This really was one hell of a year. My original plan was to buy property Charlie in June of 2012, then save up from then until the end of 2013 to purchase property Delta and retire at the beginning of 2014. But there were so many obstacles and I made so many mistakes that I ended up not buying any properties this year and will have to wait until the END of 2014 to retire. One hell of a year indeed.
The year started off good but then the taxes came up. I foolishly allowed that Nigerian tax guy to do my taxes for years, so that when I took it to a REAL accountant—Ross, I found out just how much trouble I was in. So I paid $6000 to get my credit right, only to discover later on that I could have made a payment plan with the $6000. I didn’t have to pay it all at once. At the time, I knew nothing about the IRS except that they are some greedy mother fuckers that can go into your account and just take shit without asking. I didn’t want to be on their bad side so I just paid it all off. Then I decided to also re-do my 2010 tax return which meant I owed even MORE money to the IRS. And here’s the kicker: I only re-did my 2010 taxes because I needed two years of good tax returns in order to purchase a property, and I wanted to do that this year. Now that I’m not doing it this year, I could have simply waited to do my 2012 taxes and I wouldn’t have had to worry about 2010. I would have had the 2011 and 2012 taxes done without having to worry about 2010. So I basically gave myself a $10k debt for nothing! What an idiot. I wanted to blame my new tax guy Ross for not telling me about the option of payment plans in the beginning, but the “My Fault” philosophy doesn’t allow that. I’m over 30 years old, I should have known better. If I had saved that $6k, I would have already bought property Charlie and had it rented out by now.
I also had to deal with that short sale property that I wanted at the beginning of the year. It was a waste of time, but at least I learned that short sale properties are a pain in the ass. They normally don’t do financing so I have to make cash offers. And even when the cash offer is made, it can take months or even years just to get the property, and you still have to beat the unknown bids of the other potential buyers. Short sales are like investments that one makes when they have a lot of money. You put the offer in and then move to something else. Sitting around waiting for a short sale to finalize can drive anyone crazy. Speaking of crazy, I got my last idiotic tenants Stan and Nicky out of my life this year. Stan was unexpected but Nicky was an annoying (but sexy) tenant that brought welfare back into my life:
Stan: I learned the power of security deposits. When Stan had most of his security deposit already in hand, he left the upstairs unit of property Beta looking like crap. It took forever to get that place rented out again. Always keep the security deposit until they move all their shit out, NO exceptions. When the Homos of property Chi moved out, they believed they were getting a portion of their security deposit back and cleaned the place spotless. Lesson learned.
Nicky: When someone doesn’t have the full amount of money to move in, chances are they shouldn’t get the apartment. Starting off a tenancy with a fucking payment plan is a bad sign and I should have never moved her in. I knew that she barely made enough money to afford the place but I let her move in anyway, so all the stuff that happened when she moved in her welfare friends to help pay the rent was my fault. She shouldn’t have been there in the first place. My experience with her also taught me to maintain good communication with all tenants, even the ones I don't like.
Downstairs Indians: Deposit rent as soon as I get it. A dumbass like me can quickly lose track of things and misplace the rent altogether. That shook the Indians' confidence in mailing rent, and it will take a while to get it back.
The Africans: Not all immigrants are cool. Some of them can be assholes. I'm still unclear as to what really happened with that furnace, but I definitely don't like them nearly as much as I did before.
I think I also learned a lot from last year’s mistakes, especially with preventive maintenance. I’ve fixed a lot of issues at properties this year (some all by myself), and made it easier to rent out those apartments should the tenants leave. I’m also learning to fix problems as soon as possible (for good tenants anyway), as that will keep them as tenants longer. Had I done that (as well as kept good communication with them), the Homos property Chi would have stayed longer. But the Africans took over the entire house so I’m comfortable with the results (for the most part).
2012 was mostly a bad year for me. I didn’t get the property that I wanted and I made a ton of mistakes. My big mistake last year was paying my credit balance off without making the creditors take the debt off my credit report. This year it was paying the IRS without inquiring about a payment plan. Whatever happens in 2013, I’m going to make sure that I look at ALL OPTIONS before I spend a large amount of money. I’ll ask my tax guy Ross before I make any big moves. I learned so much this year but have nothing to show for it. Next year I know I’m gonna make mistakes as I acquire more units. I’m just hoping I don’t make the BIG mistakes anymore. I need to avoid the big mistakes and have property Charlie to show for all my hard work. It’s been a long time coming.
P.S.: There were some good things that happened this year too, such as my trip to Brooklyn, the pension check, obtaining an original Cookie Monster drawing for my collection, the new tenants Libby (property Beta) and Belle and Sebastian (property Alpha), the successes of Project MFMA, Annabel's firing, and Rex landing a job, but I learn more when I focus on the negative. I can't learn as much from positive things, but I can still appreciate their rare occurrences.
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