Tuesday, April 13, 2010

More rearranging the home office and submitting a commercial offer

So today consisted of running over to a clients place of business and having him sign an offer on a restaurant going into foreclosure across town.

The lender plans on foreclosing on Thursday, so my client made what he thinks is a high offer, though I doubt the lender will be happy with it. I've been saying we're heading for a commercial crash, and mentioned the stagnant commercial market, so I'm hoping for a counter offer, at best. If we don't get anything, we'll just wait and see if it comes up again at a better price. I'd like to be more hopeful, but I think a lot of lenders are too optimistic about the commercial market, or too stubborn to take a small loss now, in order to take a bigger loss later. Maybe the lender is hoping to make another loan on the property in order to foreclose a second time.
The location is on outer Hwy 18, so a little hard to get to for travellers, but it is close to the post office. We could use a place for a good cup of drive-thru coffee over there.

I also spoke with a businessman and his wife (businesscouple ?) about the value of the building they were leasing with an option to buy. Hopefully I'm making friends. Their building is old and needs a lot of work to bring it up to current codes, as is the attached SFR, but their credit isn't the best, so maybe they can work something out with the owner. IMO, the owner wants way too much.

Still working on the home office. Had to get some round cable staples for the power cords. Just about have things set up in an acceptable manner. Older places never have enough electrical receptacles. When I get my dream house built, it's going to have lots of places to plug the stuff in...if I don't go all mad scientist and power the place with a Tesla coil.

Tomorrow is time to meet an inspector and potential renters.

Monday, April 12, 2010

New Computers and technology stuff

So, I'm still getting settled in after the move in February. There's much arranging and rearranging of the home office space. My boss, is even talking of expanding, and possibly opening an office in the High Desert.

In the midst of all this, I've gotten a new computer. I'm setting it up to run Linux Mint. My subscription to WinForms is about to expire, so I'm moving over to a membership with Firsttuesday.us which has great articles and real estate forms for about one quarter the WinForms price.

So there have been quite a few late nights messing with technology. My PDA wouldn't sync, so I reset it and lost some contact info. Everything seemed fine, but now it's temperamental again. I set up a digital picture frame for my grandma. Now I'll need to use my old computer parts to build something for her to scan in the old family photos, and type up some memoirs.

So, I still need to get the network printer to work with Linux, though I have a friend who'll help me "when he gets the time". LOL, we're all so busy these days.

Meanwhile, I'm helping a couple friends with their rentals, and have gotten all my California rentals filled. It's now time to get some of the back rent owed with the help of income tax returns. When I had empty rentals and no qualified applicants, half rent was better than no rent. Now it's time to get people caught up, catching up, or packing up.

Basically the last half of March, was a lot of property preparation, and some pre-summer maintenance.

There have been several articles out there on more price drops in the future, and I'm submitting an offer on a commercial property tomorrow.

I went to the International Code Council meeting in Victorville last Wednesday. The discussion hinged on home health care facilities. I was torn between it and the Mojave Water Agency meeting on gray water use, but a friend attended that. Unfortunately, she hasn't been feeling well, and left early.

I'll be going to Las Vegas this weekend for a professional leadership seminar. I'll also get to see some friends. After that, I'll come home for a few days, then I'm off to Colorado Springs to tidy up a house up there for sale.