I could probably start a blog devoted entirely to the crazy people I've encountered over the years in the rental business, but I'm highlighting three in particular. What they all have in common is that they arrived in the late fall/early winter and I let them in. Inherited crazy people are one thing--you can always blame the former management. Having to take responsibility for knowingly lowering the bar to infest the community with crazy people is all kinds of humbling.
I did this to us. I did this to my nice, normal, wonderful residents who I worked so hard to attract and retain.
Now that I've announced my shame, let's jump right in to the story of Crazy People #3. A couple we will call Crazy Woman and Crazy Man.
They had just moved to Omaha from Utah. She, a Mormon, he, a pack a day smoker, not even pretending to be Mormon. They applied for the apartment on the end so he can go straight out the door to light up (being that we have a no-smoking policy).
Let me pause and say now that though it is illegal, it is almost impossible not to stereotype people who are applying for an apartment. That is why we have a tenant selection policy laying out the criteria for applicants. We screen everyone the exact same way every time. We verify that the applicant's income is at least three times their monthly rent, we ask standard questions to their former landlord, we run a credit check and we do a criminal background check.
My problem is not that I form an opinion and want to turn people down, it's that I form an opinion and want to give them a chance.
Crazy Woman played the Mormon card. We rent another apartment to the Mormon church (actually we rent it to the Corporation of the Presiding Bishop of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a Utah Corporation Sole) which is occupied by various young men on their mission. They are some of the best residents ever. They are polite. They are tidy. They are always asking if they can help me with anything. The only complaint I have ever had about them was from another one of my inherited crazy neighbors who called to see if they had asked permission to use our basketball hoop. You know, the basketball hoop that is right out in the parking lot for anyone to use. (Tattle tale is gone now, by the way.)
Anyway, since I'm on this rabbit trail let me burrow a little deeper. I'm not trying to enter some discussion or debate about the Mormon faith. This is not a theological comment. I'm just saying that I have never met a Mormon that I didn't like. I was the coordinator of a Mormon Youth Conference one summer in college. Great people. All 500 of them. Wonderful, respectful young people and a joy to work with.
I was hired by a quasi-famous Mormon once. Mitt Romney's son Taggert was at a career fair in Boston and he hired me to work for a pre-explosion dot-bomb for a few months while I was looking for a real job. We traveled to a conference once where we were trying to get graduating seniors to give us their email address by offering a trip to Europe. Tagg was amazing. Nothing dissuaded him from asking the next group who wandered by, "Would you like to win a trip to Europe?" When I got a negative reply, I became rather passive and gun shy. Not Tagg. He was relentless.
I asked him about that on our plane ride back to Boston and he told me that after being a Mormon missionary for two years, no rejection even comes close. I saw his point. There is no repellent stronger than a pair of clean-cut 19-year-olds wearing shirts and ties riding on bicycles. I've always kept this in mind when interacting with my missionary neighbors. Thanks Tagg.
Anyway, I must have had all those positive Mormon thoughts swirling through my mind when going to bat for Crazy Woman and Crazy Man. OK, so they've had their car repo'd. Their landlord said they always paid the rent. I have all kinds of apartments vacant. Did I mention my phone never rings? Let's give 'em a shot!
And we did.
At first I was so proud of my good instincts. Things were great. He was handy, a mechanic, and he kept our lawnmower in working order. They asked if we could help with anything. Genuinely nice people.
I'm not exactly sure when things started to crumble. The first thing that was mildly alarming was that he traded his truck (he said it was a gas guzzler) for a Batmobile. To be more precise, it was an old Trans Am or something like that. It was hard to tell being that it was spray painted black with a spray painted Batman symbol on the hood. Crazy Man was always working on that thing. We probably have some rule against it, but since I had allowed him to repair our lawnmower I kind of felt weird not allowing him to work on his car. It wasn't too big of a deal except in the heat of summer when he worked shirtless.
