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A Life-Changing House Flip and Lessons On the Value of Time

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I’m honored to share a guest post today. Without giving away more details, I’ll turn it right over to her. I promise that you will take away a powerful message from her words…

How much is your time really worth?

Isn’t that the million-dollar question!?

If you’re reading this, I will venture to guess you have some interest in personal finance. Maybe you’re working on paying down debt, building your emergency savings, or saving for early retirement. And you’re probably familiar with many of the money-saving, money-making strategies to accomplish your financial goals.

 The question is: where do you draw the line between time and money?

 It’s obviously different for everyone, but certain things that happen in our lives can cause us to evaluate this question more seriously.

I recently had one such life event (of my own doing). Last year, my husband and I completely renovated a home in 4 months.

At that time, I promised Vicki I would write a post for her with the nitty-gritty details of the renovations (and financials) for what was supposed to be a single-family rental property (which turned into a flip). As I explained to Vicki, I’ve become rather skittish about sharing those details.

For one, I don’t wish to share specifics since we no longer own the home. Even more, it’s not something I love to talk about. Not because we didn’t make money (we did). But because of the time we let it steal from our lives.

I thought it would be useful to share the short story and lessons I learned about the value of time. Because, now and then, I think we can all fall into the trap of putting money first.

The why behind it all

Some of you might remember me. I’m a former personal finance blogger (Amanda from Centsibly Rich). I suddenly and without warning sold my blog last fall – because time was at a premium and I was desperate to gain as much of it back as I could.

As you can imagine, as a former personal finance blogger, I like to think about, talk about, and strategize on money. And I’ve implemented much of what I’ve learned from other personal finance bloggers over the years.

My family is debt free (except our mortgage – which we could pay off). We also save a good percentage of our income. We have the basics down and are approaching financial independence in the next few years.

But over the years, we realized there was a strategy we hadn’t yet tried. One that could move the needle toward FI more quickly. Namely, real estate investing.

Though we had talked and talked about it for years, we never actually took the leap. Last year we decided if we didn’t take action, we’d never know.

The house

As I mentioned, we intended to purchase a single-family home to use as a rental property. But our local real estate market is super competitive. We realized to meet the 1% rule, we’d have to buy a “fixer-upper.”

We didn’t blink an eye over a little work. Over the years, we had honed some mad DIY skills. Plus, we entirely updated our last home by ourselves. How hard could it be? (Can you sense the sarcasm?)

Eventually, we purchased a single-family home in an amazing neighborhood. The house was overflowing with 30 years of the tenant’s “stuff” and was noticeably in need of updating and repairs.

Within a week of closing, it was apparent that behind all the piles of stuff and furniture, the scope of work was larger than anticipated.

Weeks of clearing out junk, trips to the dump, demo, cleaning, and hiring contractors ensued. When we got to the finishing stage, we thought we could finally see the light at the end of the tunnel. But even that seemed to drag on for weeks beyond what we anticipated. More money and even more time was spent.

The process seemed endless and consumed our nights and weekends for months. My husband works 9-5, so he worked on the house every day after work (and used a ton of vacation time). I worked on it all day, every day. Not only were we exhausted, but family time during these months was minimal.

The decision to flip

Thankfully, we started attending a local real estate meetup. The relationships, support, and advice that came out of this group was nothing short of amazing. Not only did we get help with some major construction projects, but we got advice from those who could show us the ropes.

One trusted professional helped us decide to change our strategy from a rental to a house flip. We were in the middle of a hot seller’s market. And, considering the scope of work and money we invested, selling was the fastest way to recoup our money and make some too. At this point, we were tired and ready to wash our hands of the entire thing, making this option even more appealing.

In the end, we sold the house after 4½ months of renovations, closing six months after we purchased it. We were pleased with the end product, happy to improve the neighborhood, and satisfied that someone could enjoy living in a nice new(ish) home.

Life after the flip (and lessons on the value of time)

Those months of working on the house felt like a constant battle to work harder, work faster and just get it done. (I should mention that no one was holding a gun to our heads here. The timeline and the amount of work were choices we made.)

I admit I’m at fault worse than my husband here. I tend to hyperfocus on goals and push, push, push to get there asap. But this time it crossed the line. I let it rob me of precious time with my family and friends. I let it interfere with my health. I let it rule my life.

Toward the end of the flip, a few poignant things happened. A close friend’s husband died suddenly, without warning, just before his 42nd birthday. I took Jillian’s Mini-Retirements course and did some serious reflecting. A week after we signed papers to sell the house, I had knee surgery to remove 2 (benign) tumors from my knee joint. All of this was enough to make me take pause.

What in the world were we doing? And at what cost?

