29] The Shipwreck House, I have a whole treasure hunt built in, so there’s lots of things that they have to manage. At the Potato, we have a cow, so the cow needs to be fed every day. We’ve got to make sure it has the water. So they’re doing a lot more than just housekeeping. And I think by changing it in my job listing to caretaker, what I found is everybody has dreamed about being like an inntaker.
[00:28:54] That’s really romantic, but nobody really dreams of cleaning, scrubbing toilets, even though that is part of it. And I have found right now I have teams. I say right now, but they’ve all been with me for many years, and usually a husband and wife. A lady who has her adult children sometimes help her, but our maintenance person is her dad, and it’s amazing.
[00:29:25] So I usually have a husband and wife, and the main thing I’m interviewing for– we’re hiring some, this week actually, and so my assistant knows that the main thing I’m looking for is the most positive person you can find. That really makes all the difference because I love these people, and I use the app Marco Polo to keep in touch with them.
[00:29:49] I don’t know if you guys are familiar, but it’s a video communication tool. And also, I might not see them for eight months or something, but it seems like we’re connected. They’re all so positive, and I think that’s the number one most important thing than somebody that’s going to be like bitching about how a guest left it.
[00:30:12] And even me, I’m like, holy– when I have to fill in or do something, I’m there for a maintenance repair or something, and I’m like, oh, they wrecked this. And my caretakers would be like, oh, they really enjoyed themselves. That is what I’m looking for.
[00:30:24] Annette: That’s a great mindset.
[00:30:25] Sarah: Listeners, that past three minutes of the interview, rewind that and listen to it again, because here’s a couple takeaways. If you just change the title of the position, it’s like your lead magnet. That word is going to attract different people.
[00:30:39] So Kristie, that’s a hot tip. Screw the skillset. A lot of that can be taught. What’s really hard to teach is attitude. And I love that you lead with that, Kristie, because that makes the rest of that relationship– I mean, if have a positive attitude most of the time anyway, no matter what challenges come up your way, you’re going to enjoy solving the issue because you’re all problem solvers and solution-based and have a smile on your face most of the time. So that is, hands down, the hottest tip, I think, we may have gotten this podcast so far. And I mean that.
[00:31:10] Annette: The thing that I just heard too is using the Marco Polo app. You aren’t face to face with these people. It is very easy to fire off a text or a voice memo. But when it’s your face and you’re communicating with someone, they get to hear the tone of your voice. They get to hear your facial expression. So much of that comes through.
[00:31:28] I think that’s also just another tip for host of, if you’re having issues or you’re talking with that person, being able to get in front of them, whether it just be video or in person, that’s great. Yeah, that caretaker, right there too, like you said, that’s like a dream job for someone. Everyone’s probably going online right now–
[00:31:47] Sarah: Changing it. Delete cleaner.
[00:31:48] Annette: Changing what their– and then that gives them ownership of the home too. The caretaker was the entire property, not just that clean. They’re caretaking the entire property.
[00:32:01] Kristie: Well, that’s another thing about these rural places, is everybody in town knows about the Hobbit Hole or the Potato maybe because a film crew comes to town, and then that’s exciting. And so the caretakers really do take so much pride and really are treating it like it’s their own, which is amazing.
[00:32:25] And sometimes I have them do interviews and stuff. As I’ve gotten more busy, I’m like, hey, you’re going to have to do [Inaudible] for me. And they hit it out of the park. They are so good. Another thing that I made a mistake early on is Marco Polo, I don’t believe existed at that point, and it was text.
[00:32:47] And so yeah, you’re putting in all the emojis trying to be like, yeah, hey, I’m not mad, but X, Y, Z needed to happen. So I was only reaching out to my caretaker. I was only reaching out when there was a problem to say like, oh, hey, there wasn’t shampoo, or whatever the case might be. And then I felt like, oh, I’m giving them an off-kilter perspective. 99% of the people are so thrilled to be there.
