You’ll Get Your Deposit Back (or not) Within 30 Days
Posted on June 30, 2009
Filed Under Daily Grind Day Job, Dizmang Properties, Real Estate & Property Management | Leave a Comment
I’m sure you’ve heard me whining about our extreme high vacancy rate in our rental properties. Although the market does seem to have picked up and we are renting property again and things are getting back to the norm. We have one street that has 28 houses and 13 of them went vacant June 1st. It is street that is very popular with college students, so it is not uncommon or surprising to have this many on this one street. However, college students + Missouri Street = parties. And lots of them. And when you have lots of parties, you get lots of damages oftentimes exceeding your security deposit. <insert condescending tone here>
But this post isn’t about college students, parties or damages. It is a quick overview outline on what the State of Missouri law says regarding the return of your security deposit. You can download the Attorney General’s booklet regarding Landlord/Tenant Law in PDF version for Missouri. It seems like I get tons of questions about this kind of stuff during this time of year.
- The landlord has 30 days from the date of move out to do a final walk thru of your property and return the security deposit minus any damages with an itemized list of said damages.
- The landlord must offer the tenant an opportunity to be present during the final walk thru. It is not required that the tenant be present. Also, if the tenant cannot be present during the walk thru, the landlord does not have to reschedule. Now on a side note, Dizmang Properties, tries to accommodate our tenants and set a time that works for them. We want you to be there.
- The security deposit cannot be used as the last month’s rent payment. This sounds tricky, but it’s not. Basically, security deposit is for damages then rent.
- The security deposit check will be written to all tenants named on the lease agreement.
Those are the basics, make sure you read the Landlord/Tenant law for more. Yes, I misspell “walk thru” and I know it should really be walk through. 
The Boy Had The Guts To Ask
Posted on June 29, 2009
Filed Under Juvenile Diabetes, Personal | Leave a Comment
The Dexcom Seven Plus CGM sensor on the back of my arm (starting to peel off after 5+ days)
Everyone was staring, but the little boy had the guts to ask.
We were at lake party recently and it was extremely hot outside. I was very nervous about getting into my swimsuit as it is difficult to hide both the Omnipod insulin pump and the Dexcom Seven Plus continuous glucose monitor sensor. But, with the mantra in my head that being healthy is sexy, I chose to let loose and just field the questions and stares.
There were several adults at this party and whole heck of a lot of kids. What was so funny was that all of the adults (the ones that didn’t know me) kept looking at me with question in their eyes. They wanted to ask what was up with all the medical devices attached to me, but no one had the guts to ask.
Until one little boy somewhere around the ripe old age of 5 years old, looked up at me and said “did you give blood or what?” I immediately fell in love with this little kid. He had the guts to ask what the adults were dying to inquire about. I told the little boy that I had diabetes and had to wear it to check my sugar for me so that I could eat. He shrugged his shoulders and replied “that’s cool.” He ran off to play, as this was no big deal to him. Of course, kids say the darndest things, but this one totally put me at ease.
It’s not that I’m not open about talking about my diabetes. It’s part of me. However, how do I bring it up to the staring folk to put them at ease, when they might just be staring at me because I have a giant zit on the end of my chin or maybe the fact that I have put on several pounds that we won’t begin to count??
I may not have the guts to bring it up, but when the other person does, it is no big deal to me. Maybe I just need to find my inner 5 year old with guts and just address the stares.
Because afterall, being healthy is sexy, right?!
Thanking The Troll
Posted on June 28, 2009
Filed Under Personal, Random Rant | 2 Comments
Are SGF local bloggers haters and trolls or are they your mentor/adviser in an ally sort of way? In my mind, bloggers should back other bloggers up, especially if they are a local area blogger, part of an association that would want to promote unity between other area bloggers. Before this post, I was thinking we should all be nice to each other, but really we should all be candid in both posts and comments.
I am sure you can imagine my surprise when I received a rude comment on a recent post I wrote, from a local SGF blogger trying to remain anonymous. Rarely do anonymous comments get past me, thanks to Woopra’s excellent tracking statistics. I’m not naive enough to expect that all my comments received will be nice ones, as I do a lot of “ranting” on my blog. Believe me, I’ve got my fair share of haters and blog trolls. And this isn’t a story of “poor me, this guy was mean to me” because it has actually taught me something. You never know who you are talking to and you never know what you will learn from the experience.
After going back and forth with me defending myself and my blog, my troll actually made some good points. I’ve got to be a little more objective in my points of view and look at it from both sides, not just mine. Otherwise, I do come off as sounding like an “elitist.” It seems that there is always something fueling the fire on either side. It may be the reader’s personal experiences still haunting them, something got under their skin, or they are needing to vent in some way or another. Isn’t that one of the primary purposes of blogging?
