You've seen our Instagram posts and are likely thinking "they're moving again?!"We're not! We're staying put, for now. I've learned to stop saying that we're never moving again because that is one promise we struggle to keep.
But we do own a heck of a lot of real estate at the moment. It's a little scary, a lot stressful and a ridiculous amount of fun! Yes, fun! I live for this stuff.
For those who don't know us, we're Paula and Jake. We're married with 4 kids and we LOVE real estate! We started our real estate journey together when we built our first house in 2015. Neither of us had ever contracted our own build before and we were green as green could be. Thankfully we had the guidance of my Dad and we used really good trades. It was a great experience - so great that we decided to sell that house just over a year later and do it again. You can read all about the build process on our old blog here.
Long story short, we didn't end up building again and moved 4 more times since. Now you see why every time we post a new house purchase people assume we're moving into it?
We renovated everyone one, with the exception of one, and we've sold a short while later to move into the next project. Not only do we love real estate, but we love renovating. We love creating something new while still maintaining the character or the era of the home. Our kids on the other hand are so over moving. Even our 2 year old has lived in 3 house in her lifetime.
Our current projects:
We took possession of "12 Mile OG" 2 days after our 4th child was born. Did we mention we bought this house sight unseen? Crazy right? We knew the house, we knew the area and we had actually tried buying the house back in 2017 privately but the owner wasn't ready to sell. The owner was an elderly lady and she passed away in the fall of 2018. In the early spring of 2019 Jake was driving by and saw the for sale sign on the lawn. WE HAD TO HAVE IT! We immediately put in our strongest offer (they were holding offers until a specific date) and they accepted it! What made this property so great? So great that we were willing to put in an offer (over asking!) on a house we'd never step foot in? It is a little ranch situated on 2 acres. It's situated so perfectly to one side, that there was the potential for another full acre building lot next door. That's were we saw the value! So for the last few months we have been completely renovating the house and meeting all 14 conditions the county has set out in order to be able to sever. We are just about finished then we can list the renovated house for sale and begin to build on the vacant lot next door.
In the meantime we've also purchased another house to rehab in Old North in London. It's a great little house on (in my opinion) one of the best streets and in one of the best school zones. We're calling this project Mr. Christie and we take possession in November. Hopefully 12 Mile OG is wrapped up by then!
If I had to catch the blog up on everything we've done thus far, I'd have no time for more house hunting or renovations, so feel free to follow us on Instagram to see what we've been up to. We also created a Pinterest account where you can see our inspiration for each project and where we're headed.