Mike and Laura play with their three children in the backyard.JOHNNY C.Y. LAM/The Globe and Mail
4 Rosemund Crescent, Kingston, Ont.
Asking price: $299,900
Selling price: $366,000
Monthly maintenance fees: $252
Taxes: $1932 (2021)
Days on the market: Five
Listing agent: Joel Thompson, Royal LePage.
Mike and Laura Acs have been lucky with their real estate investments since 2009. When the couple bought their first house in Burlington, Ont., for $289,000 and sold it three years later for $374,000, they knew real estate would be their game. Since then, they repeated their success with their second house in Fergus, Ont., buying it for $304,000 in 2012 and selling it for $577,000 in 2019.
Attracted by the close proximity to Lake Ontario and the extra curricular activities available for kids, the couple decided to move to Kingston and bought a condo for $165,000 with cash in 2019.
“The condo was looking quite tired when we first got it and we decided to put in $20,000 and renovated the place ourselves. I’m most proud of the work we did in the bathroom, it totally transformed the condo,” Mike said as he flipped through a photo album with the after photos of the condo.
Mike flips through photos of a condo they used to own in Kingston. The couple bought the condo in November, 2019 in an all cash deal for $165,000.JOHNNY C.Y. LAM/The Globe and Mail
After they completed the renovation, Mike and Laura decided to take a trip to Europe in November, 2019 with their three young children and treated themselves to a much-deserved break. They rented out the condo, packed a few suitcases and went to England, Greece, Italy and Hungary, where Mike’s family is originally from.
“We loved Hungary,” Laura said. “It was affordable, the food was great and the people were very friendly. We had strangers coming up to us telling us how wonderful it was to see a family with young children traveling together. It felt like home. Mike also speaks Hungarian, which was helpful.”
When the pandemic hit in March, 2020, the family had to return to Canada and moved back into the condo. During the first lock down, Mike and Laura realized that they wanted a bit more space for the family and a backyard for the children to play in. They decided to find a house to move into and sold the condo in July, 2020 for $250,000.
The couple then bought a townhouse in August, 2020 for $250,000 and started another renovation shortly after they moved in.
“Laura was working from home and I had a lot of free time,” Mike said. “It was the right project to get into during the pandemic and we put $16,000 towards the renovation. We installed a brand new kitchen, new appliances, new flooring and refinished one of the bathrooms.”
The family of five has lunch in their kitchen.JOHNNY C.Y. LAM/The Globe and Mail
“We started thinking about renting out the house and going back to Europe,” Laura said. “The housing market is super hot and we thought, why not try our luck and see what we’ll get for it,” Mike said.
Having lived in their house for less than a year, Mike and Laura decided to taking advantage of the red hot real estate market and sold their house in Kingston in just 5 days for over asking.JOHNNY C.Y. LAM/The Globe and Mail
The townhouse was listed for $299,900 on April 29 and was sold on May 4 for $366,000 with multiple offers. “It was a crazy day! We had an offer at 8:00 a.m. and they just kept coming in, one higher than the last!” Laura said. “In the end, we couldn’t believe we got an offer for $366,000,” Mike said. “We were both flabbergasted!”
“We don’t have any real plans. Right now, we are concentrating on finding a rental for when we first land, but we hope to eventually buy a house with some land in Hungary. Houses there are so much more affordable compared to Canada,” Mike said.
Kingston resident Ryan Wright, right, picking up his purchases bought on Facebook Marketplace from Mike.
With no plans to keep anything in storage, the couple have sold nearly everything they owned and are planning to take only a few suitcaes with them when they move to Hungary at the end of June this year.JOHNNY C.Y. LAM/The Globe and Mail
Once in Hungary, Mike will be focusing on developing his YouTube Channel – Mike Me Up, into a money making platform, where he talks about living a more simple and minimalistic lifestyle. Laura is able to keep her job and work remotely as a bookkeeper. Her employer, Finally CPA, which offers virtual outsourced accounting services, has been supportive of her move.
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