Back in the saddle

Ok, it didn't take two weeks....the major life changing event did not come to pass, so we are back to our regularly scheduled life programming....

So I am back in the saddle! (Which IMHO, is one of the really great Aerorsmith tunes.)

I find myself in yet another quandary of life. A lot of our tax refund that I had originally set aside to use for a RE licensing course, had to go to pay my mom's deposit for her rental at the senior apartments in town and will need to be used to get the moving truck to get my mom and her stuff up here, so I'll have to put off the RE licensing course for now. I'm also trying to figure out what to do to bring a regular income into the household. I've applied for jobs and nothing materialized, I'm not currently selling on Ebay or Amazon.....so, I'm kind of stuck.

Then, while at church on Sunday, we had a wonderful message....the sermon series has been based on the life of Abraham, and is entitled Life:Interrupted. The theme of Sunday's message was Encounter and talked about Abraham's encounter with God. One of the main points that really stuck with me was "Is there something you are attempting to do in your own strength that is not working so you can rely solely, exclusively on God to provide?" So, it got me thinking....I have done what I can do to establish a regular income - but have I relied on God? Truth be told, I think not.

So right now, my objective is to stop and listen.....

Oh, btw, the life changing event was the possibility that I was pregnant.... :)

On Hiatus

Sorry to be so silent these past couple of weeks....nothing is going on real estate wise, however, we have the possibility of a major life changing event coming in two weeks or so, so everything is on hold until we get a "final reading" shall we say......

So no updates until that time.....but rest assured, I will let you know what my status is in two weeks....:)

Back to square one

Well, all three leads are officially dead in the water, so I am back to square one.

One thing have learned - if the heirs or PR have starting work on the property, they are not really that motivated, IMHO. I don't know why I just got that, but anyway....

Moving on!

It has been a hectic week because my poor mother has been in the hospital again. :( So I've been trying to keep up with her status and I've also been looking for places that she can move to up here where I am. I found out she doesn't qualify for senior housing in my county because she's over the income limit, but she is under the limit for the next county over, so that's where I am concentrating my search.

At this point, I'm not sure if I will be able to take my real estate course as planned. I really need to figure out what the monthly costs would be to hold my license and if I can cover them out of our household budget until I get some income coming in.

Anyway, the plan is to keep sending out probate letters for now, and to really sit down, once and for all and get a game plan out on paper.....I am really kind of stuck on this, and feel as if I am just spinning my wheels.

Well, that's all for now. Have a great weekend!

Amazon Prime 3 Month Trial

Some of you may not know, but I have a hobby of couponing and being on the lookout for frugal ideas. Sometimes my passion for both REI and frugal living cross paths and light bulbs will come on above my head. LOL

Scott over at The Struggling Investor posted an entry about how his book that he ordered from Amazon for Steph's Book of the Month Club had not arrived yet, and it was going on 2 weeks. This got me thinking of a post I read about getting a 3 month trial for Amazon Prime for as little as $1. With Amazon Prime, 2-day shipping is free, and overnight shipping is $3.99. I think this might come in handy for Steph's Book Club so you might want to look into it. :)

Rather than me try to explain it, let me direct you to the post with all the details HERE at Common Sense with Money.

Hope this helps someone!

Back online

Well, the computer is officially de-toasted (untoasted? lol)! I'm back online and my carbonite subscription is happily restoring my files as we speak!


Here's an update on everything that is percolating:


Mill's Mill House - still waiting on my seller to get my option contract back in the mail to me. I am hesistant to do anything further until I get that back in the mail, and I haven't followed up with him as I wanted to as my time has mostly been spent speaking to Dell Warranty Support, so I am going to call him tomorrow and see what is up.


Spartan Mill Village House - I did not get the option contract in the mail to the seller as I had hoped, since the laptop went down and I had no where to print anything. So I'm going to call him tomorrow, too, and see how the meeting went.


Probate Lead #3 (The Carmax analogy) - I was supposed to have a meeting with him last Friday but he had to reschedule to this past week. I went out to meet him, and it will need work, but he is starting to work on it, so the motivation is not there as much as I thought. We kind of beat around the bush about numbers, and he said he didn't think he could take less than $40k for it....a preliminary ARV comes in at about $60k, so given Steve Cook's formula of ARV *.70 - repairs, we are already looking at $42k before repairs........and it definitely needs more than $2k in repairs, so there's no way I could meet his $40k number. I told him I would get back to him after the weekend, as I didn't think my computer would be up and running before that.


Now that I am back online I will keep researching the probate leads from the legal paper and send out some more letters. I also need to get the follow up postcards out for the previous leads, and also call some title companies to find out their status on simultaneous closings with non-cash buyers (thank you to Steph Davis for that heads up!) I also need to follow up with the lender referrals for the USDA loans. Oh, I almost forgot! I am a member of The Private Money Blueprint. To be blunt honest, I had signed up for the 30 day trial, in hopes that I could glean as much as I could before my trial was up.....I did not think could swing the monthly subscription yet (budget still very tight), but apparently I miscalculated my 30 day period (whoops!) and I ddn't think it was fair to ask for a refund, so after a bit of scrambling and reworking the budget numbers, I was good to go. I was going to watch a lot of the content during the day but then the laptop crashed so I wasn't able to....so now I'm going to get back on track over the weekend and start reviewing the awesome content. :)


Anyway, that's where I am at this point. A special thanks to Scott over at The Struggling Investor for having me in his Top Blogs: 5 Up and Coming Investors post. Wow! I was nearly in tears reading his thoughtful comments about my blog. I am honored, and truly blessed by my online REI friends!

Experiencing technical difficulties - please stand by

Hello folks,

I'm coming to you from the local public library because my laptop is toast. Fortunately the good folks from Dell are going to send a tech out and I hope to be operational again by Friday or Monday.

In the meantime, since I don't really have internet access, nothing has been going on.....I would update more, but my session is almost done and I need to go pick up the kids from school.

Talk to you when I am back online! :)

Another lead in the pipeline

Got a call from the gentleman that called last week (the one I used the Carmax analogy with) and I'll be meeting him on Friday to look over the property. I sense some motivation, as I found out that there is a mortgage on the property, and he is the one who is paying on it, plus he indicated that the house needs work.

Also as an aside, the other gentleman (the one I thought was essentially a dead deal) called to say that they received a letter inviting them to a meeting regarding a potential medical building that is going to be built at the old mill site. I'm wondering if this is going to be some type of eminent domain type of situation..remember that one out of CT, and it was upheld by the Supreme Court? The town in CT (I think it was CT) exercised eminent domain and sold the land to a developer. Anyway, I told him I would put the option contract in the mail today and if it was something they would want to consider to let me know.

Things are rolling along!