NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast - What Warflation Costs You and Whether a Short-Term Rental Beats Investing Your Home Sale Proceeds

Episode Date: April 9, 2026

War is pushing everyday prices higher, and a listener wonders if a Utah vacation rental beats investing home sale proceeds. What does the Iran war mean for the price of your groceries, your next flight, and everyday household goods? Is buying a short-term rental property a smart way to diversify your investment portfolio, or is it more risk than it's worth? Hosts Sean Pyles, CFP®, and Elizabeth Ayoola dig into the pros and cons of vacation rental investments. But first, senior news writer Anna Helhoski joins them to explain how oil supply disruptions ripple outward through fertilizers, plastics, shipping, and airline fuel — and why the timeline for price increases on most goods could stretch six to twelve months beyond what you're already seeing at the pump and the store. Then, fellow Nerd and experienced real estate investor Lisa Green joins Sean and Elizabeth to answer a listener’s question about buying land to build a mountain vacation rental. She discusses when building and managing a property from several states away may make financial sense, what unique risks come with short-term rentals specifically, and how that compares to simply investing the proceeds in the stock market. Learn about the capital gains tax rules that apply when you sell your home: https://www.nerdwallet.com/taxes/learn/selling-home-capital-gains-tax  Want us to review your budget? Fill out this form — completely anonymously if you want — and we might feature your budget in a future segment! https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScK53yAufsc4v5UpghhVfxtk2MoyooHzlSIRBnRxUPl3hKBig/viewform?usp=header To send the Nerds your money questions, call or text the Nerd hotline at 901-730-6373 or email [e-mail]. Like what you hear? Please leave us a review and tell a friend. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Come hang out with us. It's part of the American dream, owning a little piece of the planet, owning a little piece of land and the home that sits on it. And sometimes it's a home that you don't live in. Someone else does. Today we're looking at investment properties and what it takes to make it work. Welcome to NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast, where you send us your money questions and we answer them with the help of our genius nerds.

I'm Sean Piles. And I'm Elizabeth Ayola. Later this episode, we'll be looking at the risks and the benefits of owning investment properties. But first, we must have our weekly money news roundup where we break down the latest in the world of finance to help you be smarter with your money. our news colleague, Anahil Hoski, is here to talk about rising prices and how the Iran War could make them jump even higher. I personally have been feeling very anxious and heavy with all of the war talk. It's terrible to see people potentially losing their lives and just how unsettling the whole situation is. Yeah, it's been a stressful week to say the least. We were staring down the barrel of

a potential wipe out of a civilization a couple of days ago, and it feels like so much much is still up in the air, including prices of seemingly everything. It's just been really difficult to navigate. So hopefully we can provide some clarity, at least in the finance side of things today. So with that, Anna, hey, good to talk with you, I suppose. Yeah, both of you as well. Unsettled, I think, is the right way to frame this. I recently did a deep dive into warflation, and that's war-induced inflation. Analysts say that thanks to supply chain disruptions, If you're driving it, wearing it, eating it, or using it in your everyday life, you're probably going to feel the pinch from higher prices eventually.

Great. So that's exactly what we need to hear, Anna. I mean, so far, we've been seeing gas prices on the rise. I'm paying about $5.60 a gallon here in Oregon. But everything else seems decently stable for now, at least. I mean, it seems like prices aren't going up any faster than they already were with tariffs in place. Yeah, we'll have more data actually. tomorrow, but tariffs were already pushing up prices for things like electronics, clothing, appliances,

cars, and now higher energy and shipping costs are being layered on top of that. And analysts, again, say that inflation could rise. Some economists are even warning that if oil prices spike high enough, it could slow the economy and even push through U.S. toward a recession. Now, more on that in a minute, but let's back up and do a quick overview of how we got here. Now, on February 28th, the U.S. and Israel launched strikes on Iran, and the war began. In response, Iran closed the street of Hormuz, and that's one of the most critical shipping routes in the world. Since then, oil prices have skyrocketed. Before the war, the price of Brent Crude, that's the benchmark for the global oil market, was trading around $80 per barrel. Since then, it's hit more than $100 per barrel,

