Why buy rentals?
Boy, we’ve had a week — maybe more than a week. You see, it really started when Ashley’s water broke last Thursday. When that happened, I spent the following Friday trying to finish everything I possibly could. I knew our fourth baby would be here soon, and I wanted to get as much done as possible in final preparation for that impending event. And I wanted to make sure things were good at work so we wouldn’t have any issues while I was out.
Saturday morning, Ashley woke me up at 6 a.m. and said it was time. I got up and helped get her into the bathtub. That may sound like a strange thing to do, but we had been meticulously planning a home birth for baby Samuel. So, we were not getting ready to head out the door. Instead, we notified our midwife, and she and her assistant got on their way to our house. She said they would join us in 20 minutes. So, I got started setting up the birthing pool in our bedroom.
The birthing pool was really cool. The pool wall was made up of a hard plastic backed with a heavy-duty foam lining. It had a thick, rubber liner that stretched from the bottom of the interior of the pool and folded back over outside and to the bottom of the pool wall to give the pool some structural integrity.
By the time I got that far, the midwife was there and started putting some LED lighting into the pool for ambiance. We filled it with warm water using the hot water valve for our washing machine. And as soon as the pool was filled, Ashley got into it.
Now, Ashley had had a dream that when she started to push this time, it was only going to be 17 minutes. And out of curiosity, I turned on my stopwatch to see if the dream would be accurate. Now, I don’t know if I started it too early, but at 10:33 a.m., only 23 minutes after I hit go on my stopwatch, baby Samuel was out in the world at 7 pounds, 11ounces and 22 inches long.
Ya’ll, Ashley did amazing. And she said that pool made a huge difference in her pain levels.
Being at home made things quite different. For instance, I got to catch, which is something I’ve always wanted to do, but was not allowed to because of hospital protocols, which I get. You sure don’t want a baby hitting the floor. But you didn’t have to worry about that in the birthing pool. The kids got to be present during the birth, and Ashley was able to get right up and go take a bath afterward. Then, she got to climb into our bed, and rest in the comfort of our home.
It was a huge difference from what we had experienced before, and we thought it was awesome.
Things got less awesome Monday morning when we went to our first pediatrician appointment. Everything was good as far as anatomy, but little man was looking pretty jaundiced. This was something we had already noticed because of his color, and were familiar with the signs because all of our other kids have had it.
The pediatrician did a bilirubin test, and sure enough it was high — like really high. So, we got admitted to Gordon Hospital for phototherapy. And for the next two days, Samuel was laying in this bed that was hitting him with blue light from all directions.
Bless his heart — he had to have this band around his head that was kind of like goggles to protect his eyes. And he did not like it. So he was fighting them every chance he got.
To make a long story short, we got to come home Wednesday evening. And Thursday was spent driving back and forth between follow-ups and other doctor appointments. But Baby Samuel is home and healthy, and so is Ashley.
I often get asked by people who only flip houses why we buy rentals instead of just going for the sale and making a quick profit. I can talk about the tax advantages or about leveraging other people’s money to buy the rentals. But at the end of the day, I’m in it for the passive income.
You see, I’ve been out of work all this week, and a couple of weeks prior, tending to my family, and Ashley has, too. And for most people, having both income earners out of work for a week could put a hurting on the family finances. But, you see, our income didn’t change. Our rents came in. And they will continue to come in whether we are out actively flipping a house, staying out of work because we have a new baby or if we’ve decided to go to the Grand Canyon again.
If you only ever flip houses, once you stop doing that, your income stops. When you buy good rental properties, your income goes on without you. It’s passive income. And that’s why we buy rentals.
Joe and Ashley English buy houses and mobile homes in Northwest Georgia. For more information or to ask a question, go to www.cashflowwithjoe.com or call Joe at 678-986-6813.