Investing in Yourself. Designing a life well lived.

Maybe it was the lacrosse penny that emphasized those college boy biceps. Maybe it was the torrent of ice cream sprinkles that rained over his head as I whizzed passed guiltily holding a several pound bag of the colorful topping. A soccer friend and I figured the best way to win college boy’s attention was to literally dash across the beginning-of-the-year ice cream social gracing freshmen’s conversations with surprise attacks of rainbow sprinkles. Either way, one thing led to another and two freshmen were introduced for the first time, and that changed everything.

We became a “til death do us apart” team in April of 2015. Sean was working for his father's company, from a remote branch located near Cleveland, Ohio. To this day, it’s pretty inevitable that if the Cavaliers are playing, we’re watching in “The King” jerseys. And like LeBron, no matter where you go, Cleveland is home. Cleveland was our first home as a team, it was where we became parents, and it was where we had our first taste of house flipping and investing. Our “Cleveland Can’t Miss List” consists of the Westside Market, Edgewater Park Beach, Mitchell's Ice Cream, and an Indians, Browns, or Cavs game.

After 3 years in Ohio, we moved to upstate New York for almost a year, enjoying proximity to family while renovating an early 1900s farmhouse gifted to us by family. We brought our second baby home, only one street from where baby Sean had been brought home almost thirty years before. Shortly after finishing the extreme renovation process and redesigning the family farmhouse, Sean and I discerned and committed to jumping full-time into real estate investing. 

When the question of where we wanted to start the business was asked among ourselves, the next question followed shortly after: “If you could start over and live anywhere, where would it be?” Sean and I both responded… the beach. From Charleston to Clearwater, Florida, every beach was mulled and discussed. Florida had the hottest temperatures and the Carolinas had the hottest character. Even Cleveland was back on the table despite its ocean scarcity but the nostalgia wasn’t enough to draw us back. After moving in with my parents and living in the DC area for a few months while we tried to make up our minds, I remembered all my childhood memories, summer after summer spent with cousins and family at a private beach just south of Virginia Beach “proper”: Sandbridge, Virginia. Sean and I signed up to run a half marathon around this area within this time of discernment and after exploring the area for a day, he was hooked. Yes, that’s a King Neptune reference. We committed to moving three hours south of my parents to Sandbridge Beach, Virginia where I have spent 1-2 weeks of every summer starting from the time I could walk. The thought of my children growing up on the same ocean and putting their toes in the same sand that I once built sandcastles, threw footballs, and captured “sand diggers” in is almost too much to handle. 

Sean and I bought our first Virginia Beach fixer upper after 1 day on the market and began our live-in flip followed shortly after by mom and the kids moving out of the demolition zone until the coast was safe and clear to return to our new home. Within the first 5 months of moving here, Sean and I have bought 2 houses and 2 condos. After successfully flipping and selling our first investment property in 10 weeks, we look to widen that margin and add to our portfolio with each and every passing month.

We have goals: Become financially free, own an oceanfront vacation house in Sandbridge, move into our forever home, invest in commercial real estate in the coffee or restaurant business, buy and rent out a multi-unit complex, and more along these lines. But our most important goal is to build freedom. Each and everyday we wake up thanking the big Man for our God-given talents that we did not choose to give ourselves and praise him by following our dreams and using those gifts to the fullest. 

“Every man gives his life for what he believes. Every woman gives her life for what she believes. Sometimes people believe in little or nothing, and so they give their lives to little or nothing. One life is all we have, and we live it as we believe in living it…and then it’s gone. But to surrender who you are and to live without [that] belief is more terrible than dying.”

• St. Joan of Arc

Freedom building is the path onto which you live and create for yourself that which eventually leads to Financial Freedom. Joan expresses it fabulously. One life is all we have been given and we have a duty to live it fully with strong belief. We have been given the ability to feel passionately, live ferociously, and as Brene Brown says, “Dare Greatly.” We have been given the ability to dream, create, build, and grow and all these components allow us to build the freedom of the life we wish to live. The goal is to have control of our lives financially but who says that journey can’t be lived out where and how you want it. That journey is called freedom building where you, the freedom builder, are developing your game plan to achieve financial freedom. 

We want you to learn from us and build with us. We pray you’re inspired by us. Our desire is to be connected with and grow with you. We have boat loads to learn. You’re welcome to climb aboard.