It took until Monday before I was willing to consider Ms. Shirley might possibly be telling me the truth. Maybe, just maybe, the rent really was lost in the mail.
When I called her Monday to tell her the check hadn't arrived, she didn't make excuses. She immediately started giving me solutions. What she said was she had most of the money. She was calling a friend to see if she could get a loan. She would call me back. Never did she say, "Will you take less?" Instead, she was still working her tail off to get the rest.
By the end of the day, her friend hadn't loaned her the remainder. But, it was enough to cover my mortgage. So, I took it, with her promise that the remaining money would come. One of the first sayings I heard when I started doing business in the South was "A half a loaf of bread is better than no loaf of bread."
When I calculated, the money I am short is far less than the hassle and expense of evicting her. I also believe I will see the remaining money.
Ms. Shirley also offered that next month she would get a cashier's check instead of a money order. Money orders take 45 days to be reimbursed and there is a fee to stop payment. Her bank will give her a cashier's check and stopping payment is immediate.
I was ready to concede Ms. Shirley was playing straight until she said with regard to the lost rent something along the lines of, "I am not a liar." That conjured up an image of the "leaking roof" in my mind's eye.
Right now I have most of her rent and a few doubts. Let's see if she manages to pull the rest out.
Friday, June 11, 2010
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1 comment:
My bet is (at the risk of repeating myself) that your money order is sitting in the wrong PO Box. Speaking of southern sayings, here's one for you, "The South is a place, north, east and west are just directions".
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