About Sound and Bay

Sound and Bay is a first-person account of buying, renovating, and managing rental properties in Seattle and California. I share our experience so others can learn from our wins and losses.

My husband and I bought our first triplex in Seattle’s Central District in 2014. We lived in one unit, rented the others, and used that foundation to build a small portfolio over the next several years. At our peak we owned five properties across Washington and California.

We documented that process here as it happened — the renovation costs, the tenant situations, the financing strategies, the mistakes. The posts from that era are still up and still accurate.

In 2024, my husband died after a long illness. A lot changed after that. We moved to New York City with our two kids for his treatment, and after he passed I decided to stay. I sold one of the Seattle properties, and shifted how I think about the portfolio we built together. I’m still writing about all of it — the properties, the numbers, and what it looks like to manage real estate from a distance, in a different season of life.

Read the full update here.


Current portfolio

  • Central District, Seattle — triplex (3 units)
  • Cherry Hill, Seattle — duplex (2 units)
  • Union Hill, Bremerton — triplex (3 units)
  • Vallejo, California — single family home (1 unit)

All financial figures on this site are real. Nothing is rounded or estimated for effect.