Phew, what a wild few months it has been! In March, we put an offer on a house to purchase as a rental property. This was not a new idea to us, as we had already put several offers on other houses that had fallen through. This one finally went through and as of April 20th, we were the owners of a cute little three bedroom home!
When we bought the home, it needed some cosmetic work and quite a bit of work in updating the kitchen. We got to work almost right away, working on morning before Theo left for work, working on Theo’s weekends and sometimes even working late nights after Theo got home from work. Either I would stay home with the kids while Theo worked, or we would all go, or sometimes Theo would take the kids with him while he put in some work hours.
Most of the things that needed to be done were not major changes, but we learned quickly that small tasks really add up. We changed light fixtures, painted the entire house, cleaned the carpets, re-grouted most of the shower, cleaned up the yard, and then spent a significant chunk of time working in the kitchen. Theo installed a dishwasher, installed more cabinets, put in a new sink and new countertops, painted the cabinets, and switched out the fridge for a different one (that is an entire story for another time).
Here are some fun before and after of the kitchen:
Finally, finally, we finished the core work and listed the house for rent! Within two days, we had several applicants and were thankful to be able to move forward with one application received. Obviously, I won’t recount any more details than that, as I doubt anyone else would want their information on my blog š
Of course, there is still a lot of work to be done as rental property owners. Just because someone lives there now and takes care of their own lawn and basic maintenance does not mean that we have no more work to do! In fact, Theo has been over about once a week to fix something or look at something that needs improvement. BUT, it sure does feel nice to only have about one hour of work per week instead of our previous breakneck pace of every waking non job working hour spent at the house!
Purchase Date: April 20th, 2020
Date Renters Moved In: June 9th, 2020
Hours worked: 165 hours (plus an additional 48 hours of work of a friend we paid to help).
It looks really nice. Well done! (I’m just jealous I’m not the one living there.)