Wow do we have a big update…
So two weeks ago, we finally went under contract on our Florida house. Our buyers wanted a relatively quick close, and that left us with not having a place to live, since our Virginia house currently has no flooring, kitchen, and only one working bathroom.
I spent about a week trying to figure out where we could live temporarily until the house was ready. The clock was ticking, as we only had 3 weeks to vacate our house AND we needed to tell movers where we wanted our stuff to go.
My first inclination was to look for a place in Miami while Mike still works here. A lot of the Airbnbs are high-rise condos, but you can get some houses – just be prepared to shell out some major cash. With a new puppy that we’re housetraining, I needed it to not only be dog-friendly but also to have a yard that’s easy to access.
I also looked at Naples, where the prices were a little lower and there were a lot more homes to choose from. I did find one that we were very close to booking – it had a yard, a pool, and enough bedrooms. Sounded like heaven! But Mike would still need to find a place in Miami, so I didn’t love that we’d be far away from the Virginia renovation, not with Mike, and still paying for a place for him to live.
I then started looking for Airbnbs in Williamsburg, Virginia Beach, and Norfolk, but mostly were condos or sketchy houses. Still, being there would give us the summer to oversee the renovation more closely and get the kids into the area, making friends.
I’m in a few FB groups for that area, and one person suggested renting her condo at Kingsmill for a few weeks.
Actually, we’re very familiar with those condos. We used to go to Kingsmill for staycations with the kids and for our anniversary. It has a beautiful golf course, a lazy river, a waterside restaurant, playgrounds, and is nestled in nature with walking trails. It was built by the Busch family (Busch Gardens is right beside it).
Being the real estate junkies that we are, we looked up the condos and saw a couple were listed for sale. What if we bought a condo there instead? With the money we’d be saving on renting, we could put it towards a down payment on a condo. We could live there during the renovations and then use it as an investment property later, which is something Mike wants to do in retirement anyway.
We debated for about a week, watching the listings fly off the market. It seemed like someone had bugged our house because when we said we liked one, it would go under contract the next day. After about 5 days, one condo was left standing – a 3 bed, 3 bathroom unit – and we decided to swoop in.
So yes – we’re under contract on a condo at Kingsmill!
We can live in it for as long as we need to this summer, while the house is being finished. Then, we can rent it out through AirBNB or through the Kingsmill rental program.
What’s nice about our unit is that each bed/bath can be rented separately or all together.
So if we want to rent it as a 2 bed/2 bath with a kitchen, we’d still have a 1 bed/1 bath unit to rent out as well.
The unit needs a bit of a facelift – it’s not terrible, but it’s not up to our standards, so we’ll get to renovate that over the next year or so.
If we enter it into Kingsmill’s rental program, we need to use their design choices. The plus side is that they’ll manage the rental of it (for a price, of course). If we want to renovate it to our taste, we can certainly do that, but we’ll need to be the property managers of the Airbnb’s bookings.
It’s also possible to list 2 beds and 2 baths with Kingsmill and keep the 1/1 as an Airbnb. Kind of the best of both worlds.
We’re still not sure which road we’ll take with it. This upcoming year is going to be so different for us that we want to live with it a little before deciding. But we’re so excited about this new venture. We love real estate, marketing, and moreover, creating spaces that people love to be in, so it just feels like a natural progression for us.
If we do go the Airbnb route, we’d love to host you for a weekend in Williamsburg. Wouldn’t that be neat? We love the area and know you will too.
So a big thank you for reading this far – we can’t wait to bring you along on this new endeavor!
With love and gratitude,
Jill & Mike
