Thinking about buying a home, but not sure how to afford it? Welcome to the Down Payment Diaries , where real people spill about how they saved and splurged on their path to homeownership. If you’d like to submit your own Down Payment Diary, please fill out the form here .
Today, an artist shares how her husband’s retirement from the U.S. National Park Service led them to St. Croix—and a four-bedroom home with a passive income stream.
What was your home experience when you were growing up? My parents owned a home in Naples, Florida, where I had a horse in the backyard. This was before Naples became what it is today. Winn Dixie had a cattle farm at the end of the street.
What was your homeownership journey like until recently? My husband has dedicated his entire 49-year career to the National Park Service and we moved somewhere between 12 and 15 times for that job—to places like Guam, Saipan and the North Carolina Coast. This is the third home that we’ve owned—we still own our home in Philadelphia and, before that, we owned in New Orleans—but it’s the first time we’re moving on our own terms and going somewhere we want to move to.
What led you to start looking for a new home? My husband retired earlier than we had initially planned.
Where were you looking? We knew we wanted somewhere warm—I’m comfortable at temperatures of 85℉ and above—and we needed it to be affordable. We thought we would retire in Naples, but now it’s much too expensive. Then, we were thinking about Mexico and Bali. We’d been to Bali three times, but decided it was too isolated. In Mexico, U.S. citizens cannot own property 32 miles from the coast. We thought, What’s the point of being there if you can’t enjoy the sea?
How did you end up choosing St. Croix? We had visited St. Croix for my husband’s work and I fell in love with the island. People on the island are very friendly and St. Croix checks an extra box in that it’s technically part of the U.S.
What was your search like? We started looking at homes online immediately. I researched for more than four months and looked at well over 100 homes. Before we came down, I also researched real estate agents and found one I liked: Timothy Providence with Remax.
How long did you look in person? We were on St. Croix for three weeks to house hunt. We rented a condo by the beach and a car and our Realtor lined up places for us to see.
Did you have any non-negotiables? We had to have an ocean view. I was hoping to get a two-car carport and a pool, both of which I knew we could add if need be. The other non-negotiable was to have four bedrooms as I planned to start a tourist business.
What kind of business? We knew we needed to have some form of passive income. Neither of us were keen on being landlords and we certainly didn’t want to Airbnb part of our home, so I had the thought, Why don’t I just organize trips to St. Croix? I teach art, and for years, I organized trips and took small groups to Europe.
How did you know this was the one? I didn’t. I saw it online, and discounted it immediately because it was listed as a three bedroom. Timothy, who is the world’s best Realtor, said, “Trust me, you need to go and look at it.” We did, and found that it has a huge bonus room that measures 11 x 30. It’s like a second living room that could easily be walled off to create another bedroom.
What did you like about the home? I can see the ocean from one tiny corner of the patio. It doesn’t have a pool, but it does have a big screened-in patio and a two-car carport and it’s in a nice neighborhood. The price was also right and the road to the house was decent. Several of the homes we looked at were reachable only by rough roads.
Was there anything else that sold you? The house has solar panels. I just love that. We didn’t expect to get them, but they’re great to have. It’s on the grid and we pay for electricity, but the solar panels help cover the costs so that our monthly electric bill is just $5. They also serve as back-up in the event of an emergency.
What offer did you make on the house? We offered $480,000. They countered at $485,000 and we accepted. The only thing we asked after the inspection was that they install GFCI outlets, which they did. The house was in excellent condition and showed pride of ownership. It was spotlessly clean, freshly painted and had new tile floors.
Did you make any other offers? No, and I’m really glad we didn’t. The home that had been my first choice was next door to a junkyard. I didn’t feel that I could invite people to that home. Another one we liked had a sea view and overlooked a golf course, but it needed so much work that it was really more of a teardown. And there was another home we liked, but the road to it was nearly impassable.
How much of a down payment did you put down? My husband was in the army, so we qualified for a VA loan which meant we didn’t have to put 20% down. We put down $11,000.
Did you take advantage of any other VA benefits? We didn’t have to pay mortgage insurance and, since my husband is a disabled veteran, we also didn’t have to pay an origination fee. That saved us another $10,000.
Where did the down payment come from? We’d been saving. I think it has been instilled into my generation to save as much as possible. We lived very frugally our entire lives with retirement in mind.
What’s the plan with your home in Philadelphia? We have lived there for 15 years, and have a fair amount of equity. Once we sell that, we plan to pay off the balance of this new house, and install a decent inground pool.
Is the plan that this will be your forever home? Absolutely. And I told that to our Realtor. We plan to age in place.
How will the business work? Four bedrooms accommodate six people, if two rooms are double occupancy. I ran the numbers and wrote a business proposal for these art trips. Turns out, organizing three trips a year nets us the same amount as renting a suite for the entire year.
What do you love most about this house? I love living where it’s warm and sunny. We don’t move for a few more weeks so every morning when I wake up, I ask Alexa what the forecast is on St. Croix and I picture that outdoor space at the house. Mentally, I’m there already.
The realtor.com® editorial team highlights a curated selection of product recommendations for your consideration; clicking a link to the retailer that sells the product may earn us a commission.
