The Thrift Diving Podcast

Making Extra Money From Your Love of DIY - #8

March 26, 2021 Serena Appiah Season 1 Episode 8
The Thrift Diving Podcast
Making Extra Money From Your Love of DIY - #8
The Thrift Diving Podcast
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Show Notes Transcript

DIY and home improvement isn't just about fixing up your own home or working in your garage on your own projects. It can actually be a great segue into making money on the side by finding good deals on old properties, fixing them up, and renting them for monthly income. You can also start a side business making extra money selling things you make. Consulting (for a fee or free) is also a possibility! In Episode 8, DIYer, designer, and antique expert Jamala Wallace (Viva La Vintage For Your Home) is sharing how she uses her love of thrift and DIY to make money!

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Let’s Connect!

Serena: [00:00:00] So we are talking with Jamala Wallace, AKA Kim. So you'll hear her by both names. We're talking about thrift stores and about people who are creative and how this love of creating really segues into so many other things that you can do. It's not just being at home in your garage or in your basement, working on projects, it's possibly selling things. It's not just thrifting furniture, but thrifting homes, finding homes that you can make over and, possibly, increase your net worth because you're doing real estate investing. And then also helping other people because you've got this skill. So welcome back. We had just talked to you in Episode 7. So this is Episode 8 of The Thrift Diving Podcast. Welcome back, Jamala. 

Jamala: [00:00:44] Thank you, Serena. I appreciate it. Yeah. 

Serena: [00:00:46] So you and I had been talking for a little while, I should say we're Facebook friends and you had been following my blog and we'd become friends on Facebook for many of years now. And we started talking about investment properties because I wanted to buy one. And you had sent me some links and said, Serena, there's some properties down here in South Carolina. You got to look. How did you make the segue from loving thrift stores and finding old things and making them look beautiful to finding homes and making them look beautiful? Tell me about that segue and how you got into finding properties. 

 Jamala: [00:01:23] This goes actually back to when I lived in North New Jersey. My father owned homes, so that led us into having investment properties. There was a house that, our first house that we bought, we were 22 years old when we bought our home, and it was a three family house. It belonged to his aunt. And what happened, the house caught fire from the third floor. So the third floor was burned. No roof and then you had the water damage. No one really wanted the house. So my father said buy the house. So we were like I don't want that house. It's awful. He was like, it's still standing. There's nothing wrong with the house. It just, that's all cosmetics. Needless to say, we bought the house. It was a three family house and we had it fixed up and that's where we lived all the time until I moved to South Carolina and we bought that house, we had to do, all the third floor had to be rebuilt. The roof had to be put back on. We got the house really cheap, what it was assumable mortgage through the VA because she had a veterans loan. So we assumed the mortgage. And then that's when it started with the 5 0, whatever K whatever loan that you could get. 

Serena: [00:02:36] Oh, is it like the 203?

Jamala: [00:02:38] Yeah, something like that.  We were actually a pilot for that program. We knew someone that was starting in that area. So he asked us, and we said, yes, we definitely want to be a part of that. So we were able to get the loan and get the house fixed up. So that started our process of trying to get into real estate. So I lived on the first floor, my sister lived on the second floor and we rented out the third floor. Third floor rent was basically paying the bulk of the mortgage on the house so that, allowed us to be like more mindful of, okay, so we need to have more investment properties. That started, that got the ball rolling. And like I said, my father was always into real estate as well. So when I moved to South Carolina, I knew I didn't want to, from leaving from Jersey, I didn't want to high mortgage. I just don't want, I'm not of that realm where I want a high mortgage, anything over a thousand dollars to me is expensive. So that's my mindset. And I always looked at, okay if one of us gets unemployed, is unemployment going to cover that mortgage.  So that's, I live in that motto. I live in that frame of thinking so to speak. So down here, when we bought the house, it was relatively inexpensive coming from up North. People were like, what are you living in a shack? And I'm like, no, the houses down here are cheap. That's what I'm trying to tell you.  We were happy with that. So as I'm living here, I'm starting to see how the houses are really, even cheap. It was pretty much word of mouth. My mother, I found a house for my mother cheap. I found a house for my brother, for my aunt. We would just, they were buying houses up. From that point on that's when I said you know what? Either I need to go into real estate, or I need to just buy some houses myself. That's when I started saying, okay, it's time to redirect my thoughts. And when my son bought his house that came through word of mouth. A lot of times in these small towns, things are word of mouth. And that was just the word of mouth. My brother had bought a house from this woman and he didn't pay but $5,000 for it. I couldn't believe it. It was a brick frame house.   He could move in it. So he moved in it and he fixed it up while he was living there. So she owned the house that was next to my brother's house. And so she said you could find yourself a neighbor cause I'm selling the other house. So he called me, I wanted to do it, but then I said, no, I want my son to start getting involved with, my sons to start getting involved with real estate as well. So I called them up. I said, Amir, she's selling the house. You need to buy this house. He says, Oh mommy. I don't know if I want to, buy a house. I don't want to get into that. I said no, you misunderstood what I said, you're buying this house. He said, Oh no. So he bought it needless to say, paid $8,000 for it. It's unheard of. 