[00:33:18] And there was just this one little thing. So years and years ago, I started sending them every review and giving them kudos for it, especially when they call them out, or whatever, the place is so clean, and I’m like, awesome. Good job. And then the person might have left a glowing review, and in the private feedback, they would’ve said, we ran out of toilet paper during our stay, or something, whatever that needs to be addressed. It just right sizes everything, so it doesn’t seem like I’m just harping and being critical all the time and them not getting all the kudos that they deserve.
[00:33:52] Annette: I know our listeners because I have this question. Now you’ve got my head spinning, and I’m thinking, well, wait a second. With this different title, what sort of compensation comes along with this? Because it is more ownership than just a turn. How have you gone through– I’m sure that’s been a lot of iterations too, but what is the compensation look like for a caretaker?
[00:34:17] Kristie: Mine is so basic. They basically get both cleaning fee, which for my places they’re very small, but when something does go wrong, it’s a big deal. Whatever, two out of 30 days there’s going to be something crazy happen. But most of the time, it’s pretty straightforward. And because they’re typically a husband and wife going and tackling different things, they’re in and out within under an hour, I would say, most of them.
[00:34:43] And most of our places are taking the laundry home, so that’s a separate thing that they do at home. So I charge $75 cleaning fee, and I have been charging that much since the beginning, so maybe I should change that. And that just goes directly to them. I use Turno to pay them.
[00:35:01] That’s been a newer company that didn’t exist when I started, and I used to have to send weekly amounts and reimbursement. So now they all have a credit card because I trust them so much, and then they get for all the random expenses they have that I can’t order for them on a subscription basis.
[00:35:23] So I don’t have to do the reimbursement thing anymore, and then they get that cleaning fee. I used to do it a level up, starting at 50, and then after three months go to 55. But now I feel like the market, I just start them at that. And then I always do a Christmas bonus.
[00:35:43] Kristie: Some other things that we’ve done is I put in little gift cards, so that they can have their family and friends or whomever they can feel free. I give them a handful of those each year in their Christmas cards so they can give out and share that with somebody.
[00:36:01] Hopefully some of the caretakers are listening, but this year I’m going to do a– but they’re not very tech savvy, so I don’t think that they will. Some of them are more than others, but I want to do a swap. I want to pay for them to go to one of my other places and give them some spending money. Yeah, that’ll be really fun.
[00:36:20] Annette: That is next level.
[00:36:21] Sarah: That is next level
[00:36:23] Annette: You said gift cards. Do you give Airbnb gift cards to them and then those people can spend it at your place, or how do you do that?
[00:36:30] Kristie: No. Yeah, I’m really pushing Airbnb to have individual promo codes, which they don’t have. Yes. But we just act like they do. So anytime we donate to a silent auction or whatever, we say, this is your promo code. And it might be Boys and Girls Club 2024. And then when they message us through Airbnb, they just put that in their message. And then we know, okay, this person must have won a silent option, or this is somebody that’s staying because the caretaker gave them. So I just put my custom code on there. So internally, we know what it’s about, but they still just have to do it as normal.
[00:37:12] Annette: Okay. No, that’s helpful. I was trying to figure that out.
[00:37:14] Sarah: Kristie, with your properties–
[00:37:16] Kristie: Well, and then we adjust the price and take that off.
[00:37:19] Annette: Got you.
[00:37:19] Kristie: Sorry.
[00:37:20] Sarah: No, no, no, it’s a hot tip.
[00:37:21] Annette: Yeah.
[00:37:22] Sarah: With your properties, I think most of them are– there’s one, so your inventory, it’s like if it’s booked that night, you’re not staying the treehouse. The treehouse is booked. So if you had your druthers, Kristie, would you have multiple of something that’s working well, or do you like the fact that there’s only one Potato, one treehouse, one Shipwreck? Talk to us about that. There might be necessity, but if money weren’t an issue, as an investor, what would you recommend to our listeners?
