And so it happened… Chi and I bought a second home, a little log cabin out on the Olympic Peninsula, near Olympic National Park. It wasn’t out of the blue and I’ve been considering this starting late last year —Yes, very much a result of the pandemic and stay-home mandate.

The back story

Last year, as I started to learn more about personal finance and investing… I also started to read more about real estate investing. I was curious about how some people loved it and made riches from it. From books to youtube, I started to understand their strategies but the idea of being a landlord or owning multiple properties sounded like a nightmare. I read more about flips and rehabbing old homes… something Chi and I are familiar with. We even visited two fixer homes with an agent to get a feel for tackling this but it didn’t really ignite any spark in us.

We started to step away but one idea that we’ve always talked about was building cool cabins or unique airbnbs when we retired. Then I wondered… why not start now? If we started now, we’d have at least 20 years to earn extra income while waiting for the property value to appreciate. The toughest part is we’d have our main full-time job… but plenty of people do it with a full-time job or other obligations like children.

It dawned on me chatting with my friend, who’s also a real estate investor. Responding to my thoughts on running an Airbnb, she stated “oh you like the creative side of Real Estate” and she nailed it. I’ve always loved the creative side of things — business school, wedding planning, traveling, and clearly real estate investing.

So I started to brainstorm with Chi… sketch out ideas and studied more about development like zoning, feasibility studies, buying land, etc. We even looked at an empty lot to build some cool cabins on! It didn’t pan out… buying land is just as scarce as a new home.

Finding this cabin

One Saturday night, I was stumbling on redfin and noticed a little cabin on Lake Sutherland… an area I’ve had my eye on. It’s central to Olympic National Park (a vacation spot that will bring visitors), a cozy size of 621 sq ft, within our budget, and remarkably lakefront. The only catch is it’s a log cabin that’s very dated inside. But I’ve learned that you can change everything about the house — you just can’t change the location.

Offers were due Monday morning so we would have to move fast. I showed Chi and he pushed us to see it the next day. I was a bit hesitant since that would mean we’d have to drive 6 hours in a day there and back —doable but tiring for a Sunday. But I reached out to our real estate agent and we were all signed up to see it.

At the property, we lit up when we saw the view. We were steps from the water and it was paired with the lush mountains. The cabin was small, dated but very cozy with a decent layout. It needed work but that’s what we’re pretty good at.

We talked about it on the way home and decided to try putting an offer. We scrambled to get with an online pre-approval in 10 minutes or less and prepared a Monday offer. A call that afternoon told us… we didn’t get it. They went with another buyer. We were a little saddened but knew it’s almost impossible to win your first offer in this competitive market.

Oh but then, two weeks later and 2 days before our trip to Hawaii… we got a phone call that the first buyer backed out and we were next. We accepted and rushed our way into inspection and quotes to fix the cabin… all while being in Hawaii. We renegotiated based on the condition, started planning basic renovation work and interior design, and ran over appraisal and private road agreement hurdles. After 2 full months, we finally closed and it was ours.

Our plans

If I’ve learned one thing from digital design in the tech world, it is to start with a minimal viable product (MVP) and iterate with feedback. This means list on Airbnb as soon as possible and then plan and improve it in phases. So as soon as we closed the deal, we were moving fast to get it in decent shape. The bedrooms needed the most work but the whole cabin needed a deep cleaning, clearing most of the old furnishing, and some new style.

We got lucky that Chi’s old coworker who moved to Port Angeles was available to help full time for the next 2-3 weeks. I also had the flexibility to work there while acting as a project manager. Chi also drove 3 hours every weekend to help with painting and other much-needed little fixes.

With this cabin, I pulled away from my personal modern Scandinavian design style to a retro Americana style — like a hip vintage cabin from the 1960s/70s — think Lana del ray, Wes Andersen‘s moonrise kingdom, or retro summer camp vibes meets classic American lodge. This way, at least the vinyl floors and dated bathtub will match the decor because those weren’t part of the first phase of the renovation.

It was a wild busy one month. But we finally launched and within a week, we were booked solid for the rest of August and most of September. I had a mix of emotions from excitement to anxiousness.

What’s next

Now we’ll learn how to be great hosts and manage our Airbnb remotely. At the same time, we will also start planning what improvements we want to do with the home next —a bathroom, kitchen, and flooring. Let’s see how this one goes as we chase our retirement dream today.