and that's for the first time since Russia invaded Ukraine. That massive jump is why we've seen gas prices rise roughly 43% since the war began. The latest national average is above $4, and that's the highest in summer 2020. 42% is an incredibly high jump. I just have to point out. Yeah. We saw tensions rise earlier this week, but it resulted in a ceasefire. Can you walk us through that, Anna? Yeah. In the last week, President Trump escalated threats to bomb Iran's power plants and bridges effectively, quote, wiping out an entire civilization. Fortunately, at the 11th hour on Tuesday, he announced that the two nations had come to a two-week ceasefire agreement. Now, Trump had posted on Truth Social that the ceasefire is contingent on the quote, complete immediate and safe opening of the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran agreed to the ceasefire and the strait has begun opening. In response, the price of oil dropped below $95 per barrel, falling below $100 per barrel for the first time in more than a week. Well, it sounds like the markets are relieved, but the real question is, will it last? It's unlikely. There's still a lot of uncertainty about how this will all unfold, and a great deal of unrest persists in the Middle East. Yesterday, just hours after the temporary truce, an Iranian drone hit a pumping station along Saudi Arabia's critical East-West oil pipeline, which carries seven million barrels of crude per day. It's been a key route to bypass the strait, so damage could worsen the energy crisis. It's safe to say that the economic pain from this conflict is far from finished. So, Anna, how do higher oil prices spread through the rest of the economy?

Yeah, as I mentioned before, most everything you use daily, your food, electronics, and even the plastic containers that they come in, all of it starts with oil and natural gas. Trucks and planes run on diesel and jet fuel, while factories need petrochemicals to make the goods themselves. If those chemicals can't go through the straits, suddenly factories can't keep up and prices start climbing. Well, let's talk about what people really want to know. Anna, what's likely to get more expensive right now? I mentioned diesel. Well, it powers trucks and other freight vehicles, construction equipment, farm equipment, and marine vessels. When it's more expensive to power these vehicles, the cost will be added to prices for shipping, transportation,

and all kinds of the materials I mentioned that are used in manufacturing and production. So basically almost everything. Yeah, exactly. Diesel prices are up 50% since the war began. As of recording, they average $5.67 per gallon, according to AAA. All right. Well, let's turn to travel now because we have seen prices already begin to rise on things like airplane tickets. Yeah, we have. Air travel's really sensitive to fuel costs because planes run on jet fuel. So in some cases, airlines are raising their ticket prices or cutting the number of flights altogether in order to save fuel. Fewer flights, higher fuel costs, that usually means more expensive tickets. Okay. And I imagine food is also going to get more

expensive, what we're seeing at the grocery store, right? Oh, yeah. Food is getting hit from all sides. I mentioned that farm equipment and food delivery both run on diesel, so that's one factor. But the bigger issue is actually fertilizer. Fertilizers depend heavily on natural gas and other petrochemicals like urea and ammonium. It's spring planting seas of the U.S. and if fertilizers are in short supply, crop suffer. Staples like wheat, corn, rice, and fruit all rely on them. About a third of the world seaborne fertilizers pass through the straight. So any disruptions there can push food prices higher, but we're actually probably not going to see it in the grocery store for months. That gives me some time to budget. You mentioned plastics, Anna, and that covers a lot

of the everyday household items that we use. Yeah, plastics and packaging is a big one. Plastics are made from oil and natural gas in the form of methanol and glycol. Roughly 85% of Middle Eastern polyethylene exports move through the straight. So raw materials used for plastic will get more expensive and in turn raise consumer prices for, you name it, water bottles, food containers, packaging, furniture, etc. Another plastic product that comes to mind is clothing. A lot of clothing is made from synthetic fibers. Yeah, that's right. So think polyester, nylon, spandex, fleece, they're all made from petrochemicals. Then what about electronics? Yeah, electronics and tech products could also see price increases because supply chains for materials use in batteries, semiconductors, and fiber optics can be disrupted.

