I don’t understand how my neighbors are paying for their renovation

[Anonymous]

Have they been living there awhile? Our DC neighborhood appreciated so quickly that within 3 years, we refinanced to do central AC and finish the basement.

5 years after that, we refinanced to draw on the equity to do a major gut of the first two levels, new kitchen, completely rebuilt the back of our rowhouse that used to be a sleeping porch.

Of note, we are cheap as sh*t so each renovation, we painstakingly shopped around for quotes. For the gut, we did Ikea cabinets (they look beautiful, floor to ceiling, topped with crown moulding), nitpicked window prices, fixture prices, etc. etc.

In the end, even after this, our original $3k equity in a $200k rowhouse purchased 13 years ago is now $400k equity in an $800k rowhouse... a rowhouse that is also much more pleasant to live in.