God Provides!

This is the story of Kristin and I and the 4 girls purchasing an investment property in Boone, NC. It is our big step of faith, our hard working side business, and our adventure. It is also a very unlikely story that can only be explained by reflecting upon God’s ironic, counterintuitive, and truly awesome provision for which we are so thankful and excited to share about if you will keep reading! 

2011 – Our church did an in-depth study of the book, Treasure Principle by Randy Alcorn.

At the end of this study, Kristin and I determined to sell both our cars and house in order to seek more alignment between our values and where our treasure was going. Basically, we felt we did not want to have debt or car payments and we did not want to pay a higher mortgage payment just to live in a “safe” neighborhood that was close to cool stores (i.e. Trader Joes). We did not really care too much about perceived “safety” and we were not cool enough for those stores anyway. I blogged about this move in 2011 “Why We Are Moving” right here.

2013 – After trying to sell our house for 2 long years we finally got an offer, then bought our next home on Cotton Place in downtown Raleigh.

The new house was actually 30 years older and was in a distressed, higher-crime, and lower-income neighborhood. There had been zero redevelopment right around the home at this time. Exactly what we wanted!

• When looking at the house on Cotton Place, we were repeatedly advised by our realtor NOT to buy the house (safety and resale concerns). He turned out to be wrong.    
• Before buying the house we asked the Elders of our church to come and walk around and pray with us over whether this house was a good place for our family. We all felt God was affirming this house as a good home for our family and as a better fit with who we are and our values.    

2013-2018 –  Blessings of affirmation from the Lord at Cotton Place

• Strong bonds and much spiritual fruit with neighbors (Christian and Non-Christian) 
• Walkable and diverse neighborhood – great magnet schools for our kids (Hunter, Ligon)
• In 2015, Fellowship Raleigh found a facility nearby also
• ** The redevelopment all around us, which we have mixed and mostly sad feelings about, caused the value of our home to increase by more than 100%.

2019 – We began asking what we should do with the equity (sell, remodel, let it sit, re-invest?) 

• With no plans to move, we did not want to sell and did not need to remodel.  
• As a family of 6 living on a single income Pastor’s salary we did not want to let the equity just sit and not help us in the here and now.  
• Taking a step of faith and reinvesting the equity seemed like an exciting and bold idea! 
• Starting in 2017 I (Matt) had been having occasional financial mentoring conversations with a Christian family member who has been successful in real estate investing. 
• After 30 years of family reunions in Boone (at times renting mountain homes to stay in) we began looking into investment properties in that area.  

July 2020 – During our annual summer trip to Boone, we were not intending to buy or even look much at real estate on this trip. However, God had other plans. On our last morning in Boone we saw the ideal mountain home pop up on realtor.com. We scheduled a showing twenty minutes after it was listed on the market. We looked at the house on our way out of town, made an offer on the spot, drove home to Raleigh, and were under contract as we pulled into our driveway in Raleigh!

August-November 2020 – During this pandemic, with our girls in remote school, we have been going up to Boone as often as possible to work on this house and get it ready for vacation renters. It has been the absolute healthiest and a truly wonderful thing for us as a family to take a step of faith together and work on a big project all together. 

December 2020 – The first vacation renters had a 2-night stay and it has been steadily rented ever since! We’ve had family stay there and we have had our friends enjoy it too (on a discount).   

Plans – We are using a property management company to handle EVERYTHING. We realize some people will misunderstand this and we never can control what others think. But I want to be clear that I am not some prosperity Pastor with loads of cash and many residences. This is a hard working side business for us (tent-making). We have to earn income from this property to make it work financially, however, we are also hoping we can be generous with this home to others in need or for ministry purposes (i.e. a honeymoon for a couple who cannot afford one, a retreat for a marriage in crisis, a missionary family on furlow, a Pastors retreat, etc.). It has been such a blessing for us to be more generous to others and our church because of income from this step of faith that God has blessed.
 

We are so thankful for this unique story of God’s PROVISION for our family. God has blessed our steps of faith in ironic, counterintuitive, awesome, and more-than-we-could-ask ways.

Through this experience, we have again seen how important it is to pray, make the big life decisions with intentionality and conviction, and to take big steps of faith trusting God. It has also been so fun to watch our girls see how good God is in His provision- even in a virtual school pandemic.

Special thanks to all who have helped and encouraged us! (Wambles, Smiths, Patrick, Page, Sam, Trathan, & many more)

The listing is here if you want to see more pictures. If you want to stay at this place this summer or fall hit us up!