Real Estate Explained

The Truth About Renovations, Being A Landlord & Finding Our Next Home with Lauren Bush

• Nick Bush

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In this week’s episode of Real Estate Explained, host Nick Bush sits with his wife, Lauren Bush, PhD, for a candid conversation about the fixer-upper that shaped their entire outlook on homeownership.

From the moment they bought their first home in Washington, DC, the surprises started rolling in — a broken fridge in week two, a roof that needed immediate replacement, and a kitchen renovation that ended with an unexpected gas leak. What started as an exciting first home quickly became a crash course in renovations, patience, and what it really takes to manage a property.

Nick and Lauren open up about:

  • The fixer-upper fantasy vs. the overwhelming reality
  • Renovation lessons that cost more than they ever planned
  • Why their first house turned into a rental — and what being landlords is really like
  • How moving from DC to Fredericksburg shifted their perspective on city vs. suburban living
  • The mindset changes they’re taking into their next home purchase

This episode is a mix of real talk, relatable homeowner struggles, and practical advice for anyone considering a fixer-upper, debating city vs. suburban life, or thinking about turning a property into a rental.

If you’ve ever wondered what buying, renovating, and renting a first home actually feels like behind the Instagram highlight reel — this one’s for you.

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Speaker 1:

We're on the pod.

Speaker 2:

Hi Welcome. Thank you.

Speaker 1:

You're going to officially be the best guest ever on the pod. Yeah, your episode has a lot of juice.

Speaker 2:

Why.

Speaker 1:

The first one.

Speaker 2:

Oh yes.

Speaker 1:

That we did audio Mm-hmm Because you're popping out here in the streets Not in the streets, but you're popping so introduce yourself to the people.

Speaker 2:

I am Lauren Bush, your wife. Hey, I am Lauren Bush, your wife.

Speaker 1:

Hey, is this your intro?

Speaker 2:

I have. Yeah, I mean, you know I'm here. I have a lot of time on my hands to be here.

Speaker 1:

So I got my wife in here. Lauren E doctor, phd of criminology, law and society. Absolutely crushing. Remember when you were telling people that you had a criminal justice PhD for a little while and I had to tighten it up.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, it's just in my head. It's easier for people to hear criminal justice than like criminology law and society.

Speaker 1:

I think you need to like.

Speaker 2:

It's all like the same-ish realm.

Speaker 1:

I think it's better to let people know, like flex a little bit more, you know. So we're here. I had, uh, I had a load up on podcasts and uh I'm a filler you're not a filler, you are the one, you are the one. But I feel like I obviously don't talk about my real estate like life that much, except with other real estate agents, you know what do you mean?

Speaker 1:

like I don't just tell the average. I mean I guess I do tell the average person. We have an investment property in dc, but oh, I thought you were talking. I thought you meant that you didn't talk about real estate with me yeah, but I don't think people know what's going on real estate with us. So, um, I forgot the topics that I was gonna uh mention because I wanted to ease in, but I know I wanted to talk about, oh, buying the fixer-upper, right?

Speaker 1:

So I think, you know, there's a saying, and you might know better than me it's like the lawyer that represents himself as a fool, or something like that, and I feel like I've gotten in that situation with personal real estate deals With the DC house yeah. With the DC house for sure, and so we bought our first house. We own our house in DC. It's now a rental, and when we bought it we bought it as a fixer-upper. When we bought it, we kind of knew it was a fixer-upper.

Speaker 2:

Kind of, I think.

Speaker 1:

Did you realize it was a fixer-upper?

Speaker 2:

Like things needed to be done faster than we probably were prepared for.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, because when we moved in there, what happened? The fridge went out day like week two.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

And then we had the home warranty, but it took a little while to get a new fridge, mm-hmm, okay. So I think that I have clients all the time that are like, hey, we want to buy a fixer-upper, we're down for the sweat equity. And I think early on in my career I was like, yeah, that's great. And now I can give them more context into what a fixer-upper actually means and I kind of think I'm like I don't know if you really want to do that like you think you want to do so.

Speaker 1:

When we bought our house, what do you feel like? So we needed kitchen bathrooms, we had to do the roof. We still should do the windows at some point. We just replaced our furnace. It was like 26 years old and the HVAC is old. So we kind of had to do everything, right, yeah, and if I can go back in time, and we had a home inspection. So we realized that, but we were like really confident that we could figure it all out. And so what about? Knowing that we needed to do all of those things made you feel like this is still a good idea. We should purchase this house.