By the end of it all, I didn’t even care about the money. I just wanted it done. I wanted to see my kids, have a date with my husband, read a book, and take care of my health.

I’ve realized that, while real estate investing can certainly speed one’s time to FI, flipping (the way we did it) was not worth the cost to get there (for us).

I’m not ruling out the possibility of a buy-and-hold property in the future. I’m not even ruling out flipping another house once my husband walks away from the 9-5. But I know if it happens, I would do it completely different next time.

For now, I’m content to live my life and take my time reaching FI.

Lessons learned

Despite the difficulty, the experience was not a failure. I choose to look at it as an opportunity to learn valuable lessons. Here are a few of the lessons I learned:

Time is more valuable than money. Of course, I knew this before. And, if you would have asked me, I would have said, “Of course I value my time over my money,” but I didn’t live that way during those four months. The biggest, most important lesson I learned from the whole thing was the true value of my time.

Time>money. Time>money. Time>money.

FI is not THE end goal. I know I’m not alone when I say I tend to focus a little too much on our magical FI number.

But, once FI is reached, then what? Will life suddenly and miraculously become easier and more fulfilling on that coveted day? What about all the life in between? What if, God forbid, something happens, and we don’t live to see that day?

It’s way too easy to miss out on today by focusing too much on tomorrow. Of course, it’s a fine balance. While we’re still saving aggressively for FI, we’re focused on living our best lives right here, right now. Otherwise, life will only pass us by.

Don’t rush to say yes. Sometimes when I feel passionate about something, I mistake it for intuition and say “yes” too soon. And then I’m stuck. I’ve recently imposed a waiting time for making decisions. I also ask myself if the decision to say “yes” aligns with my values and purpose. This helps me weed out the trivial yeses from the “he** yeses.”

Work on balance every day. Balance isn’t my strong suit. When I have a goal, I work earnestly to reach it. I get drawn in and think if I can just work harder and longer, I’ll reach the goal faster.

And then I miss all the life that happens in between.

I’m setting “work” times, “reading” times, “exercise” times, etc. on my calendar and trying to relax and enjoy the moments as they come. It takes effort, but I’m certainly less stressed!

Don’t ever miss opportunities to spend time with loved ones. People first is my theme this year. When family or friends want to spend time together, I say yes. Everything else can wait.

In the end, I’m relieved to have the experience finished. But I wouldn’t change a thing. All the lessons I’ve learned are worthwhile and have changed my life.

Thank you, Vicki, for allowing me the space to share! 🙂

And I would like to thank Amanda for sharing her family’s story about their real estate investment purchase! There are some really important messages about valuing your time and changing course when you realize that what you’re doing doesn’t align with your values. If you are thinking about real estate investing, re-read the lessons Amanda shared. Thanks again, Amanda! It’s so good to read your writing again! The community has missed your voice!

Comments

  1. Great to hear from you again, Amanda! Thanks for sharing your experience. I’m glad it’s behind you now. Real Estate to help accelerate saving or add income has never interested me. I have too much stuff to do around our own home to even consider taking on more projects in a rental. Hope the family is well!
    Brian recently posted…How A Poor Credit Score Can Ruin Your RetirementMy Profile

    Reply

    • Thanks Brian! I’m happy to have it behind me too – and to move forward with those lessons in mind. My family is well. Hope your family is doing great too!

      Reply

  2. A few things. One, Amanda we miss having you in our financial blog space! Come back!! Two, that house was SO GROSS. You didn’t mention anything about the mouse invasion or the literal acres of overgrown yard you cleared out. You did AMAZING work and I think you undersold (haha) what you did. Congratulations on walking out of the experience with the lessons learned and a nice profit 🙂 Three, Vicki, I’m still upset you managed to get Amanda’s story. I wanted to feature it!!
    Gwen @ Fiery Millennials recently posted…3 Years with Fiery MillennialsMy Profile

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    • Awww, thanks so much, Gwen! And for your support throughout the process too. You may be seeing me around the pf blogosphere more often… 😉 I didn’t mention many of the lovely details of the house, like the mice (and other disgusting things), because I could write a book! Maybe I’ll get into that in the future…I think I could do a 20-part series on just this experience! Thanks again Gwen!

      Reply

  3. Amanda! So happy to read your words again!

    I could feel a knot in my stomach as you retold the days of endless rehabbing. How fortunate for you to find that meetup and get some solid advice on selling the property. And how smart of you to stop and pivot. That’s the main lesson to me — that we need to cut ourselves a break when things aren’t going as we planned. And that changing course is “allowed”.
    Mrs. Groovy recently posted…Building Groovy Ranch: Update 11My Profile

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    • Thanks so much, Mrs. Groovy. I miss this community more than you know!

