Author Archives: Darcy Cronin

About Darcy Cronin

I'm a Mother/Coach/Blogger/Business Adventurer from Portland OR. My family consists of my Hubby of 12 years, our 8yo Kieran, 5yo Makenna, and 1yo Teagan. I love dreaming about a better future, and making it happen.

Kiva Magic: Exponential Power of Microlending

As friends and longtime readers know, I have been actively microlending through Kiva since getting my family inheritance, and deciding to experiment by “investing” $1000 in ten $100 loans to business owners and economic cooperatives around the world.

I reflected before about it when I made my 50th loan, and now I just made my 105th Kiva loan, and my original $1000 has been now been relent to reach $10,050.

What’s more is that because I’ve been sharing my microlending story, I’ve inspired 81 people to lend their own money. I truly hope to inspire YOU today, as Kiva is offering matching $1 Million in loans, just today (September 12, 2018). So, if you choose to start your own lending portfolio, you can make a $50 loan into $100, or a $100 in $200…over if you did the same $1000 investment that I began with lending, you’d double your impact on day one, and truly experience exponential growth

Lastly, working with my kids to research the loan terms, we’ve tried to spread the wealth (which in this case feels like spreading the love). We’ve loaned to business people in 52 countries. I’ve prioritized mostly women-led loans and try to average the repayment length at about year, so I can relend regularly. They/we are still learning from the process, and it does make us feel more connected in the world.

Part of the reason why I decided to “invest” my money in this way is that I felt not just calling to philanthropy, but to fundamentally change the global economy. $10k may still be a drop in the ocean, but it’s one that helps me feel like I am making a difference and putting my money where my heart is.

Peace,

Darcy Rose 

Selling My Dream House

With the original cobblestone fireplace from 1876, this grand entrance welcomes you into this one-of-a-kind home.

Do you have a dream of owning an amazing historic Craftsman home? I did.

Surprisingly, I’m truly excited to share that my dream house is now for sale. Check out the listing for 726 7th Street Astoria OR.

With a cobblestone fire place from 1876, it’s an incredible example of Craftsman architecture, and in my not-so-humble opinion, it’s one of the most beautiful homes in Astoria, if not the planet. Plus, the most amazing view and location, just blocks from Buoy and all of downtown.

I know living in such a grand home isn’t for everyone, but I loved it. I truly worked my ass off to make it not just my dream house, but our home. I loved transforming it from a dusty, dark, cluttered and slightly run down house to one that felt lived in and loved. When we had the house on the Assistance League’s Home and Chef Tour (which raised over $18k for kids who need clothing), it felt so wonderful to get compliments from guests who said they could feel the love when they entered the door. 🙂 

I shared the story two years ago about how I manifested my dream house, and a year later about how it had become My Historic Money Pit. On my family blog I shared how we wanted to attract co-housing renters in the basement, but what I never shared how I worked for months to turn the Theater into an Aibnb rental, where at $40 a night, we’ve made over $1k a month in the winter months, and more in the summer. Between the two rentals, it nearly pays the mortgage (and if we had stayed we would have refinanced with the new policy that allows home owners to count Airbnb income to lower their rate/payment). For someone who wants to have an Airbnb lifestyle, hosting guests from near and far, the place is perfect.

That had been our plan, along with happily ever after, but as it turns out, I started the new year deciding that it was time to end my marriage. Blessedly, we’ve been as amicable as possible, but I also felt in my heart that I had to let go of my dream house to actually live my dreams.

In this case, our loss will be someone’s gain. We’ve priced the house $20k below what our realtor thinks we could have listed at in order to get buyers to bite faster. We’ve worked hard for the past two months to move my stuff and get the place gleaming. I am certain that the house hasn’t looked this good in a hundred years!

The good news is that since the listing went live, we’ve gotten over forty hearts on Zillow. I know many will admire it, but we only need one buyer who is ready to own their dream home. 🙂

Lastly, I just want to sent out a little woo-woo vibes for an easy sale. Who knows, maybe this post will randomly get sent to a friend of a friend whose inspired to live in Goonieville. Believe me, if I was independently wealthy, I would buy the place again in a heartbeat. 🙂

Peace,

Darcy Rose

PS Talk to me if you too have the dream of creating a boarding house for women and children who are transitioning due to divorce. 😉

The most amazing sun room overlooking the mighty Columbia River. My favorite place for tea or wine.

Beautiful music parlor, and we’re planning to sell the piano and most of the furnishing for a great price.

It’s hard to pick a favorite room…too bad they couldn’t take a pick up the no-so-secret room. 😉

My Historic Money Pit

This week marks our one year anniversary of moving to Astoria, Oregon. We bought an amazing example of Craftsman architecture with a spectacular view of the Columbia River. I’ve shared in detail about manifesting our dream home, and in many ways, it still feels like a fairy tale.

