The Hunt Begins

I ended December with a balance of $21,950. Subtracting the $3600 from the pension check, I made a little under $2000 for the month of December. Not bad, but I was really expecting more. In total, I ended 2012 with a total balance (checking and savings) of $29,520. Which means that this month I should hit the $30k mark for the first time… ever! One would think that having 30k in my account would make me happy, because I can finally start looking for properties, right? Well, let me explain what happened this week.

I was all excited to start property hunting so I went online and looked at some properties. There wasn’t much out there but I saw a few good ones that I wanted to see. I first asked my real estate agent Lola (from last year’s short sale debacle) about prospective property Charlie #1, the Beautiful Valley property. She said that the owner took the property off the market. Fuck! I didn’t get too mad because I then saw a 4-unit property in a decent area for only $65,000! We’ll call that Prospective Property Charlie #3 (PPC #3). I asked about that one, and she said the listing agent fired the owner because the owner was making it difficult to do showings, so it’s not really available. So I went over to the property and knocked on the doors, in hopes that someone would give me the owner’s number. I even wore my security suit (looks like an actual business suit) instead of my hoodie to appear less threatening, but no one answered. I felt like crap. And what does Roger do when he feels like crap?

An entire medium pepperoni pie plus an order of boneless spare ribs with beef fried rice, a turkey sandwich, and two bagels with cream cheese was what I ate Wednesday. On Thursday, I followed that with 4 big slices of French toast and a bagel with cream cheese in the morning, a turkey sandwich with another bagel with cream cheese and 5 big chocolate cookies for lunch, and then a medium pepperoni pie with 4 pepperoni rolls and a 6 oz. steak for dinner. It’s been a while since I’ve gorged on food and I felt even worse afterwards. I had solved my gorging problem in the latter half of 2012 by taking out my frustrations in the gym. So I’m going back this weekend to get back into the routine now that peak season is over at the shipping depot. I was so miserable because I kept thinking, “I worked my ass off all last year to make enough money just to buy a property and now there are no properties to buy?! The fuck!” So yesterday, as I wallowed in my misery, I had an idea.

I was talking with my good friend Nino and he said that if I can’t get the owner, try to get the listing agent. I found the name through Trulia and called the listing agent’s realty company. They said that it’s difficult to do a showing for whatever reason (they were vague about it) and wondered if I was willing to put in a purchase offer with a contingency that nothing happens until I get to see the insides of all the apartments. It sounded like a good idea, as it would definitely force the owner to make sure all the apartments are shown, and I’m not really obligated to buy the property if the apartments are not to my liking. But I needed more advice so I emailed my lawyer Marvin Wassle, who I want to start using to buy my properties with. I told him the situation and this is what he said:

“if the property is listed ‘for sale’ the realtor should be able to  a basic initial walk through of the property.  If you are interested in placing an offer based on that initial inspection and other initial information you have on the property, you can submit a purchase offer.  Just make it contingent on attorney’s approval; a home inspection; review of rent rolls and leases; financing contingency, and any other contingencies you desire.  I would certainly ask for a rent roll, copies of tax bills and utility bills and do a basic walk through before you place an offer.  If you have any other questions let me know.”

I’m not the brightest fucker around, but I think he’s saying that I can put an offer on the property as long as add a bunch on contingencies, which means “but only if” if I dumb it down. So I’ll go there on Monday to do the purchase offer and add those contingencies. I’ll go into detail about PPC #3 when I actually have some details to write down. All I know is it’s a 4-unit building with a nice little area for parking, and priced in a way that I can get at least $1400 per month. Adding $1400 per month while only having to spend about 21k for the down payment and closing costs would allow me to buy the property without touching my savings account. By then my savings account should have around $8,000, so that’s a big head start towards the 50k needed to purchase the property that I’ll need for retirement, property Delta!

I’m not gonna get down on myself anymore. Just because I’m a moron doesn’t mean I can’t get things done. There are always different ways to get through obstacles and I have to remember that. Like water, remember? I also have to make use of the people around me. My only purpose right now is to get property Charlie soon so I can start saving for Delta. My tax guy Ross and my lawyer Marvin Wassle have all the knowledge I need to push through obstacles. I just have to ask.