I’m grateful for what the troll taught me. He was candid in telling me that I sounded a little snotty. He told me his side of the story and what was rattling his cage about my post. He also told me (in a round-about way) that I needed to tone it down a bit. He gave me a lot to think about and he taught me a lot. But on the flip side of that coin, my troll also made some huge assumptions about me that are not true, of which he acknowledged. A few days and apologies on both ends later, my troll then refers a friend to me for business.
Thank you, troll. It’s all water under the bridge now.
5 Good Financial Type Web Sites
Posted on June 26, 2009
Filed Under Real Estate & Property Management | Leave a Comment
I’m not any financial guru, nor am I trying to be one. I just had recently attended a real estate continuing education class titled “Financing For Every Buyer” and the instructor gave a lot of good information. She also shared some really good web sites and I feel compelled to share them with you. One web site is for managing your money and keeping track of it, a few are about your credit reports and scores and all of them are helpful tools to keep you in-the-know.
- My Fico (find out how your fico score is really scored).
- A true, free credit report and the official site for analyzing your own credit. (check this at least once a year).
- Mint is money! (help for managing your money).
- Wesabe…not the type that goes with sushi. (more help for managing your money).
- The tax credit. (the details of the federal housing tax credits).
I’m still looking for more, so please share your favorites with me.
It’s Gettin’ Hot in Herrree
Posted on June 21, 2009
Filed Under Daily Grind Day Job, Dizmang Properties, Random Rant, Real Estate & Property Management | 5 Comments
I debated about whether or not I should title this post “Recycled Summer Time Post.” It seems like I write about this every year, and maybe because every year I get the same dumb complaints from Tenants about their a/c units not working properly. I’ll probably get dumb comments on this post like I did last time too.
First of all…it’s hot. When the temps are over 90 degrees, then be prepared for rough afternoons. Meaning, don’t call me (the Landlord) and complain because you (the Tenant) have your thermostat set at 69 and it’s 75 in the house at 3 0′clock in the afternoon. You will then get a rash of idiot questions from me such as: 1) are your windows all closed and locked? 2) Do your kids keep running in and out? 3) Did you just turn the thermostat down a few minutes ago and you’re too impatient to wait it out? OK, you’re only off about 6 degrees when it is blistering hot outside. So unless, it’s 85 in your house…why are you bothering me?
Done ranting now.
In all seriousness, most calls I get are legit. It’s just some of the obnoxious 6-degrees-off phone calls that I get only to find out that they didn’t realize that one of the living room windows wasn’t closed all the way. Here is what I advise that you check before making the call to your Landlord (in addition to the above named idiot questions):
- Have you changed your furnace filter recently?
The filters should be changed every 3 months. Clogged up, dirty filters cause the unit to stop running. Change the filter and give it some time to start back up and it should start cooling. FYI, if I have to send our a/c guy out there to change your dirty filter, you will most likely get charged for the service call. - Is there cold air blowing out of the registers? If so, wait it out a few more minutes.
- Is your thermostat digital and if so, do you need to change the battery?
- Have you flipped the breaker in the main panel?
- Have you flipped the breaker at the other box on the outside of the house next to the a/c unit?
- Is the outside unit running at all?
- Is the outside unit frozen over? Usually when it is frozen over, it needs freon and only a licensed HVAC specialists can do that.
It’s only a start, but if you have checked the above items before you call the Landlord, they will take you a little more seriously, knowing that you’ve done your part. Therefore, your phone call and complaint is more than fair and legit one.
Amazing Dad
Posted on June 21, 2009
Filed Under Personal | Leave a Comment
Happy Father’s Day 2009 to the most wonderful Dad’s. We all love you.
Sweet Perfection Doesn’t Make It Go Away
Posted on June 19, 2009
Filed Under Juvenile Diabetes, Personal | Leave a Comment
I love perfection. Especially when it comes to my blood sugar readings. Yesterday, the Dexcom planets all aligned with the center of gravity for me and gave me perfection for a good 12 hours. Although this is not a completely rare sighting for some diabetics, it can be for me. But my sugar readings stayed between the lines and hovered between 100-150 mg/dl. All of the sudden, I had a fleeting thought that just maybe this disesase was going away! I should know better, but it feels good to daydream.
In the first few years after my diagnosis, I remember getting a few good sugar readings in a row and thinking that maybe this whole type 1 diabetes diagnosis was just a joke, I was outgrowing it and it was going away. Then, like a deflated balloon, I would come back to reality as some obnoxious reading of 250+ would come out of that wretched blood sugar meter. The number would kill my daydream.
So, here I am in my 30’s still daydreaming like a little girl that one day this disease will rid itself from my body. Although I have accepted the fact that it most likely will not, I do think that there are better ways of achieving perfection with advancements such as the continuous glucose monitor, smart insulin, the closed-loop project, to name just a few.
