08/20/2026
We bought our first home on February 20, 2020… and just 20 days later, the world shut down. 😳
At the time, my main income came from working as a restaurant server—and overnight, that income disappeared. I remember thinking, Did we just make the biggest mistake of our lives?
But our plan was to live downstairs, renovate the upstairs unit, and turn it into a rental. Thankfully, real estate and construction were still able to move forward, so instead of giving up, we got to work.
I spent my days renovating, worked restaurant shifts at night when they reopened, and had incredible hands-on help from both of our dads. We even lived through the renovation in an unfinished basement—with no heat in the bathroom—and started working at 6:30 every morning. 😅
By June, the upstairs apartment was finally finished.
We listed it for rent… and within 15 minutes, the messages started pouring in.
That moment changed everything.
Sometimes the biggest opportunities come from the moments that initially feel like the biggest mistakes. 🏠
And that first property became the beginning of our real estate journey.