      We were very fortunate to connect with some amazing folks through the meetup. Pivoting was a very difficult decision. Because, financially speaking, we easily could have been better off in the long-term by keeping the house. But, you said it best, sometimes we need to “cut ourselves a break when things aren’t going as we planned”. In the end, I have no regrets about the decision.

      Reply

  4. Great Post! I remember talking in person with Amanda at a Minnesota meet up before she bought it, and I was buying my first investment property at the same time. I can totally identify with what Amanda went through. My property was run down, and I only had 30 days to renovate it before the renters moved in, so for 4 weeks, every second of my life went into my project house. Luckily for me, the work my property needed was minimal (new shower, light fixtures, updated vanities, and we painted the kitchen), and I was on a 30 day deadline to do it all before I had to get my butt out of there and hand it over to my new tenets. If this project would have dragged on for 4 months, along with my blog, and business, I would have gone crazy. Project houses are intense. My wife learned one of the biggest learning lessons of her life as we worked on it: “Whatever you think will take 4 hours of work, double it, because so little will go as you planned.” Great job Amanda, and happy to see you get your time back and re-find what you’re doing this all for.

    Reply

    • Yes, Bill, I remember chatting about both of our properties! I can tell you understand exactly what we experienced! And your wife is spot on. Everything takes so much longer than you think it will. Even if you budget “extra” time for a project – something inevitably pops up! Thanks for the kind comment, Bill! 🙂

      Reply

  5. Good to read your words again, Amanda! Sounds like the experience, while extremely tough on you, was a success on all fronts. Thanks for sharing the lessons you paid a price to learn.

    Reply

    • Thanks Jillian! The course definitely helped me – and the lessons learned continue to help in many decisions I make. And I appreciate your support through the whole thing (and sorry to bail on you for FinCon)! 🙂

      Reply

  7. So nice to see you here, Amanda! I’ve often wondered how you were so thanks for giving us the update. The after pics of the house look wonderful. I’m sure it’s nice to know you provided a great new start for the new owners. I hope your family and your health is doing well and that we’ll continue to hear from you.

    Reply

    • Thank you, Amy! One of the best things about the flip was improving the neighborhood and making sure the house was perfect for the new owners.

      The family is good (oldest heading off to the Air Force shortly after graduation), health is improving (it takes a while after 2 surgeries, but exercise and diet help), and you’ll definitely continue to hear from me (I’ve been lurking quite a bit lately, but am ready to engage more, as I love this community!). I hope all is going well for you too, Amy, and I appreciate the kind words! 🙂

      Reply

  8. “But, once FI is reached, then what? Will life suddenly and miraculously become easier and more fulfilling on that coveted day?”

    Having reached FI I can tell you that no, life did not miraculously become easier. It’s different for sure, and perhaps less stressful in a “deep stress” kinda way. As I continue to explore how to deal with my new free time, I expect it to keep getting better and better.
    Accidental FIRE recently posted…How The Great Depression Still Affects Me TodayMy Profile

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    • Thank you! I love hearing from those who are actually experiencing it. Though it may not become easier, I could certainly see that it would be different – in a good way. Having choices and options is always a good thing, in my opinion. 🙂

      Reply

  9. I’ve missed you, Amanda!

    I totally get the time/money conundrum. Sometimes what seems like a profitable proposition just isn’t worth the compromise in quality of life. Realizing that the compromises weren’t leading where you wanted, I think you guys made the right decision, and you are bringing up things I wish I’d had more in the forefront of some recent decisions.

    Reply

    • Aww, thanks so much, Emily! 🙂 That means a lot to me. I’ve missed you too! Isn’t it amazing how well you get to know others by simply chatting in the comments!?

      I’ve learned a ton about myself in the last year or so. But, honestly, I still have to keep reminding myself to take a step back and take my time (and ask myself a lot of questions) when making certain decisions. One thing I should have mentioned in the post that I’ve been trying to do is to take money out of the equation when making decisions – I ask myself what I would do if money wasn’t a factor. It’s helped. Great to chat again, Emily!

      Reply

  10. Thanks for sharing your thoughts and story, Amanda! It seems too often we forget to enjoy the process as we work towards a goal like FI. I agree it’s important to slow down sometimes in life and live it instead of thinking after I reach FI I will start…. No one is guaranteed tomorrow so we should keep that in mind as we plan for the future. I’m glad you are doing well, and I hope to see more posts from you soon. Take care.

    Reply

    • Thank you, Ryan! And thanks for your support and feedback throughout the process, my friend. Though I still have to remind myself to slow it down (almost daily), this experience helped me realize the importance of the process. Life doesn’t begin after FI – we can still prepare for tomorrow, while still enjoying today. Thanks again for the kind words!

