#also totally willing to sell feet pics

[shoutwiththedevil]

Send me feet pics pleez babedoll, me love you long time babegirl just show me feet and open bobs

These are literally the funniest asks I’ve ever gotten. WHO IS THIS???

[concubus-switch]

So after the encouragement of some dear friends, I'm seriously considering making an OnlyFans. I might also make a PO box and an Amazon wishlist. I've also made a Cashapp. It's $ConcubusSwitch. And when I make more lewd art, I might make a Patreon.

Also if y'all send me money to buy lingerie I'll post pictures of me wearing it! Full nudes will go on OF but censored nudes and lingerie pics will be posted here. Gotta warn you though, lingerie won't come cheap. I have an unusual bra size(32H/G/FF/other depending on the brand because everything over a D cup is arbitrary bullshit that varies from brand to brand) and it's literally impossible to find bras that fit and don't cost an arm and a leg. They're typically upwards of $60. There are no stores in my city that sell my bra size so I have to order online and pray the size chart was accurate.

I can find pictures of bras and such that I want and post them, maybe let y'all vote on which one I should get next.

Also I'm not a Foot Person but I'm sure I've got a few following me. I have nice feet, just gotta take better care of them. They're small and dainty and not too bony. I wear a 6-6.5 in US women's sizes depending on the brand. Send me $10 and I'll get a nail polish in a color of your choice(good nail polish can be expensive), paint my toenails, and post pics. Send enough for a specific type of shoe or sock and I'll buy it and post pics wearing them.

I'm also thinking about doing ns/fw audios. Maybe as female or androgynous fictional characters I'm thirsty for lol. My voice is on the fem end of androgynous so I don't think I could do a male character. Or I could do the good ol "record the noises I make while masturbating" thing lol.

I'm going to be making an appointment at a local waxing salon to get a full Brazilian as well as legs and underarms done. I've never waxed before so I'm nervous, but I want smooth hairless skin more than I'm scared to do it. This will help me be more comf making an OF. I will also start working out and trying to tone up. And if y'all send me money for sex toys I'll post pics and vids on OF of me using them or having someone use them on me. Just don't go crazy requesting giant dildos or anything lol. The most I can take in either hole is a 1.5-2 inch diameter and maybe 6 inches long. So a small size from BD is a good example. I'd rather not buy from them but that's just an example of the most I can take. I'll probably also post more pictures than videos because I live with roommates and one of them is toxic and a total prude who is completely unaware of my kinks and being nonbinary and I don't want them to hear me moaning or whatever.

So things are happening! Let me know if y'all would be willing to subscribe! I'll post a link if/when I make an OF!

[songofsaraneth]

badwolf1110 replied to your photoset :took the King for a walk in the sunshine on...

Where did you get her/what breeder? My boyfriend and I are considering getting one at some point but all the online sites look a bit sketchy

@badwolf1110​

Hi! I got her from an individual breeder who I found via a facebook group for Boa Constrictors/Imperators. I found it a great resource for both info on snake care/handling, health issues, and a way to network with different breeders. Unfortunately, in the last few months it was removed from facebook :( They are cracking down on animal sales posts and even though the group transitioned to not having animal sales on the page itself, I guess it got eaten. 

When I was looking to buy a boa, I first read up a bunch about the different species/subspecies (depending on how you classify it), morphs, and localities. The first thing you’re basically deciding is if you want a boa imperator (“columbian/common red tail boa”) or a boa constrictor (“true red tail boa”, from a variety of localities). B. imperator is more common in the pet trade/what you’re likely to find in a pet store (although please buy from a breeder not a pet store if you can), and they’re great, they stay a little smaller than most B. constrictor species (5-6 to 6-7 feet for male/female), and this is the species that can come in all sorts of beautiful morphs/color patterns. MorphMarket.com is a great place to check out different color patterns if you want an idea of what’s what, though I’d also then google the morph name to see what it looks like on an adult as well as a baby since they do change as they get older. You can also find wild type aka “normal” boa imperators. Pros: smaller final size means less space needed as an adult, they grow a bit faster, their digestive system is less finicky than b. constrictor so you don’t have to worry as much about regurgitation issues, and they’re now very common in the pet trade so you can find one pretty inexpensively. 

