When we originally decided to buy this property, we were interested in putting a larger modular home on the property.
In fact, had already picked the one we wanted out.
The plan was to live in the home and use the shop as a reptile sanctuary for Bob’s Ball Python business.
That began to change very soon on our journey.
This little development was amidst Covid, so everybody in the world was experiencing working from home for the first time, and it took a bit of time before the chaos subsided.
It seemed the banks and finance companies were among the other businesses feeling the punch.
Everything from lumber to interest rates went sky high, and the price of our home shot through the roof.
For a moment, we were completely crushed. Was our dream going down the drain?
It took a couple of weeks to unfold, but we quickly realized this was the most beautiful gift!
It became apparent to us, that we may have to rethink our game plan.
Buying a smaller house brought up many different feelings, but one of them was hope.
So we started thinking outside the box, and came up with a new plan!
We decided to place this smaller home to one side of the property that was pretty much the only place barren of trees.
We would rent out this house to pay for the land, and build on to the existing building that was already there into our forever home.
There was so much we had to learn about how to make this actually work, so I got busy!
And so began the metamorphosis of our vision
1. Get the ground area leveled so the rental could be placed.
Makes since right, but never thought about it.
So I got on Facebook marketplace, as one does, to find a dirt work guy.
This unfolded into being pretty entertaining in itself, I mean as far as some of the characters I came across in the interviewing process.
In the end, the guy we chose showed up in a big ‘ol truck with brand new overalls on ready to evaluate the job.
He was an older gentleman, just as plump as Santa with a beard to match.
He was ornery as can be, just as most country folk are.
It’s a different kind of life here in Oklahoma, people take time out of their day to get a giggle and smile out of you.
Bob showed him around some of the property and the area in which we wanted the rental to be.
He pointed out where to pull dirt from as needed, to repair the downward slope, and level out the lot.
We scheduled a date, and the deed was done.
Later that day we drove over to our property to see where our first seed was to be planted.
$450 Dirt Work
2. The rental was transported to our property, and the utilities were connected 2 weeks later? And Covid strikes again..
Bob and I both took off work that day to be on the property to experience this together.
We got a call from the driver who explained there would extra costs if he had to take the home off the truck, put it on a giant remote control forklift, (technically called a “House Tug”) to be able to go around any corners due to the dirt roads being so narrow.
We got so excited the house was so close, we jumped in the car to record this awesome accomplishment!! We sat outside and watched every minute of it!
Now as I said before, a lot of people out here can be ornery as all get out, but this guy.
The guy who had originally called us to say they were down the road, the guy that said there “could be” extra fees involved.
Was now telling us if the dirt work was not completely level, they were not going to be able to set up the house.
He then measured the ground level and informed us all was good.
But to our expense, he sure seemed to have gotten a kick out of our faces while we waited.
So all in all, they had to take the house off the truck twice, so the grand total on this was $200
The guys set up what they could that day, and informed us the other guys would be out to hook up the water, electric, and appliances in the next couple of days.
I believe it was around 2 weeks later, everything was hooked up. Again, covid…
3. We had to get the address split into two properties, so the rental would have its own address.
So this began with an obviously dated point of view that “like in the olden days” you’d just call up the post office and say “Hey! I’m creating a new address….I just built a house”.
So that’s not actually house it works.
At least, in Oklahoma, you have to contact the 911 co-coordinator for your county to complete this task.
Without fail, this proved to be just as entertaining as the interview process for the dirt project. Lol
I researched the steps, contacted the correct person for the job, and so it began.
The lady I spoke with was just as sweet as she could be with all her country charm!
She informed me she would have to come check out our road and property to see what numbers were available.
To my surprise, she was out the very next day!!
I saw her county vehicle coming down our dirt road, and ran outside to meet her!
She was just as precious as can be, with her small stature, and big ol’ truck.
She and I talked for a bit then we discussed the house numbers.
To my surprise, she began saying she was going to have to re-number the entire road.
This seemed incredibly dramatic to me, but hey, I’ve never done this before.
She then realized that there were several numbers available between us and the neighbor’s property.
She seemed to be disappointed, that there were in fact, multiple options available, and she would not be able to disrupt the rest of the road due to our addition.
It was somewhere around this point I realized she didn’t get a lot of action in her current position with the county, and was over the moon to be able to execute her duties.
And after the proper forms had been filed, and a new address given, we had now split the property into two.
$0 spent for this step
4. Get rid of the wreckage that lies a stone’s throw away from the rental.
This was the broken down, half smashed, single wide trailer that was once a home to former residents of this land.
But at this point in time, was a monstrous pile of trash that was literally 80 ft. long!
Not only was it horribly ugly, it was also very close to the rental property.
We knew we were going to get rid of it, so that wasn’t the issue.
The issue was we hadn’t actually thought of how…
One option was to have someone remove it for us.
We quickly found out from the ornery ol’ dirt guy I spoke about before, this would be very costly indeed.
As Bob walked him over to the area to inspect for the rental, he happened to notice the eyesore of a trailer that was partially crushed, with all of its innards still intact.
Needless to say, he started seeing dollar signs in his eyes like the cartoons from the 80’s.
We were completely aware of the monstrosity that was bestowed upon us from previous inhabitants of this land.
Having said that, we were not aware of how much money it would cost us to have this abomination removed.
