CondoSchmondo is about design, finances, and life. The description is intentionally listed in that order. Firstly, I wanted to use this blog as a platform to share some of the cool projects that we are working on. It is so fun to go back and look at our first home renovation. The design aspect of real estate is the most interesting to us, since we both work fairly non-creative jobs during the day. I see renovating a home as a challenge to breathe life back into a home, and enjoy having some pride in the home for renters to live in it.

I completely understand this breaks many real estate investing rules. For rentals, I see some of my real estate friends (and some self-described slumlords) putting minimal effort into renovations and squeezing money out of their tenants month to month. At the end of the day – our friends are probably right – slumlording is probably the path to the best cashflow.

This is why Finances is the second most important thing in this blog. Of course, we love seeing our houses get renovated and beautified, but we also do carefully consider the bottom line. We have two rentals today, and are about to finish renovating a duplex in the next couple of weeks.

We’re still determining our “why” for investing in real estate. We aren’t sure if we are really wanting to get on the Financial Independences Retire Early (FIRE) bandwagon quite yet. Until then, we’re just enjoying learning about real estate and slowly taking on new projects.

Finally, Life is the last thing that I’ll share on this blog. It’s listed last, not because it’s the least important, but because I think readers can only take so many cat and chicken pictures!

Please join our journey here as we set goals and grow as investors.