Serena: [00:05:28] How long ago was this, that he bought this house? 

Jamala: [00:05:31] He bought the house, it's been, I want to say six years ago.

Serena: [00:05:35] Six years ago, for $8,000 my goodness. 

Jamala: [00:05:40] Yeah. Yeah. And then he put some money into redoing it because it was out dated.  Mint green must've been the icon back then because everything was mint green from the carpet colors. Everything. 

Serena: [00:05:53] In my kids' bathroom. I call it avocado green, but I imagine it's probably in the same family, my kids' bathroom their toilet and their shower were mint green, avocado green. Yes. If it was a seventies, probably forties fifties, seven in that time, powder blue and avocado, mint green was like--, 

Jamala: [00:06:11] Yes. So he got rid of everything. And he gutted the bathroom and the kitchen, and then all the carpet came up. So we did the floors.  The floors were botched up because they installed central air and heat. So when they cut through the original floor, they put down plywood. He needed to have all new flooring put down and be cohesive throughout the house. Put down all new floors painted, install new windows. Kitchen is all redone. New cabinetry. We kept the top cabinet because they were solid wood, and they were in good condition.  and he just replaced the bottom cabinetry and then put a new appliances. So the house looks more modern on the inside. And then on the outside it was real ratty in the back of the house. So we tore that down. It was like an outside building that was attached to the house. So we tore that down and we installed a deck on the back of the house.  Put some work into it, but it's more well worth it. worth it. 

Serena: [00:07:08] Now, how much did it, if you don't mind my asking, how much did the repairs cost and did he hire contractors to do it, or was he able to do some of the work himself?

Jamala: [00:07:18] He did some of the work himself. He laid the floor, he started the floor process, but then he moved away and then we had to hire somebody else to come in and finish the floors. We did hire a contractor to install the kitchen cabinetry and the new sink and everything, because again, he had moved away, but he started the painting process. He did all the paint; it was just the easy stuff. He hung the new light fixtures and so forth. And then, the floor, the bathroom, we hired somebody to do that as well. So it was a mixture of both. My son was just learning to get into all of this stuff. So he just, he didn't want to do too much that he couldn't do 

Serena: [00:07:54] Right 

Jamala: [00:07:55] He moved out of state in the midst of all of it. So we had to hire a contractor. So it was more, he must've put about, I want to say roughly between paying the contractors and the, and the equip--the supplies and everything that needed. I think he put in about roughly $8,000 as far as getting-- yeah. 

Serena: [00:08:14] He got a nice house. Now this is the son that you helped do his bedroom, correct?

We call it brick cottage project. And as a matter of fact, if you go online, you can just Google the brick cottage project. It will come up, the whole, I did that whole series. I developed a little series on the whole process of that house for him. Yes. Check it out. It's like I said, it's called the brick cottage project. 

 What's the name of your blog again?

It is a Viva LA Vintage vivalavintageforyourhome.com Because I know I saw when I was looking at your Instagram, which is U R Vintage Vintage girl. Yes. I'm getting it. UR vintage girl. I noticed that when I clicked on the link in your bio or your profile, I think you've got a link there for the project, or at least it goes to your blog and then you'll be able to see the process.  So he moved out of state. How long was he gone before he came back? 