Boa constrictors are not sold by morph, but rather locality. They’re all “wild type” coloration and pattern but there is variety between how they look based on where they come from. Here’s a list of the localities with some photos. BC tend to get a little larger but take longer to grow (6-8 to 8-10 feet for male/female though some localities are dwarf boas/run smaller than imperators even). They also sometimes have more specific husbandry requirements/can potentially be prone to more digestive issues though as long as you’re careful you probably will never have to deal with that. With localities, the goal with breeding is not to see what the wildest colors and patterns can be created, but to preserve the natural diversity of the species as you would find it in the wild. They’re all the same species and can interbreed (and there’s not borders between their habitats so assuredly do on occasion in the wild anyway), but the goal in the hobby is to preserve these genetic differences, and so they are often a lot more expensive. You can get a normal or common morph BI for $100 but a locality BC will be closer to $600-800 from a respectable breeder, though you can certainly find them for less, especially if you look after peak season for leftover babies.

Reptifiles is a great online resource for care sheets and information for all of the above species/localities. The Complete Boa Constrictor/The More Complete Boa Constrictor books by Vin Russo are also an excellent resource, although I think the husbandry represents a standard not an ideal in terms of cage size/enrichment. The facebook group Advancing Herpetological Husbandry is a great resource for going above and beyond the minimum of snake care, which is important, especially for snakes that can get quite large and don’t typically have as much space to explore. Definitely read up on all these things before deciding to purchase or not! I keep Kazul in a 4 foot vivarium right now, and this summer will buy another 4 foot section to add on for an 8foot total tank while she grows (she’s 4 feet and 3~4 inches right now i think). I’d love to go even bigger someday (4x4x8 is my dream) but I can’t do that right now haha, so I just make sure I get her out of the tank often for enrichment and exercise. 

For the specifics on buying Kazul: I also didn’t love the websites when I was looking to buy a BC because they just seemed to be selling bulk snakes with not much information, and I found most of the breeders I liked didn’t have their own websites to buy from directly. Some do, but I knew I wanted a specific locality boa, so facebook was a lot easier to network on/look for people selling what I wanted. There may be some groups left on there worth checking out. I picked her breeder--a man named Todd Zarling--specifically because he was more of an enthusiastic hobbiest than breeding tons of snakes every season to sell in bulk to websites for a profit, so I felt his animals were getting more individual attention/care, which was a personal preference of mine. His pairing was for Guyanese locality  Boa constrictor constrictor, and he had the lineage’s of his own pair of snakes back to their wild caught grandparents, and who imported/owned them. He sent me photos of them so I could see what her relatives looked like :) I also was looking to buy in September/October after August birthing season, but wasn’t able to take her until my field season ended in November, so it was important to me to be able to buy from someone happy & willing to hold onto her an extra month or two, which he was. I unfortunately don’t know if he is breeding still or this year, because of the facebook group deletion. Here’s some photos on Reptile Insider though of Kazul’s litter (she’s in that big group pic somewhere!!!!) and parents. 

I don’t remember the other individuals I was looking at, unfortunately. Depending on what species, morph, or locality you decide to go for, I may be able to provide a bit more direction. There’s several keepers on tumblr who breed who I’d trust the care & health from too, but a lot of smaller individual breeders stick to a handful of morphs/localities/etc each year, so may not have what you want available. 

Whew! that got long sorry!!!! I hope this helps at all and I’m happy to talk more about it if you have further questions, though I’m out of the currently-breeding loop at the moment since I’m not looking to aquire another boa right now (I’ve been researching mexican black kingsnake breeders for the last few months instead, haha). If you can provide the space & care boas really are rewarding and fascinating pets :) Here’s some pics of Kazul from today to make up for the wall o text: 

[williamroy1]

The five maximum crucial e mail e-e-publication high-quality practices

All people could make a e-book. How do you make certain the folks who sign up for yours stick spherical? Keeping some  Digital Marketing Agencies in Miami of the email e book fine practices in mind will help you get started out out out. I’m proper here to help with that! In recent times, newsletters are quite smooth to set up; it’s part of the respect of current-day-day generation. However you’ll be competing with quite a few different newsletters, and your target market people superb have masses time in an afternoon to be enticing with content material. E-newsletters are not unusual these days. Almost each commercial business employer, internet net web site online, or weblog has one you can be part of up for. Only a few human beings do e-mail newsletters proper, and that’s comprehensible! The ones newsletters are a difficult nut to crack. It regularly takes human beings years of enjoy to research the dos and don’ts. I’m going to help you get past those initial barriers. Your e-book may additionally moreover additionally however make an effort to get on its feet, and that’s great. But in case you maintain those pinnacle email ebook amazing practices on the principle edge of your e-e-newsletter crafting, you’ll be a step in advance of folks who had been given misplaced finding the start line. It’s crucial to be conscious that crafting newsletters is a key issue of the clicking approach: adequate – preserve going. As brief as you have were given your target audience’s email, it’s time to hold them heat with the useful useful useful resource of achieving out to them at the least as quick as in keeping with week. The outstanding manner to do this is (you guessed it!) with a guide. All that said, nowadays i’ve had been given a few guidelines for e-book advent, in conjunction with consistency, that specialize in a cause, incorporating visible elements, content material shipping, and getting permission from your target audience. It’s a extremely good bite of statistics to cowl, so permit’s get started out at the top five e-mail e-e-book brilliant practices. The first of the e-mail manual awesome practices: have a cause

your e-newsletter wants to have a clean cause. Why need in your supposed goal marketplace be a part of up for it? What will they get out of it? Like every a part of your industrial agency organisation or website, your guide desires to be full of profitable content cloth cloth. Bypass decrease once more to the coronary coronary heart of your logo, and accumulate your purpose from there. Ensure that every ebook is focused spherical that cause. Of course, you’ll be building to your emblem photograph and hooking lower returned to your net site, but that’s certainly the begin. You want a motive to be emailing them. You wouldn’t supply an unsolicited email to a friend till you had a reason, proper? Consider your readers as your buddies. You may want to check in and be aware how their day is going. You can want them to recognize what’s new with you. You may probably need to inform them an interesting tale about something that occurred to you. Hook up with your readership like you'll a friend! One of the pinnacle email e-ebook terrific practices is to preserve the reason to your emails on the top of the proverbial supply. This isn’t smooth, i understand. If you’re maintaining ordinary together collectively with your guide, it is able to be difficult to offer you with informative, exciting, and beneficial content cloth for each unmarried e-e-newsletter. You’re a busy man or woman! I assure you, but, that that is time properly-spent. Newsletters are a crucial part of community engagement, and can internet you some of traffic on your internet net web site. Spend the time to brainstorm what your readership desires–you obtained’t remorse it. Deliver them what they signed up for

now which you’ve honed in on what your readership desires, deliver it to them. This seems obvious, proper? In exercising, it’s not as easy as it sounds. It’s stupidly clean to get off-track along with your content material material. That’s why one of the pinnacle e mail e-e-newsletter exceptional practices is to paste to your guns. If you’ve been looking the tendencies cautiously, you’ll have a take a look at that uniform content material cloth is king right now. Western society normally is going via cycles in terms of these tendencies. Every so often we’re a society that likes our barber stores to moreover be a restaurant and a laundromat. In recent times, we need a business business employer to provide one unmarried element, and we want them to be correct at what they do. Don’t be tempted to start going off on tangents to your e-booklet. You’ve recognized what your target market desires, so provide them what they need! Assume all over again your e-e-newsletter constantly to make certain it’s nonetheless presenting your readers with what they signed up for. Those humans wouldn’t be signing up in the occasion that they didn’t already like your business agency, and that’s a brilliant area to begin. Decide out what your target market likes approximately you, and assemble on it. Keep away from promoting. That is a manual, no longer a income pitch. Humans aren’t going to shop for due to the reality you sell; they’ll buy due to the truth they like you, and they select out your content. People buy from places that they receive as true with, and a surefire manner to bring together consider is through imparting particular, useful content material material material fabric. Make your e-publication one of the belongings of that appropriate and beneficial content material fabric! Hold your titles brief and punchy. Maintain your content fabric fabric centered. Keep your eye at the prize, and also you’ll nail this phase of the e-mail e-e-e-newsletter superb practices. Get fancy – flow into seen

simple textual content emails aren’t that attractive, are they? At the equal time as changed into the ultimate time to procure an email from a business company that come to be most effective text? We might be willing to study a bit of writing on-line this is based on textual content, but we want our newsletters to be spruced up. Positioned a few flare in that publication; depend on some multimedia. You’ll need to dig through any visual elements to be had to you. Most newsletters start their emails off with a picture, because it with out issues entices and intrigues the reader. People are clean; we adore pretty subjects. We’re more likely to interact with textual content after looking at a pleasant picture. Clean. Films aren’t commonly a part of the email booklet exceptional practices, but take a look at with what works for you. Counting on what your business commercial enterprise organization and internet internet internet web page involves, a video is probably surely what your aim marketplace desires. In case you’ve released a trailer for contemporary content material material material material or a vlog all approximately a latest product, your e-ebook recipients will as a minimum need a hyperlink to it! A brief be conscious: one of the e-mail e-book exquisite practices is to now not embed your video inside the email. There are numerous junk mail filters that can disable your video altogether. As an alternative, try which includes an exciting photo of your video that’s definitely a hyperlink to get admission to the total video. Human beings with gradual net speeds will thank you. Don’t bypass overboard! Embody too many pics, films, or unique multimedia, and your e-e-book becomes hard to navigate. On the internet, some element that is tough to navigate is clicked far from proper now. Get permission

surely everyone get excited on the possibility of human beings signing up for our ebook. After all the hard art work we’ve set up, it’s appropriate to peer the ones numbers stacking up. Because of this, it can be tempting to surely ship the ebook without checking the validity of the signal-up

you want to make sure that they signed up in your e-e-newsletter intentionally, and normally deliver them an out. It’s the net; scamming, bots, and so forth take vicinity all the time. You want to make sure that a person’s email cope with wasn’t stolen and plugged into your ebook. First, make sure that your booklet sends a affirmation e-mail to the cope with preceding to some thing else. The proprietor of the email will then need to affirm that, nice, they did intentionally be a part of up to your ebook. It would make you sweat bullets to have your purpose marketplace base second-guessing themselves, but no issues. Individuals who want to join up will recognize you putting protection first! Second, it’s an remarkable exercise to encompass an “unsubscribe” link at the lowest of each e-newsletter. It’s viable that a person can also want to unsubscribe, and you don’t need to burn bridges thru making that technique hard. In case you love them, permit them to skip, right? The pinnacle email manual super practices embody techniques of making sure your intention marketplace genuinely wants to be there. There’s no issue in sending out newsletters to humans who've no interest in attractive with you! Be courageous, and make sure that “exit” sign remains on and seen. One of the exquisite electronic mail e-e-e-publication great practices: be ordinary

consistency: in all likelihood the maximum critical of the e-mail e-book terrific practices i’ll located in this listing. Your e-book may be shined to a polish. It could be chock-entire of first rate content fabric that knocks the socks off of people. If it’s not normal, despite the fact that, your e-book will fade into memory. The final of the e-mail e-publication best practices i’ll be discussing in recent times has to do with getting them out regularly. Your readers want so that you can realize whilst your newsletters are going out. (in distinct terms: keep going!)

 how often need in your e-e-book be going out? Most people agree that once regular with week hits the candy spot, but it’ll rely on your goal marketplace. Lightly check the waters. Try beginning slowly and gently ramping up. Be aware of how many human beings stay on board as you are making your publication a greater common presence of their inbox. The crucial detail to balancing frequency effectively has to do with motive. Your ebook is there to keep conversation open among you and the individuals who have interaction in conjunction with your brand. Too many emails, and you’ll scare people away who think you’re determined to sell. Too few emails, and that they’ll overlook about approximately you. Too regularly, i see human beings begin up a booklet after which overlook approximately their listing of contacts. Recall – they signed up for your e-book due to the truth they need to pay interest from you. On the pinnacle of the e-mail guide, brilliant practices  Digital Marketing Company in Miami are constantly consistency. You’ve gotten humans to enroll in up; don’t waste that opportunity through going silent! Preserve going!

[hangonimevolving]

Sewing Table Refurb: The Backstory

I’ve got a little less than an hour to spend today, updating all you lovely people about a project I’ve had going on for some weeks now.  

So, I sew sometimes.  I would like to sew more than I currently do, and I’ve decided that this is the year it’s gonna happen.  I believe I have talked about sewing on this blog before, namely with regards to various reupholstering and quilting projects I’ve taken on in the past.  I think I’ve even introduced you to two of The Girls - - i.e my sewing machines.  I’ve got a 1964 vintage Sears/Kenmore sewing machine that I purchased off of Craigslist back in Boston for $60, which included a beautiful midcentury solid wood cabinet that conceals the machine when not in use (talked about it here and here).  

It had its original midcentury-era drawer pulls when I first purchased it, but I switched them out to more updated knob pulls back in 2007 because I was being anal-retentive and wanted the hardware to be brushed nickel, to match other crap in our condo.

I also have a substantially more modern, and in “like new” condition (but actual age, maybe 20 years old) Husqvarna Viking serger (discussed here).  I remember feeling like a frigging rock start for scooping it up at $100.

Last year, during a giant Slipcovering Bonanza undertaken by me and my mom to guard my ginormous, beautiful double-sectional West Elm sofa from my destructive children and cat, my old Kenmore started giving me a little bit of grief.... my mother convinced me that I owed it to myself to buy a new sewing machine, if I was serious about continuing this hobby.  She said all the right things about how I deserved a newer machine with a few more features and a little less of the wheezing and attitude of an older machine.  I took the bait, and bought myself this Gorgeous Lady: a Janome HD 3000.

I’m incredibly pleased with this machine.  I paid under $500 for it on Amazon, and this included a bunch of “free gifts” and accessories like a bunch of special presser feet, extra bobbin set, and some other doodads.  

I love the machine.  But.  (there’s always a but, isn’t there?)....  I am a brat.  After sewing on my old-school Kenmore machine in the built-in cabinet for so many  years, I got accustomed to having my needle plate sitting flush with the tabletop while I sew.  To those of you who have no idea what the #$%^ I’m talking about - -the short version of the story is, I missed the ergonomics of how my old vintage machine was set up.  Here is a graphic that might explain:

(I stole that image from someone on Pinterest, but I’ve left their handle name up there in case someone wants to go search for it)

Here’s another image that might allow a non-sewing person to understand what my problem was.  This is also from IKEAhackers on Pinterest.... in summary, see how this machine has been set INTO the table a bit, instead of just having its base sitting on top?  This allows you to work fabric through the machine’s needle without having to hunch your shoulders.

Anyways.  Thus far, I had been working on my new Janome machine either at the dining table or on my desk in our home office, or sometimes, on top of my old Kenmore machine’s cabinet with the hinged tabletop still shut.  All of these setups were making my shoulders and neck pissed off at me, but there wasn’t much I could do about it unless and until I was ready to start thinking about coming up with a proper furniture solution.

Somehow, about a month ago, I got a little fed up with my shoulders and back muscles hurting, and after my second round of Botox injections in my levator scapulae muscles in as many years, I decided I really ought to do what they say in my MMA classes... “protect ya neck.”  It was time to find a sewing table with a drop-in shelf that would allow my machine to sit with its needle plate flush to the work surface.

Naturally, my first thought was to buy a table that was ready made for this purpose.  So I perused the interwebz.  

I found a number of tables like this and this and this.  And these are perfectly fine options.... for someone else.  NO judgment if you own and love one of these tables.  But they weren’t for me.  They either looked too flimsy, too particle board-y, too not my style, or too expensive for me.  As I said before, I am a spoiled, spoiled brat, who lucked out and got a wonderful vintage machine in an almost MORE wonderful solid wood cabinet many years ago, and it happens to be EXACTLY from my dream design era of the midcentury modern years.  So I was totally ruined on any kind of commercially-available table that was out there to be purchased.

It was time for me to do things MY way.  And we all know what way that is. The way that starts out exciting, unique, and very cheap, but then snowballs into some giant, physically-involved and exhausting project that in the end costs more than one of those readymade tables would cost.  HAHAHA :)  I am so extra, as the youngsters say.

So off I went!  I spent hours and hours on the internet trying to brainstorm ideas, educating myself on what it would take to buy a nice solid wood console table or desk, and DIY a cutout and drop-shelf for my machine.  I did a daylong “research” trip to some big box home furnishing discount stores in my area, to see if I could find an inexpensive but solid wood table that I could modify.  But I came up empty-handed - -nothing was my style, in my price range, or - -a dagger - - easily modifiable.  Bummer.  

Stop #2 on my sewing table option train was to spend hours on Pinterest reading with great curiosity how there’s a whole world of sewing people out there who have successfully, and relatively easily, converted this one particular table from IKEA into a sewing table: the IKEA Ingo dining table.  A woman at the blog Blue Dinosaurs was the pioneer of this conversion, and since then, many (she speculates thousands) of others have followed her awesome tutorials.  I considered this briefly, but was always put off by the dimensions of this Ingo table, which, sadly, would be too wide and cumbersome in the sewing space I have in my home (our guest room, which also houses a queen sized bed, two side tables, and a long 6-drawer dresser, as well as my old Kenmore cabinet and the serger table).

Then, I sat and thought about it: hmm, if I was willing to entertain the idea of converting a table, but I didn’t want to do a dining table....what kind of table would be the easiest to convert into a sewing table?  Duh, maybe a SEWING table.  Now one might wonder why I didn't think of this earlier.  I didn’t immediately think about finding a vintage sewing table because I was stuck on the notion that the cutout for a vintage machine wouldn’t fit my newer machine precisely.  But I realized, if I was willing to learn how to cut into a solid tabletop, I could probably teach myself to modify and elongate an existing cutout even more easily.  SO!  I was newly energized.  This time, I took to the app Letgo, which is the newfangled and more mobile device-friendly version of Craigslist.  It also happens to be relatively popular in my area.  It only took a few days for me to stumble upon a BEAUTY, listed for $55.  I contacted the seller, she replied within hours, and by 10 am the next morning, I was in possession of My New Baby:

Ain’t she GORGEOUS!  Look at those amazing drawer pulls!  Look at those GAMS!  I was smitten.  It was love at first sight.

Okay, warning: I’m about to nerd out for a second.  If you have no interest whatsoever in sewing machine history, please feel free to stop reading here, and stay tuned for my next installment of the Great Sewing Table Refurb!  

Nerd time: She’s a vintage Singer sewing cabinet.  I happened to meet the seller and her mom (the former owner of the table), and talk with them awhile.  The seller didn’t sew herself, but she tried to sell me a box of accessories that went with the original machine that was housed in this cabinet, including a shitload of switchable stitch discs.  I declined because I knew they would serve precisely zero purpose at all to me, with a brand-new modern machine of a different brand - - but I was fascinated, looking through the box of stitch discs and interesting accoutrement.  She also showed me - and I could just KICK MYSELF that I didn’t take photos of it, or even ask her to give/sell it to me!!! - the original catalog and manual for this cabinet and the machine that went with it.  I’ve been haunted ever since that I didn’t note down the information, but here is what I do remember and have been able to piece together.

This table housed a vintage Singer sewing machine.  I have been able to deduce that it was likely either a 401a, 500 Slant-O-Matic, 503 Slant-O-Matic (the “Rocketeer!!!") or possibly a 513 Stylist.  I think I recall seeing the date 1957 or 1958 on the catalogs and manuals she showed me, which would mean it couldn’t have been the Stylist, which only was released in the late 60′s-early 70′s.  Also, the fact that she had a box full of stitch discs that she was trying to sell me corroborates the fact that it may not have been a 513 Stylist, because the Stylist didn’t use removable stitch discs, I don’t believe (but I could be wrong?) - - so I’m super excited b/c that means this is a true MCM (midcentury modern) piece of furniture.  I distinctly remember that the catalog showed several cabinet models, including the well-known Singer “Copenhagen” cabinet, which was produced from about 1957 for a few years, and was almost identical to this table, except it had different cabinet hardware and a stabilizing cross-beam on the right legs.  However.  The only exact photos online of my particular cabinet all have 513 Stylists mounted in them.  Hmm.  This may mean NOTHING to anyone out there, but if you know anything about antique sewing machines, this is all sorta interesting.  Dude. Sewing machine history is VERY INTERESTING.  I’ve been learning a lot through getting to know my new love interest.

History buffs, or those willing to hang in there with me: check out these pics!

Original hang tag off of a Copenhagen cabinet, published 1961.  Also, helpfully for my purposes, listed the precise materials used in the construction of the cabinet (walnut wood and walnut wood veneer)

Helpful screenshots from the encyclopedic website of the International Sewing Machine Collectors Society (ISMACS).

This is all evidence that my cabinet dates between 1957-1962 or so.  However, I found a few images online at auction sites like this one that give me reason to feel some doubt, that perhaps my table is newer, and originally held a Singer Stylist??? Hmm.

But ACK!  I just found another one, and this table is housing a Singer 306/306K, which ISMACS tells me dates to 1954-62, so overlapping the 401/500.... 

So, yeah.  I dunno.  Now.  Does it even matter what frigging model of machine this table once held, or when it was built?  Does it even matter if it truly dates to the midcentury modern era?!  I love the styling, and its going to fit my needs.  I know.  That’s all that should matter.  But I am A NERD, and nerds die hard.  Nerds love nothing more to do than nerding out.  So this has given me something new to nerd out about for awhile, and its been delightful.  

And... since I’m still, specifically, a liberal arts research nerd at heart, here are some screenshots and a link to an awesome article on the importance of the Singer Sewing Machine company to the history of American (and world) furniture production.  Read it here!  