Yet, now that we’ve been living here for a year, it’s time to share about the “money pit” side of the story. While I still am in awe of our beautiful home, the realities of how much this house is going to cost us sunk in this past winter. Like the feeling of living in a money pit. It’s not quite as bad as the exaggerated 80’s movie, but it’s certainly more than we ever bargained for. While the house is cosmetically gorgeous, virtually all of the mechanicals are in desperate needs of repair/replacement.

That feeling has sunk into my stomach ever since we returned from an aloha-filled trip to Hawaii only to find combined sewer overflow flooding our basement. To be honest, this wasn’t the first time, we had a smaller flood within weeks of moving in, with our first big storm.

We had been “lucky” for several months not to deal with it, and in the mean time had spent several weekends getting the basement ready to rent out, thinking that it was an occasional issue that we could deal with. Yet, this last time it proved more than I could manage. Instead of spending hours and hours mopping up and ripping out the carpet, I called a restoration cleaner to deal with the “Level 3 contamination.” In the process, they also tore out the trim and first two feet of drywall, and what previously looked like a cute studio is now torn to shit. Between the plumber and the cleaners, I know we’re in for over six thousand, plus needing to repair the walls and flooring. I was crossing my fingers that this could be paid by our insurance, but now it appears that it isn’t covered.

Here’s the list of expenses that we’ve paid since moving in:

  • Basement “restoration” to clean up the flood: $6,203.04 plus interest.
  • Roof – Replaced the original hundred year old cedar shake roof, plus $3,600 to fix the garage enough to put a new roof on it, I’m frankly glad there wasn’t more rot: $34,024.35
  • Gutters with screens– A necessity in Astoria: $8,348
  • Appliances – Every appliance except the microwave had issues within few weeks of moving in, so we now have new fridge, dishwasher, stove, microwave, and washer/dryer: $4,225.17
  • Bedrooms painted – It technically wasn’t urgent, but needed to be done to feel like home. We did “splurge” on Benjamin Moore’s eco-friendly : $1,000 labor, $404  paint
  • Tree work – Maybe this wasn’t a must, but we had the trees pruned and cabled, soon after one limb nearly dropped on our van. It did buy us an amazing view: $6,075
  • Electrician – We actually need a whole lot more done, but this was just to get the stove installed: $119
  • Plumber – Our first plumbing call after the first CSO incident: $257.59
  • Misc. DIY fixes: $8

Total to date: $60,664.15

Here’s a list of the work we can’t afford yet:

  • New furnaces and water heaters – the house is so big that it needs two of each and the current ones are over thirty years old.
  • Insulation and weatherization – aside from great storm windows, the house leaks like a sieve.
  • Fix basement walls and floors – this frustrating because it feels like a temporary fix
  • New sewer line – The kicker is that the previous owner told us that she paid was a sewer scope that came up fine, we wasted money on a lawyer trying to see if we had any recourse.
  • New toilets – we’ve had chronic leaks – the upstairs toilet flooded to the main level Christmas – now the main level toilet is completely plugged – the basement toilet is a hideous black.
  • Fix main upstairs shower tile – this was leaking and now a “band-aide” fix of putting unmatched tile just in the basin is going to cost us
  • Fix slanting back stairs – It feels like you’re about to go off a diving board
  • New garage door – the current one is rotten and has visible holes

And our “wish list”:

  • Blinds in our bedroom
  • Built in dining nook in kitchen
  • Bathroom flooring to remove ugly carpet…

Now these lists aren’t including all the miscellaneous things that really ought to be fixed, notably the foundation needs to be replaced for the price of at least $150-200k.

The only saving grace is that we are working to refinance and the house appraised at $500k, after buying the housing for $350k just last year, so at least our $60k hasn’t gone entirely down a money pit.  

And on a completely unrelated, but not so unrelated note – all our family is safe and healthy, no disasters have befallen our family, like getting fired for reporting sexual harassment, and the kids are doing fine at school.

Unbelievably, I still love our home and am happy we bought it, even if it is a labor of love.

Peace,

Darcy

Tips to Create an Engaging AirBnB Listing

Listing your place on AirBnB is a pretty straightforward process, and you don’t need to be very tech savvy. However, an engaging listing is essential to attracting your ideal guests. Asking yourself a few key questions will make the listing flow and attract the guests you want. Take a moment to ask yourself:

  • Who is your ideal guest? Do you want just couples? Or is your place naturally set up for families? Would you prefer to meet tourists or friends/family of locals?
  • What is unique about your place? AirBnB guest aren’t looking for a bland boring hotel room. They want to stay in places with character that reflects the local culture.
  • What’s attractive about your neighborhood? Guests are looking to you to learn about the local attractions like restaurants, and want to know that there are interesting things to explore that they wouldn’t find by booking a room downtown.