      Reply

  11. For time > money: i visited my mom last week, and the request was made to help remove some grass bushes installed by the builder. They are those scruffy bushes that make perfect wind breaks at the beach, but look like dead muppets outside a residential house. The 2 small ones went ok. The first of the larger was tricky to avoid the water line, hold the top out of the way, while using the shovel to severe roots and loosen the dirt. In the end, mom decided she has more money than time and will hire out the remaining removals.

    For saying yes too quickly: my boss told me to stop volunteering. I sat in a meeting for our dept fun committee and figuratively sat on my hands. I was very proud of myself. I was happy to make suggestions. However I did not volunteer to plan or organize or research the proposed activities. 😀

    I’m glad your flip turned out well in the end, and you have some great insight.
    For some of your reasons, and some of my own, I’m not interested in flipping houses while I have a 9-5, and unlikely it’s my calling if my career changes. I’ve helped mom with projects, and know some stuff. I also watched my then boyfriend, now ex fail a flip. He sold for what he bought for, losing all the improvements he put in. I have seen what it takes, and know my limits.
    Thank you Amana for sharing and Vicki for having her guest post!

    Reply

    • Thanks, Jacq! Love the great examples you give here! It’s funny, I’ve always been the one to volunteer for every opportunity too – it’s interesting your boss took notice of your habit to do so. Knowing yourself and your limits is a good thing! 🙂

      Reply

  12. It is ironic that one of the biggest motives for striving for FIRE is the belief that one’s time is worth more than money, but that on the way to FI, people often make choices that privilege money over time (e.g., working long hours; taking on side gigs; DIY).

    Jude
    Dr Sock recently posted…Time For ArtMy Profile

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  13. That was definitely good info. We own a college rental, and both of our daughters have lived there over/college, along with an additional tenant each year. We will sell it early 2019, as our student will graduate in December. I’m sure there is a week’s worth of deep cleaning needed, plus who knows what else. Have had to replace the HVAC, dryer, and most likely the roof this summer. We have definitely learned some things from this 6-7 year experience!

    Reply

  14. Thanks for sharing your story, Amanda! Good to hear from you. Flips (or any big remodel) are definitely a lot of work. It’s a job more than an investment, which to your excellent point – means it sucks up a LOT of time. I’m glad it turned out well for you financially, and also glad you learned so many lessons about yourself and what’s next.

    Last year we did our first remodel of a piece of real estate ($200,000+ in repairs!) without being on site. I hired our property manager/general contractor to do it all. I still had to watch a lot of bills every week and ask a lot of questions, but I LOVED the process compared to being there in person. But that’s not recommended on a first deal.

    Reply

    • Thanks for reading, Chad! Flips are definitely more of a job than an investment. And, though I learned a ton about the value of my time, I also learned amazing lessons on what to do and what not to do if and when we buy another property! 🙂

      I would definitely go through the process with a general contractor next time, but I agree, it’s important to go through it and be there on that first one to learn the ropes!

      Reply

    • It’s really amazing (and great) that you learned the lessons from an Econ class!!! Thank you, Money Beagle! 🙂

      Reply

  16. I think it’s a balance, but if I had to choose between the two, money is definitely more important than time. You can have all the time in the world but if you don’t have enough money, you can’t enjoy it.

    More importantly, I think we should all be so lucky as to be doing something we love. That way “work” doesn’t feel like work.
    Troy @ Bull Markets recently posted…Study: a strong economy and weak stock market is bullish for stocksMy Profile

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  17. Great post. Thanks for sharing. Yup, you’re right about time invested. The real estate shows make it look soooo easy to flip and fix up. They fit it all into a nice little 30 or 60 minute show. When we changed to “apartment” life and moved from Philly (as home owners) to Brooklyn as (apartment owners) I said to my wife “I left my toolbox in Philly”. The other thing that some people don’t understand about being a landlord is the fact that “THERE ARE BAD TENANTS OUT THERE”. I’ve seen many smart people get burned. I recommend that potential “passive income” investors watch the movie “Pacific Heights” with Michael Keaton. Glad you had an “exit strategy” for yourself and you reflected on the value of your time. Thanks for sharing.

    Reply

  18. How did it take me 2 weeks to find this post! Amanda, so good to read your writing once again. Thanks for sharing your experience. It sounds like you made the best decision for your family in flipping the property. I’m learning that knowing when to “quit”, or “pivot” from something is not only ok to do, but can be a very positive step.
    Mystery Money Man recently posted…MY SON IS BYPASSING COLLEGE. WHY I’M PERFECTLY FINE WITH ITMy Profile

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  19. I’m so happy for you Amanda. I totally agree with you– to spend more time with loved ones and the work-life balance. It weighs so much more than we think it does! Cheers to you 🙂

    Reply

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