So things that might get more expensive are smartphones, laptops, EVs, but also energy storage systems and diagnostic medical equipment like MRI machines. Cars have been expensive in recent years, but prices were starting to ease, no? Yeah, that could change. Cars are affected by everything all at once, plastics, aluminum, shipping costs, and the global supply chains, of course. If production slows or materials get expensive, both new and used car prices could rise. Okay. And you mentioned aluminum. That's a pretty important materialist and everything from our phones to computers and soda cans, all of that. That's going to get more expensive too, right? Yeah, aluminum is key for constructing buildings, cars, airplanes, appliances, and some everyday

uses. So this war essentially touches almost everything people buy. You've got it. The important thing to understand is that these pricing, increases don't happen overnight. The timeline usually happens in stages. So first, energy prices go up, then shipping costs, then consumer goods, and eventually some services. I spoke with an economist who told me it's likely to take around six to 12 months to start showing up beyond gas prices and air travel. Well, how much could inflation rise then? It's really hard to say, but a recent report by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, or OECD, projected that the war in Iran could cause inflation to average around 4.2% in 2026. Now, for context,

inflation has stayed roughly between 2.3% and 3% over the last year. All right. So we're currently in a ceasefire as of this recording. Let's hope it holds, I suppose. But that means the war isn't over. This is just a pause. And President Trump has suggested that U.S. gas prices would drop once the straight opens. But that's not typically the case. I've heard that gas prices tend to rise like a rocket and fall like a feather. So what do you think we're really in store for here? Yeah, that's the saying. Now, I'm no geopolitical expert, but the economist I spoke with said that the flow of shipping through the strait is unlikely to immediately return to business as usual whenever it opens more permanently. And gas prices won't necessarily drop. Iran still has

leverage to influence how much oil flows through the strait, which would keep global and domestic fuel oil elevated. The U.S. may produce its own oil, but it's not immune to global. oil market volatility and price shocks. So really the big takeaway here is that gas prices are probably just the beginning. Well, thank you, Anna. I think it's also worth acknowledging how fast things are moving right now. In a volatile environment, your financial strategy should focus most on what you can control, like your own spending habits and saving strategies. Yeah, that's right, Sean. Rather than reacting to every headline, keep a long-term perspective for weathering uncertainty. Up next, we answer a listener's question about investment properties. But before we get into that, listener, you know the deal.

You probably have all sorts of financial questions about how this war might affect your finances. Like, is it still a good year to buy a home? What about an upcoming car purchase? And should you still take out that credit card that you've been looking at for your travel coming up this summer? Whatever your money question, leave us a voicemail or text us on the nerd hotline at 901-730-6373. That's 901-730 nerd. You can also email us at podcast at nirballot.com or leave us a comment on Spotify or YouTube, and you can also subscribe to our show on YouTube as well. More in a moment. Stay with us. We're back and answering your money questions to help you make smarter financial decisions. This episode's question comes from Becca, who emailed us their question.

Hi, Sean and Elizabeth. My boyfriend and I are selling our condo in California to move to Texas. I think I prefer to rent when we move to Texas, and my boyfriend and I have been discussing what to do with the net proceeds from selling our California home. He likes the idea of buying land. in Utah, I Love the Mountains, and building a mountain chalet that we can visit throughout the year and have as an investment property when we are not using it, Airbnb style. He is excited about the idea of designing and constructing, but I have hesitations about the cost to build, as well as the complications of managing the property from several states away. The alternative we are evaluating is simply to invest the proceeds from our California home sale. Our question for

you is, would you consider having real estate and a short-term rental a strong diversification of my portfolio, or is it more of a risk? Thank you, Becca. Becca and partner, welcome in advance to Texas, where I am now located. Now, to help us answer Becca's question on this episode of the podcast, we are joined by our go-to nerd whenever we talk about managing rental properties. Lisa Green, welcome back to smart money, Lisa. Well, thank you, Elizabeth. I'm so glad to be here. Hey, Lisa, good to talk with you again. I want to start by talking about how much cash Becca and their boyfriend might net from selling their condo. And the truth is that we just don't know what those numbers are because we don't know how much they bought their condo for, that we don't know how much they might sell their condo for. But there is some good news when it comes to selling property, which is that you can likely pocket your gains. You might be able to keep up to $250,000 in capital gains tax free. That's $500,000 if you are married filing jointly, which is pretty nice. But here's the thing about condos. They have a reputation for accruing value more slowly than something like a single-fiance. family home. So Becca and their boyfriend's first step should be to see how much they might be

