We stumbled into our passion, real estate, after a lengthy career working for the government. We wanted to buy a condo on or near the beach in Florida, so we could have a few chances to get-away from the winters in Maryland. After settling on a beach town in Florida we began scouring ads on Craigslist, Facebook, and local newspapers. We talked to real estate agents in the general area. We actually made quite a few visits to different places. We settled on a quaint older building in Daytona Beach that was right on the water. The unit contained a suite with a bedroom, living room, and kitchen; best of all we could walk right out to the ocean! These places are referred to as a Condo-tels, and are perfect for a getaway to Florida.

We found we could rent it out when we weren’t there. A perfect way to use real estate as passive income. There was even a “front desk” that handles all of that for you. They do the booking, take care of check in/check out, any complaints and all the cleaning. How hard could this be? Seemed like a home run, we were all in. Little did we know what was around the next corner. The second “P” of real estate was waiting for us, patience. Catch our next post to hear how we used the other P’s of real estate to stay in the game.

JI and SM