I haven't yet described the Crazy Couple. Lest you envision some hunky mechanic sweating away under the hood with his shirt off, let me give you some visual realignment. Crazy Man had some teeth issues. I don't know that I can provide much detail because I tried not to look at them, but I have a fuzzy notion that there may have been some missing and I'm fairly certain that none of them were white. Now move your eyes down the torso to the beer belly. Now cover everything with a filmy sort of grime that never washes away. Add the smell of B.O. and you pretty much have the picture.
Crazy Woman was stout and appeared to have razor stubble...on her face, poor dear.
When I met them I really just had that heartwarming thought that there is someone out there for everyone and these two found each other. I realize that my descriptions probably sound rude, but that's not my intention. I just really think you need to have the picture so you can experience the full shock of what happened with these two.
At this point, nothing had transpired that would be considered a lease violation. They were a curiosity, but harmless. I did have some concerns about our property giving off a slight "white trash" vibe, but sometimes he would be at work and there would be hours with no Batmobile visibility. A few times the rent had been late, but there was always a bailout from the Latter-day Saints. As long as the rent gets paid, we are not particular about where it comes from so as far as we were concerned, they were in good standing.
Then the fighting started. Turns out that the Batmobile was evidence of a mid-life crisis and Crazy Man was out picking up chicks with his sweet ride. I could hardly believe it myself. Not just one, but at least two women find this man attractive. And then it occurred to me...Crazy Man may have been hitting on me all along.
I'm generally naive about such things, but in this case the idea of it is so far fetched I think I just did not see it. At all. But there was this one day that he said something kind of weird and it struck me as funny at the time. I even told Bo about it because it was so odd. I was trying to install an under-the-cabinet microwave and I had reached a point where I needed some help. I'm not that strong and you have to be able to lift a dinosaur of a microwave (circa 1988) up into the slots before screwing it in. I didn't want to make the tenant wait for her awesome microwave and our maintenance crew was busy dealing with air conditioning issues and other more urgent matters so I was taking the task into my own hands. Crazy Man was around so I asked him if he would help me a minute just lift the microwave up so I can get it screwed in.
Our kitchens are small and it's kind of awkward craning your neck under the cabinet and reaching around a sweaty guy to get the thing plugged in and attached. What made it more awkward is when he looked over at me, smiled and said, "We make a great team."
I honestly don't even know what I said in that moment. I was completely dumbfounded.
But when I found out that Crazy Man was a ladies man, it occurred to me that he may have been trying to test the waters, which I'm sure he found quite frigid in this case. At any rate, whether or not he was trying to hit on me is beside the point. Crazy Man was a cheater.
All of a sudden, things got all Jerry Springer on us. The poor woman who lived above them reported that they had slammed doors so hard her picture had fallen off the wall. She also indicated that she's not that big on listening to people yell, "You had sex with her and then came home and had sex with me?!?" Then the police came and took Crazy Woman to jail. Her emotional stability was definitely in question, not that she didn't have a reason to be an emotional wreck, but she was out of control.
And then Crazy Woman told me she is scared because Crazy Man owns a gun.
That kind of stuff is definitely not OK.
So we issued a 14-30, which basically says, "You have 2 weeks to stop doing what you're doing or you will have to move in 30 days."
You just have to love the legal process. Go ahead and keep doing what you're doing for the next two weeks, but as long as you stop on day 15 you can stay.
Well, they stopped. For awhile. Then there was one more incident involving the police and we had a decision to make. We now had grounds to file for eviction based on the 14-30.
She is emotionally unstable. He has a gun.
I will admit, I weighed these options very carefully and decided not to evict them. Instead we waited them out. Things remained quiet, but when their lease expired, we did not renew it. They were given a 30 day notice to move for no reason.
Crazy Man and Crazy Woman were not at all happy with me. They did not understand our decision. In some ways it was hard, but the look of relief on the face of the woman upstairs was worth it all. I know it was the right thing to do.
