The joy of last Thursday night lasted for a while, but by Friday evening I was already thinking about my plans for property Charlie. It was back to business and I realized I have a very tough challenge ahead.
One of the tenants, Kylie Ray, was late paying Ronnie Mud this month before he sold the property. She was the one whose apartment I found those two burners on during the final walkthrough. So Kylie’s debt to Ronnie Mud is now owed to me, and there’s no way I was going to let that debt go. I tried calling her over the weekend but to no avail. Yesterday, thanks to the security wand being out of service again, I was able to get a lot of things done. I mowed my lawn, paid my Empower bills, and did as much as I could while playing hookie. I decided to stop in on property Charlie and I saw a gigantic woman with no teeth sitting on the porch. I asked her if she was Kylie Ray and she said yes. Ugh. Another welfare case I thought. She told me that her minute phone was off and gave me a more reliable number. Kylie also said that she will have the money owed ($410) by Friday of this week once she gets paid. Gets paid. Yes, she actually works. A giant with no teeth has a full-time job. Good news for me.
Kylie also asked if we can work out something where she pays every week, because it’s easier for her and it works better for her pay schedule. I told her that I’ll have to think about it and we’ll talk on Saturday morning. Wow. This will not be easy. I have until Saturday to come up with a way to get all the new tenants of property Charlie integrated into my system without too much hassle on both sides. They have to pay by checks instead of cash like they’re used to. They have to mail their checks instead of going next door where their previous landlord lives. This will be a challenge for me, but I have to make it work. It’s like back when I was teaching, I had my own kids. They were used to my system and my discipline. Whenever a teacher would have a problem kid they just couldn’t handle, the little bastard was sent to my class. It would be a challenge to get him integrated into the way things work in my class because he/she was so used to doing things a certain way in their old class. And, if I can’t control the kid, he becomes a disruption in my class and I’ll have to work even harder to adapt to the new environment. Same concept, different situation.
There is so much riding on keeping the same tenants in the building. I’ll explain why in a future post, but let’s just say that a large part of when I retire from paycheck work has to do with keeping those tenants in. If things don’t work out with Kylie Ray and I have to throw her out, I’ll have to end up throwing everyone out because no one will want to live in that apartment in that building. It’s old and dusty, but the current tenants are used to it and don’t mind it at all. So I’ll have to figure out a way to make things work, but will be a huge challenge. These are not my typical tenants and this is not a typical “Roger Dodger-owned” building. The key to the success of property Charlie lies in the tenants, and good tenant management will make future plans fall into place.
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