Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Tammy Jo Long. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Tammy Jo, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Risk taking is something we’re really interested in and we’d love to hear the story of a risk you’ve taken.
When I had my first and only son, Robby, I had Pre-eclampsia. This resulted in Robby being born 2 months prematurely. I had heart failure, pulmonary edema and double pneumonia (all side effects of Pre- Eclampsia). Robby was in Neonatal Intensive Care, and I was in Cardiac Intensive Care for a month. It was touch and go for both of us. Having survived near death, I decided to do something insane. Give up my cushy executive job and go to Savannah, GA and start buying dilapidated historic homes and restore them! My husband at the time (now divorced) thought I had lost it and gone off the deep end. I had no serious plan as to what to do with these properties, I just knew that it had always been my dream to restore historic homes in the deep south. So, I quit my job, took my little bag of money, and headed to Savannah, GA. I bought my first property in Savannah when Robby was 6 months old sitting in his little bouncy seat on top of the law firm’s mahogany closing table. My first project had long term lease driven rentals to cover the overhead. This wasn’t cutting it. I had spent too much money on the renovation, and the property was not cash flowing. So, I decided to try something new. I furnished the property as a corporate/executive rental. I had subscription number 1000 on a new website called VRBO. The property immediately was slammed with reservations from vacationers, not corporate executives. Luxury Living Savannah was born. Savannah’s first Vacation Rental Management Company. Money with the Banks was flowing generously, and I was very bankable. So as quickly as I could finish one historic renovation, I had another property in the que to start swinging hammers. Before the crash in 2008, I had amassed a fair amount of real estate. I started out just managing my own personal properties but eventually started taking on a select group of high-end luxury vacation rentals in Savannah and on Tybee Island. I’ve now been in business 22 years.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
As Savannah’s original vacation rental management company, Luxury Living Savannah, not only strives to provide our property owners with a level of service that transcends the highest occupancy rates in Savannah and on Tybee Island, but also to take great care of their valuable asset – the real estate itself. My staff and I all have historic restoration and construction experience layered on top of hospitality expertise. We are 100 percent female-owned and -operated. By strategically staying small and nimble we can react quickly to the constantly changing dynamics in the travel industry and deliver results. By owning a boutique vacation rental company for 22 years, I have the privilege of being selective of the properties I want to manage. We micro manage each and every property to keep the calendars full and enjoy the highest percentages of repeat business in the industry. Our properties must meet the uncompromising quality standard to be called “Luxury” Living Savannah by our guests. I treat every property as if it were my own. My clients become my friends, and their properties become my children.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
2008 real estate and banking crash was a near disaster for me and my business. Banks were calling in loans and people were not taking luxury vacations while losing their life savings. It was the perfect storm! I had to renegotiate every loan with every bank and lost some properties that were not profitable. It was very humbling and took years off my life. I’m sure the stress and all-consuming battle to survive was the underlying cause of my divorce and stole precious moments with my very young son.
Can you open up about how you funded your business?
I used my life’s savings to buy my first property. Then I leveraged that property as collateral to buy the next property. Then I leveraged that property to buy the next and so on and so on. I had no fear of failure.