[00:37:54] Kristie: So I’m always building what I want and what I want is to be alone in the middle of nowhere. So while I don’t think it’s bad, I definitely stayed in some places where it’s like, oh, there’s an a-frame all the way around, or there’s a bunch of X, Y, Z, and I don’t think that’s bad. I think it’s probably a much better business model, but it’s not what I prefer.
[00:38:20] It all depends on the project. So I’m currently working on a project that is 55 acres, and I’m building five fire lookout towers with smart glass ceilings, and they’re spread out on that. So it’s not like the row of places like a canvas under the stars or something like that. They’re spread out among it, and I plan on building a museum, a fire lookout museum, which is going to be another sort of business.
[00:38:47] Nobody says you could make money with a museum, but I think I have some ideas. So that is going to be my first time building multiple of the same units. So we will see if that’s something I enjoy. But for the most part, if you’re on your honeymoon and I had built the treehouses right next to each other, that suck.
[00:39:09] And yeah, I like that there’s one Potato in the world. A lot of them are like that. But with the Hobbit, I do have land to build a whole village because I think the more that I have there, it actually makes the experience better versus you’re on your honeymoon, you don’t really want to be around other people.
[00:39:29] Sarah: Right.
[00:39:29] Annette: Do you have guests that they are literally stamping their Kristie Wolfe property passport? Do you have guests that are going state by state and trying to book all of your properties?
[00:39:42] Kristie: I do. There’s probably only a handful that have been to each one, but most people do not know who I am. My guests don’t know who I am. They don’t know that I have these places. And so when they check out our message, like, please leave us a review, blah, blah, blah. Here are some of my other places. And then they’ll be like, oh my God, that was also on my wishlist.
[00:40:05] I can’t believe that you’re the same person. I have no brand identity in that world. I have not taken any time to do that. But since I have had some people that have caught on and have made it a goal to go to them, I made all these enamel pins on a whim. I didn’t make them. I had somebody make enamel pins that are each of my properties.
[00:40:27] And so I just made this little– what would it be called? The backer board for the pins that are all poked through. And when somebody mentions that they have, oh, this is our fourth place, or this is our last place on our checklist, I will get their address, and we will send them all those pins. So some kind of vibe.
[00:40:48] Sarah: That’s so creative.
[00:40:49] Annette: That is brilliant. We’ve went through most of your portfolio. You told us about the newest lookout towers, but there’s two that we haven’t really touched on, and I want to make sure that each of them get some shine. We haven’t really talked about the Cocoon Cottage or the Shipwreck House. So let’s dig in a little bit about the Cocoon Bean prefab, because that sounds anti-Kristie Wolfe to me. So let’s dig into the prefab.
[00:41:11] Sarah: It’s gorgeous.
[00:41:12] Annette: I love it.
[00:41:13] Sarah: Listeners, when you get a chance, check it out.
[00:41:15] Kristie: Thank you.
[00:41:16] Sarah: Yeah, it is prefab. Tell us about that.
[00:41:17] Kristie: It is prefab. In my little mind, I thought, well, I can just do a prefab while I do a bigger project, like the shiphouse, and prefab will be so easy. Maybe it is, but I ordered mine from Estonia, which turned out to not be easy. And so not only did it take forever to get here, it finally got shipped right when the Suez Canal shut down.
[00:41:41] So what was supposed to take 30 to 45 days and be six grand door to door was nearly nine months and cost me almost the amount of the house to get it there. So total pain in the neck. Had multiple problems with cranes trying to get into this little area and get it placed. And then it caused a bunch of problems with the code.
[00:42:08] Originally, when I started the project, the state was over my project, and then it moved to the county. And the county had different rules for prefab versus the state did. And so it caused so many issues. Has taken forever. The remodel, I also had them. This is what may be more Kristie Wolfe fashion, is I had them leave the inside raw so I could make it my own.
