Willow Tufano seems like an average 14-year-old girl. She likes animals and Lady Gaga, and hates algebra. There is something, however, that sets her apart from a normal teenager: the fact that she and her mother evenly split the cost to purchase a foreclosed house in Florida for $12,000.
Her mother Shannon became a real estate agent in 2005, during the housing market boom. Willow was often by her side, observing the investors who were pursuing cheap foreclosures. At one of these short sales, she asked the investor if she could sell the furniture and other belongings left behind in the house on Craigslist. He gave her the go-ahead, and she started building the capital that would go into the purchase of her home. After she’d done it for more and more houses, she was raking it about $500 a month, most of which she saved.
When Willow’s mother happened to mention a 2-bedroom, concrete-block house that was for sale for $12,000 to her husband in front of Willow, and Willow thought “What if I bought a house? That would be crazy.”
She discussed it with her mother, and they went forward with the unconventional idea and purchased the home. Although minors cannot legally own property in Florida until 18, Willow plans on buying out her mother for the rest of the house once she reaches that age. It wasn’t easy turning the foreclosed home into a rental, but they are now renting it out for $700 a month.
Willow says, “If there’s one thing I want people to know, it’s that your age does not matter. If I can inspire another person my age, younger, that would mean the world. Whether it’s buying a house, buying a car, or whatever. If you really work for it and put your mind to it you can do what you want to do.”
For her future, she explains that her interests lie more in investments than in her mother’s field of real estate. Though she can understand why others would prefer the social aspect of connecting with potential home-owners, she likes “[getting] to see a property that was a mess before and afterward see that it’s beautiful.”
