So… hmm. This is kinda cool. Yesterday, at 6:22pm, I
officially rented out the upstairs unit of property Beta. My new tenant, Libby,
is a 61-year-old lady who works, plus gets a pension from her previous job where she
worked for over 25 years. She will be moving in with 2 cats and a small washer
for her clothes. She’s moving in because she likes the area and it’s close to
her daughter and grand children.
I would like to start whooping and patting myself on
the back, but there’s really nothing to celebrate here. From the 21st of May, it took me 23 days to get that place finished and rented out. That is absolutely
unacceptable. I was very picky this time around because I needed someone who
won’t be bothering me while I work on getting property Charlie. By the time Libby’s
lease is up, I should have a property Charlie fully rented out as well as a
good system of handling the new tenants in the property. During these 23 days,
I picked up on a couple of weird questions the prospectives were asking me. The
questions were out of place, as if they were taught to ask those questions from
a book or something.
The first question was, “Have many people come to
look at this place?” See, I’m kinda screwed both ways here. If I say yes, then
the prospective may feel there is too much competition and will not bother
applying. If I say no, the prospective may feel that there must be something
wrong with the apartment or the neighborhood and will not bother applying. To
cover both sides, I decided to use this answer: “We actually had someone that
qualified but they had an issue getting out of their lease with their landlord,
so the place is up for rent again.” This shows that the apartment is desired
and it makes the prospective that has no issues with their landlord feel as if
they have the upper hand. I’m sure there’s an easier way to answer this
question, but I’ll stick with this answer for now.
The second question I noticed was, “Now is this a
property management company I’d be dealing with? Are you the owner or the
maintenance guy?” They ask this more because I use the term “we” when talking
about who is fixing up the property or who is gonna be maintaining the place.
I’ve noticed that certain types of people have very negative reactions when I
tell them that I’m the owner of both the property and the management company. A
trio of young women came to look at the apartment yesterday and, when I told
them that I was the owner of everything, they didn’t ask any other questions
and left. Knowing that your landlord is as black as night might be off-putting,
especially in Smalltown. It’s still a head scratcher though, because that trio
of young women was all black. I figured they were one of those “uppity” black
girls that have low opinions of black men and ignored them. Amongst the people
that have some kind of ax to grind about black American men, black women are
usually at the top of that list. Rather than get into a whole racial debate
with people, I’m just gonna say that I’m the maintenance guy from now on. Easy
does it.
I also noticed other things, such as the prettier
the girl the less interested they are in the unit. Whenever I saw a couple of
dudes or an ugly chick I saw more interest in the apartment and I can probably
guess as to why. Despite the weird questions and the snooty pretty women, the only
thing that matters is the apartment is officially rented out and I couldn’t
have picked a better tenant. Other than keeping a close eye on the water bill
for her washer, I don’t foresee any major problems with Libby. She made a small
inquiry into getting storm windows, but I’ll get her out of that mindset before
she moves in. She also asked that certain small things be done before she moves
in, which I agreed to. So next week will be the big one. Getting both Alpha and
Beta rental ready by next week Friday is the task, and I’m up to the challenge.
Once next week is over, I can FINALLY relax and focus on making money.
Estimated Taxes
The best definition I could find is “the advanced
payment of a current liability that is not being withheld for”. In other words,
if you make money off of anything else other than your job, such as investment
income, rents, or even alimony, and it’s over $1000, you have to pay taxes on
it. Estimated taxes are paid in advance, broken up into four payments throughout
the year. Some of the dates can change from time to time, but the general dates
are in the middle of January, April, June, and September. I never paid
estimated taxes until this year because my previous tax returns, done by
the idiot Nigerian tax guy, showed that I had only one property that I was
losing money on. Now that I’m showing a profit and reporting my earnings correctly, I have
to pay $1800 this year in estimated taxes. I’m quickly learning that there’s
always a price for doing the right thing.
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