THE STORY OF Our Florida Condo

The story of how we ended up with our Marco Island/Naples condo is a combination of day dreaming, hard work, manifestation, and opportunity. I know that sounds like mumbo jumbo, but you can decide for yourself after I tell you the story.

About six or seven years ago, my parents purchased a second home in Jupiter, Florida. It’s a condo right on the Intracoastal, about 1.5 miles from the beach. As soon as my parents closed on their place, visiting became part of my own routine. I’d visit at least twice a year, and once Richie was born, visiting Florida was his very first flight and vacation.

Soon after my parents purchased their unit, my in-laws purchased a unit next door. Yes, you heard that correctly, my parents and my in-laws are Florida neighbors. It’s SO fun having everybody close, and I began dreaming about what it would be like to have my own unit in the development. Somewhere for family to gather, for little Richie to grow up visiting, and to renovate and share with others through renting.

It was a day dream, though. Financially, it wasn’t feasible, but dreaming about it was fun. And by dreaming, I mean creating my own design plans, and vision, for a unit I knew I couldn’t own.

Back home in NY, and in our #reallife, Mike and I had been saving for a new kitchen. We entertain a lot, so we planned on going all out - high end appliances, top notch design details, we wanted it all. We planned on doing the kitchen this year, with Mike taking on the majority of the work. Since Mike needs to pick his vacation weeks a year in advance, we began planning our kitchen reno back in November of 2020. Mike scheduled three weeks off in August of 2021 to work on the kitchen.

With the kitchen, I had such a difficult time making decisions. I couldn’t pull the trigger, which is SO unlike me. I’m the person that, once my mind is made up, I’m all in. No stopping me. I take on projects the way a toddler takes on a cupcake (take a moment and really get that picture in your head. Yes. Toddler. Cupcake. Jackie. Projects. Same. Same). And yet - I couldn’t do that for the kitchen. Something was stopping me, and I didn’t know what. It was frustrating for me, and for Mike. We started looking for cabinets back in February, but I found no joy in it and gave up.

At some point, I told a friend I was having a hard time spending so much money on a kitchen. I joked that, for such a huge amount of money, we could put a downpayment on a second home, and boom - we’d have a new kitchen there. Later that night, I realized it was true. We had a downpayment for a second home.

And right there was my cupcake.

I spent every free moment on Zillow (who else can relate to this SNL skit?). When I visited Florida with my parents in May, Mike and I decided to start looking at properties. We reached out to a realtor, and I spoke with my friend, and mortgage broker. Since we were in the middle of refinancing, he already knew all our financial details. My email subject line was “Florida Condo, Thoughts?”. I ran some numbers by him, fully expecting him to let me down gently - maybe say it was hasty because of the crazy market, caution us to do something less risky, suggest we invest our money somewhere else instead, or to simply wait out the market. He’s a real estate guy himself, with multiple properties, so whatever he suggested, I’d take very seriously. He wrote back and said, “I love these numbers for you, let’s do it!”.

The plain vanilla cupcake suddenly became a pimped out Crumbs cupcake, and I. Was. HUNGRY. (Ok, maybe a bad comparison, since Crumbs went bankrupt back in 2014? But, um, do you REMEMBER those cupcakes??)

While I was on the East Coast of Florida, my cousin was on the West Coast, in Naples and Marco Island. I texted her to say we got the thumbs up to look at properties in Jupiter, and she responded with something along the lines of, “so funny you say that, because we’re actually house hunting in Naples right now! Why don’t you come check out this coast, too?”. Now, I LOVE Jupiter. Love it. So I quickly nixed the idea of Naples. Plus, I had never even been there before. My parents weren’t there. My in-laws weren’t there. “But,” my cousin said, “Richie’s cousins are there. Your cousins are there. The FUN is there! At least come look before you make a decision. Please?”.

The Naples seed was gently planted.

And then it was watered: “Jackie! My mom is selling her condo by Marco Island! YOU HAVE TO SEE IT! It’s amazing! I swear, I would live there if they took big dogs! It’s incredible!”. Have I mentioned that my cousin might have been a salesperson in her past life? She told me all about this amazing condo - it was huge, well maintained, needed cosmetic updates, was in a luxury building, was in the Marco Island schools, had massive rental income potential, and, the kicker, my aunt would wait to list it until I saw it. But. BUT. There’s always a but: it was $200k more than we wanted to spend. Once again, I turned to my friend and mortgage broker, assuming my bubble would be burst. He ran the numbers. The rental possibilities, the location, etc. and quickly said, “I like this for you more than Jupiter. If it were me, I’d do it.”

So about a month later, my mom, Richie, my cousin, my aunt, and I were on a plane heading down to Marco Island. We were in the area for less than 48 hours. I saw the condo, sent some photos to Mike, made a list of pros and cons, and then dove in head first. A week later, Mike and I were on our way to purchasing a property in a city I’d spent 48 hours in, and where Mike had never even been to.

Remember when I started off by telling you our journey was a combination of day dreaming, hard work, manifestation, and opportunity? Do you believe me now?

I visited the condo back in late June, went into contract, and planned to close in early August. Remember, Mike had 3 weeks off in August to renovate the kitchen? We wanted to use that time in Florida instead, to get settled into the condo, discover the area, and start working on a design plan. My aunt let us use the condo before we closed, which was so generous and kind, especially because our closing date ended up getting pushed WAY back (thanks to a tropical storm and an MIA insurance company).

On August 11th, Mike arrived at the condo for the very first time, after driving 18.5 hours from NY to FL with my dad. I was so nervous he’d hate it, or find something terribly wrong with it. But he walked in and said, “Wow, Jack, you did good. This feels like home.”

A week and a half later, on August 20th, we closed, and officially became second-home-owners.

Mike spent a little over 2 weeks in Florida with me, while Richie and I stayed for the entire month of August. Thankfully, we absolutely, swiftly, completely fell in love with the area. We’re about 5 minutes from Marco Island, so while we’re technically in the city of Naples, I’d say we’re actually Marco Island. And Marco Island is a little slice of heaven.

So what’s next?

I can’t wait to share some before and afters with you. We (ahem, I) have big design plans, including naming our condo, possibly creating an IG account to chronicle our reno projects, and opening the unit up for renters. Our HOA allows long-term rentals: 30 day minimum, with a maximum of 3 tenants a year. We’re currently planning our next trip down there, and planning out projects for the rest of this year before it’s rented in January 2022.

And, just to whet your whistle, here’s a little preview of the room we tackled while we were down there. The primary bedroom.