How I Created My Own Work from Home Opportunity

Guest Post by Elizabeth Colegrove of The Reluctant Landlord

(Note: As a brand new military wife, Elizabeth Colegrove dreaded PCS moves. She often wondered, “How am I going to make this all work??”  But Elizabeth no longer worries about picking up and moving on to the next duty station because now she has a plan. She was kind enough to share with HH6 Camo Chix how that plan came about, and we asked her to share her story with you)

Have you ever wished you could work from home – to have a job that rolled with the punches of military life while bringing in some “extra” income?

I definitely want to be there for my family, but  I LOVE MONEY! I have always worked. I sold blackberries as a six-year-old, started a pet sitting business at 12, and babysat nights and weekends from high school until – well, to be honest it was until just last year.  In college my goal was to work for a large company, and when I snagged an internship my internship with Toyota I thought I had died gone to heaven. I had no intentions of starting my own business because #1, I like steady paychecks and #2, I HATE stress! Besides, I’m not a fan of the unknown; I like having – and sticking to – a plan.

I always want to know what is going to happen next, and what happened next is…

At 22 I went from being a college graduate with a promising career prospects to being a new military wife who was suddenly “stranded” in a small town where there were no jobs in my field.  I hated it, but I loved my husband and wanted to support him in his career, so I got a masters degree out of boredom; working side jobs to pay for it.  I also made plans.

Now that we had a goal, we just needed a plan.

I tried direct selling for half-a minute. since a friend had been VERY successful with premier jewelry. It was BEYOND not my thing.

We fixed it up and I loved every second of it, even when the laundry pipes burst the night we moved in! Thank goodness for a handy husband and neighbors willing to provide pots of water — what a way to meet your neighbors!

We did not have a working tub in our master bathroom for 6 months, and by the time it was finally completed I had found a job with a local commercial property management company, where I was learning a lot.  As I reveled in the glory of our new tub — now complete with his & her dual shower heads — I found myself basking in the knowledge that I’d found my calling, figured out a way to earn money while still holding down the home-front in a military household, and best of all, we had a plan! Buying houses and then renting them out to create a revenue stream is, for me, a plan that lets us have it all.

 Note from Elizabeth: I’m not a real estate agent. My only credentials for sharing advice is my own personal experience as a landlord. We got started by fixing up our first house, and later found we could do just as well by purchasing homes that didn’t need a lot of work but were simply being sold as short sales or by motivated sellers. We still buy houses that need work, but only if it makes sense to do so.

Elizabeth met her husband in high school and got married two months after she finished college. In 5 years of marriage they’ve experienced a lot, first sea tour, deployment,  plenty of TDYs and three PCS moves, including one from  Virginia to California which they did on one week’s notice!  With each move, Elizabeth lost her job. “Our first tour was very hard,” she admits, but soon learned to make the best of things and embrace life wherever they lived. Embracing that mindset, she says,  is what gave her the push she needed to do set up a “portable” self-sufficient business. Elizabeth set up her website, The Reluctant Landlord, as a “resource for anyone wanting to turn a house into a financially beneficial asset. The large database of information allows it to appeal to the entire gamut from an investor to a home homeowner who is unable to sell and everyone in between.”