So this fall I chose a mantra, "Vacant is Better than Crazy," to remind myself that crazy never works out. Sure, you might get some rent for awhile, but the drama is most certainly going to outweigh the benefits. The unfortunate thing, and I hope I am not writing about more drama a year from now, is that sometimes crazy people find normal people to rent an apartment for them. Sometimes crazy people have perfect credit and good jobs. Maybe I'm just negatively stereotyping, but I do believe that I have moved three crazy people into the same hallway in the same month.
Oh Lord, I hope I'm wrong...but I will keep you posted.
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Vacant is Better than Crazy (Part 2)
This is the story of Crazy Person #2 or "The Hard Fought Battle of the Weed."
Our apartments are not fancy. The buildings are 20 years old and starting to show their age. We still have some original appliances and vinyl flooring. Our cabinets and counter tops are all original. We are a small complex with no amenities to speak of. No fitness center, no pool, no club house. We don't even have an office (which is why I can work at home with my kids). We also have this weird set up where you can only exit and enter one way onto 72nd Street, which can seem like an inconvenience until you become a U-turn master.
What I'm trying to say is that we are not going to compete with a brand new, fancy place with all the bells and whistles. If you want all that stuff, don't move here. We will never have bells or whistles.
What we do have, or what people have told me, is nice for the price. When you compare our space with others in a similar price range you will see the value. We have implemented a no-smoking, no-pets policy which greatly enhances the smell of the place. We are slowly upgrading appliances, flooring, fixtures and the like so our units look good. We are in a super convenient location relative to just about any area of Omaha, which is great for Bo in the homecare field. Whether he has to drive to Bellevue, West Omaha or Council Bluffs, it's not more than 20 minutes from home. You can sure find nicer places if you want to pay more, but if you look at places any cheaper than ours you will be entering dumpville...or roachville...or scaryville.
What does this have to do with Crazy Person #2? The point of all this explanation is that we are in the perfect price range for people starting out or starting over. Crazy Person #1 was starting over. Crazy Person #2 was starting out.
A young guy, early 20's, this was his first job and first apartment. He worked down the street, less than a 1/2 mile away at Builder's Supply. He had never rented before so he had no rental history to speak of. He had been at Builder's Supply for quite awhile and he didn't have any credit. This is one of those applicant situations where you don't have much to go on.
It was now winter and we had vacancies. What do you do? I'll tell you what we did--we took a chance.
This was the same apartment that had recently been vacated by the peeing cadet host. The guy downstairs, a very good resident by all standards, was already in a fragile state, having witnessed the peeing. As it turned out, moving Crazy Person #2 upstairs from him was about to shatter every last bit of his resolve to continue living here.
What I didn't know about Crazy Person #2 is that he had a smoking habit rivaling that of Cheech and Chong.
We have a non-smoking policy. For some reason, some people do not consider smoking weed "smoking." I would put this under the category of "Common sense is not all that common." I take some responsibility for this because up until that point I had not clarified that no smoking means no smoking of any kind whatsoever. When the reports started coming in about the smell of pot, I did go have a conversation with Crazy Person #2 about this issue where I laid out all of the things you cannot smoke inside the building. I tried to include anything I know people smoke and even a few things I've never heard of people smoking just to make the point.
Talking does not help in some cases.
Did I also mention that my children were exposed to what I would consider porn in this apartment? On furnace filter day, they were helping remove the old filters when I notice their eyes drawn to the giant poster of a woman wearing next to nothing looking like she could nurse quintuplets.
There are no rules about not hanging offensive posters on the inside of your apartment. I chalk that up as a teaching opportunity to have a conversation about objectifying women. I should thank Crazy Person #2 for providing this wonderful moment for my young boys. Thank you Crazy Person #2 from the bottom of my heart.
I know what you are thinking. We have a non-smoking policy (which Crazy Person #2 signed upon entering this contract), he is smoking, just kick him out.