Speaker 2:

Probably because we were like first-time homebuyers and didn't realize like how urgent some things would become, yeah, um, like the roof they said we needed to do kind of immediately, which we were fine doing. Um, and then we built kind of like the master closet, which kind of like allowed us, I guess, guess, to live in there more comfortably. But within what? The first three or four months, the fridge started to break down, the oven was broken. I don't think we could use the oven.

Speaker 1:

It was the stove. I think it was like one of the burners right.

Speaker 2:

Well, one of the burners, but then eventually the whole like actual oven that you bake some stuff in was just out. But I think the whole unit was probably from the 80s. I have a weird thing about bathrooms so I was like, yeah, I can live with it. And then, as time went on, I was like this bathroom, no matter how much you clean it, the grout is disgusting and it doesn't feel good to shower in here. And so I think we just didn't realize, because, also with you, you want to do everything immediately.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

And so we just didn't realize one how much things cost. And so we just didn't realize one how much things like cost. You know, when they gave us a quote for the windows, it was kind of like whoa, that seems outrageous. But then there was other things like so the windows were fine, they worked fine, right, the HVAC and everything worked fine at the time. But then, like so, we did the kitchen, and then there's things that pop up and you're like what? Do you mean it's another, you know?

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

However much money. So I think just like underestimating how urgent some of the repairs would be was probably the biggest oversight.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, remember the guy that tried to sell us an $18,000 front door.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I do.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, we had this guy come over to Bronson we needed a front door and he was like, going through all the door options, and he was like, yeah, this door, the door you want, is going to cost $18,000. And we looked at him like I was like bro, there's no way people are spending $18,000. I think we just laughed after, you know.

Speaker 2:

We just, we just laughed after, you know. We just were like what was that? You know? Yeah, because it's like we wanted like a certain color, which was fine, but then it was like a bulletproof, weatherproof, like soundproof, all this stuff, and like what we ended up doing was just like tightening the screws on the old door and not spending any money on it.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it was like this is fine. I think we found the actual door we wanted for like $600 at Home Depot. So I'm still confused as to how he got to $18,000 and like why he thought like I mean I was kind of flattered that he thought we were candidates for an $18,000 door.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I'm like okay, yeah, no, we did talk about that too. Like does it look like we want to spend eighteen?

Speaker 1:

thousand dollars on the door.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I know okay, so like if, when I can't, when I go back in time, you know, I definitely thought that we had more bandwidth to like handle this house than we did. I was like, okay, this is so. I looked at it as an opportunity. I'm like, okay, we're buying this house. I think that we got um two percent of our closing costs to take care of, and then my entire commission went into the deal and we still feel like we brought way more money than we should have, right? But I was like, okay, we're buying this house in a developing neighborhood, we'll own it for like five to ten years. I was pressed to be in DC and there's some things that need to happen. But it gives us the opportunity to like customize Because, in my opinion, and what I see actually is that, even though, like, people are going to kind of update their kitchen and their bathrooms anyway to their taste if they're going to spend some time in the house, and we've seen that with you, know with your parents, where they bought a kitchen with.

Speaker 1:

They bought a. They bought a house with a white kitchen and then they updated the cabinets and the cabinets are still white, right, they just like them they just like it better. It's like a different tone, and so I saw a lot of opportunity and ability to like, really make it dope Right. And when I look back, I think obviously having to do like a roof right away was not, you know, expected, and I think that the appliances breaking down was like a big. It caused a big issue.

Speaker 2:

Because I think we needed a dryer also immediately.

Speaker 1:

I don't know if we needed a dryer, but you were very adamant about the washer and dryer Cause everything was like shrinking in it.

Speaker 2:

The hookup in the house is like gas, so it was a gas dryer, and the clothes are coming out and smelling like that. Okay, yeah.

Speaker 1:

So we needed some things right away. So I feel like I would just approach it differently, like if you could go back in time and put the order of what is most important to get done, what would that be? I have an order, but what's your order?

Speaker 2:

So I would have still done like the master closet, but I wouldn't have painted the whole house the way that we did the ugly yellow we had.

Speaker 1:

yeah, I would have just like waited, we had the yellow beforehand.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so we painted, like before we moved in. I wouldn't have like painted the whole house. I mean we did get like two deep cleanings before we moved in and still felt like it was kind of grungy in there. So maybe it did need paint, but I wouldn't have spent the money on that. I mean I would have, you know the roof is fine. I wouldn't have done a full kitchen renovation. I would have just got new appliances yeah, like better ones than like the home warranty kind of provided I would have just like lived with the kitchen kind of the way it was, maybe took down that like one wall, but that's it, and not like done a full kitchen renovation at all.

