Thanksgiving

So, I stopped by and saw my loan officer friend yesterday. He was introduced to me by Diamond Jim many years ago. As we were talking, he discovered that no, I had never lived in Birmingham. Apparently he assumed that was why I had bought a gazillion homes there. Nope.

After giving him the Reader's Digest version of how we ended up investing there and explaining I was frantically working on a Wayback Machine so I could go warn my 2002 self what I was in for, he said, "You are probably the only property investor I know who owns more than five rental homes and still has them since the collapse. Do you know how extraordinary you are to have made every mortgage payment?"

Extraordinary? I don't feel extraordinary. I feel exhausted. The extraordinary hat really doesn't seem to fit.

Yes. we have made all of our payments--sometimes at the expense of our personal grocery budget. We have made every payment on time too. I know there are investors out there who for one reason or another did not survive. I know what they went through. I don't think they gave up or took the easy way out. If we hadn't gone halfsies with Mr. Partner on our expenses we would be one of those folks. The odds were against us in 2008 and 2009. In fact, the only reason we survived in 2008 is someone bought one of our rentals. The money we made gave us enough cash to carry us through the summer of our seven simultaneous vacancies and one tenant bankruptcy.

I don't talk much about my faith. But if you know me personally, you know it is an important part of who I am. About 2009 Marty Sunshine and I started a family prayer routine with our kids. I believe in my heart it has been the cornerstone of what has kept us going with our accidental business. There have been many prayers for Alabama. For Mr. Partner. For the rest of the folks we work with in Alabama and beyond who have helped us along the way. We have prayed endlessly for our tenants. We still pray for a few past tenants--wherever they might be. And, we thank God for His continued blessings, the courage to embrace hard work and to recognize opportunities to fix our undercapitalized issues. Because we aren't truly extraordinary. We have just been blessed.

A Small Price To Pay

Other than undercapitalized issues, two vacancies and a third tenant who is thisclose to eviction (according to my sources), the only other Alabama drama going on right now is Mrs. Sherwood's flooring. You see, she has this carpeting in her kitchen that was installed in the early 1960s. It looks like--and I am not making this up--brown chain links on a dingy mustard background. Except the brown is more of a garish dried blood brown. At any rate, it is ugly. And old. And because it has 50+ years of spills, splatters and who knows what else landing on it, it is pretty gross.

When I went to visit earlier this year, Mrs. Sherwood and I chatted about her kitchen floor and she asked if she could have something newer and more attractive installed. Given Mrs. Sherwood has lived in this house since 2007, rarely pays late and handles all the minor fixes herself, this is a small request. After all, I have been expecting her to give notice any day for the past three years.

Also, I happen to know if she shopped around she would find out she is paying 2007 rental prices in a 2013 rental market (rents in general have dropped about 20 percent). So, if Mrs. Sherwood wants new flooring, I think I can find a way to accommodate that. Or at least I felt that way back in March when she asked. And besides, when she eventually moves out, I will have to have it replaced it anyway.

Fast forwarding eight months, when Mrs. Sherwood brought to my attention last month that I had agreed to new flooring, I was dealing with a bad-ass sinus infection threatening to turn into pneumonia and had a myriad of personal issues swarming around me. In addition, if you back up to last summer, on the Alabama front as you may (or may not recall), I had been dealing with attorneys, vacancies and Alabama Power. So, Mrs. Sherwood's kitchen floor was pretty far from the front of my to-do list.

Frankly, I had completely forgotten about the flooring until she brought it up again last month.

Though I remembered discussing this last March, what I wasn't certain about is what kind of deal we made. And finally, I had to admit this to Mrs. Sherwood. I hated to loose the upper hand, because for all I know I could have agreed to hardwoods throughout the house last spring. Turns out it was just the kitchen. And Mrs. Sherwood said that I had agreed to buy the materials and she would handle the rest. To her credit, she shopped around a bit, decided on a dark laminate and found a great deal for me. She tells me Howie the Handyman will be installing the flooring this week--just in time for Thanksgiving.

Hopefully the $600 I spent on flooring will keep Mrs. Sherwood happy for another several years.

Chalkville is Lovely This Time of Year

So I got a text from Daisy yesterday. Did I have any vacant upcoming homes in the new year? She was looking for herself. I would like to point out Daisy works for a property management company which manages about 250 homes. With an average industry turnover of five percent that company is looking at 12 to 13 homes per month coming vacant. So, she doesn't necessarily need one of mine to rent.

However, as it happens, I currently have two properties that might interest her. Daisy is intimately familiar with these homes, as I contact her about once a week to say, "It's rented now, right?" At which point Daisy takes a play from Kirby's book and ignores me--but thus answers my question anyway. I presume I would hear a choir of angels rejoicing moments before I got a call from Daisy saying, "I've got a tenant."

I threw both vacant houses at her at got a varied response of, "that one is a bit too far," (which I suspect means the same thing as, "that house is a half mile from Kirby's place") for the one in Chalkville to the very diplomatic-not-a-violation-of-any-federal-fair-housing-law-whatsoever response of, "I am not sure I am a good fit for the neighborhood," for my home in Centerpoint. Truthfully, unless she is a drug lord, murderer or has gang ties, I suspect she isn't a good fit either.

I was baffled by Daisy's request to rent one of my properties and wondered exactly what kinds of homes she sees every day in her job that makes mine so attractive. Not that mine are all that bad. They mostly aren't. No matter, if I can get rid of some of my dead wood tenants, that was fine with me. I have a Section 8 tenant whom I am not excited about. Her lease is up December 31st. I told Daisy to tour the house, if she liked it, give a 30 day notice to the tenant. I would love to replace the Section 8 tenant with someone different (one of these days I really should write about this tenant).

The tenants in house in Fultondale pay late every month. They give Kirby and Daisy fits. The tenants are in continual violation of their lease. I told Daisy if she wanted that house, go ahead and do the same there too.

In both cases I am serious. But I will let Kirby decide if this can happen. Otherwise, I have a lovely home in Chalkville that might be of interest if she needs to move sooner than later.