working with after selling their house. And then they can think about how much they would really be playing with when it comes to either investing or buying or building something. Now, assuming they do have some cash to work with, let's explore these different options that Becca is presenting. First, buying land in a different state and building a mountain chalet, which sounds frankly extremely fabulous, although very complicated and maybe expensive. And then again, the other option is is simply investing the proceeds from their sale, and I assume they just mean investing in the stock market here. I get the impression that Becca and their boyfriend are first-time landlords, which is also something to consider. So Lisa, what's your take on this entire situation and the

potential options that they're proposing? You know, Utah is just such a beautiful state. I love visiting there, and I understand the appeal of wanting to have a chalet there. That would be awesome. I am also generally a fan of real estate investing. I've been doing it for more than 20 years. However, in this case, I would suggest approaching it with some caution. You need the right real estate investments to make it work for you. And at a distance, it can be very, very important to have a good property manager who lives in that area and could take care of the property while you're not there. As Sean was reading the question, it took me back to a couple years ago when I was leaving Florida. I was renting a condo and the landlord wanted to get rid of it and they wanted to sell it to

me. And as I was doing my research, because I was like, maybe this is a good opportunity for me to get into real estate and rent it out exactly what you said, Sean, the value can appreciate pretty slowly. So that was a risk that I wasn't willing to take. Lisa, what would you say are some risks that you see with this option that Becca wants to take one of the options. Well, Elizabeth, I would say one big risk is the possibility of negative cash flow, which means that you're just not getting enough rent coming in to cover the expenses going out, and so you end up having to pay some of those expenses out of your own pocket during those times. So are you able to dig into your pocket to cover those costs if you have some unexpected large expenses or if your occupancy is lower than what you had hoped?

Something I'm thinking about as well is, again, we don't know how much Becca and their boyfriend might net from this condo sale. But it's not like they're going to be able or maybe they shouldn't be using all of the proceeds to construct the chalet or to buy rental property. or disinvest it. They should likely be pocketing some just for savings for a rainy day, especially if they're going the rental route. Very good point. Another risk I see is just wear and tear. There are very few renters who would take care of your property the way you would take care of it if you were living there yourself. Can I count myself as one of those renters? Minus, uh, aisle. Yeah, you and your son are tearing apart your apartment. We know that. Right. The blinds, I find a scissor cuts in them.

I don't know how that happened, but I will be having to replace the blind. Yeah, say goodbye to your security deposit. No. Well, with a short-term rental, wear and tear doesn't just affect, like, the building, the property itself. When you have a short-term rental, you also have furnishings in it. You have furniture, appliances, linens, glassware, all of these things that you provide for your guests. And so those things experience wear and tear as well.

well. You know, some of those furnishings might just accidentally make their way into a tenant's suitcase and walk right out the door with them. Yeah. Or, again, they don't necessarily treat your home the way you would treat it. We once had a renter who, like, checked out and left and left water running in a stopped-up bathroom sink. It was like very fortunate that we caught it in time because that could have really caused a big disaster. Yeah, it's important to think about who might be staying at your rental property and what their intent would be. If it's a long-term renter, that's going to be their home. They want a cozy place to stay. If it's an Airbnb, that could just be a party pad, and they might not really care about what they do or how they leave the place at the end.

