I know that rule #1 in real estate is not to get attached to a piece of property! However, when it’s your own home, the rules change! And that’s what happened to me.

I bought my home in Coral Gables back in 2003 and absolutely fell in love with it. It was an old spanish home with unique architectural elements and it was absolutely perfect for me. In fact, it even had a converted carport that I used for my office so that my work didn’t creep into my entire living space (as it has in my new home!)

In 2005, I bought another house… This time, in West Palm Beach a block from the water. The house itself was not my dream house, but I loved the location. I could even put my own sailboat in the water at the end of the street (which I never got around to). I decided to move to West Palm Beach because I was doing more real estate in the area and didn’t want to keep both houses as active residences. I did go back and forth for the first 18 months and just didn’t want to do it anymore. So, I rented it for just about a year and a half.

From DAY ONE, the tenants drove me absolutely crazy. From telling me I needed an electrician to come out and fix the porch light when it simply had a leaf in it! Or how about when their son shattered my sliding glass door and they thought I should pay for it (yes, you read that correctly). PLUS, they made me paint the whole darn thing WHITE when it had previously been rich in color. Long story short, it wasn’t a lot of fun.

So, at the end of 2007, I decided that the negative cashflow was no longer worth it. I wasn’t every going to go back and LIVE there, and although I hated to sell it, it was time to make a business decision. With the mortgage, taxes and insurance at nearly $4000/month, there was no way in the world that I would be able to so much as break even on the little 2 bedroom/1.5 bath cottage.

So, on the market the property went. The tenants wanted to extend their lease another year and the thought of that was agony, so we agreed to part ways and they moved out at the end of January. February was chaotic in my life and I couldn’t get far on it, but what did happen was 3 foreclosure/short sale/REO properties when on the market and selling was going to be more than just a “little” challenge.

So what do you do???

Well, I happened to be at a mastermind event at the end of January with a woman who’d been quite successful in turning properties into vacation rentals. So, after a short chat, we agreed to do a training on it and use my house as a case study. The training actually just completed last Monday and the month was totally exhausting because I went from knowing NOTHING about this whole industry to preparing my house for a vacation rental AND getting my first renter in. Click here to hear the interview I did with Anita back in February. (The live course is over, but you can get download access to all the materials now. We’re just finishing up with the transcripts and forms).

My hope was simply to break even. Heck, I’d be okay with a small loss even. Selling wasn’t an option and a long term rental would put me too far in the hole to make it make sense. If I could just get $4000/month, I would be a happy camper.

The training started on March 3rd and I just went along with the class doing the homework. OK OK… I must confess… Prior to the first class, I did post a single ad and started getting leads!

I did my homework, checked out the competition and got to work. I did make plenty of mistakes along the way, but the point is this… I TOOK ACTION.

So, I get an email back from someone wanting to see more photos, which I didn’t have at the time other than filled with the tenants “stuff” and plain white, ugly walls. I also learned I had to adjust my price for better, more qualified leads. (This lead came in after I took Anita’s advice and changed the price from $1500 to $1485). After a few emails back and forth, I had secured my first renter for March 28th – 31st at $255.00/night with a $100 cleaning fee. It came out to $915.00 total which is almost HALF of what I was getting for an entire month with tenants that drove me mad.

Hey! This thing might really work after all!

Well, LAST FRIDAY (March 21st), I began to get this thing ready for my tenants who’d be arriving in 1 week. Brandon and my mom drove down with me so we could get this house ready to make some money.

On Friday and Saturday, we painted almost all the rooms and did the baseboards and trim throughout. Keep in mind, I was putting my bright colors back on the wall over the white which took 4-5 coats PER room, so it was really like painting double. We patched walls, fixed ceilings, worked on the floors for 24 hours. I didn’t have a single piece of furniture there, so we got air mattresses to sleep on and cozied up. By about 4:00 on Saturday, we were exhausted. We decided to come BACK down on Tuesday to finish up.

Well, Tuesday came and went and I had conference calls and work to do and we never made it back down. But, I did manage to get over to Rooms to Go and Mattress Giant and get a good portion of the furniture ordered for delivery on Thursday. So, Thursday morning at 5:00am, I hit the road to meet the delivery drivers. They gave me a window of 7am to 10pm! How’s that for narrowing things down?

I did some touch up paint and started to clean while I waited. At about 4:00pm, the furniture including the mattresses was there. I began to think that I just might be able to pull this thing off after all.

As I got in the car to pick up some furnishings and more cleaning supplies, the car battery was dead. Dangit!

Oh crap… I don’t have contents insurance! Quick… make a call to my insurance agent to make sure that I’ve got the $8,000 in furnishings covered in case something happens. Get the binder faxed and take care of that too. Sure, I’d probably be alright, but better safe than sorry, right?

So, Brandon had to drive all the way down from West Palm Beach IN RUSH HOUR which can easily add an extra hour or two onto the drive. And we had turn back around and drive 45 minutes north again and try to get our shopping done at IKEA before 9pm.

We made it!

By the time we stopped to grab a bite to eat and got back to the house, we were EXHAUSTED. Brandon started assembling the chairs and I started to open the box to look at the dining room table.

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?

We had grabbed the wrong color. I needed a dark color and wound up with BIRCH. And now, we were less than 18 hours away from our guests arriving. I about wanted to cry.

So, the next morning we got up and were going to do our best to make it happen. It was what it was and we only had 9 hours and this house looked like a construction site still as of 10am. Oh yeah… the cable guy was late! He was supposed to be there by 10 and it was already 10:30, but I had to start getting things like sheets and towels and pictures for the walls. So, headed off to Wal-Mart to see what deals I could find!

