So…one of the big things that has been going on since the 3 days prior to my anniversary cruise get-away was the purchase of an investment property (this happened within the 3 days before the cruise — our realtor found this listing pop up with a big price reduction at 3:30 pm on Tuesday (he was at his desk at the time because I had requested to see two houses that evening, and he found out minutes before that they had both just sold); we saw the house on Tuesday evening; bid against another buyer Wednesday and found out we `won` the bid Wednesday evening; arranged home inspection Thursday morning, secured deposit and mortgage approval, and signed papers at 8:30 pm that evening, then packed and started our 2.5 hour drive to the hotel we were staying at the night before catching our flight to Florida to get on the boat…).
Now, this house doesn`t actually `add`to our net worth in any way, because technically it isn`t really ours. It`s basically being purchased with the leftover money from my mother-in-law`s house, which she decided to sell so that she could move in with us. The lump sum for the downpayment came out of money she had remaining from after gifting a portion to my sister-in-law and her family, and then paying down the remainder of our mortgage. We are now responsible to pay the mortgage on this house, but since it is an investment property, we are able to claim the interest paid on the property`s mortgage whereas we would not be able to do so for the house we live in. (Mini- mortgage and interest and tax benefit of investing lesson that I got to pick up these past few months).
Still, it is kinda like a first step in the direction of possibly one day building up our family`s net worth and financial future…even if it`s not huge steps, it is a `step` that has opened doors for me to begin learning and gaining firsthand experience in this whole world of investment properties… and just thinking about what it means to `invest,` and also what it means to be entrusted with opportunities to manage money, whether it is to spend it, let it sit (so it at least isn`t disappearing), and or to put the money to work so that it yields more than the 1% or so interest of a savings account…
Makes me think a lot about “The Parable of the Talents“ in a new light (Matthew 25:14-30).
I`m understanding more and more now how being `entrusted` requires that I understand what I`m asking for, that I`m agreeing (to whatever degrees I say “yes“) to taking on additional responsibility, that I`m prepared to pay the personal cost (of the extra time, energy, work, and burden…), and that I`m able to actually follow through on plans, even as I recognize how many significant money-impacting factors really are not in my control.
Not that this is a complicated project — it`s actually a relatively easy and straightforward project comparatively, or so it seems so far, anyhow… But for me, it`s more daunting simply because it is my `first`of its kind for me in so many ways, and one of my biggest fears oftentimes has been feeling like I`m being asked to do things that I don`t know how to do, that I may ultimately fail at and end up wasting a lot of time, energy, resources and money, that could have been possibly better utilized elsewhere…or by someone else…
I have been excited about this project though, because I have felt God`s blessings over it since the beginning of the whole process of understanding what we would be looking for and where, and the timing of how we acquired it (our realtor kept saying it was like this house was meant for us, perfect timing, perfect provision, for exactly what we were looking for, possibly even better!). What added to my reassurance was the provision of a really great family as tenants to move in on November 1st, within a week of posting an ad on Craigslist (and this is also without photos, as we had only just started tearing out carpet to prep for renovations). No more worrying about the house sitting empty for months, or for tenants where I just have no idea or reason for reassurance about what they may be up to (i.e. landlord nightmare of investment house becoming utilized as a grow-op!).
All of this made me think, as busy as life seems to be, and as overwhelmed as I know I sometimes can get when I`m taking on a project I don`t feel qualified or experienced to do well, I really wanted to grab hold of this opportunity to get to oversee renovations and update a house, and all with an objective in mind of making it a great rental property (so nice but without increasing costs unnecessarily by updating things that do not need to be replaced), that will bless the tenants we have found.
Basically, the big things on my list are replacing all the old, worn out greenish-blue carpet with laminate floors, replacing old flooring in lower-level laundry and utility room, hallway (There is possibly a simple bathroom mirror framing project I want to attempt if for some reason I happen to have an extra few days before the end of the month).
Anyhow, what was really preoccupying my mind this past week, and which has now thankfully become something I can check off my to-do list with relief, was the whole process of choosing paint colors for the entire interior of the house.
I believe the last time I ever actually chose a paint color was for my bedroom, once, perhaps as a pre-teen, and even then, it wasn`t like I went and selected the shade — it was just mom or dad asking me, what color do you like now, and I said blue, and then they brought home this nice sky blue. Nothing fancy, and probably just one can of paint did the trick. For the first condo my husband and I purchased, we were given 3 professionally determined color-pallets to choose from, which I felt rather happy and empowered to do because we really couldn`t go wrong… Then when we sold the condo to move into our first home, although it was an older home, it was recently renovated by the previous owners to colors very similar to our condo, so there really didn`t seem much point to paint. For our current house, since the last house mimicked the condo where we picked out our favorite designer-pallet, it was pretty easy for me to recognize by then what colors we tend to like…and what would easily match all of our already-acquired furniture =), so I guess we chose a house that already matched our furniture…and us…and, again, no painting required.
The thing with colors is that even though I know I don`t know much about them and finding them and knowing what goes with what, I am still actually quite particular about colors. For example, with nail polish, there are certain seasons where I will envision a color in a dream–a very particular shade of pink or what-not–and then it will be my obsession for the next few months to hunt that color down, with hopes that it actually exists out there somewhere, within my reach, that I can actually try on, because experience has taught me that how it looks in the bottle is not exactly how it will look on any one particular person. If the color I ended up buying is not quite right, even if it is just by a shade or two, it will bother me. And I may or may not lament the $5-$10 I spent on that particular polish (now that I`ve got girls, it`s not as big of an issue, cause I can always let them use it with their friends…).
So, to me, painting a house is kinda like choosing nail polish color, but on a much, much BIGGER scale… with a higher price tag (for the paint & especially the labour — Ivan said `no,` I do not have the time to paint a whole house myself…) and with much, much more PERMANENT and VISIBLE impact…