Thanks Beach!

This past weekend, as I relaxed on the lightly-trafficked beach of Oak Island, NC, I came to a realization. There was no reason to stress out about either my tenant, real estate, or financial situation. Things will inevitably work themselves out, and eventually, I'll look back on this all and laugh. Haw! Haw!

July was a really tough month, probably the hardest in terms of both landlord issues and financial concerns. The aforementioned leak at my second place redeveloped, though thankfully not creating the kind of damage from before, requiring a couple of failed attempts at fixing the leak myself, followed by me giving up and paying a plumber $150 to put in a new gasket and caulk the hell out of the shower. Also, I had two tenants in my first place who, for various reasons, paid their rent really late, causing me to have to shift some resources around to make sure my mortgage payments on the places weren't equally late. All in all, it made for a tight month, and I came really close to calling the whole NC trip off, just to be around here in case something else went wrong.

But, what I realized there on the beach was, fuck it, I handled it, just like I've been handling all of this for the past two years. As this blog has chronicled, I've had a lot of crazy shit happen that would have made most people climb a clock tower and start shooting. But, somehow, I've made it through. Who's to say I can't pull this off for another year, if needs be, heaven forbid. I've got a mammoth tax return coming my way in late January, the market's GOTTA turn around sometime, and my 5-year ARM isn't due to reset until 2010. One way or the other, those houses will be sold by the end of next summer, and then, as I said before, I'll look back on all of this and laugh. I've got major debt, six weiner tenants, and two great houses that are impossible to sell (at present), but I mean I've got a good job, I'm dating way out of my league, my dog rarely shits in the house, and I've gotten to travel around to some amazing places.

So, dammit, I can't complain.

P.S. The picture above is in no way an endorsement of Senatorial Candidate Al Franken.