Making Money on Real Estate: One Woman’s Story

Home is where the heart is. Georgene Wade might agree with that, but for her, home also has long been where the financial returns and tax breaks are.

Wade, a retired educator, feels financially secure these days, in part thanks to her investments in real estate. We asked her to chat about her real estate strategies and successes.

Wade has moved a lot for different jobs, averaging a profit of about $50,000 on each home, she figures. Her biggest score? She expects her current home in Florida to benefit from the state’s recent real estate boom. She paid $173,000 for the house and estimates it is now worth about $1 million. She also owns a few rental properties, all of which are paid off. All in all, she figures real estate accounts for slightly more than half her net worth.

Part of the reason for her success, she says, is that she always has looked at homes as investments.

“I never had the sacred idea of home because my parents moved a lot when I was growing up,” she says. “Thus, home was an investment with the added attraction of being able to live in a nice location with tax benefits.”

Wade offers several other secrets to her success:

• “I always bought houses that had extra space for short-term renters. Renters were snowbirds, people in transition, business people on assignments, foreign students, etc.   My renters essentially paid the mortgage for me when I was single for ten years. I would never try to live alone without having someone else help pay living expenses, either husbands or roommates. I was prepared to sacrifice some privacy for financial assistance.”

• “I always bought on a body of water or in a location with a spectacular view. My current house is right on the water and is worth about $1 million. It is not special; it just has a beautiful view.”

• “The third secret is that I always bought the least attractive house in the best neighborhood.  Thus, whatever I did to fix it up was more than rewarded when it came time to sell.”