Jamala: [00:09:06] He was gone about a year, so we rented it. We rented it out. The house was rented for we get a rental income of 600 a month.  Wow, rent pretty much is going to pay for the house. It has already right now, it has already paid for the house. So he rents, he lived there for a year when he came back home, he got a job back in South Carolina. So he came back home.  So they allowed him to live free, basically in his house. And then now he's back again and he's renting it out. So again, we collect 600 a month rent, which is by far a wonderful, amount to pay for rent for a house, living room, dining room, kitchen, and it has central air and central heat.   it sits on about a half-acre of land. It's a nice size house for cottage living. I love it. I fixed it. 

Serena: [00:09:53] okay. He had acquired that property. So have you done another property since then? 

Jamala: [00:09:58] Yeah. As a matter of fact, yes, we formed a little group. It's me, my sister and our two children. So we formed a little investment group. 

Serena: [00:10:08] Wow. 

Jamala: [00:10:09] We got another house. We bought it just recently and luckily the houses that we've gotten so far, they don't need tons and tons of work, but we did do some work in them. And before this second piece of property, we paid $23,000 for it. And we put down $7,000, so we're only financing the $15,000 or whatever is what we're financing, but we rent that out. And again, we get 600 a month rent, so the rent covers the mortgage and then whatever we put in to fix up the house, which didn't get a lot of work, because again, it has central air and heat. That was our main thing to look at, make sure, at least had that installed because that is expensive to install. 

Serena: [00:10:49] Now your sister, I know she's as creative as you are, right? Cause she's the one that found that vanity with you. She loved it with you. So she's creative and crafty. 

Jamala: [00:10:58] Me and my sister, we bought that house, our very first house. We bought that together. So we do a lot of things together. 

Serena: [00:11:05] Now is she handy? Has she done any of the projects inside of the home that you just bought? You're renting it now. It didn't need a lot. So have you guys done well, I should ask you this. What are the things that you guys had to do in that home to get it ready to rent? Even though it didn't need a lot. What did you have to do? 

Jamala: [00:11:23] Well, we did have to paint, and cleaned it up and so forth. We painted and then we installed a new bathroom. We had the bathroom gutted had a new bathroom installed. Cause it was not right. Those are the two things that we really had to do. The main thing was the bathroom. The kitchen was in good shape. We just needed to clean it and paint it.  Install like a backsplash. We did that kind of give a little bit more of a modern look to it. But we didn't have to do a lot of work. My son, he installed all new lighting which is a wonderful thing that he was able to do because he's now doing electrical work. So that helps a lot. Wow. So he did that and then we all just came together and just did a lot of the work. 

Serena: [00:12:04] That is amazing. What is really interesting to me is when you can find a group of people like your family, that you trust, have skills, your son's got the electrical skills. Your sister can help paint. And you guys can hire to do the other works that you don't want to or can't do. 

Jamala: [00:12:22] And we all but if we, we pay for everything that has to be paid for, we pay for it as a group. We're working together on this and it gives her children and my children, the opportunity of having rental income and exposing them to this kind of thinking to have and also a business mind. So it's set that groundwork for that. 

Serena: [00:12:43] Yes. And I wouldn't be surprised if moving forward, you guys don't, especially if you find a place that needs even more work and you're like, you know what, instead of hiring, we can do some of this ourselves, because I think the things that we do in our own homes, the decorating that we do, the home improvement, the repairs, all of these things are transferable skills. And that's what I wanted to point out in this podcast is that we love making over ugly furniture. It's a bigger leap going from furniture to a home, but I want people, yeah. I want them to think outside of the box because if you're someone who loves to decorate and you love to paint bathrooms and bedrooms, and all of that, start thinking about doing that on another home that isn't yours, that maybe somebody could rent from you and bring in income. 

And that's what I've been thinking of really over the last year. And it's been a little bit of a struggle for me because in this area in Washington, DC, metropolitan area, everything is so expensive and I worry that if I buy in the wrong place, that's more affordable, I'm not going to be able to make it up in rent. Cause I don't think I'm going to be able to afford to pay outright cash for it. So I've got some challenges that I'm working through. But I think one thing that's great about the area where you live is that there's still homes that you're finding right now that are in the twenties and 30 thousands, right? 

Jamala: [00:14:06] Yes. And those problems, believe it or not, Serena, when I first moved here my family has, we have an investment group, that's in stocks and things like that, but I tried to get them to buy houses here when I first moved here and they just weren’t understanding that you could buy a house for 10 or back then there were eight, nine, $10,000. We can invest in these. And they were like who wants to live in Whitmire who wants it? Believe it or not, it is, it's easy to rent a house here in Whitmire because people are wanting those homes to rent for under a thousand dollars a month, under $800 a month. I always say everybody can't live in homes that cost 15, $1,600 a month. Everybody can't afford to pay a thousand dollars a month for rent, but you could have something that you could live in for paying six or $700. That's doable. You could easy, have no problems with finding someone, what's the old saying that you kill more flies with honey than you can with whatever. So it's like that concept. Yeah. you could get that group that's still has affordable housing. Yes. Without, without breaking the bank because we didn't put a lot of money into it.

Serena: [00:15:19] Right. And what's amazing to me is that you're also helping, you're helping people. You're providing homes to people who, like you said, they can't afford 1500 or 1600 a month for rent in this other area that's not Whitmire, but there are people who are going to need to live in Whitmire, who don't want to leave that area, but still want a nice place to call home. That's what we all want is a nice place to call home.

Jamala: [00:15:44] It's possible that they want to live somewhere where they can save money and buy their own. At least you're not spending all your money paying rent, where you have no room to save, to buy your own. Yeah, that's always that fine line well then how do you save enough money to put a 10, $15,000 down payment on a house when you're still paying $2,000 a month rent or you're paying $1,500 a month rent. Exactly. It's just not possible. Yeah. So I'm finding that when I put my son's house on the market to rent, I was overwhelmed with how many people wanted to live here. I couldn't believe that my inbox was just blowing up on Facebook. And I had only put it on the market, the Facebook Marketplace, and I was getting so many hits. It was, I was like overwhelmed, but they were wanting to come from Columbia, all the areas around us. So they're willing to drive that extra 45 minutes to save money for rent, instead of living where they were working at. Whitmire is a small town and it's right in the middle of Columbia, Spartanburg and Greenville, metropolitan areas. So they were willing to drive that distance to save the money on the rent. 

 Serena: [00:16:58] So what are some of the other areas around Whitmire? Because I know at one point when you and I were messaging back and forth, you were telling me some towns. There was Whitmire. What are some of the other ones? So if someone's listening--

Chester is another area near us. Union is near us. Carlisle, Newberry, Chapman. Little Mountain, and Chapman is all in this area, but now those homes are very, very expensive now. So the price of living in South Carolina for homes is going up. It's on the rise. So you could still find, like I said, the houses that used to be in the tens range, $10,000, $12,000 range are now in the 30, $40,000 range. So you could still buy a house with a tenant if you wanted to find something, for about $30,000, but then, the value is right at about 35, 36,000. So it doesn't give you, but it gives you that residual income. 

Yeah. I think that's something people have to think about when they're planning for their retirement. we're going to get to an age where we're either going to have a 401k or 403B retirement account to supplement our income. Social security may or may not be there who knows. So by the time I'm ready to officially retire, it may not be there. So you have to look forward to the future and think, how are you going to be able to supplement your income? And that's why I think taking what we love right now, which is, taking things that are ugly and making them pretty, instead of just applying that to furniture and just applying that to our own homes, how can we apply that to another home? 

And there are challenges, like I said in my area, because things are so expensive, but as you're talking, I'm thinking why not come to Whitmire and buy a place? Because I know you, had said, you sent me those links and you said, you can come on down here. You can come on down here, if there's homes available. And of course I gave you every complaint or every reason why I’ve got young kids and I've got this, but some of the homes that you're finding, they don't need a lot of work. So even if you're just there for a short period of time, fixing it up, for even, and I'm saying this for even people who live out of state that say, okay, maybe I'll come to Whitmire or one of these, Union, one of these local areas and get a place. And maybe you're here for a week or two, but you have some contractors coming in. Then you rent the place. You get someone to maybe do the management. You've got money coming in. You don't necessarily have to. That's what I'm trying to get over the hump of thinking that whatever I invest in has to be down the street and that's not necessarily the case. We can go where there's more affordable housing. And we can take all of these skills that we've learned, even just home improvement, laying new floors and put that into something that's going to grow our portfolio and put money in our pocket for years to come. 

Jamala: [00:19:46] Right. Well I do our town yard sale it is called the eye-to-eye yard sale. And I started this eight years ago, nine years ago. And it was to bring people into the town from wherever, but this yard sale group, but this particular year, I'm starting to see different faces. I love talking to people and meeting them and we have a lot of new people that moved to town. And when I say, Oh, okay where are you from? And they would tell me, Oh and they were looking for cheap homes and, move my house up on a map to find a home for about $20,000. I met a young lady who moved here from Charleston. She says, I'm tired of paying $200,000 for a mortgage.  I don't see the value in my money going anywhere. So she did a little homework on a town, because she has a daughter. They go to, she looked up Whitmire school. Okay. So it's a good school. And so she said she bought the house. She said she spent 18,000 for the house and she had some work done in it and she rehabbed it all while she was living in Charleston. Then eventually she sold a house in Charleston and moved here. Now she's only in her late thirties. So she said, I don't have a mortgage anymore. I'm living in my house. I said, wow, that's wonderful. She said, I'm pretty happy. She said, this is a small house. It's a cottage style house, but I don't need a lot of space. And that's what she said. I don't need a lot. I just want easy living. And I said, I get it. So I was impressed listening to her, talk about it. So I said, see, that's what Whitmire is all about. 

Serena: [00:21:15] Yes. People that don't want to put up with paying for large mortgages. You don't have to have a huge mortgage in order to be happy.

Jamala: [00:21:22] I'm reading, more and more articles where people are gravitating to small town living now. They're seeing the beauty of the quaintness, the quietness, and the, I want to say who everybody knows everybody feeling.  They're starting to see the beauty in that now. I know I do. I see it because coming from Newark, New Jersey, it was always busy, a lot of noise, a lot of traffic, foot traffic, but here it was a world of difference where it's more so who is your family? When you meet somebody, That's a new face in town. So where are you from? Who's your family is always the question, because to be here, you have to know somebody or yet you just don't pop up here.

Serena: [00:22:03] Right? Well, maybe I will.

  Jamala: [00:22:07] Who was your folks that is say, but it's a good thing. And I saw that, a lot of things are a lot of people gravitating to that because some people don't like development living because you pay the fees and then also traffic that starting to happen in developments when there's a lot of developments, the traffic. Now, that's another thing that I hear people poopoo on, but this area is starting to grow and, I could see the growth happening now, because as I travel up and down the road, see where trees are cut down, trees that used to be there. They're going. So I know a change is happening. I just don't know what's happening when I bought it years ago. 

 Serena: [00:22:51] Well, if you see a Starbucks or a Whole Foods pop up, you'll know what's happening. 

Jamala: [00:22:55] Listen, there's two gas, two new gas stations on the interstate exit, and I'm like, wait a minute, four gas stations now? They're not going to just put four gas stations here in this area, just for the heck of it. 

Serena: [00:23:06] There's some plans. There's only so much land. So there's only so much building you can do inside of a city. You have to push out and things just continuously push out and push out. And so I wouldn't be surprised if there's probably some developmental that's coming into the area or they start noticing that there's more people moving out. So they think, okay, let's bring some businesses, maybe a shopping mall or something. And that, that can be a good thing, but it can also be a bad thing because bringing more people in it, penetrates that small town feel that you get? 

Jamala: [00:23:38] Yes, it does. And with Whitmire, the population is about 1500, but we have also the town of Whitmire. Then we have the actual area in which Whitmire is. Being in the national forest area we get a lot of hunters and so forth in this area. So they're looking for that. We have no place for them to stay, basically. There's no hotels and things like that. So even if you were to scoop up one of the houses and have it as an Airbnb, wonderful, there are some homes still available, but believe it or not over the timeframe that I'm here, that I've been here, a lot of the houses were sold. So as you find homes for sale now here. Wow. Yeah, it's getting tight. 

Serena: [00:24:26] So yeah, that's that makes me a little worried now because I feel like I want to look up some homes in that area. It's funny that you mentioned the Airbnb. I was talking to a friend of mine. The other day, her name is Wendy. I don't know if you read her blog. Her blog is called H2O bungalow. Yeah. So Wendy, she just to give you a little background she lived in Texas. She owned a real estate company and had moved to Florida, had sold that, moved to Florida with her husband. And in the last couple of years, probably last three years, she had gone to Vermont, visited a friend and found a duplex. She loved this duplex. It was in bad shape. She spent the, I don't even know how much time, but lots of time rehabbing the entire thing.  There was a contractor that she was able to find locally that came in and helped her do some of the stuff that she didn't know how to do, but not only was it all blog content. So she made video. She put it on her blog. Now she rents these two. Out it's in Vermont and there's in the winter they're skiing. And in the summertime, there's all sorts of trails and hiking. And so she rents those out. She just bought maybe, two years ago, she just bought a condo in that same town and renovated that. Again, using her skills of what she knows how to do for her own house, decorating and DIY. And now she recently just bought eight acres of land in Vermont that she's going to put two tiny homes. She's going to make it like a glamping experience. people that love camping, but they want to do something a little bit more extravagant. She's going to do a hot tub. She's going to do all these amazing things. And as I'm listening to her, I'm like, wow, Wendy, this is amazing. I wish I had the experience that you are. And she said, Serena, I'll help you. She said, my main advice to you is to find homes where people can have experiences. So when you had mentioned about people coming in to do hunting, People are coming in for that hunting experience, but they don't have anywhere to stay. So finding a place like Whitmire where people are doing hunting, but you can offer them this Airbnb experience, it looks beautiful.

Jamala: [00:26:32] People don't even realize there's a river that people go canoeing. Yes. Wow.

Serena: [00:26:37] So all of that decorating that people love to do. Find this property, that offers that experience, make it look amazing with thrift store things, antiques and rent it out on Airbnb, make some money and this property be something that pulls money into you. but you can also use it yourself during a time when there's a vacancy. But if it's popular, you may not even have any vacancy because people want that experience. And you're showing up on the radar on Airbnb. So that's how we can use our skills and find those properties. But I am, I, you know what, I'm excited to like research Whitmire. I really am. I am so excited because you have no idea. The last couple of days, I was feeling very deflated because I want a property so bad too pretty. I want something ugly, and I want to make it pretty. Yes. I've got a pot of money here. Not very much, but I have a pot of money that I can buy something, but I can't buy something outright in this area. It's too expensive. So, just hearing about-- 

Jamala: [00:27:35] If you had to have a mortgage, then a low mortgage. You want either no to low mortgage.  We just bought another one. and that house was we pay cash for it. Another group of us, we paid cash for a house. We paid 17,000 for that. So there is no mortgage on that house. we have a rental. We have it rented. The renter came with the house. So that was wonderful. Yeah. Just put a new roof on the house. So we paid and had a roof put on the house and that's it. So we lucked up on that one, but we worked real fast on this one when it was on the market. And he was like, damn, let's get this house right now. Oh my goodness. So that was another fluke. Again, I just, I'm always on a hunt trying to find something.

Serena: [00:28:19] Let's talk a little bit about some of the other things that you're doing in order to make money on the side. And you're using your skills, your DIY skills, your creative skills. So tell us about your Etsy shop. Cause I noticed that you and your sister started this shop. 

Jamala: [00:28:34] It's really just me for the Etsy, but me and my sister, we started a business called Pieces of Time. Okay. That was our antique shop. And then I moved away. And then her and another girlfriend of ours who we all were in the antique business together, they formed Pieces of Time Estate Sales Services. So that's what my sister Amina and Renee, they do the estate sales services in New Jersey.  I do some here in South Carolina. So now we have our little, what we call, Pieces of Time Estate Sale Services.

Serena: [00:29:06] A little bit of everything going on. How do I have time to sleep and eat? 

Jamala: [00:29:10] But I, it's the love of everything, so again, through Etsy shop, I just sell like the pillows I just started making. And then other little finds. I want to be able to just sell small items that people could buy, where it doesn't cost a fortune. Our motto is at an estate sale. We do a state sale is, you should come in here and be able to buy something for $5 at least. Walk out that door with something that costs $5 where it won't break the bank, but you left with a sale. So in order to get that, we have to buy low. So we try to keep things where you could buy something cheap or you buy something, high end, but even high end to us, $200 is a lot of money. We're not what you call a designer store. So you're not going to come in here. I'm not going to try to sell you anything for thousand dollars. It's just not me because I know I won't buy it. So that's my mindset, but I want you to have something equally as beautiful for your home as I have for mine without breaking the bank. You shouldn't spend a lot of money trying to decorate your home because you don't have to, you don't have to charge things. You don't have to go on these installment plans. You don't have to do all of that to decorate your home. 