Here are my top 8 tips for creating an effective and engaging listing:

  1. Create a personalized listing. Guests want to know a little about you in order to feel comfortable with booking your place and sleeping in your bed. Make sure to post your favorite travel pic (guests too…we hosts want to know what you look like!) and tell guests about why you’re hosting. Many guests respect the fact that you want to save up for a big trip or need to replace your roof (like us!).
  2. Speak to your ideal guests. Now that you know who you want to attract, speak to them. If you know foodies would love the local farmer’s market and restaurants, compel them to visit.
  3. Use your title wisely. You only have a short title to catch people’s attention. Make sure to have key search words that will get the attention of potential guests. Our current title is “Transit/Kid-friendly Yard/Patio). Initially I included something about the skyline view, but decided that even though we have a decent skyline view that guests would want to stay at our place more because it’s close to all sorts of transit than because they can see the Portland hills (plus, our view isn’t the best in town).
  4. Be completely honest. AirBnB is built on honesty and trust. Be forthright about any negative quirks your place might have. As long as you are upfront about any issues, your guests will likely be willing to overlook some typical imperfections (like at our place not all of the old windows open up, and we use fans instead of AC).
  5. Take great photos. The cliche is true, pictures do say a thousand words. Make sure they are taken in great light and with minimal clutter.
  6. Create a Welcome Book. You can create a great “guide book” through AirBnB online. It’s super easy to plug in your favorite restaurants and give a quick review to give your guests and idea of the places they can visit in your neighborhood. Our guests have really appreciated this. We combined this with a “Welcome Book” that includes info about our neighborhood and the basic house rules. Plus, it helps cut down on your back and forth communication with guests…our first several guests wanted to know several basics, like how to get to the streetcar two blocks away, and it was obvious that we needed to give our guests a little orientation.
  7. Keep your calendar up-to-date. With our location so close to downtown, we’ve been booked literally every weekend that we’ve make available to guests. But it’s a bummer to have to turn folks down because your place isn’t available. So, make it easy on both of you and make sure to keep your calendar current. With that in mind, our initial strategy was to keep three weeks in August open, knowing that we would only take a vacation for two weeks. In the end I had to turn down the guests who wanted to stay as we were returning home.
  8. Review your guests. While this step happens after your initial listing, it is essential to your first impression with potential guests. Sometimes you won’t have too many details to give, but if your guests left your place in great shape, make sure to give them a great review. We’ve been very lucky with all but one group (who seemed to use our place for a fraternity reunion…leaving us with three cases of beer and three huge bottles of booze…I don’t want to know how much they drank over the long weekend! I’ll share more in my “Lesson Learned” post).

I hope this helps get you started on your AirBnB hosting journey…let me know if you have any tips of your own or more questions.

Happy hosting!

Darcy

Family-friendly Budget Template

Try our Family Budget Template

Just as my twin sister, Miel, disentangles her finances from her recent divorce, I feel like I’m starting from scratch again with our budget.

After my family bought our dream house and Hubby got his dream job, now it’s my job to create a new budget. In hindsight I know that I should have done this months ago, but I was too busy unpacking, settling in, paying contractors, and celebrating the holidays. Now nearly six months after our move, I am finally ready to create our new family budget.

The good news is that I have an awesome budget template to start from…it’s actually one that Miel helped me create for this blog five years ago. We made the budget template specifically for families and all the expenses that come with them. It’s also easy to personalize our budget template. It’s nice to see that it’s still as valid and important of a tool.

I know that my family will benefit from the time and energy that I put into creating and consistently updating our budget. When I’ve been really “good” at updating it, we’ve been able to save more quickly than I ever imagined.

Truthfully, it’s been a source of tension lately, since we don’t have a current calculation of our exact monthly bills, which changed a fair amount when we moved. We also spent a toooon of money on home repairs when we first moved in, which I’ll save for another post soon.

Yet, I know that I also have mixed feelings, not wanting to focus on our lack of money and to plan for things that our current budget doesn’t actually allow for. That’s where I think gratitude comes in, and by acknowledging how you are currently providing for your family makes a difference. To put things in perspective, I was in the grocery store when I overheard a Dad saying to his son how he had to work for an hour to earn $10, enough to buy a gallon of milk and a loaf of bread. Even when money might seem tight, I know that practicing gratitude helps me feel abundant.

Have you used our budget template? Do you update it daily, weekly or monthly?

Happy budgeting!

Darcy

PS I’m going to post a Google Doc version for everyone else who has moved their finances to the cloud, like me.