To close out this holiday message we wanted to share something pretty fun!

Some of our U.S. Keyspire Investors had an “Online Virtual Holiday Party” where many games were played. One of the games was working together to build parts of a “Crazy Christmas Real Estate Story”. A total of 23 investors participated and it turned out to be quite the adventure of a story! We thought it was pretty funny, wild and clever, so we wanted to share the story they created here with you! Thank you Stefani Mokris for sending this in to us!

A Crazy Christmas Real Estate Story

Santa Claus arrived in New York City for the Thanksgiving parade. He was full of joy for the most wonderful time of the year that was finally starting once again. But as he looked around the beautifully decorated store fronts, he was shocked how price of things like milk and cookies had escalated. With the United States inflation near 8%, Santa Claus decided he needed to find an additional source of income if he was going to keep delivering the children toys every Christmas.  

During a Google search Santa noticed a pattern. He kept reading over and over again how real estate investing was a great stream of passive income, and he became very curious about it. As our cellphones do nowadays, it also noticed his pattern of research, and one day while Santa was relaxing from the crunch of the oncoming holidays, he was scrolling Facebook while eating some cookies and milk… Actually, the truth is, Santa really prefers pizza and beer so something to remember for Christmas Eve folks.   

Anyway, as Santa sipped his cold beer while scrolling FB he saw an ad with Scott McGillivray, one of his FAVORITE HGTV stars from a renovation show he enjoyed (Santa has always been quite fond of building and painting things, and making them look pretty you know!) Scott was inviting people to come hear more about real estate investing – FOR FREE! “Wow!” Santa thought to himself, “Scott is surely going to be on my NICE LIST this year and I’m going to get him something extra special… maybe a new leather tool belt and big red tool box on wheels”. Santa signed up to be part of the live zoom with Scott. He was so excited to learn more.      

Santa watched the free course via Zoom, in disguise or course. He thought to himself “I’m going to need some more money to invest in order to make enough passive income to support everyone at the North Pole and the toy making operation”. So he got to work networking and called up some friends. First call was the Easter Bunny, followed by the Leprechaun (hoping he found the pot by now), Cupid, Father Time, the Tooth Fairy (sure to have a stockpile of cash), and even the Grinch! When you need OPM sometimes you have to stretch your contacts! And who knows, maybe the Grinch could help us find a nice 6-plex in Whoville!

Santa’s big idea was to buy a big house in South America for vacation rentals and off-season vacation, where he could treat Mrs. Claus and all the elves to some sun in the sand. He was surprised by all the interest and questions from his networking calls, and when he was done, his head was spinning with ideas other than sugar plums dancing. 

So Santa hopped on Realtor.com and started looking for a large property that would accommodate his large group. He found a beautiful compound in Columbia that needed just a little work. You see, the prior owners were businessmen of the not so legal persuasion. There were small holes in the walls and it needed to be swept. There seemed to be this white powder everywhere and Santa knew it wasn’t snow! Santa decided to pass on this house and perhaps because of the World Cup Buzz, he started looking in Brazil instead. 

Santa was surprised how fast he got to Brazil. Apparently Rudolf and Prancer really liked the “no snow”, it definitely added to Rudolph’s glow. Santa looked at some condos on Ipanema and thought to himself “why is my operation not here…these views are incredible!!!” Once he looked at the association fees, he realized that his entire profit margin would be eaten alive, so he went to the small coastal town of Armação dos Búzios, and looked at a small series of bungalows where Macaws could be heard in the trees, and brown howler monkeys stole snacks and drinks from unexpecting tourists.

Santa saw some exciting opportunities in Búzios, but he needed some additional help. So he retained the services of Cinderella’s Fairy Godmother, who he affectionately calls FG. Santa and FG gathered some of the monkeys and FG enchanted them to start cleaning up the Bungalow. One of Santa’s elves came back from a jaunt about town riding a capybara, so FG enchanted the capybara into a doorman. Since the Macaws have a birds-eye view and can see everything, a few of those were enchanted into very attentive Property Managers and security. Two turtles became the pool and cabana boys, wearing speedo’s (you know, for speed). A Jaguar had walked in and flopped down on the bed, of course, so FG enchanted her into the housekeeper, since the bed needed to be made. Lastly, Santa had the elves grab one of the old sleighs from storage in Canada, and they enchanted that into a lovely sailboat. A dolphin jumped in and volunteered to be the captain. With the local connections in place, a team began to form, and things seemed like they were going to work out, really well.