Speaker 1:

I would have done so. Obviously, the roof had to happen, the closet was necessary. Yeah, I would have focused on the bathroom and the floors.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

And then I would have done. Then I would have done the kitchen, but I would have done the simple kitchen yeah yeah like, not a full like redo yeah, well, no, I would have redone it, but no, I mean like a reconfiguration. No, I would have done the same layout, yeah, but I would have made it more basic than it is now oh, the same layout that we changed.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, the layout is the premium layout.

Speaker 1:

Okay, yeah yeah, because everything was kind of off. You know, I would have done, have done the same layout, but it would have been $20,000 cheaper. Do you want to tell everybody about our kitchen renovation? How that?

Speaker 2:

went the vibes.

Speaker 2:

Well, sure. So I think it just like has to do with us not really knowing, maybe, like the range of stuff. So we were working with someone who was advising us and, um, their taste was just like, you know, top tier, expensive, and we didn't want, we just like didn't want to spend that much money, you know, and so we kept asking for, okay, well, what's something like that's not that much, and we ended up settling on like this, like mid-level kind of I don't want to call it mid-level, but like something that felt reasonable that we could spend on a kitchen yeah but it still ended up costing the premium price once everything was done yeah, because I feel like the uh yeah, like the materials we bought, like the cabinets and the appliances, we felt like that was reasonable.

Speaker 1:

We were like okay, this works, and I think the labor was easily double what it probably should have been, and that's where we really got hit.

Speaker 2:

Well, do you remember that one day we went to the store up in Went, to Ikea, friendship Heights?

Speaker 1:

No, oh, pog and Pole.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. What's ikea heights? No, oh, pocket pole, yeah, yeah. And they quoted us like 30 000 for everything, though, but in that included labor, yeah, and um, I think 30 000 was like the, the actual cabinets, but then, like with labor and everything, I think it was closer to like 70, um, but that's what we understood in like 50 anyway yeah, yeah, I would say probably a little bit more than that.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

Once like everything happened. So because then like, if you include, like the floors, all that stuff, but we weren't really like too far off when we were like no, and so we were just sold like okay, well, you get these cabinets that are less, we're just going to get you on the back end with labor that is going to leave holes in your house that was built in 1940 and a gas leak.

Speaker 1:

We did have the gas leak.

Speaker 2:

For a few months, yeah.

Speaker 1:

That was a horrible kitchen renovation. I feel like if I could go back in time, obviously you know we would just do it ourselves, because we always win when it's just like you and me Like let's team up and figure it out. So I definitely was um off the reservation there and then I feel like now I know how to manage contractors better, like I would be there more.

Speaker 2:

I feel like I dropped in all the time but, um, I would definitely yeah, I mean you, you did and we tried to the the kind of problem was that, like we also had a two-week-old newborn, you know, when the kitchen renovation started- you know.

Speaker 2:

So we kind of like trusted our like advisor person to to be there and kind of handle this stuff and then, just like you know, things weren't handled and we left with like they didn't cover it. So when they took the cabinets out they didn't like seal the walls or anything. And so we kind of, like you know, had a little bit of an issue with, like you know, rodents, because we live in a city.

Speaker 1:

Ridiculous.

Speaker 2:

And then they connected the gas line for our stovetop with.

Speaker 1:

I think like a line that was supposed to be used for a bathroom rather than like actual gas. Yeah, it was like for plumbing. Yeah.

Speaker 2:

And so when Washington Gas came out, they were like you have like a for sure leak in here, which was, like you know, awesome to be living there for a few months with the kids Two kids- yeah, remember it used to be like.

Speaker 1:

this house is poisoning us.

Speaker 1:

And then we were sick that whole year, and now we're not sick all the time. So maybe, well, we shouldn't say it because we rent our house out, but I don't think. Seemingly everything that was happening to us is not happening to our tenants, so we're smooth. So so, yeah, I think, if I can go back, I would just build a simpler kitchen. I think we thought we were going to be there for a long time and I was in like a must-have, everything we want, exactly zone, and now it would just be more reasonable about the vibes.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, you know You're looking good with the tan over there, you know.

Speaker 2:

Thanks, Sam. I have a lot of time to sit outside lately.

Speaker 1:

It's great to sit across and just you know I get to like be in the vibes with you. Be in the vibes Are you enjoying yourself in the pod. Yeah, do you feel loosened up? No, you don't feel loosened up? No, why not?