[00:42:32] But the shell is super cute, and there’s little sauna that goes with it, and it’s on a boat access property. So guests will rent a boat, and I think that half of the fun is getting there. And yeah, it’s super cute, very fairy tale looking, and probably why we haven’t touched on it, because it opens April 20th, or something like that. So we’re accepting reservations, but we’ve only had content people stay so far.
[00:43:01] Annette: And last but not least–
[00:43:04] Sarah: This Shipwreck.
[00:43:05] Annette: Shipwreck House. This was already built because I was following this a little bit on social media. You bought the Shipwreck House, and listeners, when you see this, it’s like Goonies shipwreck house. Take us through this buy and finding this amazing place. I’m sure insurance companies love it.
[00:43:23] Kristie: Yes. I have a good buddy who’s an insurance agent, so–
[00:43:30] Annette: I know. I’m like, wait, do we want to talk about insurance on all these places? That’s a whole other episode. We’ll leave that for another episode.
[00:43:35] Kristie: The Shipwreck House was sent to me by a friend being like, dude, look at this place. And I went to it. It’s in Salmon, Idaho, on this high mountain lake. Beautiful. There’s only about maybe 40 houses up there, crazy. Most of them were built in the ’60s, and this was like a time capsule inside.
[00:43:54] So why it’s called Shipwreck is it looks like it was hit by a cannonball with this such disrepair, and people were literally scared to enter onto the property because I’ve talked to lots of people that grew up there and that had never been inside. I’m like, if I was a kid here, we would definitely have been playing in that big empty building, but they were too terrified that it was going to collapse. And really, they should have been terrified because it was to that point, but I have looked at several places that were built.
[00:44:28] The Crystal Peak was another one that was existing that I just remodeled, and I actually really love remodeling versus building from scratch because there’s just too many options when you build from scratch. So somebody had built it in the shape of a ship, and my footprint was grandfathered in, so it’s leaning over the water, which is really cool.
[00:44:50] And the time I built for families, it was really fun because I felt like really– usually, I felt pulled back a little bit on my crazy ideas, and this time I gave myself permission to do all the crazy things.
[00:45:07] Sarah: Oh, you’re back. Okay. I was oh, Kristie, you’re breaking up.
[00:45:10] Annette: Yeah. You did break up, you guys, of course, true Kristie nature, she is in a remote place right now. Kristie, you were saying, though, it was your first true single family home.
[00:45:21] Kristie: Yeah.
[00:45:22] Annette: Was it truly for sale?
[00:45:24] Kristie: It was on Zillow.
[00:45:27] Annette: Is there a listing?
[00:45:28] Kristie: Yes.
[00:45:29] Annette: Okay. Were you scared of a single-family home?
[00:45:31] Kristie: It was on Zillow. No, I was actually really excited about it. I don’t know that I’ll be doing this again in the near future because it was basically like doing three builds. It took me the time of doing three, and I have a short attention span, so it felt like it went on forever. It’s all wood.
[00:45:50] There’s lots of challenging things with the build, but I’m very proud of it. I think it turned out so good. And I was saying that, typically, I’m pulling back some of my more crazy ideas, but with a family home, especially the kids’ floor, I felt like I could just go crazy, and it was really, really fun creatively. I have a water cannon that I made off the deck, so you can shoot at your siblings in a little island, and you can make your siblings walk the plank. So there’s lots of fun things.
[00:46:25] Sarah: You’re just living out your childhood things that–
[00:46:27] Annette: I know.
[00:46:27] Sarah: You didn’t get a chance to do. No listeners, you have to check this out. It is incredible.
[00:46:31] Annette: It is wishlist worthy for sure. With all these remote places and off-grid, how are you setting expectations for off the grid remote? Is that in the copy in your list? Because these photos, I don’t know who wouldn’t want to travel and stay with you? How many people cancel? How are you making sure you’re in alignment with this guest? They’re seeing these visuals, but the reality of it is off-grid.
