The Beach Drive House-Sold
This was our first house we bought when we moved to Florida. We couldn’t get a loan and we convinced the seller to do owner financing for us. We ended up paying $100K and we had to put down 20%. We put a new back deck on the house and landscaped the backyard and furnished it (a total fo about $13K). All of this took up almost every dime of the $35K we had in savings. And it was a big risk because we only had 2 years to figure out how to get financing to buy it from the seller or he would take it back and keep all of our money. But it all worked out and we sold it a few years later for $160K. It sold in 3 days and the price was $5K over our asking price. It was a really cute house and only two blocks off the beach.
The Duplex
Before 
After
This was our first investment property. Each unit is a 2 bedroom 1.5 bath unit. We couldn’t believe we could qualify for a loan to buy this one on just my wife’s teaching salary. But, that bank approved us and since we bought the smallest cheapest house we could find to live in, we were able to save enough money to put 20% on this one too. When we bought it there was cop living in one unit and police dispatcher living on the other side. So we were very happy to have those tenants. We bought this one after buying our house and it started the idea to try to buy one house per year.
Townhouse #2
This was our second investment property. It is a 2 bedroom 1.5 bath unit. I wasn’t really planning to buy this house. I had just gotten my Real Estate license and this was a FSBO. I called to try to get the listing. When he told me the price I said I could get him more money if I listed it for him. But the seller told me he hated Realtors and wasn’t paying any commissions. Since it was priced under market value, I bought it. We rent it short term and it is dog friendly. We paid $125K and it is worth around $250K. We didn’t need to do much work to this one. We took out some upper cabinets in the kitchen and put in new counter tops. We bought new (used) furniture and started trying to figure out how to do short term rentals. In 2018 we replaced the balcony and resided the front of the house.
The Lot
The following year we bought a lot for $60K. The plan was to build our house on the lot because we loved it. I’d say today it is worth around $160K. At the time we couldn’t belive we were paying that much for a lot. But we are happy we did now. After we bought our current house we thought we’d build a vacation rental on it. Now I think we will probably sell it and just buy another house. (Hopefully in another country- I want become an international real estate investor)
The Tiki House
Before 
After 
I showed this house to a lot of people as a Realtor who couldn’t see the vision. I loved it, but it was horrible. It has been vacant for like 10 years and it was a mess. After a lot of negotiaion we ended up paying $200K. We did a TOTAL remodel and added the pool. We turned the garage into a second living room and gave it all a “Tiki Modern” design. I mixed mid century with tiki to come up with the “Tiki Modern”. This was by far the biggest remodel I had done since the flip house in Montana that made be go broke. I used a construction loan from the bank to buy it and finance the upgrades. But this turned out to be a big mistake. Then the contractor informed me he was really just a consultant so I paid them like $8K to do absolutly nothing. I pretty much ended up doing all the work myself so it took twice as long to get it done. The pool company we hired was horrible and took forever. So by the time we were done summer was over and we missed the whole vacation rental season. So then I had to pay the mortgage all winter with no rentals. We rent this property short term. We spent a little over $100K on the remodel. As soon as we were done and we got our first guests in the house and we thought we were finally going to make money, the septic failed. That was another $8K. After it’s first full year of reantal income in did cover the all the costs (including the spetic tank) and turned a small profit.
Our House
We sold the Beach Dr. House we were living in and bought a bigger house for ourselves. I know that is a big No No in the Financial Indepence movement. But, we spent 4 years in our little 800 sq. foot home and, to be honest, we weren’t thinking about retiring early when we bought it. It still needs to be completly remodeled but we haven’t really done anything to this house. I haven’t been able to justify the expense while we are still trying to increase our passive income. We cleaned up the landscaping in the front of the house. We had to put in a new dock and we had to do some stucco repairs. We paid $230K for this house. We’ve spent around $10K in repairs and the dock. We just got a HELOC and it appraised for $385K. Not a bad increase in two years. The funny thing is that it didn’t even appraise for our purchase price when we bought it and we had to come up with difference at closing because the bank only lends on the Appraised value, not the purchase price. This is probably going to be our ‘forever house’.
Townhouse #3
This is right next door to the other one we own. This roof in this house sprang a leak during a tropical storm and the water came into Townhouse #2 and flooded it. Luckily my cleaning crew had called in sick that day we just happened to be there cleaning it and my wife noticed water coming into the laundry room while she was washing the towles. I called the owner to inform him about the lead. He had to drive down from Alabama to fix it. He told me he was sick and tired of dealing with this property and he offered to sell it to me for $75K if I could write him a check and close fast. So I jumped at the opportunity. We had to do a complete remodel on that one. New floors, kitchen, doors, trim, bathrooms, everything. There was a some termite damage and some stucco damage. I found a great contractor for this one and it was the first time I didn’t do the work myself. We spent about $45K on the remodel and I thing its worth at least $250K. We plan to rent this one short term as well.