Although sweet perfection doesn’t make the disease go away, continued research for achieving perfection ultimately will make it go away.
Apparently Twitter Can Break It’s Own Rules
Posted on June 15, 2009
Filed Under Random Rant, Twitter Stuff | 2 Comments
But it can’t return e-mails in a timely manner.
So, what’s a goin’ on there good ole Twitter support? I have sent you an e-mail 48 hours ago and have got no response.
I’m frustrated with Twitter’s 100/hour API request limitations. It’s sucking the life out of my beloved TweetDeck the moment I turn it on! Grr. Following too many people who update too much? No. Too many followers? Yeah, right. TweetDeck is an application that runs on and is in cahoots with your Twitter account. For me, it is easier to keep up with Twitter this way. However, the application can only access your Twitter account 100 times per hour. So every time you refresh the page, or if someone updates, you update, you respond, add a twitpic, add a link, or any other type of action on TweetDeck, it knocks down your 100 count for the hour. And it dwindles fast, especially if you use it a lot. Once you hit the limit, you then have to wait until the rest of the hour passes before it resets and you can resume your Twitter activity via TweetDeck.
At first, I thought that it was TweetDeck’s problem and in usual fashion, I tweeted out my aggravations with having to wait out the reset period on TweetDeck. In under one minute, I got several responses from tweople who told me that it ain’t TweetDeck, it’s Twitter. The said that I could contact Twitter and request that they increase the API request limit for my account. Twitter will usually break it’s own limitation rules and give in to your request, assuming that you are not a Twitter spammer. So I e-mailed them two days ago. Thanks to all the tweeps who were on it and helped out quickly.
Now if I can just get a timely response out of Twitter. If they pride themselves on reaching mass numbers of people in mere seconds, then maybe they should work on quicker e-mail customer support responses. Or maybe I should have kept my e-mail request in under 140 characters. Grr…limitations.
Reminder Rings
Posted on June 14, 2009
Filed Under Juvenile Diabetes, Personal | Leave a Comment
Diabetes is a disease that has a lot of unglamorous facets. I really try my hardest not to focus on these drab characteristics of the disease, but lately I have rings that are not so pretty and not helping when trying to stay positive. I’ve been wearing the Omnipod insulin pump for a little less than six months now and for the most part I have loved it. The biggest advantage to it is the lack of tubing. However, the biggest downside are the rings. The rings may not affect every Omnipod user, because it all depends on how they wear it.
When I put on a ‘pod, it usually sticks pretty well to me. That is of course, thanks to the amazing alcohol trick. However, I line the edge of the ‘pod with the liquid bandage and a few days later when I remove the ‘pod the edges turn black. And they stay for a while. I use to be able to remove them with fingernail polish, but the rings are seeming harder to remove. I would post a picture here on the blog, but instead I will link to it from my Flickr account. It’s not a really pretty pic and I would hate for it to ruin the visual beauty of this blog. Ha! <insert sarcasm here> What visual beauty of this jumbled up mess?!
Anyway, the rings are at the top of my pet peeve list right now. Maybe it is just summer and the weather causes it to adhere to my skin better. Maybe I should skip the liquid bandage for awhile. Or maybe I should go get some onion rings…mmmm….rings. Curse you upcoming bridesmaid diet!
Burma-Shave Inspiration
Posted on June 9, 2009
Filed Under Daily Grind Day Job, Dizmang Properties, Real Estate & Property Management | 1 Comment
At work we are running a new rent special promotion of which I have implemented today. It’s the first of it’s kind as we are needing to get some property rented.
Although the details don’t really matter, but for the curious readers out there…if you sign a lease with Dizmang Properties before July 15th then you will receive a free iPod Touch or 27″ LCD flat screen TV. There are rules and regulations, so make sure you go to Dizmang’s web site to read those if you are that interested. It’s a steal of a deal! <insert cheesy groan here for the overused cliche>
Currently, we have 45 vacant rentals out of 200. I’m embarrassed to say that it computes to a pathetic vacancy rate of 22.5%!! (Yes, you do use this math stuff again.) And that is pretty bad considering our property management firm is used to running about 5% vacancy rate. We pulled together some obnoxious brainstorming idea sessions, and finally settled on the idea to offer the above named products for free to gain some attention in our available rental properties. For some reason the term “super clean, updated and great for the growing family” wasn’t getting prospective tenants all excited the way it used to.
Now we have to market the promotion. And this is where my Burma-Shave inspiration comes from. We are taking bright yellow signs and placing them in a row down the streets, Burma-Shave style, showing the love to tenants by offering free stuff and encouraging them to apply with us. Dumb idea? Not unless you have a better one.
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