[00:46:59] Kristie: Occasionally, somebody that’s not really our target does sneak in and they might be like, what? But I remember early on at the treehouse somebody from Scandinavia called me, and he said, you can’t even make a breakfast baguette here. I was like, no, you can’t.
[00:47:18] But I’m like, what a crazy thing to be mad about. But lots of people don’t read the listing, but I try to, in the messaging and on the page, mostly I’m getting people that are speaking this experience.
[00:47:36] I’d say the hardest one is the Hobbit Hole because, typically, I have young, adventurous people, but the Hobbit Hole has people from all walks of life. You just might have the book nerd that doesn’t go outside. So that one was a little bit harder, but I’m constantly just reiterating. In the beginning, it might be a little rough, but after a few months, I’ve nailed it with getting the messaging right so I don’t get the wrong people.
[00:48:03] But yeah, still, my hope is that they come, and it is off-grid, but maybe they don’t even really think of it being off-grid. For anybody wanting to do it, the hardest thing is figuring out your water. Wells can be really expensive. You might not hit– you still have to pay.
[00:48:21] So I have all of the things. I have rainwater in one location. We need a lot of water to be able to do that, a lot of rainfall to be able to do that, and lots of my places don’t even have a real roof. So you can’t really do that with a Hobbit Hole that has dirt on top of it. And then I have one where we have a water truck come fill a water tower.
[00:48:40] I do have wells. Some are connected to– hang on, do I have any that are connected to the city water? Yeah, the Shipwreck is a community water system, so that’s like being hooked up to normal municipalities. But yeah, my systems are small. I am keeping everything in mind when I’m building it.
[00:49:00] So my off-grid properties, I don’t wire an outlet in the bathroom because somebody plugs in a hair dryer, even though we say no hair dryers, whatever. They miss that, your system is blown. So I just don’t have it in there, so that is another step to make them stop and think, oh, maybe I can’t do it.
[00:49:19] Sarah: I thought I had just one question left for you, but I actually have two, Kristie. One is when the apocalypse comes, can we still be friends so that I will survive? Can we just make that pact right now?
[00:49:30] Annette: Well, you’re going to be–
[00:49:31] Kristie: [Inaudible] is a very posh house.
[00:49:32] Annette: No, but Kristie, honestly, her husband wants to live on the moon, on our Mars. So can build their place on Mars.
[00:49:42] Sarah: Kristie, yeah, we have dibs on getting you to build the one on Mars. But my final question to you, Kristie, is a little selfish, but I’m hoping you don’t mind. You continue to level up every build that you do. For us, mere mortals, who aren’t as creative as you are, but we want to be an eighth of what you are, is there anything that you can offer in terms of like, how can we as hosts continue to get creative?
[00:50:13] You put yourself into every build. You really think about who you are, and that probably actually helps you really get into it. And so how do you level up each time? With your next project that you’re dreaming out and sketching out on that napkin, what filter do you go through? What do you got for us that might be a good tip, helpful tip?
[00:50:34] Kristie: For me, I’m like, we have one life, and I want it to be as fun as possible. So when people are like, hey, do you want to build a Hobbit Hole in Tennessee? Do you want to do this? I’m like, no. And even though I’ve had lots of cool opportunities that would probably make me a bunch of money, I’m like, what if I die next year? I don’t want to be trying to chase the dollar and miss out on creating something. That’s just so exciting to me.
[00:51:06] So I guess I would say face your curiosity, and then I really delve so far into whatever the build is. So let’s take like the Hobbit Hole for example. I’m not a Lord of the Ring person. I just really liked the home, and so I obviously did listen to the series while I was building, but I’ll listen to books on– I’m alone so much, so I’m listening to so many books. So I run out sometimes.
[00:51:41] But at the Potato, I’ve already read all the Idaho history and Potato books that are out there. It’s a short list. But I listened to agriculture books. I learned a bunch about farming and things like that, and it’s interesting to put like yourself in that mindset.