Speaker 2:

Just you know, I know that there's like cameras here.

Speaker 1:

You've been talking for a long time. You've been crushing, by the way. Yeah, probably by 2 pm advice on here, thank you. So let's ask that advice question. So what would you advise someone that's buying a fixer-upper? What's your, what's your advice for someone who's buying a fixer-upper? Would you have and would you advise?

Speaker 2:

them to buy a fixer-upper or buy a finished product. Um, I think that people should absolutely buy a fixer-upper if they are able to do that right, like I have a cousin who could probably like do everything in the house, yeah um, but, but like we have to be real about what we're gonna do, you did a great job painting the fireplace, right you didn't do a great job taking down the uh whole entryway closet you know that was tough, um, not that you didn't do a good job, but it was just like a bigger project than we anticipated.

Speaker 2:

Like there was tools that we didn't know we needed, you know, and like I can see all these beautiful kitchen pantries that, like you know, women on facebook are like oh, I have an afternoon, let me just build a beautiful pantry that looks, you know, professionally. That's not where I'm going to thrive, and I just have to like be honest about that.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

But if someone can do that, like um the voices, they do all. Like Amanda does all of her stuff.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

She has a time, she has the tools. I wouldn't know what to do with any of that stuff.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

Um. So I think like if, if you're really honest with yourself and can do that and have the bandwidth to do it, then a fixer upper is a fixer upper is great. We just can't, we don't have the bandwidth. Neither of us really want to do that, like I don't really want to learn how to put cabinets together, um, and then just like, be a little bit realistic about the timeline. You know what you mean the timeline. You're like let's get everything done today type person. You know what you mean the timeline. You're like a let's get everything done today type person. You know projects are very urgent, you know.

Speaker 1:

I feel like I'm more chill now, right?

Speaker 2:

for what she didn't she?

Speaker 1:

didn't tell me, she didn't reinforce that right away. You're very chill. I feel like I'm way more chill, I'm more patient, more calculated.

Speaker 2:

you think she didn't?

Speaker 1:

She didn't tell me she didn't reinforce that right away. You were very chill. I feel like I'm way more chill.

Speaker 2:

I'm more patient, more calculated. You think A little bit, yeah, yeah, a little bit.

Speaker 1:

You just did the portrait wall, kind of like let you get to that.

Speaker 2:

Do you think that's how it happened?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, we lived in this place, so all right.

Speaker 2:

So we moved out of that. The portrait wall was like an idea kind of thing for maybe three or four weeks, but by that, like third or fourth week, it was like we need to get this done Because you know what I think it is? I think it's because you were not going to rest until it was done.

Speaker 1:

I think it's because you're an academic right and it's like we got to plan the lesson and then edit it and make sure it's good and then give the lesson and there's a syllabus and a whole semester to complete things. But if I don't take action right away on something in my business, I might be behind next quarter. You know, bronson too right, we got to take action right away. So I think it's you know, you got to just like roll, you know, but I think I gave you a lot of time to get the portrait wall done. You know, I think that sometimes I'm just like sitting there I have an idea and I'm just like, is she gonna do this? I think you need a little push. I gotta give you a little push to make it, you know. And then it's because it's always fire, it's like because it's always so good, I'm excited to see the finished product, and you're just like pacing yourself and I'm like let's just finish it.

Speaker 2:

So then it could be off your plate. Do you mean like pacing myself, like sitting down for a few minutes? In between Because.

Speaker 1:

I'm just trying to get things off your plate as quickly as possible.

Speaker 2:

If I sit down in the middle of a project. You do kind of side-eye me, that's true. That's what I mean.

Speaker 1:

That's true. What?

Speaker 2:

are you sitting down for that's true, it's not finished.

Speaker 1:

Well, we rented our DC property and now we're going to buy another house at some point, maybe next year. It's like 50-50. I'm very 50-50 on it now. Yeah, what do you think like when we buy our next house? Obviously, now we have the kids. I mean, we have the kids in DC, but we have like they're older now and running around. We've done a project right. Our house is a project that almost is never ending. Still, what's your mindset going into the next house?

Speaker 2:

I would like more of a finished product, something that I can at least like I not enjoy, but I like the kitchen, I like the bathrooms enough to live with them for like not a season but like a life season until, like you know, the kids are teenagers or something you know, and I think that I've always been really big on like a master bathroom and for some reason I I don't know the DC house. It was just kind of there. It was like a really good opportunity and maybe in like 10 years, if it ever sells, then we'll feel like that. But you know, so, just like, maybe like being more firm and like what I want and don't want to compromise on, not that, like you I'm not saying you push me to compromise the DC house was, you know, great at the time. But even when we were looking at the Springfield house, like it didn't have like a great master bathroom. That was just like the inventory at the time.

