What a year it’s been – full of such abundance as well as punches to the gut. But, isn’t that the way life goes? The times that you need to gather strength makes the times when you are swimming in prosperity that much better.

January

The New Year found us in Wilmington, North Carolina, stuck with COVID. The holidays were lovely, spent with our ginger baby nieces, but then came the plague. I fell down hard, with 103 degree fever, chills and an awful headache. Contraction of COVID extended our trip over a week, due to us wanting to quarantine. And when we got home, we discovered Mike’s tool trailer, full of tools, stolen from our Niagara property. Between being sick & the theft of the trailer, 2022 was a real punch to the gut! So, we made the decision to sell the house, so I listed it and we were off to the races. On the real estate agent side of things, I did start working with a few new clients as their buyer agent, so that was extremely exciting as well

February

February brought lots and lots of skiing – we spent a ton of time in Fraser at the mountain property, headed up to spend a weekend with a friend from out of town and even looked at a mountain property for ourselves. I continued to show houses to clients in the Denver area and we got our flip under contract at full ask! Shortly after our own closing, I got a client under contract on a great property in Arvada as well! Our ski crew took to the Big Sky at the end of the month and we had a blast skiing the tram, drinking local in a yurt and of course loved the Après! We even spent an afternoon at the Bozeman Hot Springs – a fabulous trip with the best ski crew. It was a new ski mountain for Mike and I and we’ll definitely be back. I had the privilege of working with clients who started looking in the Park Hill neighborhood. 

March

March came in like a lion and I spent a lot of time getting our taxes in order. Luckily, I could do a lot of the tax and client ‘under contract’ items while on the road, as my dad came out for the annual ski trip – and we headed to Winter Park. The few days before, Mike had a bachelor party, so I spent quality time on my business and setting up my CRM (client retention management system). The end of the month was a flurry of real estate goodness. I had multiple home showings for multiple clients, a walk-through for a renewal at one of our rentals (our condo) and a bachelorette party evening in Denver for a dear friend. Bigsby’s Folly wine bar was the first stop for the ladies, followed by the Temaki Den in The Source. A delightful Denver outing to celebrate our friends tying the knot. 

April

It was no April fool’s joke – a client had a closing on April 1^st! A friend had bought her third townhouse and was building her real estate empire! Mike took our nephew to an Avs game and we celebrated a friend’s 40^th at Joyride Brewery! Love Denver weather in the spring! I had the honor of officiating our friend’s wedding ceremony – which has been the second wedding I’ve officiated! – and their whole wedding weekend was a beautiful celebration. More house showings, some bike rides with girlfriends (as the weather was turning warmer!) and Easter at my cousins…just some highlights that sprinkled the month with fun. I also started Instagram Lives with some fellow real estate peeps in my network – a fun way to have conversations about real estate with people in the industry. Towards the end of the month, we headed to Canon City where we’d live for 28 days. Mike was helping friends refurbish and retro fit a cabin on their land into a living space they’d be able to rent out on Airbnb. So many friends doing big things with real estate to better their futures and produce additional income streams. While we were away, we rented our house out 10 days in April,, having over $2k in gross profit – amazing, since we would have been away anyway! The last week of April brought me to Colorado Springs for a Master Mind my brokers were putting on, and a few days later, Anson Young and I recorded our monthly Master Mind, truck camper addition!

May  

In May, our house continued to do well renting on Airbnb and we had 18 days booked (grossing over $4k while we biked, built and bounced around the areas down in Canon City  – we headed to Florence for sushi, Buena Vista to mountain bike and into town to check out the Blossom Festival and prison museum. An off-market property called us back to the Denver area – Mike’s contact from a commercial job connected us to the seller, so we drove up to take a look and it ended up being a pretty good property, so we made him an offer and we were under contract with a new investment! The Zia ride capped our stay in Canon and our bike crew rolled deep! The weekend was a blast, even though I didn’t ride, and was an amazing end to our stay. Heading home, I spent some time with my mom for a late Mother’s Day hang, showed a number of houses to clients, and at the end of the month for Memorial Day, headed to PA to pick up a new truck that would better equip us for camper adventures. It was a nostalgic weekend, hanging with high school friends and visiting old stomping grounds, then traveling west with the new wheels. Stopping in Indiana to see another high school friend, we broke up the trip by kayaking down St Mary’s, then heading out in downtown Fort Wayne. 

