One year thoughts
As of this blog posting, we’ve been working on our Lake Byrd house for exactly one year. This property has come a long way over the last year. Although it’s been a lot of hard work, we’ve enjoyed watching the transformation unfold and have enjoyed getting to know our neighbors. Over the last year, we’ve been up nearly every weekend making as much progress as we can in a short amount of time. For the last year, we’ve worked 7 days a week for nearly the entire year including working on most of the major holidays. I’m not complaining – I think I might actually enjoy it. Rather, I’m providing context for some big decisions we’ve recently made.
Goals
The stamina and drive necessary to work so hard for so long cannot be maintained without an end goal; without a vision. The goal provides the destination for the road map of life that we are journeying along. Without that goal, it would be easy to give up. With that goal, we can weigh all of our decisions against that goal to see if they help us or hurt us from achieving that goal.
Our driving vision
So what is our goal? Financial freedom. Now this can mean different things to different people. To us, it is having income from passive or semi passive means that is greater than our expenses. Early retirement, if you would. It means that we no longer have to trade dollars for hours, and it means we can have the freedom to travel and visit family and friends around the world without having to worry about money or hurrying back to work. This is powerful. It is also a big goal. To help us achieve this goal, we’re looking at the real estate market and rental properties to provide the passive income that we’re seeking.
I got started investing early
As a bit of my background – I bought my first house at 21 years old and bought my first rental property at 23. By 30 we had multiple rentals and a boatyard in Atlanta. We sold those properties after moving to Florida but didn’t begin to re-invest until recently.
We didn’t know where lake Byrd was
As part of our goal of financial freedom, we found an 85 year old rundown house in central Florida that the numbers worked on. What does that mean? That means based on the purchase price plus the cost of repairs, we could sell the house, rent it, or AirBnB it and be confident that we’d make money. It was a lot of work and a major commitment, but it aligned with our goal of financial freedom. We weren’t sure exactly how it would work into our plan, but we knew that it worked and was worth pursuing.
We’re selling our house
Fast forward to today – in talking about what-if scenarios and reviewing our budgets through the lens of those what-ifs, we’ve made some big decisions that we believe will advance us closer to our goal of financial freedom. Last week we decided to put our home in Loxahatchee on the market. The realtor has recommended a full kitchen remodel, master bathroom remodel, and a roof replacement along with a plethora of smaller items for us to get full asking price on the house. However, she expects that it will sell quickly as Loxahatchee is a very hot market currently.
Lake life! And more properties
So where will we live? And what will we do for work? For right now, we’re going to move into our Lake Byrd house. Yes, we’re moving up to the lake! However, Oceana’s salon and clientele are in Jupiter, and we have no plans for that to change. For this to work for her, we’ll still need a place to stay around Jupiter. In the interim, we’ll look at campsites and/or hotels, but that’s not a good long term solution. So for a more permanent solution, we’re looking to purchase a multifamily property in either Palm Beach County or Martin County. I’m currently looking at a few tri-plexes and a quadplex. This would provide us with a place to stay that is being paid for by the other tenants, and that 100% aligns with our financial goals.
I can work from anywhere
For me, I’ve been pushing for more and more of my work to be shop based work that can be performed anywhere so long as I have a shop set up. I’ll still need to make trips back to Palm Beach to pick up raw materials and to deliver finished products, but once I get my shop set up at lake Byrd, I won’t miss a beat. However, have you seen the shop at lake Byrd? It’s in dire need of a remodel. And as such, that now becomes our most pressing project after finishing the remodel of our Loxahatchee house.
No, the lake house isn’t finished yet
You may be thinking – but wait, the lake house isn’t finished yet. There’s only one finished bedroom and one finished bathroom. And you’re right. In reality the move is premature. We will be inconvenienced by living in an unfinished house. But we accept that inconvenience as part of our journey towards our financial future. The money saved every month by not paying for and maintaining two properties is worth the temporary inconvenience. Also, as we will now be at the lake more, we can actually finish the remodel that much faster.
We’ve already started moving
As part of putting our house up for sale, we needed to clear out the majority of our “stuff” so the house could be nicely staged. To do this, I made 3 trips up this week and loaded the lake house’s master bedroom with boxes and totes. So while we didn’t do much on the lake house this weekend – much progress was still made. We did get a change to have a belated Christmas dinner at the Furr residence – thank you guys for your hospitality, some great cooking, and a delicious loaf of homemade bread.
Time to talk to lenders
Moving forward, we will be looking to secure financing for our plan to purchase multi-family real estate, and we’ll be talking to mortgage brokers, lenders, and/or private investors about funding. If you know anyone like that, please have them reach out to me at lisac.jacob@gmail.com. I’d much prefer to work with a referral than to work with an unvetted lender.
Thanks for following
We’re looking forward to being able to spend more time at the lake and with our lake neighbors. As always, thanks for following along on our journey. And Happy New Year!
Wow! You definitely have a plan! Plus you have the major issues spelled out and are working out those details. You and Oceana have amazing goals for being such young folks. But, we know how hard you both work and are sure things will fall into place. Hope to see you soon!
Love, Mom
P.S. I heard Tom and Kay got a new golf cart…can’t wait to take a ride in it!
You are such an interesting couple, and I like your thinking and your plans! I’m along for the ride as long as you decide to share. Always on the lookout for the next installment! 😁
Thanks Jane. We’re not sure where our journey will end up but at least we have some direction we’re heading. We’re looking forward to sharing that journey here as well.
Good News!
Tired of looking every weekend for a “sighting”, but got to get that guest room ready at lake Byrd for the Pennsylvania tourists.
Bud
Yes Bud, there will likely be more sightings of us and my parents here in the near future.