How is it I Never Met This Guy Before?

This is a short, neighborly story. This weekend Kate and I spent a little time cleaning out the last bits of stuff from the Stevenson Ln. basement. The real estate agent suggested it would make the basement look bigger. By the end we had a completely full truck and a queen size mattress, box spring and an old dining room table to unload. We left it in the alley for bulk trash pick up, which it turns out isn't a service offered by Baltimore County.

I contacted both Salvation Army and Goodwill, the latter of which didn't accept mattresses. The former did, but made it difficult to manage. So I settled on taking everything to the dump. A shame, I know, but what are you gonna do?

The climax of the story, please. Yes, of course. So today I went over early in the morning to tie everything to the roof of the truck for transport. In the middle of hauling all four pieces over to the car a neighbor on the opposite side of the alley came out and offered to help. I was very happy to accept. After lifting the mattress onto the truck it became clear the tying everything down was going to be tricky. Doable, but time consuming. My neighbor...we'll call him Scott because apparently that's his name, then offered to haul everything to the dump himself in his pick up truck. He was heading that way anyway, he said. I tried to refuse, but he was insistent. So I took him up on the offer.

We chatted as we loaded his pick up. Turns out he moved into his house in '98, exactly the same year, and only a month or two earlier than my move in. And in all that time we never had the occasion to meet. Now, eleven years and change later we meet in the twilight of my residency, probably never to speak again, and the guy goes and does an incredibly neighborly thing.

I think people are inherently good. Or rather people, by nature, think of others at least as much as they think of themselves.

Breathing a Sigh of Relief

It's official. I can breath again. I'm meeting this Saturday with the new tenants of Stevenson Ln. to sign the lease and finalize. Then I'm going to register with the county and the whole shebang will be legit, legal and puncture-proof. And it won't be a negative to my balance sheet, which is a strong positive to my life.

Here's to neat freak tenants who can't help themselves but treat your house with love and only call you when there's actually a problem, which almost never happens. Stack that one with the positives.

Well Deserved Comfort

After a long day of hard labor there's nothing better than a hot shower and a cozy bed to lie in. Jason and I just finished getting the house ready for potential buyers. We put it on the market tomorrow.

I worked for Our365 this morning and then went over to the house to start working right afterwards. I worked at the house from 2pm to 10pm. I don't think I've ever worked that hard before. I'm finding bruises and scratches all over me and my feet and hands are raw and sore. But really all that truly matters is that it's complete. We of course may have to do a few touch-ups here and there, but the hard strenuous labor is over. When I got home I went straight into the bathroom and took a hot shower. It was probably my most well deserved shower and it felt amazing. I wish there was a way to take a shower sitting down. I guess you could have a bigger shower with a sit built in, that would be perfect. Now I'm laying in bed and ready to pass out, Jason won't stop talking. Sometimes all I need is quit and comfort. Good night!

Light is Approaching

The Stevenson House is not done yet. We've over shot two of our previous deadlines. But we're trying to keep positive the best we can. I can honestly finally say that I see a light at the end of this dark and stormy tunnel (especially stormy since it has practically been raining since we started this project). We only have cleaning and some painting to do and the house will be viewable. We have a new goal of having a perfect home by this Friday and I do see us finally making the set deadline. It's been a tough road, but Jason and I kept our heads up and soon our lives will go back to some form of normalcy.

That's What Family is For

Most of you are probably aware that, due to an unfortunate run-in with the bureaucratic machine that is Baltimore County, our tenants at our old house are being forced to move out, which is therefore forcing us to put it on the market. Not the greatest time to be entering the fray, but when you're faced with limited options, you still have to choose.

Anyway, the point is we were crushing to get the house ready for an open house this Sunday. And my Dad came up today and spent the entire day, in the nasty cold rain, helping try and make our deadline. We didn't make it, but only because rain slowed us down, and ruined our tenants plans to be out of the house all day for Towson's Homecoming. So next Sunday will now be our first open house, and Kate and I will head back a few evenings this week coming up to try and finish the last few things. But deadline or not, it was really nice getting to spend the day with my Dad.

I'm really happy that my family is local, and that we're all close enough to help each other out in a pinch. My cousin James offered his help, too, completely out of the blue (thanks, James...even though we didn't take you up on it, I appreciate it). It's all a testament to family and connectedness, and miserable drenching power of cold, constant rain.

Landlording...with GOOD Tenants

That's the most important element to making landlording work. Good tenants. But nearly as important is a property that's not falling in on itself. If you can put those two together, landlording is a great way to make a little extra scratch.

Most of you know, but for those of that don't, the house Kate and I live in now used to be a rental property I bought about seven years ago. At some point in the past a previous owner built partition walls, turning each floor into a separate apartment. So four apartments, four groups of tenants, and more than a handful of headaches.

The problem there was two-fold. I had some good tenants mixed with a few bad apples, and a house with a leaky roof, leaky basement, old plumbing, etc. I got calls fairly often to either fix things or arbitrate disagreements. After years of putting up with this I decided to convert it back into a single family home, fixing all the issues at the same time.

So a year ago, around the same time Kate and I were looking to move into University and sell Stevenson the housing market tanked. Selling was not longer a viable option, so I opted to rent out Stevenson. Towson University is right there, so there's always a big demand for housing. We screened prospective tenants very carefully, finally settling on a group of four Towson students.

What a difference! The girls take impeccable care of the house, pay rent on time, don't have any issues with the neighbors, and are all-around great people. And since Stevenson is good shape, I almost never hear from them. Other than a few months ago when the hot water heater started to die, the issues they call about are all very minor. Today I stopped by to drop off their water bill and tighten up the front door knob, which had gotten very loose. A two minute repair.

Especially now, with real estate prices back in realistic levels and interest rates at an almost all-time low, buying rental property is a great idea. Just get a good house and screen for good tenants. It makes all the difference.