After work yesterday, I put two coats of paint on each bedroom in the vacant apartment of property Alpha. It took me a while to get into the groove of painting, but I had music playing that kept me in the mood. By the time I was done, it was 6pm. I figured I had enough time to shower, go to the REIG (Real Estate Investors Group) meeting and let the paint dry, come back by 9pm, then put one more coat of paint to finish the bedrooms.
When I arrived at the meeting, there were only 8 people there. Three of them were speakers with presentations to give, so there were actually only 5 members that showed up. I first thanked the lady that recommended Alfonso to me. I was trying to meet and greet like I did before but one of the REIG members, let’s call him Oldman River, farted and the smell was too distracting. The first speaker was a mortgage consultant who talked about what the banks are looking for in an investor. As soon as he said that he only did residential properties (4 units or less), I tuned him out and focused on women sitting at a table outside the room. Besides, he didn’t look as if he wanted to be there.
The next speaker was a home inspector. She went on and on about how important it is to get your place inspected before you buy a property, putting special emphasis on radon testing. Radon is an odorless gas that comes up from the cracks of a foundation in a basement and can cause cancer. Yeah, I know. It made me laugh too. I don’t really care if there is a shitload of radon in my make-shift, poorly ventilated basement apartment. What’s the worst that could happen? Cancer?! Ha! You know, after my illness I wake up every morning and get used to the idea of dying. I don’t get out of bed until I enter that reality. Sometimes it takes a couple minutes, while other times it takes a few seconds. It’s become a habit that I instinctively do. I’m not suicidal or anything, but I like to know that if death comes knocking again I won’t blink. So I ignored her as well, particularly when she went on a long digression about her side business as a bunny rescuer.
The third speaker was there only to explain why the other speakers didn’t show up as scheduled, then have the nerve to hand out their cards. He didn’t have to give an explanation—it was 60 degrees with the sun shining in November. After he left, the meeting should have ended. Instead, Oldman River started a ridiculous debate about seasoning. It wasn’t really a debate, but rather a complaint about the rules banks have when selling a property. His pointless ramblings went on for a good 50 minutes!! I did a good job masking my contempt for Oldman River with affable smiles while I thought of all the things I wanted to do to him. Then they did “elections”, where no one nominated anyone because hardly anyone showed up, and the meeting was adjourned. By the time I got home, it was 10:30pm and I couldn’t do any more work.
I woke up at 4:30am today and was able to put on another coat of paint. After that, I have to paint the rest of the rooms and the hallway, and finally put the polyurethane on the floors. I’m pretty pissed at the REIG for wasting my time, as I could have painted everything in the time it took to do the meeting. The REIG is supposed to be an encouraging entity in my business world, but last night depressed me. I would have been better off reading a commercial real estate book and waiting for the paint to dry. But maybe it was my fault. I should have come in with my own questions when I saw that the meeting was going nowhere. Should I decide to go to the next meeting, I’ll have to prepare questions because I’m not wasting my time and money ($15 per month) like that again.
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