Year in Review: Part 1

As this year comes to a close, I find it best to review everything I’ve done and try to summarize the lessons I’ve learned. I just read my entire blog over again, from beginning to end. I don’t want to do that every time I want to see what I’ve learned, so a summary would be prudent. I’ll do it in three parts. This is from January 2011 to April 2011.

I was so naïve with refinances. I started off the year with the idea of buying a property by the end of 2011 with refinances, not realizing that the properties I own aren’t qualified based on my loan to value ratios. One has to have a property that is much higher in value than what is owed in order to get a cash-out refinance, and I was unaware of this. I based my entire real estate goals for this year on refinances and I paid the price.

At the beginning of this year I was confused about relationships. At first I wanted to be in one, but later decided that they would be a detriment to my real estate ambitions. I wished for there to be a way to eliminate my desire to be in a relationship, and I did it with the social blog. The social blog was my biggest accomplishment this year, allowing me to do things to my psyche I didn’t think possible. The social experiments, the entries, and all that came with it really helped in understanding what kind of a person I am. By understanding myself and utilizing my strengths, I’ve developed into a better person and even a better investor.

Laurie. Jesus Christ. Reading about my trials and tribulations with property Chi’s former downstairs tenant Laurie was brutal. I couldn’t believe how stupid I was and how I could make so many mistakes with one person. From Laurie and her sister Annie, I learned that it’s better to pay the money and get an apartment fixed up than to rent out a half-finished apartment to a bum that’s going to mess my life up. I also learned to NEVER rent to Public Assistance or Section 8 tenants again, particularly those with five damned kids and no job! A lady called me when I was trying to rent out the upstairs of property Alpha last month. She had probably just got accepted for Public Assistance and was happy, just to find out once she got it that no one accepts PA tenants. She started asking me why I don’t take PA tenants, reminding me that I will definitely get my money. As much as she tried to argue, I always think about Laurie and the question is answered.

At the very start of this whole blog, I talked about the alternate reasons for writing this blog. One of them was to do an activity consistently. The theory was that, by doing one activity like writing a blog consistently, it would lead me to do other things consistently. Well, looks as if I was right. The first four months of this year had the lesson in refinances, the birth of the social blog, Laurie, and the beginning of my consistency.