Where it all began!
In 2011, I (Emily) moved back from a semester of school in Colorado - I had already earned my degree in Zoology from The Ohio State University in 2011, but was taking a biochemistry class once I graduated in order to meet my pre-requisites for Vet School and CO seemed like a fun adventure to take the course. When I returned home that winter, I met this handsome and intriguing fellow named Seth Britt :) The rest is history!
As soon as Seth and I began dating the spring of 2012, he bought a duplex in Olde Town East, a suburb of Columbus Ohio. I could see immediately that this young 22 year old was extremely ambitious, driven and hard-working. The old duplex needed a lot of TLC and attention from the get-go. Seth and his sister lived on one side of the duplex and continued to make improvements. Then they worked their way to the other side to give it a face lift as well. I have many memories of “date nights” from the start of our relationship painting, sanding, or keeping Seth company as he swooned me with his ability to do ANYTHING, his humor, wit and all around talent for ALL the things. It was also slightly annoying…
We married in 2013 with the most beautiful wedding, joining our two large families and friends together to celebrate. Now, we mention it a lot, but it is 100% true… we have THE MOST talented friends and family. From artists, musicians, graphic designers, construction operators, real estate mentors, photographers, hairstylists, makers, cell phone tower technicians, lead marketing managers, mothers, fathers, and biggest fans. The list could go on! All this to say, we had all the love and support for anything we could ever need or imagine already standing behind us, cheering us on.
A few weeks before our wedding, we closed on our first property together - a HUD home just outside of Columbus near West Jefferson, Ohio that had sat vacant for 3 years and was inhabited with raccoons. Ever since getting our feet wet in real estate in 2011 and seeing the benefits, we were intrigued and interested in continuing to invest in the market. We chose our first home together to be one that we could improve and continue to learn from. We have so many sweet memories at that one story, cozy first home of ours. So cozy that when we returned from our honeymoon, we learned that the raccoons also thought it was cozy and were still making their way in to try out the new bedding and dog food. Hmmmm….. so fun. HA! We lived on plywood floors for the first year of marriage and began the remodeling. From paint, all new flooring, converting a half master bath into a full master bath and finishing the basement, we learned A LOT. After 2.5 years, we were able to sell the home for a profit of just over $40,000.
All the while that we lived in our first home, we had our first baby, our sweet Mina Grace and left just before having our second babe, our son Emery Ellis. Now, when we sold that first home, we had intended to move into another fixer upper just outside of the city of Columbus, but fate had it that we wouldn’t land there. Doors kept being shut and we were forced to make a decision on our next move. Graciously, my folks opened the doors to their home for a few months while I had the baby and we could secure our next investment/home. I say investment because Seth and I decided that we wanted to keep pursuing homes where we could add value, worth and bring new life.
After 5 months of living with my parents and riding the emotional roller coaster of house hunting, we finally felt led to purchase a home within an upcoming neighborhood in Columbus, Ohio named Westgate. While this didn’t seem to line up with anything we had planned to do, it was the biggest blessing to our family. Throughout our real estate journey thus far, we had seen all sorts of craftsmanship and learned to sift through the quality and the crap. We were so excited that this home was one of quality that showed the pride of ownership from it’s previous owners. However, we still saw room from improvements and updating. We painted, refinished floors, gutted and remodeled the entire kitchen including removing a wall and installing a ceiling beam, changed light fixtures and remodeling the main bathroom. Again, we continued to learn and sharpen our skills in the real estate and home improvement world… and in general, the real world!
I have NO idea why… but it always seems that we like to do extreme things all at the same time. Apparently after Seth and I start getting “settled in” and have a long of a period of rest, we start getting fidgety and anxious for the next thing… so why not do a couple of big life changes at once! I decided to get my real estate license in February 2018 and immediately Seth and I were off looking for our next investment opportunity. We poked around the Columbus market for a few weeks and then decided to re-visit a crazy idea Seth once dreamed of… a shipping container vacation home.