June 

After we got home from our road trip, we sold Mike’s truck and closed on our new investment property! This one had great bones, so we planned to replace the windows, add AC, replace the furnace, renovate both bathrooms, remove the carpet, redo the floors and paint the interior and exterior  and spruce up the kitchen (that would include a new stove, new handles on all cabinets)  – then long term rent it. This would be the first renovation project that I was on-site, side by side with Mike for the duration of the project. Prior to this, I had had a W-2 for at least a portion of the renovation. We dug in with a vengeance! The majority of the month was spent at the project, working as a team and when the end of June came, we were ready for the road trip we had planned, although we did cut it shorter due to the new investment and a deck job that would start in July. But, we headed for the upper peninsula of Michigan and had an amazing 14 day road trip, where we mountain biked, kayaked, drank lots of good beer, ate camper meals, explored new campsites and just had the best time. 

July 

We spent the beginning of the month on the road – and on July 4th we headed to Marquette, where we stayed at one of the coolest campgrounds, where we were able to ride right from camp! The town of Marquette had it all; great restaurants, good breweries, a beach…..we absolutely loved our time there. We eventually made our way home after what was a pretty epic road trip. And it was back to work! Mike had gotten a deck job (actually he hadn’t thought the client would be able to get the permits due to utility easements – and he had!) which was the other reason we cut the trip short. So Mike and I built the fence, sweating out in the 90+ degree weather, but made the best of it! We also hustled at the new investment property – replacing all 15 windows of the house, putting new trip, new flooring & tile in both bathrooms (we hired that out), a new back door, new paint and landscaping in the front and back. The weekend of July 22, we headed to Palisades Colorado, where we camped, floated on the Colorado, rented E-bikes for a wine tour, and had one of the best weekends in Colorado! Our friend Kelly organized the trip and boy does she know how to do it! We ended the month at a Wine Night party, sampling Viognette in our summer whites. A classy affair with the best group of people! 

August

The last official month of summer came and the investment property was almost complete, so pictures were taken and advertising for the rental started. 

Another first came in early August –  floating down the Clear Creek in Golden – an absolute blast on a toasty afternoon! We had a big crew that brought road sodas and made an afternoon of it. Since we had planned to be out on the road for most of the summer, we had ended up renting out our primary via Airbnb, so instead of canceling on the guests, we planned a long weekend in Fraser where we mountain biked, drank great beer and enjoyed the cooler mountain temps. We paddle boarded on Grand Lake and Willow Creek Reservoir, enjoying the solitude of the mountains. Our friends that work at C U Lazy Ranch invited us for a bike ride around the property – a gorgeous outing that ended in a field full of the ranch’s horses! From Fraser to Summit, we headed to Heaton Bay campground, right on Lake Dillon. One of the best places to camp in Colorado, we could walk into Heaton Bay with our Paddleboards, bike into Frisco and Dillon, and enjoy a relatively private campsite. The highlight was going to the Lake Dillon Amphitheater to see Goose – it was a gorgeous night, a great show, and the coolest venue I’ve ever been to! On August 23, I sat on the Rocky Mountain Women Invest Panel, which was a great thrill and honor. The discussion was around Short Term Rentals & I dove into the numbers and how we’ve used that strategy. It was really fun to share my experience – and have my friends come watch! The last week in August we started digging a fence at our investment property – which now had a completely finished interior! A quote came back over $5k for 35 feet of fencing, so once we got over the sticker shock, decided to do it ourselves. It was the summer of digging, so why not keep at it! Since we hadn’t gotten any qualified applicants for a long-term rental, we decided to short term rent the investment, which meant furnishing and outfitting the home with all of the essentials. We loaded up at Costco, Walmart, Facebook Market place and had the place fully stocked by the end of August and listed on Airbnb shortly after. 

