webLOGfor.US

    Friday I received the rent payment for Condo #1.  I mentioned in my post last week that this was the first payment where the rental increase was due.  I received the full rent plus the late charge.   We'll see if September's rent comes in on time.  Hopefully the payments will now roll through as scheduled.  There was no note included, just a money order.  I have had a very good relationship with this tenant up to this point.  I hope that my sending a letter instead of calling didn't offend him.  I gave an explanation why in my letter to him.  I included a quick note with the receipt for payment thanking him and hoping all was well.  I'll have to make it a point to give him a call when my schedule clams down a bit.

      September will also bring in the first full month's rent payment due from house #1.  Up to this point there was the pro-rated month's payment due for moving in early and the first full month's rent was included with the security deposit.  Hopefully that will come in on time and all will be good….until the next problem of course.

     With as crazy as my traveling schedule has been I need the properties to be problem free for another month or so.  After that I should have some time to dedicate to them should they need attention.

web log for us – those that realize that "passive income" isn't always so passive 

    Last night the family and i went to see Wicked: The Untold Story of the Witches of Oz.  The family and I like to go see at least one show per year.  This can be a musical, ballet, etc.  This year's show tickets were a birthday present to my better half.  I'll admit to being a closet fan of the Wizard of Oz but she is a huge fan.

    The show was at the Academy of Music in Philadelphia.  I've been to the venue before to see the ballets, The Nutcracker and Romeo and Juliet.  It's a good venue as long as you don't sit too far back in any one of the sections as you lose the view of the very top of the stage.  Our seats were good and we got to see everything that happened.

    The story was completely amazing and for anyone who has knows just the basics of the Wizard of Oz story, a show that must be seen.  There is some humor that is injected but overall I was amazed at how the back story told here can forever change your perception of Dorothy, The Wizard, Glinda, and the Wicked Witches of the East and West.    I won't give away any of the details.  I will just recommend that if you get a chance to see the show, jump at it.  You won't be disappointed.

    What does this have to do with anything on the blog?  Just that you have to enjoy life and take time for family and yourself in addition to working yourself like a dog.

web log for us – those that can take some time out to enjoy life and the company of others 

Life: 

    Sorry I've been away for so long.  My full time career has been getting in the way of my blogging.  We're up for another re-compete of many positions we have filled around the United States and I've been working on seeing how they are going and writing proposals as needed.  I pulled an all-niter finishing one proposal only to hear of another that should be coming through sometime today.  I needed a stress release so I took a few minutes to browse the Internet, catch up on some news articles I've been putting off reading and figured I should update everyone on what is going on.

    In addition to the re-compete I've been traveling quite a bit lately to prep the customers for what was coming.   I wanted to prepare them and do everything I could to help out before the positions were actually advertised.  Once they are advertised I am no longer allowed to speak to the decision makers.  These are government contracts and I would end up disqualifying my company from the work if I were to have any questionable contact with the decision makers.  It looks like I'll be spending about 2 weeks on the West Coast next month.  Heres to some good weather!

New Tenant in House #1: 

    The new tenant is working out well.  He's honest and keeps me informed of things that go wrong.  For example, while moving in he was backing his car up with the trunk open and hit the outdoor light that is next to the back door.  It ended up cracking the base where the light attached to the metal plate that is affixed to the stone wall.  He wired it up so that you can't tell it was damaged unless you get very close to it.  Actually I had driven past the property twice and never noticed it until he pointed it out to me.  He said he'll fix it and I'll give him a couple more weeks to get it done.  If it is still broken by the time fall comes, I'll go out and buy a new fixture and replace it.  I'll forward the bill for the fixture over to him.  If the fixture was old I probably just let it slide and replace it free of charge but the fixture is about 3 years old.

Existing Tenant in Condo #1:

    I never received the rent from my existing tenant in Condo #1 for August.  This was the first month that the increased rent was due.  The rent increase was just about 5%.  I know he works split shifts and ends up sleeping odd hours.  I've been keeping crazy hours with my travel and proposals so I typed a letter out to him one night and sent it off explaining that I hadn't received the rent payment yet.  I let him know what my schedule was like and that I didn't call because I didn't want to wake him in the middle of his sleep since I know he keeps off hours for work.  I explained what the amount due was and what the late charge was.  I asked him to let me know if the payment was lost in the mail so we could work something out.  The letter was sent out last Wednesday I believe so he should have gotten it by Friday.  

    This tenant has been with me for just about 3 years and has always paid his rent, occasionally falling behind, but catching up quickly  He usually lets me know when he's running behind so this is an unusual circumstance.  The rent is still well below market value for the area which is OK with me because he is a great tenant.  Pair the lack of communication with the fact that this month was the first with a rent increase and it gets me thinking. If I don't get a check by Friday or at least some type of response I'll call on Saturday and pop over with a Pay or Quit notice.  I'll keep you updated.