Teaser screenshots:

Alright.  Laters, people!  This is just the first part of my long-winded refurb story, and I look forward to bringing you the rest soon!

[rgman18]

On this site I normally share my experience about selling on Amazon, but this post will be a bit different. Here, I will discuss my experience buying an owner-occupied duplex, which I lived in from June of 2013 through May of 2018.

Investing in a duplex saved me over $50,000, and is a strategy that could be replicated by many others. The details I share here should provide you with the information you need to decide if an owner-occupied duplex is right for you.

We’ll discuss how to buy an owner-occupied duplex, what being a landlord is like, how I determined profits, and much more.

Let’s dive in.

In March of 2013, I bought a duplex in Minneapolis, MN that I planned to live in while renting out the other half, making it an owner-occupied duplex.

The purchase price for my duplex was $139,000, which was very close to the price of a single family home at the time. From my perspective, if I was going to get a mortgage, it would be best to purchase a property that could bring in some income to help offset the payment. Throughout this post we will dive into the numbers of how this worked out.

Depending on what area of the country you live in, you might be wondering what a $139,000 duplex looks like. To set the stage the entire building is about 1,800 square feet, so my unit was about 900 square feet. This was also the space that I ran my business from for about the first year I worked this business full-time before moving to a warehouse. So I will include a few pics showing what that was like as well. Most of these pictures were taken near move out or move in so some things make it look a bit empty.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

After the sale closed, my monthly payment to the bank was $895 per month. This included the principal on the mortgage, interest on the mortgage, property taxes, and homeowners insurance.

The loan program I used was called the “US Bank American Dream program.” It allowed first time home buyers to put as little as 3% down without paying mortgage insurance. There are many banks that offer similar programs, but avoiding mortgage insurance (often required when putting less than 20% down) can earn you massive savings. This is likely harder to find today than it was in 2013.

I was also able to utilize a down payment assistance program that was available at the time. This program provided down payment assistance for first time home buyers who were buying in specific Minneapolis neighborhoods. The way this was structured was $15,000 in the form of an interest free loan. This loan was forgiven at the rate of $250 for each month that I lived in the property. Once I lived in the property for 5 years, then the full amount was forgiven.

My down payment in cash was $15,515.67 or about 11.2% of the purchase price of the property. I had been saving heavily for this purchase ever since I was hired at my accounting job, and it took 15 months of full-time work prior to making the purchase.

The types of programs I refer to above are often available for first-time home buyers in specific cities and neighborhoods, and may not be available depending on where you want to purchase a home. That said, it’s worth exploring your options before making a purchase.

When I purchased my duplex, the upper unit was rented out for $850 per month and there were already tenants in place. At the time, I planned to move into the lower unit of the duplex, but I had a lease that didn’t end until June of 2013.  While I was waiting for my lease to end, I was effectively only paying $45 per month out of pocket plus utilities on the lower unit even when I wasn’t living there.

After waiting three months for my lease to run out, I moved into the duplex in June of 2013. I had a friend from college that was looking for a place to live, and he moved in for $350 per month. In addition, he paid for half of the utilities. His rent was well below market value, but his bedroom was basically a converted porch so I felt it was a fair deal.  Apparently he did too since he lived there the whole time I owned the property.

Starting in June of 2013, I was collecting $1,200 a month in rent. I was also living in the property. My total payment to the bank was $895 per month, so every month I was cash flowing $305 per month. I setup an automatic transfer every month so this $305 would go directly into a savings account. I did this so that I would have a fund for future repairs.

My rent prior to moving into the duplex was $550 per month. This was in an apartment that I was sharing with a different friend from college. Once I moved into the duplex, my housing costs effectively went from $550/month to zero. A $6,600 expenditure per year was essentially eliminated. That’s without accounting for the principal I was paying off on the property (a little over $100/month) and the additional $305/month that was being added to my savings account each month.

Let’s look at how the numbers turned out for the 5 years I lived at the property.

The monthly rent I received increased on the upper unit of my duplex to $900 per month in March of 2014, then again to $935 per month in March of 2016. That’s where it stayed through the time I owned the property.

With some increases in taxes and homeowners insurance, the amount I paid to the bank went up to $917 in March of 2016.