He quoted us close to $6,000 to handle this beast for us
Sometime the next season, we looked into what our options were.
Bob ended up contacting a local scrapper guy to come out and answer some questions for us.
Now, for those of you who don’t know this phrase, it’s an often sketchy character, who will come and remove items such as different metals that can be scrapped from your property.
Sometimes without your consent! Lol
This guy was a hoot as well!
He took one look at this ginormous graveyard, and basically just said no! Lol
He was absolutely not going to dig through all the rubbage to get to the scrap pieces.
So this idea was out as well.
It was at that moment our perception of things began to change…
Could we do this ourselves? Is it possible, could we somehow do this for free?!
We decided we take a go of it, and try get rid of this eyesore for as little money as possible.
We’d just burn what we can, and throw the rest away.
$150 or so for gasoline!
5. Split the electricity between the two address/add electric to the new address
We arose from our slumber the next year once again, full of goals we needed to accomplish before the next phase of our dream!
One of the first things would be to move out of it, and into the cottage. This would literally be three or four months of living in two houses. Lol
We were also going to have to contact the electric company and find out what the process was to split/or add electric service.
The rental property would obviously need to have its own account.
This process mostly involved a lot of wait time for paperwork to process, and procedures to follow.
A guy from the electric company came out to discuss with us our plans, so he could then put the order in to the correct contractors.
And also money…
However, while the guys were out checking out what was needed for this to take place, we were informed that we could keep one of the telephone poles they were going to have to take down.
And also, that they sold used poles for super cheap to use for projects plans we had for the future!
Therein lies another example of serendipity!
$550 for electric work
6. Build a deck in the front and back of the house.
So up until now, we had been using the rinky dinky set of stairs that normally come with a mobile home.
For those of you who don’t know, they’re extremely steep with only three steps, made of metal, and wobble every time you put a foot on them.
We were so happy to begin this project specifically!
Bob was the executor for this project!
He had built the deck in his head a million times, so he already knew what he wanted to build.
Put in an order for lumber to be delivered, waited for the spring showers to take a break, and then got to it.
I had never in my life built anything out of lumber, let alone a deck.
I was still calling it a “power drill”, instead of just “a drill”. I was so new to tools, building supplies, basically anything that had to do with outdoors.
And I was absolutely over the moon excited to do this project!
We did all the things one is supposed to make it sturdy and secure.
We added concrete to the posts, beams underneath, then cross beams to support the weight.
We added a double wide stair case, with grand posts for the railing.
It was starting to look pretty awesome!
We were thinking outside the box as far as the deck railing was concerned.
There’s always the option of purchasing the pre-made rails measured and cut for the size you need.
We could build it piece by piece as a lot of people do.
But, we do things different and strange here.
So we started looking around at some options that were a bit odder.
We decided to go with rebar in a horizontal pattern, properly measured for safety guidelines for children, keeping in mind it’s a rental property.
In the end, we stained the deck a redwood color, painted the rebar black, and added white post caps around the deck.
We also added solar powered lights to put atop each post coming down the stairs, it was truly beautiful.
We built a small deck for coming in and out of the back door that was very simple, and super easy considering the size of the front deck!
The rental was coming along amazingly, and everything was in its place for potential tenants.
Bob and I had to take a moment and fully embrace what we had accomplished.
7: Get the house advertised and rented
So up until this point, Bob and I had been living in the rental making the best out of the white house.
Don’t worry. I didn’t paint anything black inside the house…Although, I did think of it a time or two. lol
We began moving into the cottage little by little, and that is quite literal.
This project also became a beast to handle, but we did, once again, succeed.
Once we were squared away, I got the rental clean and ready her photo shoot.
This task was effortless due to the timeless beauty of this home.
It has gorgeous vaulted ceilings, all brand new stainless steel appliances, and of course the master bathroom’s amazing soaker tub.
It’s just not our vile of poison so to speak. Lol
It was now time to advertise it, and begin the interviewing process for the applicants.
I first advertised it on Market Place which ended up being the only platform I used.
My phone bean ringing off the hook with potential tenants.
This was my first time doing anything like this in my life, and it quickly became a bit stressful.
Some of the people who came to view the property were questionable at best.
I began to feel very protective over the space, and truly wanted a family, that loved the house.
I had people coming to see it that offered to pay 3 months in advance, but were not my idea of nice people.
They were rude and shitty, but felt like they had the upper hand over other applicants due to their finances. They were a big no!
After a few days of showing the property, a family came that I thought would work great…I was sadly mistaken.
They were a young couple who fell in love with the house at first sight.
There had been a tornado a few weeks before, and this family was one of the many, who were being displaced.
Before I could give it another thought, I offered them the property on the spot with no background or credit check.
Boy…lesson learned!
I should’ve realized when they didn’t have the money for the deposit, but I was still wanting to help them considering their children and their home had been destroyed in the tornado.
This would in fact be a major lesson learned in the pursuit of becoming a landlord.
Not once in the 5 months they lived in the house, did they pay rent on time or at all.
I ended up learning how not to pick a family, and also, how to evict tenants our very first go around. Lol
We hope you enjoyed this article, and hopefully you’ve been able to learn a little from my mistakes, or at least enjoyed this trip on our crazy train.
Please feel free to comment below as we love your feedback and questions.
Thank you my Lovelies, Jackie X
