Happy Monday!!! Hope you all had the most wonderful Mother’s Day. Huge hugs to those of you who struggle on this day. One of my very dearest friends lost her sister to cancer last week and all I could think about yesterday was her family and her two little ones. A pain that just has to be so unimaginable. Sending so much love to those of you who fully celebrated the day and to those of you who could not.
Two weeks from today, I am closing on my cabin. Bittersweet in absolutely every single way. I know, I know, so many questions so as promised, I am going to answer THEM ALL…
Almost a year after my divorce, I decided to purchase a cabin. A fixer upper project that I hoped to Airbnb once complete. The exact same kind of project in the exact same community my ex and I had done the exact same thing just a couple of years prior. A cabin that he “got” in our divorce and immediately resold. It’s a community that I LOVE so so so much and a place I have been visiting for almost the last twenty years since my Dad purchased his cabin back in the early 2000’s. Having to “give up” my last cabin that I loved so much was hard but was of course a little overshadowed by all of the way way more difficult things happening in my life at the time. But then once the dust was settled, I was itching to do it all over again. And this time all by myself. I was TERRIFIED to say the least.
So back up a wee bit so I can answer all kinds of finance questions I am asked often… Rewind a year from last Spring when I was purchasing the cabin to my divorce which I walked away from with a buyout of the kitchen/bath company my ex and I started together. A buyout settlement that was laid out over a span for eight years that I have been determined to hold onto and invest wisely. There are so many things I look back on in those first few months and just know that I was so “not me” at the time. Living in a fog and just trying to get through each day. One of those early “not me” decisions was to “lock up” money in a long term portfolio of stocks. This girl that knows NOTHING about any of that and this girl who LOVES real estate locked everything up. Locked everything up and I guess just thought that the flipping/renovating/real estate part of my life was over???
Fast forward to March 2020 and I was in a much better place to say the least. Yes, Covid had just started so that was all confusing and uncertain but John and I were going on month five and doing great and my mental fog was clear as day! I was reenergized and happy and wanted a project. The thought of actually tackling something solo though was a wee bit intimidating to say the least. Y’all know that I do love a good “jump off of a cliff and find your wings on the way down” kind of thing though. LOL. So with Ab by my side and hopes of my “new boyfriend” showing me some construction ropes, I started cabin shopping. And I found a beauty! A beauty that needed a good bit of TLC and a beauty that I was ever so slightly terrified to buy. But I did it. With Covid getting more uncertain by the day, I took the plunge, paid a penalty to “unlock” my money and on May 22, 2020, I closed on my first ever solo project… Winnie’s Woodsy Wonderland.
And we had SO MUCH FUN! SO. MUCH. FUN. Ab, John and I rocked it out for two solid months that Summer and completely transformed the place only hiring out the painting taking it from this…
To this…
Tour the Entire Cabin & Get Every Detail HERE!
It’s so crazy because at the time when I purchased the home, I was terrified to spend $229k. The market was so uncertain and there were so many things just sitting on the market in that community but something told me to just do it. Here’s a little breakdown of approximate costs it took to renovate the home. I got lucky on this one because it really only needed cosmetic work! Oh and PS… these numbers are approximate and like I said above, they include ZERO labor other than painting because we did it all ourselves.
Cabin Purchase Price… $229,000
Painting of Entire Inside… $9,000
Cabinet Door Fronts (Kitchen & Two Bathrooms)… $750
Master Bath Cabinet… $400
Furnishings… $7,000
Tile… $400
Lighting… $3,500
Accessories… $4,000
Appliances… $5,000
Tool/Supplies… $2,000
Gifted Furnishings… Living Room Sofa & Chairs, Main Upholstered Bed, Twin Metal Beds, Twin Bedding, Cabinet Hardware, Basement Bedroom Upholstered Headboard, Chandelier in Breakfast/Dining Room
Furnishings From a Previous Home/Project… Rattan Swing in Living Room, Daybeds in the Loft, End Chairs on Porch, Artwork in Living Room
Approximate Total Investment… $261,050
We completed the home by the end of July and our very first Airbnb renter checked in on August 1, 2020! Y’all have been soooo wonderful and it has stayed so booked ever since. Fast forward to a few months ago and with the market climbing, I kept telling Ab and John… “I should try and sell the cabin… just list it and see what happens!” With house prices soaring in the community and the housing market continuing to climb as well as more and more people working from home and wanting their home to be in a “dreamier” destination, it seemed more and more like a no brainer. Plus, I had purchased a second cabin in this community to renovate back in December so we will have another source of rental income starting up soon.
However, we had a problem… the cabin is booked with renters until October! I literally spent like a solid day or two researching and thinking and chatting with Ab about how in the world I could do it. Sell the cabin but keep the renters happy. So we came up with a plan that the sale of the cabin would come with the stipulation that I (Addison’s Wonderland) would remain property manager on the home until October. They’d be giving me a cut to take care of it all and they would be getting a completely renovated and fully booked rental home!
So with everything “figured out-ish”, Abigail hit submit and we listed Winnie’s Woodsy Wonderland in March… for $429,000! I had NO CLUE what to expect. I think it wasn’t even 24 hours later and we had multiple offers settling at $440,000 ($11,000 above asking price). I did end up coming back down to $430,000 after the inspection due to roof issues and an electrical box needing to be moved but of course still an amazing profit for less than one year.
So THAT is why I am selling the cabin! I’ve always felt like to be successful in business, you have to be able to make quick decisions and always be willing to bend and mold with whatever changes come your way. And of course with risk can come reward and with more funds to continue on our renovating journey, it just all made sense! We did (thanks to my mom for telling me this!) end up pushing closing back a month so that it would be exactly one year and one day after I purchased it cutting my capitol gains taxes in half saving me around $40,000! And that date is in two weeks… May 24th! Which means one thing… lots more projects coming to AW SOON!!!
XOXO, The Future Mrs. Palazzo
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