So here’s some numbers from March of 2013 through May of 2018:

Total Rent Collected: $60,335

Total paid to the bank: $45,300

Total Repairs / Expenses: ~$3,500

Overall, during this 5-year period, I received about $11,500 in positive cash flow after paying for all repairs, paid off about $7,500 in principal, and paid nothing for rent.  The rent savings extremely conservatively would be worth $31,900 (58 months at $550/month). These amounts add up to over $50,000 in total. This is not even factoring in the down payment assistance amount that was forgiven, or the likely increase I would have incurred renting somewhere else to live.

In total, purchasing a duplex had a net positive impact on my finances of about $50,000 in a time period of just over 5 years.   

To me, that is absolutely incredible. Those numbers do not factor in some tax benefits on the real estate income, as well as the appreciation on the property over the last 5 years.

Many people cite concerns about expensive repairs and managing tenants, and suggest these might be a reason to not purchase a duplex.

Maybe I was a little bit lucky, but I didn’t end up needing to make any major repairs to the property that I had to pay for. The roof of my duplex sustained some hail damage in May of 2015, and the replacement of the roof was covered entirely by insurance proceeds. At the time, the roof was in good condition and wouldn’t have required repairs for many years if it weren’t for the hail damage.

The largest single repair that I had to pay for out of pocket was replacing the heat exchanger on one of the furnaces. This repair cost about $1,100.

Outside of that, I had to replace a toilet, paint the entire lower unit, get a furnace worked on one other time, pay for rental permits, and make a couple of very minor fixes, but none of these cost more than $300 at one time.

When I recently sold the property, I was able to move the money that was being saved for future repairs into other investments.

The other major concern seems to revolve around issues with bad tenants or getting the dreaded call for a plumbing issue at 7PM on a Friday night. In total, over the past 5 years, the number of times I was contacted by tenants that had an issue that I needed to help fix was less than 10. I was in contact more with my tenants during the process of selling the property than I was during the time when I was just their landlord.

The issues that I had to fix for the tenants were: An issue with their furnace, an issue with a light fixture, fixing a $5 part to stop their toilet from continually running, and a couple times I had to let them in when they locked themselves out of their unit. Overall, very minor issues.

I had good tenants, and this can largely be attributed to my screening process for tenants (and perhaps a little bit of luck). There are some services that make this very easy, allowing you to do a background and credit check on any prospective tenants. I used one called SmartMove by Transunion, but I’m sure there are others out there that do the same thing. It also helps if you share that it’s an owner-occupied duplex in the listing. This information helps deter problem tenants. By taking these steps, I was able to avoid problem tenants for the five years that I owned the property.

Now, I will acknowledge that it’s not as convenient as renting.  Someone is calling you with a problem in the instances when they have them — instead of the other way around.

Compared to buying a single family home, it’s not quite as good since you will have some noise from your tenants. Ultimately, you won’t have the same level of privacy. These factors are inevitable when there’s a shared wall or ceiling/floor. This is nothing major, but it’s not quite as convenient as having a space that is completely yours.

So really the question is: Would you be willing to have some minor inconveniences for a $50,000 improvement to your financial situation after five years?

For me the improvement in my financial position far outweighed the very few minor bumps along the way. Whether you are looking to buy your first house, or are just looking for a way to improve your financial position, I strongly encourage you to look into determining if buying an owner-occupied duplex is right for you.

Owner occupying a duplex is not going to be right for every situation, but especially for young first time home buyers, I think it’s an option that needs to be considered.

One final disclaimer that I will add to this post is that I left out any discussion of the property changing in value.In my case, the property appreciated in value, but this would not be the case in every market.

As long as you buy right, and make sure that the duplex will cash flow if you eventually rent out both units, then I think the risk is relatively low. In a down market, you could continue to rent out the property. So while the value might be lower on paper, it would still be cash flowing. You could then wait until the market improves before selling, if you ever want to sell.

Buying an owner-occupied duplex was one of the single best financial decisions that I have ever made. The only one that surpasses that financial decision is the decision quit my job to start selling online full time.

As I mentioned in the intro, that’s the main thing I have experience in, and what my business is built around.

If making money selling products on Amazon is something you are interested in learning more about checkout my beginner’s guide to getting started on Amazon HERE, or you can take my free email course about getting your first sale on Amazon, sign up here.

That’s my story of owner occupying a duplex for the past 5 years. If you have questions or comments, let me know below.

How Buying a Duplex Saved me $50,000 in 5 Years (Case Study) On this site I normally share my experience about selling on Amazon, but this post will be a bit different.