Hello everyone and welcome to the fledgling “women in real estate ” blog I am attempting to start. Forgive the lack of structure and organization at this point but as we work through this I hope you may find some helpful information, items of interest, things of value or perhaps food for thought.
For those of you who may have considered investing in real estate at some point or another perhaps to have place to live in or rent out, for wealth creation, portfolio development or maybe just to have an continuous income stream going into your retirement, some or all of this information might help.
I’m going to start by explaining how and WHY I started investing and this may help some of you to either relate to your current situations and maybe see the possibilities.
My WHY was pretty simple…. I never wanted my children or me to do without all because I was a single parent. I also never wanted my financial security to be dependent on on intertwined with anyone ever again! This is not about not wanting relationships or friendships, it was simply a need to have my financial security be controlled by only me.
When I first separated from my husband in what feels like a million years ago, I left my home with my children, my personal effects and about 25,000 in my pocket. I was lucky enough to have a career at that point which gave me security and safety and a medical plan all of which I was very grateful for. When I thought through the day-to-day finances I always had enough to pay the bills and expenses but there never seemed to be enough to put away any kind of savings or plan for a future.When i got my paycheque, i paid the bills and then the money was gone. I can recall sitting in my house in Cambridge at the time trying to come up with ways that I could make more money… (Ways that were neither illegal or immoral lol) or that would keep me away from my family anymore than I already was. I wanted my money to work better for me.
I had purchased a home at the time (thanks in part to dear friends and family without whom i wouldn’t have been able to do so on my own) with a partially finished basement and so this was the start of my experience. I had a basement that with a little bit of work and configuration could be rented out and so I started early on with the tenant that help to pay the mortgage. This continued for a few years and gave way to my plan to have my next house be something with a full in-law suite or some type of arrangement that would give me more rental income. So in 2003, I found a home in Hamilton that was large enough and had incredible potential to really earn some extra money . At this point in my life the plan really started to develop. Stay tuned if you are at all interested in the next chapter hope to see you soon .:)