Well, that sounds like a fabulous idea except that the burden of proof lies on us to show that he is smoking inside his apartment. This is harder than it seems because no one ever sees him doing it. They just smell that smell coming from somewhere. We all know where it's coming from, but can it be proven?
So we resort to calling the police. Do you know that the police can't really do anything? Maybe, just maybe if they are called soon enough and it is happening where they can tell that it is currently happening they might be able to have grounds to enter. But this never happens.
Here's where you can take action. There is usually a clause in most leases about not disturbing the quiet and peaceful enjoyment of the premises by other residents. The only problem with this is that to prove this in court you need other residents who are willing to testify that said person is disturbing their quiet and peaceful enjoyment.
Do you want to go to court with your neighbor?
This is a losing situation for landlords. Residents complain, but they really don't want to get dragged into a court of law to complain to the judge who could actually do something about it. If we give Crazy Person #2 a notice that they are in violation of their lease without any proof, he can stay and make us go to court to get an actual eviction, which we won't get if I show up with the lackluster "evidence" that people are complaining.
So I wait. I listen to complaints. I explain the legal process (which I really don't understand myself). Finally, I have someone crazy enough to offer to go to court. She is one of my long-term crazy people that I inherited from the last management and she does not care what anyone thinks of her. She does not like what she sees and you can drag her butt into court--she will be there.
This gives downstairs neighbor confidence that he too would be willing to testify. A third witness says yes, she will go too.
I have three residents who will not back down. He needs to go. We will not wait for his lease to expire. He must go now.
I deliver the letter. I explain that he can go peacefully or he can face court and get evicted. I make sure to mention that I have 3 witnesses prepared to testify against him. I am very persuasive. We do not evict many people here because persuasion is one skill I do have.
So Crazy Person #2 moves on. Another lesson learned. Vacant is better than crazy. He nearly drove away some very good residents with his antics.
Neither Crazy Person #1 nor Crazy Person #2 hold a candle to a pair of crazy people. Because when you have 2 crazy people in one small apartment, things can really go wrong. Stay tuned tomorrow for the case of "I traded my truck for a batmobile and other really classy happenings."
Our apartments are not fancy. The buildings are 20 years old and starting to show their age. We still have some original appliances and vinyl flooring. Our cabinets and counter tops are all original. We are a small complex with no amenities to speak of. No fitness center, no pool, no club house. We don't even have an office (which is why I can work at home with my kids). We also have this weird set up where you can only exit and enter one way onto 72nd Street, which can seem like an inconvenience until you become a U-turn master.
What I'm trying to say is that we are not going to compete with a brand new, fancy place with all the bells and whistles. If you want all that stuff, don't move here. We will never have bells or whistles.
What we do have, or what people have told me, is nice for the price. When you compare our space with others in a similar price range you will see the value. We have implemented a no-smoking, no-pets policy which greatly enhances the smell of the place. We are slowly upgrading appliances, flooring, fixtures and the like so our units look good. We are in a super convenient location relative to just about any area of Omaha, which is great for Bo in the homecare field. Whether he has to drive to Bellevue, West Omaha or Council Bluffs, it's not more than 20 minutes from home. You can sure find nicer places if you want to pay more, but if you look at places any cheaper than ours you will be entering dumpville...or roachville...or scaryville.
What does this have to do with Crazy Person #2? The point of all this explanation is that we are in the perfect price range for people starting out or starting over. Crazy Person #1 was starting over. Crazy Person #2 was starting out.
A young guy, early 20's, this was his first job and first apartment. He worked down the street, less than a 1/2 mile away at Builder's Supply. He had never rented before so he had no rental history to speak of. He had been at Builder's Supply for quite awhile and he didn't have any credit. This is one of those applicant situations where you don't have much to go on.
It was now winter and we had vacancies. What do you do? I'll tell you what we did--we took a chance.
This was the same apartment that had recently been vacated by the peeing cadet host. The guy downstairs, a very good resident by all standards, was already in a fragile state, having witnessed the peeing. As it turned out, moving Crazy Person #2 upstairs from him was about to shatter every last bit of his resolve to continue living here.