September

Labor Day Weekend kicked off the month with a brewery bike crawl for a good friend’s birthday. And in other great news – we got our first booking for the STR in Lakewood! And then we arrived at check-out time to find the toilet in the downstairs overflowing due to wipes they had thrown down the toilet. Oh, the joys of landlord life! A client of mine continued their home search, looking in Park Hill, Wheat Ridge, Lakewood. The market was super hot, so the search had house that were going under contract for well-over list, so when we found a house they loved, we offered at full-list! Mike’s birthday came and to Crested Butte & Gunnison we went – And we rented out our house while we were away! First stop was Hartman Rocks, where we rode bikes, climbed around on the cool rocks and watched the amazing sunsets. Then, we headed into The Butte, where we had a few days alone – I was working on the offer for my clients and disclosure documents and we even went to the CB Film Festival – then our crew came and camped, hiked and biked, while the leaves around us burst into fall.We were away for about 10 days and it was such a beautiful fall getaway – and wonderful to celebrate Mike with our best friends.  

October
And then it was October. And The Weber Brother’s Band sang us into the new month at New Image. Our Airbnb had been doing well, and I was cleaning the home occasionally when I had time. So when we headed to Canon City for our friend’s annual end of summer camp-out, we had our cleaner clean our house and rented it while we went to camp, hike and hang with our crew. To continue the fallness, I headed to my nephew’s football game and hung with the family. I had also been working on my social media and signed up for a video marketing class that was once every other week, which was a huge commitment but a push I think I needed. I had also been biking quite a bit too, so mountain biking dotted my weeks. On October 21st, my clients closed on their home – which was actually their due date as well! We organized a wine night event for our crew – a blind tasting of Vionier’s. It was delicious and a beautiful night! The end of the month came and we headed out to Arkansas for a trip to Benntonville, a trek that was becoming an annual affair. This year, we planned to stay in Blowing Springs and then head to Eureka, the cutest town to spend my birthday in! We biked our hearts out and even went on a haunted house tour! 

November 

With the haunted house and cute streets of Eureka opening up the month, we headed home to welcome Sara and Alan, our North Carolina fam. We got to hang and hike and head to breweries without the kids. It was great! The rest of the week had some cleanings of our short-term rentals, Mike had a cabinet job he did in Golden and a bathroom job he did in Wheat Ridge, MMM meetings and getting my newsletter out. We headed to Fraser for Thanksgiving weekend and it actually snowed! Our friends came up to stay at the apartment with us, then more friends came to meet us and we all had a wonderful time skiing at Winter Park for our first day on the slopes! The last week of the month had me getting a client’s rental up and ready with some hole patching and painting. 

December 

Mike’s mom came to visit at the beginning of the month and we headed back up to Fraser to show her the loft apartment. It was cold but super fun! Back down in Denver we headed to Meow Wolf – a crazy interactive art installation museum. We had a blast! Tis’ the season and off we went to a cookie swapping party, more skiing and an ugly sweater bowling party. Our 30 year old water heater bust in the middle of the month and Mike and our friend (who’s a plumber) put in a tankless one! Yard clean up at the new investment, including putting up a partial fence that the neighbor had ripped down.  I wrapped up my client’s rental & finally got it listed, then another client closed on their home, which we had been searching for for over a year! Cookie making with my mom and niece and Christmas morning at my sisters with my dad. My uncle and Aunt came to town, so we all hung and headed to Edgewater Market. And while dad was still in town, we went bowling with the family! For New Year’s we headed to Winter Park and had the best time bringing in 2023 with our best friends, doing one of our favorite things.

It was a wonderful, adventurous and joyous year full of friends, family and new experiences. And I was ready to dive into the new one!