Speaker 1:

You know that needed a big renovation too, and it probably needed an addition in the kitchen.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, remember, because the kitchen was really small, it was really small, small. So I think just um you know being like more firm yeah and uh, being like, okay, we can live with this, like we don't need to change anything, nor do we want to at this time. And then, um, you know, having, like the master bath, a nice master bath, enough space for these, you know, the kids and the offices that we need for whoever's working from home and to hang your degrees yes, to put the diplomas up in yeah and uh and then like the yard space you know, for these kids to go get their energy out so do you have a different mindset?

Speaker 1:

I know you said a lot of things right there. I I agree with those things. But like, do you have a different, just like mindset completely from being a first-time homebuyer going into your second home is, is that, is that like the mindset?

Speaker 2:

yeah well, so I think with like the first one, there was like almost a little bit of urgency, um and uh, you know, like you were really I don't want to say like you were really pressed, but you were like pretty eager to like buy a house, be in DC. This opportunity came up and it was like you know it worked out. Overall it worked out really well. We had a great three years living there for the most part, yeah.

Speaker 2:

You know the kids did really well there. But you know, know, I think I just like don't have an urgency to like buy something that feels like, yeah, this is okay. You know, I want it to like walk in and feel like I really love this.

Speaker 1:

This is like spectacular for me, I think it's I want to buy slow. So at that time because we closed in july and we went FHA at rates 3.6. Yeah, and I just know at that time I was like man, the rates are going to go up.

Speaker 2:

Uh-huh.

Speaker 1:

And we got to buy before the rates go up. And I guess, excuse me, did rates go up in 2022 or 2023? I think they went up like mid to end of 2022. I think they went up to five percent and I was like yo, this is a like, rates are gonna go up, we gotta buy something, this lease is gonna end, we gotta get out of here, and so that was where my urgency came from. And then I already liked that neighborhood, low-key, um, and then we just weren't finding anything in springfield, because we did settle in springfield instead of the city, and then we just weren't finding everything we liked was like $75,000 more than we, you know, wanted to, kind of could spend.

Speaker 1:

I still think that what's the house Remember? Was it anywhere? What was it called? What was the street? The house that we Double Creek was like, so fire, but I think we did good.

Speaker 1:

I think, like short term, it was like, oh, we wouldn't do anything that we did in this first house again, but hopefully it's a great investment on the back end, which I think it will be, I think, going into the second house for me, obviously, obviously it's like doing like a legit once he needs list and not moving off of that. We're very flexible and sometimes it's too flexible. We'll just be like, oh, that could work, like, oh, we can make that work. Like we know we can just like make it win later. And I think we're too flexible. You know, like we're just like.

Speaker 1:

I think that I'm like you said, like being firm, being like, nah, like that kitchen is actually ugly, we don't like it, we are not gonna live with it for a year. So like let's not buy that house. And I think we did that with blue pine when we walked in, we loved it, we did, we went there twice, right, yeah, probably more than that and we loved it. And then that one time we went in, remember, we walked around, we didn't say anything to each other, because you don't let me talk in the houses anymore and uh and uh and uh, I think you have to explain that a little bit more will you explain it?

Speaker 2:

it's just that when, when you walk around a house, you're immediately thinking of everything that you want to like change, so you walk in, the first thing you're looking for is a wall to take down, and when I walk, I'm just like taking it all in and assessing what is currently there, and it just got a little bit overwhelming to walk into houses where you're like we're going to knock this wall down, we're going to paint this, this kitchen has to go, this wall needs to go, we need to flip these rooms.

Speaker 1:

Well, okay, so let's think about that, based on the story we're telling each other, right? So I walk in, like you said, and I'm just like all right, what needs to be fixed, what needs to happen here?

Speaker 2:

No, no, your question is not what needs to be fixed. Your question is what wall can go. Yeah, what do I want to change?

Speaker 1:

What needs to be renovated, but what?

Speaker 2:

I'm saying is that I want to walk into a house mostly where you feel like nothing needs to be changed right away I know, but I'm just trying to explain my my perspective, right?

