If I can do it, you can do it

Rachel OG
Mar 24
4 min read

I share pieces of my story because I want you to know something: if I can make it through my hot mess of a house-buying journey over the last couple of years, you can do it too. You can handle anything.

Here's the only thing you really need to be a homeowner: you have to be able to figure stuff out. That's it.

You have to be willing to pivot. You have to want it. You have to be ready to stay on your game.

And if you're doing all of that alone, as a single person? It is exhausting. It is overwhelming. It is frustrating.

You will absolutely wish you had a partner. I now completely understand why people are just buying houses with friends — because having every single decision land on your shoulders is a lot. I wished so many times I was doing it with a partner. You're the one making sure the painter shows up. You're the one tracking down the plumber. You're the one vetting the contractor, and the structural engineer, and approximately fifteen other people you've never heard of before in your life. And you're doing all of this vetting while having absolutely no idea what you're doing. How are you supposed to vet a structural engineer? What does that even mean?

It's a lot.

But here's what I can tell you from the other side: there does come a point where it gets rewarding. For me, it finally happened when I had fixed — truly fixed — basically everything in that house that could be fixed.

Sorry to tell you, that was almost 3 years after closing.

And I remember the moment I thought, oh. Oh, this is actually kind of nice. Having a backyard that's basically my own private park, available whenever I want it. Drinking my coffee out there in the morning. Working from a table outside. Painting things whatever color I felt like. Hanging curtains wherever I wanted. Rearranging the furniture just because I could.

And then there were the unexpected wins I never saw coming — like hosting people.

I didn't realize how much mental energy I used to spend on the logistics of having people over to an apartment. Where are they going to park? How do I explain how to get here? Is there even enough room? With a house, that all just... went away. Friends come over, they park, they walk in. Done.

Even better: when friends come in from out of town, I actually get to host them. Like, properly host them. I have a guest bedroom. I have a floor mattress in the family room if I need it. People can stay, and it doesn't feel like an imposition or a puzzle to solve. That was a genuinely lovely surprise.

Is my house fancy? No. Is it shiny or elaborate? Absolutely not. But it's mine. And I made it into something I loved and was proud of. That part — that feeling — is something nobody told me about, and it turned out to be one of the best parts of all.

And then came the new appraisal.

Seeing how much the value of my house had increased over three years — even after everything I'd put into it — was super de duper awesome. I still came out ahead.

My best friend Abby told me something early on that I kept coming back to throughout the whole process: even if you don't make money on your house, even if you only break even, that's statistically unlikely — because in the United States, land is valuable, and housing markets have trended upward for the last hundred years. Yes, there are dips. There are rough patches. But the overall direction is up. And if the value of your house only increases enough for you to break even after three years?

even if you don't make money on your house, even if you only break even, you basically just lived rent-free. That framing made the whole thing feel a lot more doable.

Now, a little more about why I feel qualified to tell you that you can do this.

My general approach to money is to ignore it. I have a debit card and an Amex and I swipe like there's no tomorrow. I would genuinely prefer to never open my banking app ever again. It is not my thing. And I figured this out. So you can too.

Here's what actually helped me:

Set up autopay for everything. Your mortgage, your utilities, all of it. Remove the mental load wherever you can.
Make a dedicated email address just for your house. Everything house-related goes there — contractor quotes, receipts, warranties, utility confirmations. One place, always findable.
Photograph every single receipt for anything house-related and email it to that address, or add it to a spreadsheet or a Google Photos album. When you need to find something two years from now — and you will — it'll be right there.

It doesn't have to be a perfect system. It just has to be a system. Because the goal is to have one place to go for everything related to your house, so your brain doesn't have to hold all of it.

You can figure this out. I promise.

I share pieces of my story because I want you to know something: if I can make it through my hot mess of a house-buying journey over the last couple of years, you can do it too. You can handle anything.

You have to be willing to pivot. You have to want it. You have to be ready to stay on your game.

And if you're doing all of that alone, as a single person? It is exhausting. It is overwhelming. It is frustrating.

It's a lot.

But here's what I can tell you from the other side: there does come a point where it gets rewarding. For me, it finally happened when I had fixed — truly fixed — basically everything in that house that could be fixed.

And then there were the unexpected wins I never saw coming — like hosting people.

I didn't realize how much mental energy I used to spend on the logistics of having people over to an apartment. Where are they going to park? How do I explain how to get here? Is there even enough room? With a house, that all just... went away. Friends come over, they park, they walk in. Done.

Is my house fancy? No. Is it shiny or elaborate? Absolutely not. But it's mine. And I made it into something I loved and was proud of. That part — that feeling — is something nobody told me about, and it turned out to be one of the best parts of all.

And then came the new appraisal.

Seeing how much the value of my house had increased over three years — even after everything I'd put into it — was super de duper awesome. I still came out ahead.

Now, a little more about why I feel qualified to tell you that you can do this.

My general approach to money is to ignore it. I have a debit card and an Amex and I swipe like there's no tomorrow. I would genuinely prefer to never open my banking app ever again. It is not my thing. And I figured this out. So you can too.

Here's what actually helped me:

Set up autopay for everything. Your mortgage, your utilities, all of it. Remove the mental load wherever you can.

Make a dedicated email address just for your house. Everything house-related goes there — contractor quotes, receipts, warranties, utility confirmations. One place, always findable.

Photograph every single receipt for anything house-related and email it to that address, or add it to a spreadsheet or a Google Photos album. When you need to find something two years from now — and you will — it'll be right there.

It doesn't have to be a perfect system. It just has to be a system. Because the goal is to have one place to go for everything related to your house, so your brain doesn't have to hold all of it.

You can figure this out. I promise.