Now that things are going well and all the local connections are in place, the teams are being formed. As a surprise for the Mrs., Santa has asked FG to enchant the dream team Eagle as the Investor Friendly Realtor. The Armadillo as the Mortgage Broker, and the Sloth as the Investor Friendly Lawyer. The team will acquire his new operation location with incredible views and extraordinary climate, where he can relax and review his Naughty and Nice List. Which one are you????? 

Well as it turns out FG also stands for Financial Genius! That’s right, turns out being a fairy godmother is only a part-time gig, so to keep herself busy, FG studied Finance, Banking and Real Estate! Who knew?!

Just when Santa thought things were going great, FG pops in and asks to speak with Santa and Mrs. Claus. They grab some hot tea, and FG begins. “Santa, I know you were only looking to supplement your income to be able to afford more toys, but you are doing this all wrong.  You see, you put too much cash into this deal and while your payments are low, you can’t do another deal without more cash.  I’m thinking you can refinance this place with a cash out refinance and buy another place to reach your goals sooner!”

Santa scratched his beard, but before he could respond Mrs. Claus set her tea down and requested to be briefed on the entire deal, so she could come up with a creative solve. We all know she’s the true mastermind behind Operation Christmas, so rather swiftly, she had an idea on how to proceed. Mrs. Claus suggested they call the Three Magi (they are supposed to be wise men, after all)… and propose a joint venture deal to them.  You see, the Magi are nomads, so they don’t have the time to be actively involved in real estate. But….they do have the riches. They could continue traveling the world while enhancing their financial treasures passively. So Mr. and Mrs. Claus asked Rudolph to go fetch the Magi.

The Magi were thrilled to hear Santa’s proposal. They had seen so many properties that would fit the bill, some mfu and some commercial. 

An off market place with a quaint little manger far from the snow. Quickly running their options through Property Edge Pro.

The 4 Ways to Win would show them the way. Providing returns and many consistent paydays.

Like St. Nick (Skalkos) has said… “Partner early and go big”. The passive income from this will surpass his annual gig.

Mrs. Claus, being the being the mastermind of all the toys’ design, implemented St. Nick (Skalkos) advice and said, why stop at a ‘quaint little manger’ place, why not go BIG and acquire an island far way. This will surely have high occupancy LTRs and have parts for STR! She quickly caught the Magi up on her clever scheme and they agreed, it was a great idea! Mrs. Claus called Eagle to locate and set up showings of islands for sale with warm climates year-round, easy boating access for land-bound beings, a runway for Santa’s sleigh and lots of room to build. While Eagle was searching, the Magi consulted with FG to help them financially plan and figure out how much gold, frankincense and myrrh they could pull out of their account to privately lend to Santa and Mrs. Claus. The Claus’s hopped on the sleigh and followed Eagle to tour islands for sale in Greece, Chile, and the Philippines, but nothing they saw was a good fit. Just as they were getting discouraged, Eagle’s phone rang and she excused herself to take the call. She came flying back with a huge smile on her beak and said “I just got off the phone with a previous client of mine, Unicorn, and he has a private island in Belize that he would like to sell, and is asking if I had any buyers for him. The timing couldn’t be better so I think we should head over and take a look at this island.” The group flew to the 50 acre island right away. When they arrived, they were delighted to find a private jet runway already in place and several bunkers and villas already built. During the tour they noticed that many of the buildings just needed some minor renovations and that they would need to build a dock as a value-add. After a quick discussion they decided that it was the perfect property to BRRR/Flip to Yourself so they made an offer to Unicorn to purchase the property off-market and with seller financing to boot!

Once the deal was closed and secured, Santa started networking with locals on the island of Belize and found an excellent general contractor (GC) that could manage the renovations. The GC agreed to oversee the project and manage other local subcontractors to ensure all of the planned renovations that needed to be made to the property were completed on time and on budget. Whoohoo!! The property was definitely going to be unique and stand out on booking websites once completed.

You see, Santa also likes to watch Scott McGillivray’s HGTV show titled, “Vacation House Rules” and he’s learned a thing or two about how to make sure your short term vacation rental properties stand out from the crowd of online listings. The renovations will take some time to complete but Santa already has some ideas that will make the property a “must book” for potential renters looking for a memorable experience.

