Need to catch up on the story? You can go back to read Part 1, Part 2, and my career-searching endeavors in Part 3.
Joseph and I spent most of Summer 2009 exploring the housing market for a duplex that would serve not only as our home, but also as an investment. By the time October rolled around, we had seen just about every house available, and time was running out.
You see, we had a fabulous offer from the government: Become a first-time home buyer, and get an 8,000 credit on next year’s taxes…..that we didn’t have to pay back. The catch, however, was that we had to close by December 31st. Just a mere 3 months away.
The house that found us
One Sunday, we were casually driving through town and saw an open house sign directing us toward what would become our future neighborhood. We had time, so we decided to check it out. As we pulled in the driveway, I realized this was a house I had previously dismissed because it only had 1 bedroom for each apartment.
I’m so glad we decided to go in though, because it was much bigger than we originally thought, and the apartments actually had 2 bedrooms each. I guess if a bedroom doesn’t have a closet, it’s not technically a bedroom. All in the fine print, folks.
The house needed a total upgrade from the 70′s, but other than that, it was perfect. Decent yard, great bones, and vacant from tenants. All we needed was to sign on the dotted line!
Moving in, and renting out
We actually closed on December 14, 2009. Talk about cutting it close, and not having much of a relaxing Christmas!
The next couple weeks were all about moving in, and creating our renovation to-do list. Our goal was to have the bottom apartment acceptable to rent out by February, while we lived in the top half.
Joseph and I both spent 3-4 hours on the apartment every night after our day jobs, which left little time for unpacking ourselves. Actually, 3 years later, we still have a couple boxes we haven’t touched!
We didn’t meet our February goal, but we did have a tenant lined up to begin in March. And the rest was history.
We learned quite a bit about the rental business with our first tenant, aka we knew what not to do. The whole process really taught us many basics that we could have never learned from a book.
Did we love it? Love is a very strong word. The 1st of the month always made us smile though.
Did we hate it? No way. Our unique strengths and skills complemented one another, and we starting thinking that maybe we were ready to make this a legitimate business.
But no one could have ever expected a natural disaster in September 2011. It would literally change the course of our lives.
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Stay tuned for Part 5! I think it should be the last one in the series…for now. {grin}
Hi! I'm Kalyn Brooke, the writer and money-saving author of Creative Savings. I'm a die hard Do-It-Yourselfer, type-A organizer, and obsessive budgeter. 
If it was the flood that made you start thinking about “south”…I’m not going to like it!
Lol – we had been dabbling with the thought before, but the flood certainly didn’t help matters!
We’ve played with the idea of a rental property, but too many nightmares my parents had growing up I think have scared us off lol Now home renovations of any kind are something I love.
Many of my family members warned us with horror stories. I know they just wanted us to be cautious, but it was hard not to get discouraged. We’re so glad we took that leap of faith though.