A Bloody April

One of the great things about this month is the end of winter. The temperature stays in that perfect 40-60 degree range, and the sun doesn’t go down until 8 in the evening. So that’s the good news about April. The bad news? I am bleeding money from every orifice!

The Pelcom guys are charging $575 to get the rooms painted, clean the bathrooms, and paint the two porches. I thought was a fair price, But Sha said I got swindled. He let me know of a guy who owns his own painting company that charges $25 to paint each room. I doubt this guy would have charged me just $200 without a dip in quality. Nevertheless, I promised to use Sha’s recommendation on the next paint job. But yesterday I found out there are more repairs that need to be done at that godforsaken property.

Bad shower tub wall

One of the bathtub shower walls needs to be replaced because the cement board behind those tiles is no good and rotted out. This means that simply replacing the tile won’t do because the foundation on which that tile is set on is no good. There’s also a leak from the kitchen sink that goes down to the basement. The Pelcom guys are only charging me $125 to do the extra stuff, so that’s now $700 to get that place rental ready. Oh, and because the downstairs Africans left before the 1st of this month, they get their security deposit back. I’ll deduct whatever damages I see but, to be honest, they left the place pretty clean. I’ll probably end up giving them $600 out of their $700 security deposit back. In fact, the only good thing to come out of repairing property Chi was...

Many thanks to one of the Pelcom guys, who now have me up 20-5 in April's Ass Crack Game

On top of that, I agreed to have property Beta’s Carver renovate his bathroom, which has mold all over the walls and window. The water also leaks from the tub to the basement, so that definitely sucks. The total renovation will cost anywhere between $700 and $850. That’s just for the materials, as Carver does the labor for free. Still though, it’s $800 fucking dollars. Let’s add onto that the quarterly IRS/State tax payments. Even though I can add what I owe from 2013 to the payment plan for my back taxes, I still have to pay over $700 every quarter so that I don’t owe for next tax season. My first payment is this month, so that’s even more money out of pocket.

My financial life has pretty much sucked in 2014. In four months I’ve saved a pathetic $2000, and I can only hope to have $18,000 in my bank account by the end of April--- a profit of only $900. If I can reach that point, I can go for $20,000 in May and hope to have at least $40,000 by year’s end. Remember when I had goals of $50,000 at the beginning of the year? Ugh. I guess life had other plans. The only joy I can take out of all this financial bleeding is that I’m setting myself up very well for the future. Property Chi will no longer be my responsibility. I’m beginning to organize my rental property folders, thanks in large part to the miracle app Smart Receipts. And I really mean MIRACLE APP. My basement apartment is coming along slowly but surely. I still have to learn how to use Quicken Rental Property Manager, but that will come in time as well. I’m setting myself up for the future fairly well. But right now, the present sucks.