[00:51:57] I only listen to old country music when I was doing that one, and so it’s crazy how it infiltrates. And you get pick up little ideas or language that you later use in your guidebook or whatever it might be. With the Hobbit Hole, I’m not the first one to build a hobbit hole.
[00:52:15] Lots of people do, but I consistently get reviews that say they really felt like they entered into that world, that they were hobbits. And that’s the dream for my guests. And so I was literally going on Reddit. I wanted to put a cuckoo clock in there. I’m like, did hobbits have clocks? How did they tell time?
[00:52:38] And then somebody would respond and say, yeah, so on page 306, this character calls to this character. And I’m like, cool. But I approached it not from a fan, but saying like, I want a real hobbit to be living here. And if a real hobbit– I can’t believe we’re having this conversation, lives here, what they wouldn’t have is little figurines of Frodo in their house.
[00:53:04] So instead of filling it with memorabilia from the series and things like that, I was like, I can’t make this hobbit be me because then the look would be entirely not hobbit. So I was like, okay, my hobbit is a carpenter. And so everything in that house– again, nobody knows this that stays there, but the floor is cord wood.
[00:53:25] There’s a craftsman bench in there, and we leave blocks of wood and all the whittling tools, along with a how to carve a three-minute owl. And so everything is wood. Everything is as if a woodworker lived here. And so on top of the Lord of the Rings books, I listen to like carpentry books.
[00:53:45] And the books that are in there are carpentry books, old antique carpentry books. And so it really lends to the authenticity. But I do that at every step of the way, and I have a vague outline of what I want to do. But being the person that’s out there chugging along every day, all these fun ideas come here, and then you can relate. [Inaudible]. And then hopefully people like it in the end.
[00:54:09] Annette: Since Sarah had her two questions, I have two questions too. With every property, have there been moments of tears? I feel like in hosting and building, and all of it, can you let us know is there a breakdown before there’s a breakthrough in each property? Is there a process and you know, all right, this is the moment where I’m at in this build and it’s just going to happen?
[00:54:33] Kristie: Okay, I’m not a crier, so there’s not tears. I only cry when things are happy, I think, and it’s very little. My tear duct side note were closed as a child, so maybe that lends to it. But that’s not how I deal with being overwhelmed. The sense of overwhelm is a constant thing that I’m fighting because I always say it’s not like having a B plan, it’s having a C, D, E, F, and sometimes you get all the way to Z before something works.
[00:55:04] Since I have been doing this for so long, I just know that that’s the way it’s going to be. So just like setting the expectations for the guests, my expectation is everything is going to go wrong. As I said about the prefab building, thinking it would be easy, of course it wasn’t. I should know better.
[00:55:19] Everything goes wrong. And so what I think and I see in other people that I’m helping with their first places is that expectation of like, oh, I researched this really hard, so of course this is the right heater to put it in and it doesn’t work for whatever reason. And that being crushing when I’m just like, that’s the way it goes.
[00:55:42] Oh, my third trip to Home Depot, I’m doing plumbing. I’m going to be here six times. That’s just how it goes. So that doesn’t, I guess, get me down because it’s just the constant. Actually, when something goes well, when something goes smooth, that’s the shocking thing. Can you believe that this just worked out? Because I can’t believe it. That’s so rare. So yeah, I think it’s just the plugging away at something.
[00:56:11] It’s googling. It’s calling people up. It’s just problem solving, and then just trying to get back to tell myself, okay, well, this isn’t working. What’s another way to look at this? Let’s sleep on it. The harder thing that I have is no upper body strength. I am a little girl, and everything is heavy to me.
[00:56:35] And so a lot of my trials are trying to lift things that I can’t lift, and coming up with different rigs, and just struggling through it. so that would be more frustrating, but I just do it. I just figure it out some way, and sometimes maybe I have to cut the wood in half to be able to lift it on, and so I have an extra thing that somebody stronger wouldn’t have, or somebody with a crew wouldn’t have, but it’s not the end of the world.
