Before I moved to Philadelphia, I had lived in LA,Manhattan, Washington D.C., and New Jersey. Beautiful cities, all of them — but the real estate prices felt suffocating, and the competition was brutal. After diving deep into real estate investing, I kept asking myself the same question: where can someone like me actually get started without needing a small fortune just to get in the door?
Philadelphia kept coming up. Large population, tons of old buildings, ongoing redevelopment in almost every neighborhood, and property prices that still make sense compared to New York or D.C. For a beginner investor, that combination is rare on the East Coast. So I packed up and moved here — not just to live, but to learn this market from the inside out.
Living in a Converted School Building
My current apartment used to be a school. From the outside, it’s stunning — the kind of building that makes you stop and take a photo. Inside, it feels modern and loft-like, with high ceilings and that raw, industrial character that developers love to sell. When I first saw it, I thought: this is exactly the kind of conversion project I want to do someday.
Then I actually moved in.
A few weeks in, I started noticing things. The soundproofing is almost nonexistent. I can hear the water pump kick on every time someone upstairs uses the bathroom. Footsteps. TV sounds. And the smells — because the gap around my front door is nearly a full centimeter — I know exactly when my neighbor is cooking garlic, and I’m pretty sure they know my entire weekly menu too.
I ended up buying weather strips, soundproofing foam, and sponge tape. I spent a weekend pressing and gluing strips around every edge of my door and windows. It helped. Not perfectly, but enough.
The Beautiful Window That Almost Froze Me
The floor-to-ceiling glass window is the reason I chose this apartment. It fills the whole room with light and makes the space feel twice as big. In the spring, it’s gorgeous.
I moved in during February.
That winter was brutal, and those original windows — charming as they are — were basically a glass wall between me and the cold. I could feel the chill radiating off the glass from across the room. I layered up, bought a space heater, and thought: if I ever develop a building, I will never cheap out on windows just to save money. Ever.
What This Is Teaching Me as a Future Developer
I’m currently studying for my Pennsylvania real estate license, and my long-term goal is to become a developer — someone who takes old, forgotten buildings and turns them into places people actually want to live.
But here’s what living in this converted school has made me promise myself: before I ever hand over keys to a tenant, I’m going to spend at least one night in the finished unit. One night where I feel the noise, the cold, the door gaps, and the light at 6am. Because you can’t design for people’s comfort if you’ve never experienced the discomfort yourself.
A Small Confession
I’m a divorced woman living alone in Philadelphia, figuring things out one building at a time. This blog is part investment journal, part honest diary — and sometimes writing it feels like the most useful thing I do all day.
If you’re renting in Philadelphia, or thinking about investing here, I hope the small details in these posts make you think twice about what really matters in a home. The view is great. But so is being able to sleep without hearing your neighbor’s shower.
Someday, I want to build the kind of place where people don’t have to choose between beautiful and comfortable.