Meet Jason and Mariah, the husband and wife team behind Gathering Tree. After years of running a college ministry and hosting international students, they brought their passion for community and hospitality to Flagstaff, Arizona. Starting with a modest real estate investment, they now design, build, and manage six ultra short-term rentals focused on creating memorable stays for families and friends.

Can you tell us a little bit about your history?

I can remember just after college, releasing a big chunk of my income to rent every month and thinking there had to be a better way. We started with rehabbing a personal home, then flipping, then spec building, and now designing, building, and operating ‘ultra’ STRs from the ground up. Real estate has always been our source of both community and freedom. We currently run the 6 ‘ultra’ STRs we’ve built in Flagstaff, Arizona.

What is your background?

Our first purchase was a little building on the floodplain of the Ganges, just outside Calcutta, India. Once the fish left behind by the monsoon floods were evicted, the kids moved in! We left the home in the hands of some locals and Jesus, and over the years they have grown it into a much larger home and school for street kids. Seeing homeless kids gave me a new appreciation for “home” but also reinforced my goal of not being enslaved by working just to pay for one. We bought a home and “house hacked” long before that was even a word. I lived with brothers and friends and hosted international students, all while learning to renovate to increase home value. We moved back to our college town and renovated a tiny, dilapidated house by the university. Then we built an eight-room home right next to it. Over the next ten years we housed more than 200 students from around the world in our “International House,” inviting them to weekly dinners and taking them out to see the best people and places in our community. COVID shut down our international student population, so we pivoted to short term rentals and began flipping homes, then spec building homes, and finally designing ultra large purpose built STRs from the ground up.

Were you always in the vacation rental world or is this a 2nd/3rd career?

Vacation rentals were a natural, though later, progression in a trajectory that always revolved around value-add and rental real estate investing.

If a later career, what did you do before?

We put a lot of our time and effort into the friendships we had with our international students, as well as college and missions ministry in previous chapters of life.

Are you from the geographical area where your properties are located, or did you move there later?

We had been in Flagstaff for 10 years before starting STRs. We only operate STRs in our town.

If later, is there something that drew you to that area?

Flagstaff was an inherently attractive vacation destination where we’d already lived during college. We moved to Flagstaff to do college and missions ministry, but real estate was always going to be an essential aspect/criteria for where we lived.

What do you love the most about the vacation rental business?

Community and freedom for our family and others. We love seeing generations of families reconnect in these big homes and helping them see the best parts of our city. There’s a natural opportunity every day to teach our kids about business and creating value. It also provides a creative outlet to design and build places that bring people together while improving the appearance of some of our neighborhoods and employing locals to build, maintain, and manage these homes.

What do you dislike the most about it?

Wearing so many hats used to be fun and challenging. As we get older, the context shifting takes a bigger toll on our efficiency.

How do you use OwnerRez to manage your business?

We couldn’t operate without OwnerRez. We list some properties in different ways: upstairs, downstairs, or whole building, bunkrooms included or excluded, etc. We’re also pairing properties now, which allows larger groups to book multiple homes as one listing and booking. It gets complex, but OwnerRez handles all of these options, and their linked calendars across multiple OTAs work perfectly. This allows us to present different offerings to the market from the same buildings while matching prices to the value provided. The website generated by OwnerRez has also been important in driving direct bookings. Guest communication, reports, and plugins all play a role in the value we get daily from OwnerRez. We have six locations but 16 listings because of the different listing options.

What is the most useful feature OwnerRez offers?

Calendar management is the most essential feature for us.

Jason and Mariah’s journey from ministry and student housing to custom-designed vacation homes reflects their heart for hospitality and community. We’re excited to see Gathering Tree continue to grow and create unforgettable stays for their guests in Flagstaff.