Our Kids Love Rentals: House Hopping With The Family Part2

The second property we closed on was a duplex with an illegal 3rd floor unit. My Wife was 7 months pregnant when we did our inspections. This property came with tenants on the first floor and was in major need of an update. We ended up closing on the property December 28th, 2 weeks before our 4th child was born. We closed and immediately we got to work…

I mean it, we got to work. I have pictures of my wife 9 months pregnant sweeping the floor and cleaning up behind me. She was doing everything in her power (without over working herself) to make sure we could move into our new property as soon as possible. She new we could not afford both properties for long unless our first property was fully rented. I ended up gutting the 2nd floor kitchen and ordered new cabinet and appliances on day 3 of owning the property. At this point it was my 3rd kitchen renovations so I was getting good at it.

My wife ended up giving birth a short time later. We brough the newest member of our family back to our first rental since we had not moved yet to property number two. At this point in the process we leveraged family, I used my parents for babysitting and my wife used her mom and sister to help out during the day while I continued working at my full-time job and renovating our newly acquired property.

We loved the 3rd floor of our second property because we made it into a temporary play area for the kids. This allowed me to work freely on our unit without worrying about anyone getting hurt. What made the 3rd floor extra great was the fact you could enter and exit without going into the unit I was working in. I ended up finished the second floor enough for us to move in in February. I got out first rental fully rented in March on a 14 Month lease. We did 14 months because the tenants had over 90% ratings (really good) and we wanted to make sure the leases ended in late spring (easy time to rent if they did not renew).

We did not renew the tenants we acquired from property two. There rent was way below market value and basic renovations would allow us to raise rent substantially. They were on a month to month lease so I spoke with my attorney about best way going about removing them. We gave them 2 month’s notice, this was a relatively smooth process. With the lower unit vacant we went to work gutting it. We removed the carpets, sanded the floors, opened up the kitchen, new cabinets, quartz countertops, recessed lights, new appliances etc. We ended up raising rent over $1100.

Once we found tenants for the first floor of our new property we finished renovating our unit. Throughout this process my children would help my wife and me. My older sons would put cabinet knobs on, sweep the floors, take out garbage, help with yard work, little bit of painting and more. At the time they were 3 and 5 years old. We did this with young kids! Plus 2 Shiuba Inu’s. Our first two investment properties were both a great family experience. We recently moved into a single family that is fully covered from the cash flow of our rentals. We are making more memories each year while saving for our next purchase. I hope this inspire you to know investing while being a full time parent is very possible and can be done!