Speaker 1:

so think about it, right? You walk in because this is what I and I had this conversation like. I think it's it's the wrong move to to, and obviously we walked in a blue pine, we walked around it, I gave you your space, I walked around and we decided that we really didn't like that house and that it needed like some work that we didn't want to do, right. But I think the reason I do that is because I think it's important to know, like, will we paint this, will we update these kitchen cabinets? Will we change this bathroom? Like, kind of like, do like a baby renovation in your head, because all those things are going to cause money on the back end. So if you move in and you don't think about what you might do right or like the ideal setup, then you could be spending money in the future that you didn't plan to spend. So I'm really just trying to create an efficient, affordable lifestyle for us.

Speaker 2:

It's overwhelming because you're like what color would you paint these walls?

Speaker 1:

I need a definitive answer, right now, yeah, I do do that too, and I'm like I don't know because what if I pick blue?

Speaker 2:

But then when we move in here I decide it's more of a green room.

Speaker 1:

Okay, so I think this is what we can agree to. We will decide what renovations need to happen, but I won't make you figure it out in the moment.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, as we stand in the house for the first time, what would you do to this kitchen? What color cabinets do you want? What color or what do you want the countertops to look like? I'm like.

Speaker 1:

That's true. Yeah, I do that.

Speaker 2:

I don't even know what street we're on.

Speaker 1:

That could be overwhelming. I can understand why that's a little overwhelming, you know, I think that for me, going into the next house, I just like it. Come back home, think about it for a day or two, go back, you know, assess it again. Like I just want to take time because I think that now that we've been walking in and out of houses, we'll like go to a house and we'll like it, and then we'll come home, we'll talk about it for like a day and we'll be like, ah, that wasn't the one. Like I don't feel like we've necessarily except even the house in Bloomsbury. I don't think we've necessarily walked into a house and have been like oh yeah, this is it, we should buy this. Do you feel like that?

Speaker 2:

Well, no that one needed a full kitchen renovation which. I'm mostly unwilling to do at this point.

Speaker 1:

But I feel like we haven't even found the house that we like the most after talking about it for a day. Yeah, except Riverbend, I talking about it for a day yeah, except river bend.

Speaker 2:

I really liked river bend um, but I think that's yeah, I think that's how.

Speaker 1:

So we left the city. Were you ever like you were just like in the city because I wanted to be in the city? Like you know, you never really would like press to be in the city, but you don't have a major stance on like city verse burbs, you're just like.

Speaker 2:

I want to live somewhere where I like to live, right yeah, yeah, yeah, I think like probably now I would like choose not to be in the city.

Speaker 1:

Oh yeah.

Speaker 2:

But that's like just from my experience, like in DC in general, not even just like in that neighborhood. That neighborhood is you know, what it is. But um, and we like made it work. But yeah, I just, you know, I think now cause okay. So even when we go to like the um, the neighborhoods and stuff in fredericksburg and we're like now everything's like really close together, you know, um in that like the houses are close together, yeah when we like and kind of like figured out.

Speaker 2:

We like where you get like an acre or something and they in the city, you don't really just you know it's either like row houses or like you know, the houses are right next door to each other where the, you know, the yards are touching, the fences are the same and I don't, you know, I think I just kind of just you know there's traffic. You know dc is just like an interesting city in general if you've never lived there. Just weird place to be. I drive in there now like if I have to go up there and I'm like hey, yeah so well, so the palisades is out for sure, the palisades is out for sure.

Speaker 1:

No, yeah, the Palisades is out.

Speaker 2:

I just don't like it. Okay, so and they you know, like this there's so much that you have to do for DC to like, like live above board, like in terms of car registrations and like fees and everything like that. It's, it's like overwhelming, in my opinion.

Speaker 1:

So it's just easier to live in the burbs.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

What about for the kids? Do you feel like the kids, like it's better for them to be in the burbs than in the city?

Speaker 2:

I don't have like a strong feeling I think. Either way, I think that's very like micro dependent on you know each family I would never like want to give For our kids. They're doing great in the in you know, fredericksburg we found like a really great um kind of school and situation for them. But you know, and isaac didn't love daycare in dc yeah it was like a very different vibe for him, but christian was. Christian loved his school in dc.

Speaker 2:

He still talks about it yeah um, I think it's just different, but we we also had the yard where they could go outside all the time so you know and so so, like they're like day-to-day always kind of included, going outside and playing. You know they just had access to like. What was it like? Six neighborhood friends neighbor friends when we were in dc, so yeah, I mean, it was like crazy, we let our you know one year old and three year old just outside they weren't like unsupervised, though.

Speaker 2:

We'd be outside with them yeah, I think towards the end of it we started to like trust that the kids were, you know, doing what they were supposed to do yeah, because we had um some they were all older than our kids her name, now I forget noelle, she was older yeah, they were older than our kids.