Serena: [00:30:27] And let's talk about these installment plans. If you've noticed, whenever you shop online now, every single site has the, it could be something for 20 bucks and it says pay this installment. They're making it, so easy for you now to pay things installments. And I feel that a lot of people are probably getting themselves in trouble because of that.

 Jamala: [00:30:46] There's no need to. You can have a beautiful home and nice things without having to go in on an installment plans. Okay. Buying for paying two years for furniture is like crazy. 

Serena: [00:31:00] It really is.  When it comes to me, I love electronics. And so when it comes to buying computers or cameras, I usually will buy the best that I, because I know that I'm going to keep them for years. And that technology changes so quickly that I need to have the latest features because they're going to be obsolete in another couple of years, but when it comes to anything related to the home, I can't spend a lot of money. There's a funny situation that happened. I was talking to a girlfriend one day. This was before I bought a sofa. My sofa is the one thing that I will buy brand new because I know I'm keeping it for a long time.  When we moved into our condo, I bought myself a brand new, kept it for 18 years. I just got a new one. That's going to be delivered from La-Z-Boy next month.  But I was talking to her about sofas, and I said, yeah, you know, I am looking in this price range. And she was telling me about a friend of hers who bought a sofa on sale for $10,000. 

And I thought I mean, I know that $10,000 sofas exist, but in my mind, I can't imagine is it sewn together with like gold thread? what that makes it $10,000 and it was just funny that some people's perspective of what's affordable is different than what's considered affordable-- she thought that was like, wow, that's a good deal. 10,000. I was like, what are you kidding me? And I said what about a $5,000 sofa? Oh, that's cheap. I said, you still, you think that's cheap? Cause I still think that's a lot of money. So it's just, it's funny how people's perspective is so different in what they think is good quality. And so I think one thing that we're doing, both of you and I on the blogs and on our YouTube channels is trying to, we don't have to convince people because the people that find us love what we do, but I think there's always opportunities to teach people who don't know that you can decorate on a budget. You don't have to do installments. You can get good furniture for not a lot of money.  You don't have to spend $10,000 on a sofa. 

Jamala: [00:32:54] Keep that in mind, just to sit your butt on all day or whatever, four hours a day, if that, tops. 

Serena: [00:33:01] Yeah, that's just insane. So I guess we'll wrap it up here. But the last thing I wanted to say is to give people another option too, is that when you love DIY, when you love home improvement, you can also help other people. And I know in the last podcast we were talking about how you had helped your son on his home, the one that he had bought, and you had done a really good job of decorating his bedroom and I want people to also think that they can also do this for other people and charge money.  I know you said before, you don't really have any clients, but have you worked with people in the past where you've charged them a small fee to help them decorate or redo a room? 

Jamala: [00:33:38] No, actually I have not. I have not worked with anybody, but what I've noticed is that I had some people that would, I want to say befriend me to ask me my advice and help me take them where they need to go and find things. And I don't want to say it like they use me, but they did, but that's okay. I just say it's okay. Because I enjoyed helping you. And that's, all of a sudden, once it's all done, it's, Hey, remember me, we used to go out. We're not going out anymore. Oh, okay. but it's okay. I don't mind helping anybody. So my blog is what keeps me with that mind frame that I'm inspiring people to decorate their homes like this.  I'm not a designer, so I don't think I should be paid. And I do it because of the love that I have. And in the end, if you wanted to give me something fine. Okay. But I'm not going to ask you for anything now. I just, what comes natural for me, I just can't imagine charging. I don't even know what I would charge anybody. I'm so used to doing it for free, but for my son and friends, I'm like, I'll help you. I don't care. It gives me the joy of going out, finding the stuff, done for my son's friends, when they moved into their first apartments. They asked me what they need and I'll go out looking for them and I'll find it and bring it to them. They give me the money back what I paid and that's fair enough for me. Just that's what you want. That's fine. I'm going to help you because I don't want you out here spending any kind of crazy money to decorate your house, because you got bills to pay. Yep. That's pretty easy to buy 

Serena: [00:35:08] And properties to buy.