What I didn't know about Crazy Person #2 is that he had a smoking habit rivaling that of Cheech and Chong.
We have a non-smoking policy. For some reason, some people do not consider smoking weed "smoking." I would put this under the category of "Common sense is not all that common." I take some responsibility for this because up until that point I had not clarified that no smoking means no smoking of any kind whatsoever. When the reports started coming in about the smell of pot, I did go have a conversation with Crazy Person #2 about this issue where I laid out all of the things you cannot smoke inside the building. I tried to include anything I know people smoke and even a few things I've never heard of people smoking just to make the point.
Talking does not help in some cases.
Did I also mention that my children were exposed to what I would consider porn in this apartment? On furnace filter day, they were helping remove the old filters when I notice their eyes drawn to the giant poster of a woman wearing next to nothing looking like she could nurse quintuplets.
There are no rules about not hanging offensive posters on the inside of your apartment. I chalk that up as a teaching opportunity to have a conversation about objectifying women. I should thank Crazy Person #2 for providing this wonderful moment for my young boys. Thank you Crazy Person #2 from the bottom of my heart.
I know what you are thinking. We have a non-smoking policy (which Crazy Person #2 signed upon entering this contract), he is smoking, just kick him out.
Well, that sounds like a fabulous idea except that the burden of proof lies on us to show that he is smoking inside his apartment. This is harder than it seems because no one ever sees him doing it. They just smell that smell coming from somewhere. We all know where it's coming from, but can it be proven?
So we resort to calling the police. Do you know that the police can't really do anything? Maybe, just maybe if they are called soon enough and it is happening where they can tell that it is currently happening they might be able to have grounds to enter. But this never happens.
Here's where you can take action. There is usually a clause in most leases about not disturbing the quiet and peaceful enjoyment of the premises by other residents. The only problem with this is that to prove this in court you need other residents who are willing to testify that said person is disturbing their quiet and peaceful enjoyment.
Do you want to go to court with your neighbor?
This is a losing situation for landlords. Residents complain, but they really don't want to get dragged into a court of law to complain to the judge who could actually do something about it. If we give Crazy Person #2 a notice that they are in violation of their lease without any proof, he can stay and make us go to court to get an actual eviction, which we won't get if I show up with the lackluster "evidence" that people are complaining.
So I wait. I listen to complaints. I explain the legal process (which I really don't understand myself). Finally, I have someone crazy enough to offer to go to court. She is one of my long-term crazy people that I inherited from the last management and she does not care what anyone thinks of her. She does not like what she sees and you can drag her butt into court--she will be there.
This gives downstairs neighbor confidence that he too would be willing to testify. A third witness says yes, she will go too.
I have three residents who will not back down. He needs to go. We will not wait for his lease to expire. He must go now.
I deliver the letter. I explain that he can go peacefully or he can face court and get evicted. I make sure to mention that I have 3 witnesses prepared to testify against him. I am very persuasive. We do not evict many people here because persuasion is one skill I do have.
So Crazy Person #2 moves on. Another lesson learned. Vacant is better than crazy. He nearly drove away some very good residents with his antics.
Neither Crazy Person #1 nor Crazy Person #2 hold a candle to a pair of crazy people. Because when you have 2 crazy people in one small apartment, things can really go wrong. Stay tuned tomorrow for the case of "I traded my truck for a batmobile and other really classy happenings."
Monday, November 28, 2011
Vacant is Better than Crazy (Part 1)
Welcome to my life as an apartment manager. I am going to give you an insiders tour. Buckle your seat belt. You might not be able to handle the excitement.
I started this job in June of 2008 out of sheer desperation and an unreasonable desire to be home with my kids. Filled with heaps of self-doubt, I applied with no expectation of being hired. I was hired with no expectation that I would succeed. I simply needed the job and trying seemed better than the alternative. It's not like I had some wildly successful career prior to having children or some really useful skill to fall back on. What I did have is some hard knock experience in being a small-time landlord and a relentless calling to be a stay-at-home-mom. Put those two together and viola--Resident Manager seemed like the perfect fit.