Speaker 1:

Noelle was, she was very mature you know, they were just in our yard, but yeah we did take our eyes off of them I made, noelle and layla became the governors and the other kids were the citizens and they and they listen. Um, so when did you know? So I got out to fredericksburg. Like when we got out there I think like a month in, maybe, maybe like a month or two I was like this is the place we got to stay. The xyz reasons right. When did you feel like that?

Speaker 2:

I think probably by like the summer last year, everything started to like feel like like almost like normal and settled kind of like it would it almost like gave me I don't want to say exactly it like made me more anxious to feel like, okay, we're going to move back to dc.

Speaker 2:

You know it, just like, the routine almost like felt kind of seamless yeah um, and and then there's so much in my opinion, there's so much in my opinion, there's so much in like Spotsylvania County, stafford County, to do with the kids. So we were kind of like doing stuff, moving around a lot you know.

Speaker 2:

So we had like the home gym in DC. But getting a membership for a gym in DC where you can like take the kids and have like kids' hours and stuff would have been, I think, close to $250, $300 for us and the cost is, I want to say, kind of minimal in Fredericksburg for us.

Speaker 1:

How much does our gym cost?

Speaker 2:

$130 every month and that includes, like your membership, my membership, but then the kids, so all three of them, uh, the three boys, and they can go anytime yeah I think, from like seven to eight, like 7 am to 8 pm, they can go for two and a half hours a day.

Speaker 2:

It's not like an extra charge for them to do like the daycare or whatever, and then they're open on the weekends too, which I thought you know is really useful. So and then, and I think that, like, access to rec sports in like Spotsylvania County is easier than in DC, like DC spots you have to like be sitting online. There's like a wait list and there's a lottery for everything.

Speaker 1:

You have to like be sitting online there's like a wait list, there's a lottery for everything you have to like be online at the time their registration is open or you like.

Speaker 2:

Don't get a spot at all yeah and, um, you know, I think we kind of like signed christian up for soccer, kind of like on a whim last year and found something that we really liked for him. Um, so yeah, I think that once we started to kind of figure out, things just like felt easier too it was a little bit less of like a rat race.

Speaker 2:

You know, it's like. It's like a weird concept to be like, okay, at 12 o'clock on a wednesday, when I'm supposed to be working, I need to sit on like dc's rec dc rec's website to make sure that my kid can play soccer this year. No, I don't know, that's not for me.

Speaker 1:

If you can't hear it. I wanted to be in the city forever and my wife hated DC.

Speaker 2:

Hated DC. I just don't like the city in general. I just like, don't. You know, it's not my favorite area.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah, I think Fredericksburg is dope. Bronson and them, they think we're out in the sticks. I think Javi, I think Bronson's pretty chill, but Javi here definitely thinks you live in Fredericksburg. Javi here thinks we're out in the sticks. But I tell people all the time, like Fredericksburg is low-key, like a hidden gem, it's so built up, it's not.

Speaker 2:

I you know, 20 years ago I went to college in Fredericksburg for eight months I won't give it a year and it was a different city. I just I hated it.

Speaker 1:

And.

Speaker 2:

I was like very reluctant to move back, but I have been pleasantly surprised. There's some good restaurants, there's stuff to do with the kids. So I don't think it's like I mean I would not do the drive every day from Fredericksburg to DC as a commuter. But I don't think it's like. I mean I would not do the drive every day from Fredericksburg to DC as a commuter. But, um, I don't, it's not that crazy. You want to like go out for a night?

Speaker 1:

you can either go to Richmond or DC that's true, or you can just go to downtown Fredericksburg, where there's like people always out. I feel like in Fredericksburg. Everybody I see downtown is like um, like us, like 7 to 10 years older.

Speaker 2:

We have like 13 year old kids 13, 14, 15 year old kids and we can leave them at home yeah and so there's like a bunch of middle-aged people hanging out yeah, I mean, but even like thinking so you know, fredericksburg, downtown fredericksburg, has a farmer's market every saturday morning, um, and it was like very easy for you know us to to go down there. I think I took the kids down once or twice by myself after the gym one saturday but like I remember trying to get to the dupont farmer's market and it was just it felt like way more of a you know, yeah, like a task yeah, to like do something like that yeah

Speaker 1:

from where we were well, I Well, I'm glad you love the city you live in. You know Thriving, I've told Bronson and I mean I've told you. If I've told Bronson, you know 30 times, definitely every time I see you. You know every day, I see you All day. And I just talk about Ohio.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

And Johnson City, tennessee, is now there, yeah, and investing, yeah, and I just talk about.

