September finds your host with a few too many objects/projects/appointments to handle.
Katie Brown starts tomorrow at Friends Community School. They call the location College Park, but for me it’s Greenbelt. We are all hoping the transition goes smoothly, that she will feel comfortable in the new social environment and catching up on some academic stuff she’s been missing these past couple of years, and that she will be actually able to go to the school. In 2019, everyone took that last bit of information for granted, but not now.
Beth and I continue our march on the path to financial independence, but we are not there yet. This summer saw a turnover of a house in Riverdale (Park) that we lived in fondly for several years and have been renting out since. Since it was a FISBO (for sale by owner) to the long-term tenant, it had the potential for a smooth transaction. But as with any big deal, things can go wrong and our willingness to compromise for a win-win did give us reasons to regret not being a bit more hard-hearted. Working with the buyer’s agent (which was never intended on our side) developed into an expensive pain the keester, since his talent for crossing T’s and dotting I’s was on a different level all together. The low point was when we received a Docu-Sign requesting a seller’s concession of $7,250,00.00 for repairs. As I suspected, the intended amount was missing two zeros, but how can a professional make that kind of mistake, then sign it? In the end the closing went smoothly. The pain, suffering but also the thrill and adventure of bringing a foreclosed, two-bedroom, one bath wreck from the auction block to an extremely livable four-bed, two bath gem with one of the best spots in Riverdale Park confirmed that we weren’t the ones who were crazy after all, speaking of adding zeros…
The sale necessitated the rapid purchase of a 1031 Exchange property. We looked for two months from Mt. Airy to Southern Maryland, probably in person at fifty different properties. Being inside at least twenty, with our buddy Mark Huang of the BSO, who also has a second full-time gig as a real estate agent, we offered on three. The third time was a charm. We are now the proud sole owners of a charming and perfectly average 1957 ranch in the Ellicott City suburbs. In Riverdale we were next to the park- now we own one! That comes with a lot of mowing, so there was a need to scrounge some sort of tractor. My neighbor, Erik, is pulling up the stakes in UP and has relinquished his trusty 1963 Cub Cadet to me. In the long term, Beth and I are hoping to relegate much of the yard to something other than grass.
And the dome sits and waits. Now that the roof is done and the shell is vented, it can sit for the foreseeable future and be used as we choose until it’s done.