And in Miami, Wal-Mart is never an easy feat! So, after 30 minutes at the check out counter with a confused cashier, I made it out the door. I was on track still. Although I was still out the entertainment center, dining room table and a television, I would have to make it work.

I dropped everything off at the house, picked up the table to head up to IKEA and exchange it for the RIGHT color. All the while, Brandon was holding down the fort, cleaning the kitchen, caulking the bathroom, and waiting for the cable guy. He also spent the better part of the morning pressure cleaning the deck and front entrance.

I quickly ran to get my NEW table in the right color and found an already-assembled entertainment center and threw it in the truck and headed back home. I think Brandon probably wanted to KILL me with this table debacle. But, when my mind’s set on something, get out of the way cause I’m going for it! Now, however, I was alone trying to get this thing on a cart and into my car and it had to way a couple hundred pounds! I managed to do it, but my back is aching today!

While I was checking out, the renter called and said he was just south of Orlando at around 2pm.

Phew… that should be at LEAST 4 hours with Friday afternoon rush hour in Miami.

I started in the bedrooms and worked my way out. I was quite pleased at how it was coming together. Brandon was getting that dining room table put together faster than I’d ever seen anything assembled and we were packing up my car with the supplies, trash, broken down boxes, etc! We changed our clothes and had just about everything done. I’d hoped to have another 15 minutes to run a mop over the floors one last time, but we decided we’d run out to get the tv and a new car battery since we’d still not dealt with that.

We’d made it! The house looked great! Sure, it wasn’t 100%, but it’s a good start. We still need to get some more “stuff” for the kitchen. The yard could use a little landscaping. I’d still like to do a few more things and we have to get a few more pieces of accent furniture and art, but for the most part… it was a job well done! And certainly a good start.

I took a deep breath and let out a sigh of relief. We had done it. We had about an hour to go according to my calculations which would give us more than enough time to grab a tv and come back to the house.

And then….

My cell phone rang! Somehow, he’d missed the traffic! The ONE TIME that it’s light is when I have a tenant coming in from Tampa. He made it in record time and called me at 5:00pm saying he was down the street.

This was really starting to feel like an episode on some amazing race type show!

The long story short… we WERE able to get the TV and then came back and spent about 30 minutes with them talking about the area, giving them some pointers for things to do, getting a copy of the drivers’ license, etc. We packed up the pressure cleaner and headed back to Palm Beach.

WE DID IT!

And now… it’s time to market it and recoup the money that went out this week! But, I was able to use my Rooms to Go credit card. I got them to give me a limit of $10,000 and only had to use $4000 so it kept me with a good ratio. I opted for equal payments over two years so I could pay it off with the rents that came in over time rather than one lump sum, but they did have an option for 4 years no interest/no payments. I got a Mattress Giant credit line for the mattresses and probably could have gotten one from IKEA too! So, I could have TECHNICALLY been out only the furnishings from Wal-Mart.

I even used my Home Depot card with no interest for 6 months (As long as you’re over $299, you’re good!) To make the $299, however, I did have to buy a few miscellaneous things at the check out, but I wanted to use the next 4 weeks to get some money coming in before payments going out!

All in all, the last 7 days have been a blur. My back aches. I’m exhausted and virtually everything else has been put on hold.

You may ask why I didn’t hire it all out? Every now and then, I get a little bite from the rehab bug and actually LIKE to see a property transform and all whining aside, it is quite an accomplishment.

Now… if I didn’t look at this option, I would have essentially had 2 choices

1. Put another tenant in and eat $2000/month
2. Let the property go to foreclosure or try to short sale it

Neither one made sense to me! So, I figured, what do I have to lose if I try this thing? If it works… I could keep this house that I love so much forever, virtually! If not, I’m not in any worse of a position that I was beforehand. Sure, I have some extra furniture and I’m out a week of my life, but if that’s the worst that can happen, I’m okay! Plus… I’ve been wanting new furniture in my house anyways :-)!

So… for now, I’ve got my first short term tenants in. I put $915 in my pocket for 3 nights! And now, I’m ready to get more renters. Sure, I need to do a tad more work, but now it’s like a vacation for ME when I have to go down! The internet’s in. The cable’s on. And it’s furnished for living! Two weeks ago, I’d have been thrilled to get $900/week and now I’m looking at moving it up to $2000/week!

A lot of people will come up to me when I talk about different successes in real estate and say, “Well, you’ve been doing it a while. It’s easier for you to do.”

But in this case, I started from GROUND ZERO less than 1 month ago and went from zero to rented in that time. I had no experience in this type of market. In fact, I wasn’t even aware that there was a viable market there for me to even look at. Now, I’m no expert yet, but I can tell you that if you’re in a situation where you’re out of options and you DON’T want to give it back to the bank, then this just might be the option you’re looking for.

Sure, I could have made excuses, but I didn’t. I put the blinders on, worked my butt off, and now can keep the property I love, make money on it and own it for the long haul!

I still have lots to learn and I’m most certain that there are other ways to extract more money out from every renter by adding value and increasing amenities! Who knows… maybe I can push the envelope and make $10,000/month when all is said and done!

But for now… I’m going to take some time off and relax. I slept for 12 straight hours last night and today, I’m letting my muscles rest and my brain decompress! It’s been a whirlwind, but I’m certain it will pay off in the long run!

It just goes to show you that with a little belief, a lot of hard work, and massive action, that you can do things you never thought possible!

I’ll post the new pictures once I go back down to “check them out” on Monday. That’s the one thing I really wish I’d have had a chance to do before I left, but we simply ran out of time!