Speaker 1:

Ohio and Johnson City, tennessee, is now there and investing and getting that cash flow and balling out and doing whatever we want. And I tell Bronson every single time the same thing. And Bronson said you know, the Porsche got to get the Porsche 911 Turbo S. Now we got to get you a G-Wagon. After we went to LA we saw the blue G-Wagon today, so that's coming soon, but obviously we don't want to buy the G wagon with our money. We want someone else to pay for the G wagon and become real estate investors, right. But we have our DC house turn into a real estate investment, right. And so I want your perspective on, like being landlord and all of the things that you didn't know going into that process and kind of what you realize now, and then just your mindset around buying 50 properties in Ohio.

Speaker 2:

It's interesting because the DC house has taught me a lot. I'm not a fixer-upper. I'm not Joanna Gaines. I can't do this flip-a-house thing. I also don't fixer-upper Like I'm not Joanna Gaines, I can't do this like flip a house thing, right, I also don't want to manage a property. It's just like not my area of expertise because one I can't do it myself. Like I can't go fix the heat, I can't go fix the HVAC. You know, like the oven unit is from Italy, I don't know how to fix it. Um, but you know, tenants want things done mostly immediately. It's like they expect you to kind of like live in a little like shelter beneath the house and pop out to fix things immediately and it's you know it's unrealistic.

Speaker 2:

And then it becomes frustrating because it's like well, I called them and the part's not in Parts aren't in now, in 2025, for numerous reasons, and it's like I can't make you want me to fly it in faster. I can't help you, but it's coming.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

And then it, you know, like negotiating all this stuff in terms of, okay, well, it's been seven days, so I'm not going to pay seven days worth of rent, and it's like stuff like that. I just like didn't expect, because there's never been a place where, where I've rented, where I've negotiated, maybe I should try it, but because, you know, maybe that's the right way to do it. But, um, I just. And then we went to the house the other day to do some like a few minor things that we can do.

Speaker 2:

We didn't end up doing much, but like we opened a window that was painted shut, um, and then, you know, just like the tennis not really like taking care of it, you know, it looked more dingy than when we left, like the grass wasn't cut. And so you almost like get like a like your ownership kind of kicks in, like why are you doing this to my house? Like sure you're paying for it right now, but it's still mine. So then it just gets frustrating because it's like why does the air in here smell like weed? You know, why is the grass not cut?

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

Because at one point you know, like our front lawn at least, was one of the nicest, most inviting on the block with like flowers, the grass always cut um, you know so so what do you think about ohio?

Speaker 1:

what do you think about this like plan to have you know 50 of these?

Speaker 2:

you just like we just need to have a property manager that can like handle all that stuff and like, almost like funnel the information to us. You know like they can feel the calls about like when is the part going to be in?

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

And they can just tell them like it's on a plane somewhere.

Speaker 1:

So you don't want to manage the day to day stuff.

Speaker 2:

No, I would like thrive more and like creating a spreadsheet of you know expenses or you know what's the word.

Speaker 1:

I'm looking for Income profit Like a P&L kind of thing. Yeah and just like managing that. Like this unit hasn't paid or you know we're up in this unit. I'm glad you want to do that because that's going to be an important piece of everything, and you know I can't do that. Yes, um, okay, cool. Well, I know we'll sell the dc house as soon as we can, because we both are kind of over it but it's going to give us.

Speaker 1:

We should keep it forever, but I think that we can. We can kind of funnel it. I agree property management is the way and I don't think we're going that way. We're not going that route this time necessarily, but I think eventually we'll. We'll end up in the property management space at the dc house but we're definitely going to have like a way better you know, I don't say way better tenant, but a different type of tenant where we're going to charge more and it's going to be a little more like chill and I think we've done a lot of things in the house already that we don't have to worry about some of those repairs that need to be made.

Speaker 1:

Word. Is there any last words you want to get off to the people?

Speaker 2:

No, I don't think so yeah.

Speaker 1:

You feel like you did a good job on here.

Speaker 2:

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, you feel like you dropped gems. No.

Speaker 2:

Sure yeah.

Speaker 1:

I feel like you a good job, you know Thanks. You're part of the pod. I had to get you in here on a professional setup.

Speaker 2:

Yes, thank you.

Speaker 1:

Do you want the people to find you anywhere on the gram? No, no, no, all right. Well, thanks for being here, lord E, we out.

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Nick Bush

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