Willow Tufano is a now fifteen year old girl who lives in Florida, but she was only fourteen years old when she bought her first house with the help of her mother, and began renting it out for $700 a month. The two now own an additional house which they also rent out. They bought the first for $12,000 and the second for $17,500, incredibly low prices in the housing market. Willow’s plan is to buy her mother’s half of the houses when she turns eighteen and is legally allowed to own a house, she also hopes to own ten of these homes by that point.
Willow’s mother worked in real estate even before Willow asked for help to buy a house, and Willow helped gut and renovate houses for her mother, as she does still, now, for the houses that the two buy together and rent out. Willow has put so much time into these houses and this business that she has left her full time school for the gifted to be homeschooled through Florida’s Virtual School.
I am personally inspired by Willow because I know adults who are in a similar business, with buying and renting out houses, who are much later in life than she is. I didn’t think it was possible for a girl her age to be handling such big projects and to be putting so much energy into something that is generally something that adults who are older than her do. She’s also inspirational because she is able to balance school and her business, and she was able to recognize that she wouldn’t be able to do that while still enrolled in traditional schooling, and made the decision to switch to homeschooling.
I am interested in real-estate and I am also in business with my mom. So, this story is really inspiring especially a girl at the age of 15! I didn’t come from a family of contractors, plumbers, or electricians. So i know how hard it is to teach yourself how to fix or build something. I would spend half of my time looking at you tube videos on how to do something. I hope she meets her goal!