Julie: My Real Estate Story - Part 1

As I sat down to write my story, I realized I had so much to say that there was no way I would get it done in just one post. My life in Real Estate is a long one, full of funny moments and life lessons. Since this is afterall my blog, I have decided to make my story a mini series. I will post a part of the story regularly, and in the end you will all learn all that I have.

So without further ado!

  Part 1

I have forever been interested in real estate. I have fond memories of admiring a little white house, that couldn’t have been more than 600 square feet when I was about 7 years old, saying to my mom that I would own it someday.

When I was 18, while attending Carleton University, I landed my first construction job; working for 5 years at the Pro Desk at Home Depot examining plans, designing layouts, teaching their how-to seminars, and pricing big renovation jobs for contractors.  I became proficient at my job, to the point that it didn’t take long before most of the 50-something contractors were opting for my help rather than that of the gentlemen at my desk. There I learned the ins and outs of Ontario Building code and how to do pretty much any renovation you can to the interior and exterior of a house.   

A short time later, I managed to finally convince a bank manager, about the tenth one I had met with, to go out on a limb and sign mortgage documents for my very first home, a three bedroom condo in Ottawa’s East End. This was not something that bankers did for 19 year old, full time university students who didn’t have a full time job. I attribute the success partly to a wealthy friend of mine who was sympathetic to my plight and made a phone call on my behalf.  And mostly, to that oops-it-fell box of donuts that happened to land on the bank manager’s desk when I walked in.

It didn’t take long for me to reach for the sledge hammer to make my house a little more ‘open concept’. By the way, please look into your condo rules and regulations before you begin a renovation. I learned that the hard way to say the least. This house turned out to be my very first flip house. Renovating houses I lived in consumed the better part of the next 13 years of my life, completing my last flip in the summer of 2009. The market started to tighten up with less appealing options and minimal returns. As it turned out, I was sick of living in a constant state of renovation. My days of laying tile and drywall, caulking bathtubs and hog-tying and getting rid of resident squirrels were over.

A number of years before I finished my last flip, I began a teaching career and found myself with two babies needing to go to daycare and an insufficient salary to cover the expense. I was on a mission to find a way to supplement my income.  My first impulse was to get back into Formula One car racing, which had helped me pay for my elementary school education.  However, the lack of room for child seats and the my wanting to stay in teaching had me again turning to real estate, where in 2007 I purchased my first buy and hold multi-unit to generate some ‘passive’ income.  If by passive income I mean very active income to help me feed my family.  Back then, believe it or not, cash-flowing properties in Ottawa were the norm.

Fortunately, more gusto than brains was how I proceeded with my first purchase. If I had thought about it, it’s likely I might not have jumped into the single best investment I have ever made. It was a fourplex in one of the roughest areas in town. I just couldn’t turn it down, even if it was a crack house, everyone in the neighbourhood greeted each other using a sideways gangster grip handshake, and the reason I was getting it cheap was because the Seller happened to be a Realtor who was scared of the pantless, crack-dealing tenants.  The lesson to be learned?  One man’s wrong-side-of-the-tracks is one woman’s alternative to race car driving.