How it all began
I was clueless! Seriously, if you weren’t supposed to do it, I’m pretty sure I did.
My first attempt at buying a home was a rent to own. I really didn’t have a clue how this was supposed to work and ended up losing the money I had invested by not purchasing it. This was also because I was going through a divorce. Still, I wish I had taken advantage of the opportunity while I could.
Luckily the next 3 houses I purchased went smoothly. I say luckily because I still had not clue what I was doing and signed anything my lender and Realtor put in front of me.
Then something happened. My wonderful mother-in-law, who was more like a mother but a friend at the same time, passed away from breast cancer. She left my husband with a bit of money. Bill and I did not want to waste the gift she had given and wanted to invest it in something that would have an impact in our lives. At that time, I was missing my own family and wanted to live closer to them. My brother lived closed to a little beach town called Isle of Palms in South Carolina. I fell in love with the place. However, my husband did not want to move. Thankfully he was open to purchasing a short term rental.
Let me pause here and tell you how amazing my husband is. He received $50,000 as his inheritance. It was in his account for 1 full day before we had to use it to purchase a property. He amazes me with the trust and support he provides me on an on-going basis. He truly is my partner in life.
Anyway, I’ll never forget closing day. My husband was not able to go with me so my sister-in-law did. I signed all the papers (with still no clue what I was doing) and then drove to the beach to enjoy becoming a home owner there. It was at the beach that I realized the full impact of what I had just done. I realized I had no clue how to run a short term rental AND it had to be successful because I really didn’t have enough money to pay the mortgage on my own. I felt the weight of it all. I did not want to waste my husband’s inheritance in a failure. I threw up on the beach.
Thankfully, everything did work out - better than we thought it would. Join me in the posts to come where I share the good, bad, and ugly of all we learned in this first rental home.