And then another issue, I think, that particularly applies to short-term rentals is local ordinances. You know, some communities have had what they consider negative experiences with Airbnb-type rentals. And so they've started to restrict those rentals because neighbors have complained about the noise or the traffic, whatever. And so this is true in the area where I live. It's also true in the area where my son lives several states away. So it may be somewhat widespread. And so if you already are set up, and renting your house on a short-term basis before these ordinances go into place,

you might be able to continue. They might let you continue since you were already set up, but they might not. So I think it's worth considering what would you do if you were no longer allowed to use your property that way? And it's really on the person owning the property to be aware of all these various ordinances. You need to be proactive because a city doesn't care if you didn't know about a rule and violated it, they're still going to charge you. There was just an issue in the Portland area

where a number of Airbnb-type renters didn't know they were violating various ordinances, and I heard about one man who was charged $20,000 because he violated an ordinance that he wasn't aware of, and this was an older gentleman, he didn't have a lot of money, and it's putting a lot of strain on people. There's been, of course, some backlash to this, but you can really get into trouble

if you don't follow the rules to the letter. And I'm just curious, since you all are both property owners and renting out, where do you find or stay up to date on those kind of resources? Well, where I live, there are some, like, associations of, you know, folks who do this type of real estate investing, and so you can hear a lot there, or you can follow the local news. Sometimes it's in the local news when the city is about to change an ordinance. If you are actively, like, registered as a short-term property rental owner, then the city itself might send you notifications when things happen. And for me, I'm not doing

short-term rentals. So I just read up on my local city's ordinances for having a long-term rental. And I trust my property manager to ensure that we're all in accordance to that. And yeah, it's pretty straightforward for me, fortunately. Now, here's the big thing that you need to keep in mind when you're deciding between real estate investing and also stock market investing. Now, investing in the stock market is so much more straightforward. With investing in the stock market, you choose the account you want to invest in, you can choose your investment, and then hopefully you can watch your money grow over time. Now, I want to put out there, of course, there are plenty of risk when it comes to investing in the stock market. If you have

looked at your portfolio lately, then you will be able to relate to that. But it can be a less hands-on affair than building and managing a property. Now, in Becca's case, they're asking whether real estate would provide good diversification for their investments, or if it's more of a risk. And the answer is, Becca, yes, possibly. Real estate could provide good diversification. Of course, we don't know the exact makeup of their portfolio, and there are plenty of risk that come with that. But Lisa, can you speak to how you view your real estate investments in the broader context of your portfolio, and then how do you compare their risk to that of your stock investments? Yeah, I think with the stock market, you typically make a choice. You're

either investing for growth, like the appreciation of the value of your stock over time and you don't really realize that growth until you sell the investment, or you're investing for income where it throws off cash that you can spend as you go along. And you make a choice. With real estate, I think that you have the potential to do both at once because you can get growth as your real estate increases in value. And if you have invested for positive cash flow, you can also get an income stream when the rent that you are receiving exceeds your expenses

as you go along. And that's like a great situation to be in. Also, your real estate doesn't necessarily move in tandem with stocks. So when the stock market falls, your real estate might still be doing fine and vice versa. So in that sense, I do think it can be good diversification. Now, in my own case, my real estate investments over the years have pretty typically outperformed the stock market. But I used a really different style of real estate investing for the most part than what Becca is considering.

I bought fixer uppers or foreclosures, properties that essentially gave me immediate equity in them. And then on top of that, we did a lot of the physical work on them ourselves in order to save money and make them a little bit more profitable, especially in the early years. So, you know, that was helpful in our generating better returns. Becca is talking about something a little different. Yeah, they're talking about potentially building a chalet from scratch. How does that change the calculus about whether this could be a risky or potentially lucrative venture for them? I mean, I think that's something really important to consider. The outcome could be different for new construction. Building materials are really expensive these days. Labor costs are really high. So, you know, I'll kind of go back to something that you mentioned earlier, Sean. This may not be an all or nothing decision. for choosing between stocks or real estate. You could potentially do some of both.

You could use part of your cash toward a property in Utah and then get a mortgage for the rest of the cost of that property. Then you still have part of your cash for other uses. That could be stock market investments. It could be having cash reserves to help cover any unexpected expenses. Now, there is a caveat around taking a mortgage for this property. This will make cash flow a bigger challenge because you're going to have a mortgage payment to make. But it does help you diversify.

