In 2018, Sara and Rich Combs were making plans to expand their hospitality business when they remembered a spot they discovered during a road trip to Saguaro National Park in Tucson, Arizona.
The couple already owned and operated The Joshua Tree House, a property comprised of individual guest homes in California. But they had also fallen in love with the Arizona area during their 2014 trip.
Sara tells CNBC Make It that the couple made a mental note that it would be a great place for a new experience their guests could choose from. This space was only about a six-hour drive from Joshua Tree and offered a different, but still natural setting.
“We were finding a lot of satisfaction and fulfillment through creating spaces for people to get out in nature. We’re also focused on giving people the space to reset,” Sara says.
Fast forward to May 2018, Rich was browsing properties online which he calls a “form of meditation,” and came across a listing for what looked like 38 acres of empty canyon. But he disregarded that property because they were planning to buy a place just down the road from it.
That deal fell through, so the couple looked up that empty canyon on Google Maps. The area looked to have one big building in the center and two casitas.
In fact, the property the Combs had come across had a main building that is 7500 square feet, and two other houses. Altogether, the three structures came in at over 10,000 square feet.
“Our agent advised we go see it immediately but were hesitant, so we asked him to take videos for us,” Sara says. “We fell in love with what we saw in the videos and put down an offer before we saw it in person.”
The owner of the property accepted an offer of $615,000 and requested the Combs include a signed copy of their design and lifestyle book “At Home in Joshua Tree” as part of the deal.
After their offer was accepted, the Combs drove out to Tucson and discovered that what they’d seen only in pictures up until that point was actually an inn that had…
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