3606 42nd St.

I promised you I would write a more meaningful blog post rather than write about my love life and things I am constantly working on to improve. To be completely honest, I have had trouble writing this post. I don't think it hit me util the closing papers came in the mail. After owning my home for four years, I officially closed on my first home and my first investment last month, but 3606 42nd never felt like an investment.

After living at the Grove Apartments for one year, I decided to put my monthly pay check towards something I could own rather than toss my money away. This was my mother's idea, because she and Dave Ramsey are pretty tight. Financial geniuses, I tell you. At the time I had two best friends - Elizabeth Mack and Roshni Bohre - and for some crazy reason they thought it would be cool to live with me and in all honesty I would have not bought the house unless they agreed to live with me.

After looking at 41 homes, I bought the 42nd home on June 1, 2011 as a junior at Texas Tech. I used to smoke hookah (it is totally legal folks) and because of the friends I met at the hookah lounge they helped me put my home together. My father drove up with left over paint from his house, and in the heat of the summer my entire group of friends I had made maybe two months prior came to help me paint every single wall in my home. We had two hookahs and a thirty pack of Coors Light in the middle of the living room. We painted every wall in the three bedroom/two bath home in four days. They never asked me for a dime. That is how awesome my friends are.

My two best friends would be my roomates heading into our junior year. We knew the worries, "You don't ever want to live with your best friends," but I would not change it for the world. I learned from my friends. Did we have extremely tough times, yes, but we had hella-good times as well. We had a rule that you had to dance every time you entered a room in the home. This led to random dance parties, which are always necessary! Another bonus to having friends live with you, you get to decide between three people who will take on the black widow in the shower, unless you have a designated wildlife fanatic who just takes the lead. Yay, Lizzy! We threw the best parties and worked our butts off the next morning to clean our home. I'm pretty sure our "Open House" had at least 100 people in attendance and 50 in the garage, but was it a memorable party for months....yes! That is hard to accomplish at Texas Tech. The standard is pretty high.

We shared memories, heartache, scary times and wonderful memories. 3606 42nd was not a college house, we didn't treat it like one and we found solace in it. I literally can't tell you all the memories we shared those first two years, because they are too personal and there are too many to count. We were the three best friends anyone can have and we grew leaps and bounds together.

I learned to be a landlord, and let me tell you being a landlord with your friends is much tougher than being a roommate. I hated it, but I wanted to take care of our home. Nevertheless, it brought out the worst in people including myself, but I think we all grew from those experiences. My friends/roomates taught me how to be a better landlord and an even better friend.

The timeline of who lived in 3606 42nd St. is as followed:

2011- 2012 Roshni Bohre, Lizzy Mack and myself
2012- 2013 Lizzy Mack, Evan and myself (part-time)
2013 - Jordan Travis, Marlon Kraus and myself
2014 - Marlon Kraus, Jenna Bosscher and a craiglist dude (not a good situation)
2015 - Brandon Ma


A side tid bit: get your property taxes and insurance escrowed. That was a fun bill in January. I would say I had no business being a landlord at 21, but I learned about real world experiences you do not learn in class like property taxes, writing leases, home insurance, being a manager of an investment and a manger of tenants, while learning to be the 'handy-man.' I am blessed to have experienced that early on in my adulthood. For example, what it cost to replace a water heater or you just take cold showers until you get paid.

I learned how to handle having a tick issue, a mice problem, a weed control situation and other things you learn about after you sign the closing documents. Turns out I needed to redo my plumping in the laundry room and fix the duck work in the ceiling. Of course the inspection did not say in little letters, "Hey, just a heads up, in a couple months your water heater will go out, while your dog needs shots and your dryer will be ruined." However, I would not even know about these things if it wasn't for owning my first home. I really can not quantify the valuable knowledge I walked away with.

I hope that 3606 42nd meant as much to people living there as it meant to me. That home hosted countless Insanity workouts, parties, gamedays, dances, tough conversations, fights, hugs, tears and created amazing friendships. Some friends grew and some weakened, and all for the better in my opinion. Our home also hosted numerous pets including a wiener dog, a chocolate lab, a cat, a snake, and a turtle.

This is my way of saying thank you to the nine people who lived in our home. Thank you for being patient with me and caring about 3606 42nd as much as I did. Thank you for the fabulous times and the ridiculous fights. Thank you for turning down the AC to save money, thank you for hosting garage sales with me, thank you for waiting for me to mow the yard while the backyard was a jungle. I can not thank you enough and I hope our home holds a special place in your hearts as much as it does mine.