And it also prevents you from having a lot of what we call trapped equity in a paid-off property. Because if you have this property that's sitting there completely paid off, and you're in a financial bind and you need access to some of that value of that property, stocks are more liquid than real estate. It would be easier to tap the money that you need by selling stocks than by trying to go out and sell the property or get a mortgage on the property after the fact. Right. I want to go back to your note about cash flow being an issue because if they do have a mortgage

on their potential chalet, I assume they would also be paying right. rent in Texas too. So that's a good amount of money each month going towards covering housing expenses and one would be at a place that they're not even living. So they'd have to be really clear on how much money they have coming in, again, beefing up their savings, hopefully, and just being confident that they do have enough liquidity on an ongoing basis to cover all of the myriad expenses from their rental property they'd be living in and a chalet states away from where they are. Another thing I'm thinking about is whether real estate is a good investment for Becca and their partner right now is going to come down to a lot of personal factors, like what their lifestyle

is like and whether they have sufficient cash and access to capital to cover these building costs and I assume some semi-frequent trips from Texas to Utah. Lisa, can you speak to the lifestyle and time commitments of managing rental properties? Yes, you know, lifestyle is a big factor here. Becca and her boyfriend love Utah and they want to spend time there. So this is not purely an investment decision for them. So while you are analyzing the best financial, move, you're also thinking about what will give you the life that you want to live. And I have faced a decision like this twice, and I made opposite decisions each time. The first time was when my son moved thousands of miles away to a beautiful location

where we knew we would want to visit a lot. So we considered doing something very similar to what Becca is considering. We thought about buying a house there and using it as a short-term rental when we were not there. Ultimately, we decided against it because we didn't want property maintenance to dominate every visit we made. When we go there to visit our son, we want to visit our son, enjoy the beautiful location and not spend all of our time trying to deal with the deferred maintenance on this house that tenants have been in and possibly messed up. Yeah.

Even though you could have possibly written off some of those trips, correct, if you were going that is true. That is true. Yeah. Yeah. And we also did not want the hassle and the cost of maintaining a property long distance in a very expensive location. We would have had to hire the property manager.

We would be paying for someone else to do all of this maintenance every month while we were not there, whether it was occupied or not. And so we ultimately decided to rent when we visited there. This has been the right decision for our lifestyle. And we think probably for our pocketbook as well, although we know that we did miss out. on the gains we might have made from home values appreciating in that area. And of course, as you mentioned, Sean, possible tax writeoffs that we could have had from our trips there. Yeah. So with this first situation, do you think it was really more the lifestyle choice that won out over the dollars and cents opportunity that you just didn't want to fuss with having to

manage a property? And you said the money just isn't worth it. Exactly. It was more of a lifestyle decision because there are other options for investments. Yeah. And you want to, want to go hang out with your son. You don't want to be worried about managing some property that's far far away from where you're living or wherever you are. Yeah, it is very stressful to get that phone call that something has gone badly wrong with your property when you're thousands of miles away and you've got to try to figure out how to deal with it at a distance and we just really did not want that for ourselves. I live about three hours from my rental property and I've been renting it out for just about a year now and I still dread that inevitable call. I know. I know.

was coming, which is why I continue to just sock away a decent amount of money each month just to cover whatever is going to happen to my house. Lisa, tell us about the second time where you made the opposite decision. What did you decide that time around and what lifestyle choice influenced that decision? Yes. Well, the second time was when we left a home that we really loved. We needed to move to be closer to family members who needed help, but we owned this kind of unique property that we really loved, and we thought that we might want to move back into it someday. So we didn't want to sell it. We knew it would be difficult to replace if we sold it. So we turned that one into a short-term rental. Now, again, this was not a purely financial

decision. This is one of those situations where lifestyle plays a factor. And it may not have been a wise financial decision. We do not have positive cash flow from this property. We are losing money on it. The occupancy for short-term rental has been lower than we had hoped. We had to spend quite a bit of money on furnishings and linens and glassware and the tenants have already damaged some of these things. And we do have local ordinances that restrict how we are allowed to mark.