CISSP Examination:

    Well, the CISSP examination was quite an ordeal and I wasn't sure if I passed.  Turns out I just missed passing.  I received a score of 689 in the CISSP certification test.  700 is the minimum score required for obtaining your CISSP certification.  Coincidentally another person in the class received a 689 also.  I think that is just plain weird.  I've tried doing some research to see if a 689 in the CISSP exam actually means something like I passed the test overall but failed one section but I haven't been able to find anything.   Even though the entire class exchanged emails and a ew of us sent our results out for all to see, only a handful shared the results.  out of the 8 of us that shared the results, 6 passed.  that's a 25% failure rate which actually works out to the percentage of the class that was there the 2nd time taking the test.  Interesting statistic. 

    I want to take the certification test again before I lose too much of this knowledge.  I was planning for the end of September to re-take my CISSP test but that doesn't look like it's going to happen.  With the plan of being on the West Coast for 2 weeks and a mini vacation scheduled in there the second week of September I am booked up.  One good thing though is that I'll be able to get a decent amount of studying done while I am on travel.  There's 4 6 hours plane rides plus the evenings are open while I am away.  No dinner to cook, no family to be responsible for, it could turn out to be a blessing in disguise being away for 2 weeks.  My CISSP certification pursuit continues….

web log for us – those that can multi task…and succeed

    Countrywide Financial tapped into an $11.5 billion line of credit Thursday to "weather the storm" and address its looming liquidity crunch.  Countrywide Financial is the #1 writer of mortgage loans in the United States.  

    During the period that Countrywide was securing it's $11.5 billion in financing the Chairman and CEO, Angelo Mozilo, cashed out 672,000 shares of the company he owned netting him just under $13 million.  Mozilo still owns almost 500,000 shares of the company directly, and has about 850,000 shares held in trust or his 401(k).

    Investors have begun to refuse to buy many loans that are less than "prime".  These include the Alt-A loans, which I've written about here, as well as the subprime loans.  With Countrywide and other companies unable to sell these loans they have to keep them in-house.  This increases their risk if the borrower defaults.  Every default will now come stricky from their bottom line.  They can't help but make sure they cross all their t's and dot all their i's when making loans to those who are riskier.  This will directly affect anyone trying to get a loan from Countrywide.

    I've written in the past what I think is happening to the housing market and the ability of the average Joe to get financing for his house.  I believe this further proves the point.  The ultimate ones who will lose out because of this is the average Joe/Jane.  They will lose on multiple fronts.  

    The cascading affect of this will be less people to buy homes.  With less people buying homes, those homes that are on the market will sit longer.  Those people who have to move for any particualr reason will have to lower their price if they want to sell quickly.  This will in turn cause others to lower their prices.  It's a cascading effect that will casue a correction in the market.

    Another place to lose is the investor market.  Those that had money invested in Countrywide wither directly by owning stock or having a mutual fund that owns their stock has seen the invidual stock price go from $35.14 one month ago to hitting a low of $15.00 today.  Any stock losing more then half it's value in a month can hit the average person hard, especially if they bought high.

    Countrywide is a company that has diversified itself among the competition.  They have separated many parts of their business into separate comapnies and have leveraged the selling of security backed loans as a way to protect themselves.  Will they survive this mess?  I believe they will.  Will they take a hard hit?  I believe they will.  Will I be buying their stock?  Eventually.  I think that it will hit around $11 or $12 as a low then start to rise.  If it hits that low I will be buying.

    How will this affect those who have rental properties?  As I stated before, I hope everyone lined their financing up previously for the future.  There will be a lot of people losing their homes.  I may sound like a vulture, but I am not hoping for this to happen.  I believe it will just be a fact.  Too many people got in over their heads and the correction will cause them to lose their homes.  With this will come a great deal of short sales and foreclosures.  Those that have their financing lined up can use this to get ahead.  Market corrections for rents are already happening.  Here in Philadelphia rents have risen and applicants are aplenty.  

web log for us – those that see the calm before the storm as a time to plan for it's coming

10/30/07 EDIT:  5 days ago Countrywide hit it's 52 week low of 12.07.  Today, 5 days later, it has jumped back up to $16.31.  I guess I wasn't the only one that had an eye out for the $12.00 mark to start buying this stock up. 

Time for a little humor for the day.  Below are pictures that show your house as seen by different people in the purchasing process.

How you see your house:

How your buyer sees your house:

How your lender sees your house: 

How your appraiser sees your house: 

How the tax assessor sees your house: