Now about this blog…

So now that The Guilded Cage is officially off life support and has been allowed to go quietly off into the night, that brings us to a crossroads.

What should I do regarding the name and stated purpose of this here blog?

I intend to continue posting here, mainly about our adventures in the realm or real estate for fun and profit.  And I will also be throwing in some of my thoughts of a more political/economic nature.

But the project that spawned this blog is no more.

So what do you, my reader (note the singular), have to say on the matter?  I am open to suggestions…

Update on The Guilded Cage (the B&B)

Denise was in fact not reading this so I sent an email formally pulling the plug on my offer.  We received the check in the mail today.  So that project is now a thing of the past.  That’s not to say it will never happen.  I still like the property.  I would still very much like to own it.  But I have other fish to fry and having that hanging over my head was just getting in the way.  If it’s still available after we get this deal and another like it done we may revisit buying that property.  Only time will tell.

Our first team member

So Mum and I are back home after a busy day of getting things done. 

The afternoon edition was incredibly boring!  We spent several hours hanging around at Pepboys while they replaced an arthritic ball joint in Galileo’s left front suspension.  I’m glad we had lunch before we had the work done!

Lunch was good and our waitress was great.  (And cute, but I digress…  (I wonder if she’d be interested in managing a B&B?  But I digress still further!)

Things took so long at Pepboys (not their fault.  We didn’t get there until lunch time and because they were booked solid at the moment we went off to get lunch first…) we didn’t get back in time to pick up my Armani suit at the cleaners.  I’ll have to get that Monday after work and bring it to the consignment shop next Saturday.  But that’s worthy of a blog post all its own.  :-)

Now the morning edition is the part you may be more interested in, ‘specially if your reading this blog.

After floundering a bit with our latest real estate adventure and not getting much accomplished, yesterday Mum took the initiative and made a few phone calls. 

I really can’t do much phone work because of my Just Over Broke.  A while back my boss bitched me out for making calls during work hours – even though I was still getting my work done even as I talked on the phone.  “It sounds like an MLS office around here!”  My day job is mechanical design on SolidWorks 3D CAD so reading back MLS numbers to make sure I’m looking at the right listing and having Realtor.com up in a small window off to the side of my screen really doesn’t go over too well.

So anywho, Mum was unable to find a commercial real estate lawyer who sounded worthy of our time.  One actually wanted to know all the details of the deal up front.  Mum responded “I am not at liberty to reveal any details at this time.”  You done good, Mum!  He sounded like the kind of skunk who’d run right out and get it under contract himself and cut us right out of the deal!  In fact I saw his name on several signs listing commercial property for lease while we were out.

Failing to find a lawyer to help out with keeping this deal as strictly a FSBO I suggested we try to find a buyer’s agent.  Mum found one and we met in person at his office this morning.  Our first team member is now firmly on board and he likes the sound of this deal.  More than that, he’s been involved in the real estate game as an investor himself in the two to four family market.  That’s exactly the kind of help we need.  This deal is for a fourteen unit apartment complex, so it’s bigger than any of his, but it’s not that much of a stretch.

As Mum and I were talking about this latest step I used the analogy: “Our ship is on the launch pad and being fueled.”  Once we own this property we will have lift off.  With two more like it we will have reached orbit.  From there who knows how far we’ll go!

Not sitting idly by...

Since the Guilded Cage is flying a holding pattern right now I'm keeping busy looking at other property a bit closer to home.  As in a 14-unit apartment complex.  This property cash-flows right out of the box.  Wish me luck!

Round 1 goes to the stupid.

Or so it seems. 

Apparently I will not be buying the jail from the imbecile that owns it now.  I may still buy it, but it will either be from the County after they seize if for non-payment of the property tax or from the lender assuming he forecloses on the mortgage, which is in default, and pays the taxes himself before the County takes it.

It's really too bad.  I was truly looking for a solution where everybody wins.  But in trying not to loose the present owner has forfeited the game.

Denise, if you are reading this, you can send my uncashed check to the address you have on file.

Accomplishing stuff instead of wasting time on Facebook for a change.

So now that my craigslist water heater’s been installed (and thus is no longer in my way in the shop…) I’ve rearranged the shop and made it more ‘shop like.’ 

My $25 yard sale find in the form of a DeWalt radial arm saw is now in line with the porch door.  That way I can open the door to work with much longer stock than I could where it first landed in my shop. 

The yard sale find in the form of a back-up generator is now where last years failed experiment in the form of a (now deceased) tomato plant was. 

The little computer table that had been in the living room before finding it’s way to the shop (also a yard sale find) is now where the radial arm saw was and will shortly be transferred to storage pending its being listed on craigslist.  (You wouldn’t happen to need a nice little computer table by any chance?  I’ll give you a really good deal on it…)  Once brought to storage the table will be replaced by my Black & Decker Workmate (which is yet another yard sale find from a bunch of years ago.)

I had to reposition the main power strip and reconnect everything because of the equipment’s new locations in the shop.  Yes, there are several significant power tools plugged into the same power strip.  They only get used one or at most two at a time.  So I don’t think the load is a problem.  (The second being either the compressor or the shop vac.)  The power strip has its own breaker anyway, just in case.  I don’t remember if the power strip was from a yard sale of not…

A bunch of other little stuff has been shuffled around to make things a bit neater.  And a bunch of boxes of stuff that piled up out there while the shop was unusably filled with a water heater have been moved to Galileo’s cargo bay pending delivery to storage.

As for all this yard sale stuff…  Why pay full price?  That vintage radial arm saw set me back $25.  A modern RAS if purchased new would cost at least $250 for a piece of junk that wouldn’t last and would potentially be dangerous to boot.  A good saw comparable to my yard sale find would probably set you back a grand or more.  I have seen high end radial arm saws listed on-line for as much as $3,500 (!) though I don’t think this one’s quite in that league…  All mine needs is a good cleaning and for the table to be replaced, which, if used the way the previous owned did, is sacrificial anyway.  I know better and will set it up right, so that won’t be an issue in the future.

A lot of this ‘getting the shop back in shop shape’ was spawned by last night’s efforts to fix the power head of my electric string trimmer.  I managed to get the job done – and the lawn mowed – but it wasn’t the most convenient shop that I’ve ever worked in by any stretch of the imagination!  This arrangement should be much better and when it’s finally organized the way I want, it may actually be a pleasure to spend time out there puttering.

I sure hope so!

Hardball

It’s about time I update y’all on the status of our offer.

Since my last post we’ve bounced back and forth several emails and even faxed in a new set of offer papers with updated figures and dates.

And we’ve waited.

And waited.

I finally heard back from the realtor last Thursday.  Supposedly "the seller" wants another prequel letter.  And "he" wants me to double my earnest money deposit right after the inspection.

I sent back an email that said NO in no uncertain terms.

I pointed out that a contract can be made legal with as little as one dollar changing hands.  They already have a check in hand for a lot more than that.  I also stated unequivocally  that I will not apply for a mortgage on a house that has not been inspected and for which we have not yet settled upon a price.  While I was at it I also mentioned that they already have a prequel latter from another property I was looking at just prior to my offer on this one.  And that house was about double the range we are negotiating in for this one.

The final tactical nuke I dropped in that email was to point out that they have had this listing for at least a year and a half.  “In this buyer’s market it would be unwise to chase away the one serious offer you’ve had on this property.”

I also signed it more formally than I’ve been signing my emails up to this point.

The reply was cordial and made no mention of increasing the deposit or requiring another prequel letter.  We’ll see if future correspondence is any more timely…