He, of course, started with Scott’s first rule: “Do Your Research”. And, who better to help him with that than his eager, brilliant, and ever-loyal crowd-sourcing team of elves? They quickly got to work to find out accurate pricing for this STR, by looking at comparables in the immediate area, making sure to note the wow factors that would make this STR top notch. Santa could have done this himself, but by delegating this task to this mighty bunch, he was able to focus on other priorities AND develop his team at the same time! 

Santa quickly realized he needed someone personable to handle the bookings. Someone who really knew about the hot climate the travelers would be visiting. So he immediately thought of “Mr. Heat Miser” to handle the bookings! His brother “Mr. Snow Miser” saw how happy his brother was helping others escape to the heated regions and making $$$, he wanted a part of the action. He approached Santa, and convinced him not everyone likes the heat. So Santa decided to gather his team once again to explore expanding to Utah for STR opportunities in the ski mountains for the cold lovers, so all markets would be covered! 

But as Santa was on his way to Utah there was a big snow storm being forecasted. They couldn’t land safely there so their trip was diverted to the beautiful island paradise called Hawaii. As Santa stepped his foot on the ground, he took his boots off and felt for the first time how relaxing the sandy feeling is on his bare feet. With the warm tropical breeze, Santa’s team was greeted by the Keikis who are so excited to see Santa in real life. Aloha! E Komo Mai! Lays of beautiful flowers adorned around their necks. The whole team felt at home and decided to explore the island. Santa wants to take action by using his knowledge from the Keyspire training and Coach Ken Lawrence about Seller Financing. He knows Hawaii is very expensive but a STR here will surely yield a very good ROI. Seller Financing is the best way to go. He took out his magical iPad, started searching properties using Property Edge to identify distressed homeowners and Loopnet to search properties with Seller Financing options. He also downloaded the Keyspire app to calculate The 4 Ways to Win on the properties he saw. As he was sitting by the beach sipping some Kona coffee, watching the beautiful rainbow ( Hawaii is the Rainbow State, you see it almost everyday here and sometimes double rainbow), he remembered one of the US Keyspire members has an STR here. So he told Rudolf to check on Quyen Pham, and if she is available to share her experience here in Hawaii. Networking is a great tool in Real Estate Investing. Learning and supporting each other in the group is like sharing LOVE. The greatest gift you can give this Christmas Season.

After some networking and Vitamin D, Santa had a fresh outlook. He realized he wanted to go big and not go home. And he also realized that he is a helper by nature. He hadn’t been sold on anything he had seen so far because nothing pulled at his heart strings. As he toured Hawaii he learned about how the indigenous people had been pushed out of their own land and wanted to make a difference. This time he didn’t disguise himself, but leveraged his position to gain favor with locals. They told him about off market properties that needed attention and boy did his ears perk up and his cheeks get rosy (well that may have been the sunburn). Santa learned about a remote part of the island where locals live. It was owned by an older woman who inherited the land and didn’t have any children to pass it on to. She really needed to move into an assisted living facility at this point in her life, but she did not want a developer to tear down homes and forest to build big hotels. Santa realized he needed to call on his muse. So Mrs. Claus met with the little lady and came up with a plan to keep the village intact, spruce up some common areas and make all necessary repairs. They would ask a modest rent increase from the residents and put in place a limit so locals could always afford to live in their village. The woman was thrilled! She didn’t think there was anyone she could entrust her property to since these people were her family and she wanted them to be cared for. She agreed to finance the property for the Clauses at 2% interest at 40% under market value since she felt so strongly they were the exact buyers to keep this little haven safe for the wild life and local people! I mean if you can’t trust Santa Claus, who can you trust?! 

When all was said and done, the property was cash flowing enough to finance all the annual toys for children of the world. Having the handy little elves eager to do the renovations on the properties cut way down on costs, and the locals ended up lending their skills as well. The whole village chipped in to lend a hand painting, clearing brush, etc. Having Santa and his entourage around really invigorated the sense of community and everyone was so happy to know they could keep living in the place they called home. And since they all loved him so much, no one spilled the beans about Santa’s new home away from home in the quiet little cove at the edge of the property.