[00:57:06] Annette: And with all of these most wishlist homes, how are you handling the publicity, the influencers? I’m sure you get reached out to nonstop with, I’m an influencer. Can I have a free stay? I’ll do content. What is that process? I know all hosts are dealing with that now. I’d love to know how someone with the–
[00:57:30] Sarah: We shouldn’t ask her to go to the Shipwreck House?
[00:57:32] Annette: Well, I’m asking her how we should ask these. What does that look like for you? Because I know on your website, you’ve had huge publications. What’s that filter for you to know what is going to be “worth it” for you to entertain a publication or an influencer staying at one of your amazing places?
[00:57:49] Kristie: Okay, so I’ve had some really huge influencers stay, or YouTubers, and those ones won’t even hit me up. They will probably come under a pseudonym and then somebody sends me the YouTube video with 10 million likes. Hey, do you know this person stayed there? And I’m like, who is that person? I’m old. I don’t know who these people are. So when they’re really big, they’re not even going to try to get something for free. They’re just–
[00:58:17] Sarah: Booking it.
[00:58:17] Kristie: Coming and staying and leaving. I do have a lot of people hit me up. There’s no rhyme or reason to it for me. There’s a quote that’s something along the lines of when I don’t respond or whatever, don’t try to give the grace of that it’s ignorance and not malice because I might just be not able to handle that right now. But I don’t have anything tried and true.
[00:58:47] I don’t really care about followers. If it’s somebody that is in line is more the thing. I think the bigger, the harder thing that I navigate is charities hitting you up for silent auctions and stuff. And a lot of times it’ll be some charity in Kentucky asking for me to donate something or other.
[00:59:10] And so I’ve had to be a little bit more restrictive to that. So I give Guesty a template that says, hey, we pick the ones that we’re dealing with at the beginning of the year. And then if it’s a local charity and they’re raising funds to build a library or whatever, we’ll do the local ones always. But the ones that are just like, they’re just mass melon, everybody that has a cool place, we opt out of those.
[00:59:35] Sarah: That’s great.
[00:59:36] Annette: Oh, that is amazing.
[00:59:37] Sarah: Kristie, this has been an incredible interview. Thank you so much for your time and being so open about your builds and what’s going on in that brain of yours. It’s really an amazing– all these creations are incredible. So where can our listeners, if they want to see them, what’s the best place for them to see your entire portfolio and book a stay?
[00:59:55] Kristie: There’s a link tree on my social media. I’m pretty sure it’s up to date. And all my social media is @kristiemaewolfe, and then I have a website kristiewolfe.com.
[01:00:06] Sarah: Is there anything right now that you’re– I know you’ve got some properties coming online that you want to promote and get the word out. If any of our listeners want some inspiration and come and stay with you and help support you, what’s one thing that’s on the horizon, since this episode will go live soon, that you can promote self-promote for yourself?
[01:00:21] Kristie: I don’t know. So when the snow melts, I’m headed to North Idaho to do this dream build, which is those fire towers. And then part two of it is going to be the museum. And yeah, that one is just so fun. So when I do have a museum up, which is probably 2026 or something, please come [Inaudible].
[01:00:42] Annette: Well, we’ll have you back on the show for that one.
[01:00:45] Sarah: To celebrate that.
[01:00:46] Annette: Yeah. And just keep doing what you’re doing because it is such an inspiration and we know that you spending this time with us today is invaluable. So we are so appreciative of you spending your time and just your amazing creations. Keep it up so we can follow along and be inspired.
[01:01:02] Sarah: I am Sarah Karakaian.
[01:01:03] Annette: I am Annette Grant. And together we are–
[01:01:04] Both Annette & Sarah: Thanks for Visiting.
[01:01:05] Sarah: Talk to you next time.
