I have some exciting news that I have wanted to share for a long time. It\’s been six months in the making, well a little more than that if you count the dreaming beforehand.
The dreaming all started when I began hosting AirBnB guests in my 113 year old home on the east side of St. Paul, Minnesota. It was a home that had sat on the market for many months because it had so many “problems”. But I loved its character — beautiful floor-to-ceiling built in bookshelves in the living room, leaded glass windows, hexagonal master bedroom, and the amazing views of Indian Mounds Park overlooking the bluffs of the Mississippi River and downtown St. Paul.
So, slightly intimidated, but still determined, I negotiated a good deal on the home and closed on it in December of 2018 with the idea that I could live in it and/or it would make a great rental property. Because, to be honest, I wasn’t exactly clear on what I was doing with my life at the time.
After closing on the property I promptly called my father, who happens to be one of the most handy people I know, and asked him to come help me make the needed repairs.
He was so helpful that even as he drove up to Minnesota from Tennessee, literally in the middle of the long 14 hour drive, I called him and said “Hey….so would you mind taking a 4 hour detour and picking up an old wood library ladder in Iowa? I think it would look beautiful rolling across the bookshelves in the living room.” Without missing a beat, he drove to Iowa and picked it up and then continued on his way up to Minnesota. What a guy!
Once he got to the house and bit by bit over the next year, we/I updated the home, including hanging that beautiful reclaimed library ladder (and dang, did it look good!)
The end result was a beautiful old home with character galore. Character that screamed, SHARE ME!
And share I did. I listed one of three bedrooms for rent on AirBnb and almost immediately started getting bookings. Within a few weeks the room was booked 94% of the time even in the bitter Minnesota winter – with only one or two nights per month vacant. After my first quarter of hosting, I became a Superhost! While I had one or two visitors who made me wish that I had invested in a pair of ear plugs before letting them occupy the bedroom next to mine, people were generally polite, friendly and fun to interact with. And nearly everyone would say how thankful they were for the accommodations and how beautiful my home was – it always made my heart feel full and happy when I would hear that.
That fullness planted a little seed which wouldn’t germinate for a little while yet. Not until later in 2019 when I became interested in real estate.
Sometime during 2019 I read Robert Kiyosaki’s “Rich Dad, Poor Dad\’\’ because someone I highly respect had talked to me about it when I was 16-17 years old. We sat together listening to Kiysosaki’s deep and soothing voice hum across the car stereo on his audiobook recording, but at the time I didn’t understand the book\’s value. Now, all these years later, I was looking at my life and wanting to make a change, so I started thinking about steps I could take…and reading this book was one of those steps.
After reading Kiyosaki’s book I started listening to podcasts on Real Estate and talking to friends about it. I set up a meeting with a local real estate developer and successful business person to talk about the in’s and out’s of real estate. It felt like a very complicated world with lots of opportunity for both success and failure. I even got as serious as talking to a friend of mine and his wife about a joint venture on a rental property north of the Twin Cities. But, as fate would have it, even though we tried to get the property, we weren’t able to successfully get it under contract. And, the more I thought about it, I wasn’t sure the impersonal nature of a rental property was really the way I wanted to go.
As 2019 turned into 2020, I continued to host more people at my home — people who stayed three months with me because they were on a work assignment, and people who stayed for one day, not even a night, as an escape from home and a chance to just sit in a peaceful and relaxing place and do some sewing.
I continued to look at real estate in the Twin Cities, scouring LoopNet.com pretty much daily. Then one day I stumbled upon a Bed and Breakfast for sale and it finally dawned on me. What I actually wanted to do was own a Bed and Breakfast. I loved helping people feel like they had a comfortable, safe, clean and beautiful place to stay while they were away from home traveling, escaping, adventuring….whatever reason they had.
With the knowledge that I wanted to combine my two interests in hospitality and real estate I started searching the internet for boutique hospitality offerings. At first I started my search widely, but as I began to think about it more, I realized I wanted to narrow down my search to a community where I could see myself living for a very long time. A place where people love and value the outdoors, being active, a good running community, somewhere with a more mild climate but still all four seasons. A place that has enough industry that it still has a lot of options for entertainment, an airport in close proximity for travel, and a place that doesn’t have high humidity but still has the big beautiful trees that I love. With those criteria in mind, it narrowed my search down A LOT….There are only about three places in the US that check all of those boxes — Albuquerque, NM, Flagstaff, AZ and Central Oregon.
Looking in those locations and within my price range I found a few listings of interest, but ultimately decided to fly out to Redmond, Oregon and take a look at two properties in the area. One just outside of Redmond and the other a quick 20 minutes north in Crooked River Ranch.
The moment I drove into the Crooked River Gorge, cresting the plateau and looking down across the beautiful Crooked River Ranch Golf Course with the mountain peaks of Mt. Jefferson and Mt. Hood in the distance, I was in awe. Stepping out of the car to be enveloped in the lovely smell of juniper trees and the sound of water rushing through the Crooked River hundreds of feet below, it felt like home.
Touring around the property, looking at each cute cabin, the beautiful log built lodge and the spacious chalet all poised against the backdrop of the towering canyon walls, I knew that the property was something special. It, like my house back in Minnesota, needed some love, but proof of concept showed that if you provided a clean and quality experience with a lot of heart, people generally appreciated the experience. So, after a little deliberation, on August 1, 2020 I made an offer on the property.
It would take six grueling months of paperwork, the SBA (Small Business Administration) scratching their heads and saying “you want to buy a hospitality business in the middle of a global pandemic, when the hotel and travel industry has lost about 80% of its revenue?”, inspections, appraisals, more paperwork, and last minute hiccups but I believed in the property and that it will provide an amazing experience for guests.
Finally, as of January 28th, 2021 I can now say that I am the proud new owner of the Crooked River Ranch Cabins in Crooked River Ranch, Oregon!
Renovations are already underway to make this already beautiful property even more beautiful! If you have stayed at the Cabins before, I hope you will come back and see all the hard work and if you are a first time visitor to the Central Oregon area I hope you will consider coming by for a visit to this awe-inspiring place.
I think you will find the magic of the Crooked River Canyon and the hospitality to be excellent. And, it’s a place that everyone can enjoy with many amenities like playing golf at the beautiful Crooked River Ranch Golf Club, splashing around in the community swimming pool, strolling down the hiking trails, a game of disc golf at the Coyote’s Den Disc Golf Course, jumping off waterfalls at Steelhead Falls, skiing or snowmobiling at the many local ski resorts and exploring famed Smith Rock State Park, or an easy day trip to Crater Lake National Park, just to name a few!
Whatever your activity of choice….The Crooked River Ranch Cabins are a “Great Place to Kick Off Your Boots and Stay Awhile!”
See you soon at The Cabins,
Meghan
Owner/Adventurer
Crooked River Ranch Cabins
(541) 220-0277
P.S. Thank you to every friend, professional and loved one who has made this dream possible. I have had a lot of help along the way and I can’t say thank you enough to each of you.
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