About Me

Hi and Welcome to Reluctant Landlord!

I am Elizabeth Colegrove, a passionate investor who began building this portfolio in 2011 as a DINK (Dual income no kids) just 3 kitties along side a W2 job. Our beginning focus was working with long term rentals, dreaming of getting to 5 houses.

8 years later things have certainly changed.

We now have an AMAZING daughter, I stay home full time to manage our family (and rentals). We have a son on the way, and now have 9 houses plus our primary rentals managing short term rentals.

Honestly I coudn’t imagine our life without Real Estate even on the worst days!!

That is why in 2014, I started this blog in the height of the recession because I was so tired of hearing that it wasn’t possible to be successful in real estate. The reality was 4 house in I ALREADY knew that real estate was going ot be the best thing that ever happened to finacially. I wanted others to be able to capture the same success. As with everything, how you do things is very important, and I saw many people making poor decisions, than unhappy with the result.

The reality is you can be succesful but you have to treat this like a business. That’s what I do here at reluctantlandlord, is teach you how to kick ass in landlording. As a transparent landlord, I not only talk about how to be successful in the world of real estate, but also my love for life in traveling, frugal living, and all my other crazy ideas that keep our tiny family on our toes. This business is all encompassing adn my goal is to share that wiht you.

Let’s get into some nitty gritty!

Our Investing Story:
As a self-proclaimed city girl who told her husband she could live anywhere for his first duty station, South Texas was my undoing. At the ripe old age of 22, I declared that when my husband retired from the Navy (his dream) that we were going to be financially independent so we could live where we wanted.

After LOTS of frugal living and resourcefulness, we bought our first home which was a foreclosure. Through a lot of sweat equity and my husband’s amazing DIY skills we fixed it up. After we moved on from that house, we bought a short sale. Through tons of baby steps, we added many more houses. We are now are at nines houses, 1 studio and soon to be clsoed 6 plex.

While we didn’t quiet make that goal of 10 houses by May 2019, we have 9 rentals and a studio by April,2018. We actually closed on our 9th rental and the studio, the day my daughter came home from teh hospital.

Even through the craziness we learned to self-manage our homes from across the country . Doing 1031’s in order to stretch the equity to rent rates. Overal making sure our porfolio made as much as possible with what it has in it.

Different Roles for Different Season

The biggest thing I have learned is that there is no right answer or investment strategy. When I first got started we were dinks, with no care in teh world acecpt keeping our cat alive with huge dipsoal income since we both worked. Now as a mother who is the sole empire builder AND caregive/inhubator. Things are different. We moved our porfolio within the same area. We airbb which is high work but great cash flow.

The key to remember is there is no right answer. Its all about putting together a plan that you can suceed at.

Why The Name Reluctant Landlord?
I will be the first to tell you that we are not reluctant landlords. I eagerly await every opportunity whether it’s a PCS or another chance to buy a house. For us, owning houses helps us meet our final goal: early retirement.

Without our portfolio of houses, our personal finances and net worth wouldn’t be where they currently are nor would we be on our way to owning an empire! Now, it’s true we wouldn’t be here without frugal living, which is why you you will find frugal living is an integral part of this blog. There is no way we would be where we are if we had only saved.

About the Blog:
While I understand that nor everyone is cut out to be a landlord or is a person who joyously looks forward to building their housing empire, the point of this blog is to teach the not-so-voluntary landlords how to be successful, and to encourage and empower them.

Being a landlord, living frugally, and traveling, is my lifestyle. My husband and I do this so we can have an early retirement, but also so that we can enjoy what we LOVE. So follow us on our journey of not only growing our empire successfully (and learning how), but also learning how we travel, live frugally and have fun too! I am so glad to have you on this journey.