Jamala: [00:35:09] Spend your money on other important things, not decorating this home and buying a $300 nightstand, which, you don't need. I could find you off for 10, 15 bucks, please, stop before I spank you. I 

Serena: [00:35:21] I know, right? But it is good even though you love doing it to help people, and I'm sure anybody that loves homes and decorating and home improvement, and all of those things do help friends and family, but I like that we could harness what we do well and what we enjoy and turn it into a side business if we want, because some people may not realize that they could do this on the side, or they don't feel that they're good enough to do it. But if people are always complimenting, your home, if someone's listening to this and someone's always complimenting your home or your projects, that is an avenue for being able to make money, especially in this pandemic that we're experiencing right now, people are losing their jobs and they're looking for extra money and there's still people that have jobs and have disposable income where they will pay you to come in and do some things that, because they'll be helping you out. 

Jamala: [00:36:09] Something I would love to help somebody say, revamped their place. cause some people just have stuff and they don't know how to make it look presentable. That I would love to come in into, and maybe as a side gig and try to help people understand how to situate, even just your paintings on your wall to get that wall gallery look. Some people just have spaced too far and don't know how to put it in the right way. So I can help you come and do that. Those kinds of services are good to have because not everybody has that eye, so to speak. I mean, I find joy in trying to help you make your home, have that cohesive, beautiful look without breaking the bank.

Serena: [00:36:48] Yeah. And you want to help people love their homes. There's nothing worse than coming into your home and you feel just stressed, right? 

Jamala: [00:36:56] Yeah. It's your sanctuary. You want to make it that way. You should walk in your door and just smile and be like, Thank God I'm home. 

Serena: [00:37:03] Yes. And I can tell you for the longest time I hated my home. Like when we bought this house, remember we had so many, we had, well, the mortgage was expensive, but we could afford it, but I totally forgot that we needed money to decorate and improve the house. And there were things that were wrong that we needed to repair. We had no money to do it, and it was coming home every day from work just being-- because I wasn't blogging full-time at that time. And I was just stressed. I literally walked around for two months with this ball of anxiety in my stomach, because I was just afraid. What if something breaks? How do I do this? How do I do that? But now that I feel self-sufficient, I don't consider myself to be a designer at all. In fact, I think that's where I probably most lack because I don't feel that I have the vision to put together everything. Sometimes I don't really care that I don't, as long as it's comfortable, it's clean and it looks like what I want it to look like. Right now I can walk in and say, Oh, it's pretty comfortable here. I like this. I like how it looks. It doesn't look like Pinterest, doesn't look like HGTV, but that's okay. 

Jamala: [00:38:05] That's exactly right. It's okay. For exactly. 

Serena: [00:38:09] I'm not making payments.  So tell everybody where they can find you before we wrap it up. 

Jamala: [00:38:14] Okay. Yes. Yes. You can find me on my blog, which is Viva La Vintage for Your Home. You could find me, and I have a Facebook page for that as well. I'm on Instagram with UR Vintage Girl, and then, my YouTube channel. Yes, don't forget. Jamala Wallace. You can find me on those three venues. 

Serena: [00:38:33] Okay awesome. So this has been an amazing conversation. We've been talking for quite a while, and I know you're probably tired. I'm going to go and check on my kids and see what they're doing.  so we will definitely be back in contact because I'm going to look up some of those Whitmire properties, there may not be.

Jamala: [00:38:48] I love looking at, I don't stop looking even though, I think I'm pretty much tapped out of finding another house, but you never know. You never know. And I'm going to keep sending you those too. 

Serena: [00:38:59] When you get any sort of notification about a good home, send it to me. Cause I'm at the point where I'm like, okay, I need to maybe look outside of Maryland. Baltimore is a really good place to invest, but I don't know enough about Baltimore and you can get properties for 15, 20, 25, but I don't know enough about Baltimore. And some people have said, you know, you got to be careful because if you're buying one of these cheaper properties in Baltimore, you're getting some danger. You know where you are. And so I don't want to buy where I don't know. So it makes me feel a little bit more relieved because you know Whitmire. So if I were to invest there and then, come down and get girl. yeah. Come down for a couple of weeks and like I'm going to work on this project for a little bit and then find a renter and go back home. I got you. Yes. Yes. 

All right, everybody. Thank you for joining us for episode eight of the Thrift Diving podcast. Be sure to come back next week. Not sure what I'm going to be talking about, but I'll figure it out. Alright, Jamala. Thank you so much. 

Jamala: [00:39:56] Thank you again.