Sunday, November 27, 2011

Finding a Renter Tougher Than Expected

Everything was all planned out.  Up-front research showed that rents in the area were between $1145 and $1200, so setting the asking rent at $1150 seemed appropriate.

It should rent within a couple of weeks - tops.  Yeah, right.

We started advertising on Craigslist several days before we closed on the purchase.  Then, we put a sign in front of the house.  A couple of weeks later, we decided we'd also advertise in the classifieds section of the local Sunday paper.

We got some calls, but definitely not the 10 calls per day that I had hoped for.  Most disqualified themselves - or disqualified the house - immediately.  Things like, "Do you allow pets?"

Thursday, November 17, 2011

Corporate World Chews You Up, Spits You Out

Just read a fascinating - okay, maybe frightening - article on Forbes.com called Why Millennial Women Are Burning Out at Work by 30.  Though the article's focus is on younger women, the corporate world poses problems for both women and men.

Choice quote from the article:
“They expected things to be better now that they’ve arrived and made it. But instead they are starting over on the bottom rung and still striving. You can’t see the end of the tunnel because they are so many twists and turns. It’s impossible to see what life will be like in 20 years these days. It’s hard to look just 3-4 years in the future. They don’t know what they are striving for, which makes it really hard to move forward.”
It is true that some folks entering the workforce now have never had to work and therefore, their expectations are largely unmet by a corporation, whose sole purpose is to profit.  But if you work hard, think about what you are doing and have a good attitude, shouldn't it all work out?

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Got it! First House Purchase

It's been busy since my last post!  We settled on a price and closed the purchase.  Here's the update.  The house below was listed at $99,900 and we put in an offer and negotiated per the prior posts.


It was a really FAST process.  We put in the first offer of $85k (they listed for $99,900) on a Tuesday and by Friday, we had an agreement on both sides to buy the house for $91,000.