market the property. But we do still own the house. We can move back into it whenever we want. It's only a half an hour away from where we're living right now, so it's easy to keep tabs on it. We can write off the losses against our other rental income. And we still will benefit from the appreciating home values. And we also present. that sweet sweet 2.75% mortgage from a few years. I'm jealous. We're not going to you can't replace that. No. So even though in this case we made the opposite decision this it appears to be right for our lifestyle and I know we'll be very glad of it if we decide that we want to move back to that house. Yeah. Hearing that description it sounds like the short term rental aspect

is kind of a drag on your lifestyle because of just the various pains around like marketing restrictions and fixing glasses and buying random things for the house. Do you think you would ever convert that to a longer-term rental or do you just like having one short-term rental in your mix? In our personal experience, I found long-term rentals to be easier to manage and easier to use. Now, in Becca's situation, a long-term rental doesn't really accomplish her lifestyle goals. Yeah. Because they want to be able to go and stay in that property for a vacation home. home. So if someone's living there full time, you not really have the opportunity to say,

hey, can you like go somewhere else for a week because we want to stay in this property that we own? And in this particular case with the house that we decided to use as a short-term rental, it just was that particular property was not well-suited for a long-term rental or else that's probably what we would have chosen instead. And it was our first time to try short-term rentals. There are many people who say that they can make a lot more profit on a short-term rental than if they had the same property as a long-term rental. And I'm sure if the circumstances are right, that's probably true. But the circumstances have to be right. And in our particular case, I think they were not. That reminds me of, you know, I love a Facebook group and I was poking around

in one and someone had asked like, you know, people who make over six figures, what do you do? And I was so intrigued to see so many travel nurses who had rental properties that they were renting out short-term rentals and making tons of money from for other travel nurses who were coming to the city and only needed to stay for short periods. And they would make thousands of dollars off of those short-term rentals. Now, obviously, I don't know, like you guys say, the losses they were facing or the challenges or the late-night calls that they had. But I know that they did find it profitable. Yeah. Yeah, I think a lot of it comes down to knowing your market or maybe finding a niche in that case that you just is. describe to Elizabeth. Yeah. But I think what I'm hearing you guys say mostly from this conversation

is that, you know, just because it's profitable, it doesn't mean it's the right thing for you to do. So you really need to make sure that it also fits into your lifestyle and how you want to live your life. You know, it's not always about just making extra money. Yeah. And that really comes down to what Becca and their boyfriend's long-term financial goals are. Do they want to maybe get a solid return through investing in the stock market? Do they want to be able to have access to a house in Utah? It seems like the Utah home is their greater priority than just returns or potential income from stocks. But there will be a lot more to sacrifice and other logistics to coordinate when it comes to actually building a chalet in Utah. Okay. So Lisa, if you could leave our listener,

Becca and everyone else listening with some advice in 30 seconds to do just maybe one thing. What would that be? Well, I would say the very first thing is to look closely at whether you can achieve your lifestyle goals by renting when you visit Utah rather than owning there. And then if you decide that owning is the path you want to take, then do your due diligence as you would for starting any business, because that's essentially what you're doing. You're starting a business. And there are many many questions to consider from the going rates for short-term rentals into the area. Like, what's the demand like? Is it seasonal?

If so, how much vacancy are you going to have in the off-season? And how are you going to cover the expenses of that? And during the prime season, that's probably when you can get the most tenants. But that may also be when you want to go yourself. So how much of that prime time are you going to be using rather than renting? And then, of course, all the other factors that we have already discussed, like your ordinances, your local ordinances, the cost of the new construction. Again, just like treat it as a business. Think of it as like writing your business plan.

How is this going to work for you? And that can kind of help you make a decision. Yeah. It sounds like they have a lot of research to do before they start at this venture. if they are going to go the chalet route. Yeah. Okay, well, Lisa, thank you so much for coming on

and talking about rentals with us. It's always so fun to chat. Well, thank you for having me. I think that Becca is already asking smart questions, and so I wish them the very best of luck in whatever they decide. Likewise. And Becca, please let us know

what you and your boyfriend decide. We'd love to hear from you. Okay, and that's all we have for this episode. Remember, listener, that we are here to answer your money questions. So send them our way. You can turn to the nerds and call or text us your questions at 901-730-6373. It's 901-730 nerd.

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