What I didn't know is that the complex I was hired for was a hot mess. My boss, Dana, handed me my first vacancy report and there were 14 apartments listed. In a 48-unit complex, 14 vacant units means things are bad. Very bad.
Next to each vacant address were progress notes about what work had been done and how close they were to being ready. I scanned the list, trying not to look terrified, and noticed the word YUK! in Dana's handwriting.
"Um," I asked, "what does 'yuk' mean?" (Is this some fancy real estate term that I am too green to know?)
Dana replied, "When I went to check out that apartment, I opened the door, said 'yuk,' closed it and decided that will be the last apartment we deal with."
Oh, so yuk actually means yuk.
That was just the beginning. I have a story or two to tell about those early days, but then I will never get to the point, which is, "Vacant is better than crazy."
See, what I have learned the hard way, both as a landlord and in working for a landlord, is that screening tenants is the most important work we do to improve a property. Laws generally protect tenants over landlords so it's really important to keep the crazy people out because once they are in, it's pretty difficult to get rid of them.
Back up to 2008. By the grace of God, and through the desperation of not wanting to lose my stay-at-home-mom job, I rented apartments like crazy that summer. It was shocking actually. I would walk a potential resident through a half-finished apartment, my wild kids would be tackling each other in the living room or flipping themselves over on the breakfast bar and the person would actually apply to live here. Nice people. Decent people. With jobs. It was really more than I could have asked for.
Fast forward to 2009. Over 16 leases came up in a span of 2 months, mostly in the late summer and fall because of our initial leasing options. We did not think that through obviously, but I'm pretty sure no one, including myself, thought that I would actually lease all of those apartments by fall.
Many people stayed, but a handful of people moved on for very valid reasons (since this place being a crap-hole was no longer the number one reason people were moving). One couple was going to pick up their daughter in Vietnam to come live with them after 2 years of being separated. Another guy got married. One young couple bought a house. One guy retired and headed back to Chicago where his family lived. Stuff like that. Oh, and one guy couldn't stop himself from hosting parties for young cadets who thought it was funny to pee off the balcony. We asked him to leave. (Sometimes credit report does not indicate all possible factors of decent tenancy.)
When it all shook out I had 4 or 5 apartments becoming vacant over a 2 month period of time. Still thinking that I could get fired any minute, I panicked. It's true. I totally freaked out. The economy was bad. That whole 1st time home buyer incentive was keeping people out of the rental market. It was really slow and it was fall. I rented a couple in the early fall to some very nice people but then I got stuck.
November and December are terrible months to rent apartments.
I don't think one normal person even called. Every. Single. Person. Was. Crazy.
Why would you move right before or during the holidays? Why would you move in the winter in Nebraska? Only crazy people do that. I'm sorry if you've done that. You are crazy. Just go ahead and admit that it was crazy and you wouldn't do it again. It's OK, we all make mistakes.
So there I am thinking my head is on the chopping block, not one normal potential applicant is on the horizon and crazy person #1 comes along. She is moving from another city in Nebraska because her 20-year-old, drug addicted daughter is threatening to destroy her life and the life of her 17 year old daughter. They left town to make a fresh start. She transferred to the Walmart down the street and her daughter would be homeschooling high school.
Let me just pause here. This incident just proves that you can never make assumptions about people. I think the moment they said the word homeschooling my mind conjured up images of all of the wonderful moms I know who have chosen to home school. You may have some other stereotypes of home school families that could trigger your crazy meter, but every single one of the families I know that home schools is amazing and their kids are amazing.
So when she applied and did not exactly meet our qualifications I somehow found myself going to bat for this crazy single mom and her home schooled daughter. As it turned out, "home school" can also mean sitting at home all day watching your Rent-a-center TV and texting all of your friends you met on the internet. They lasted almost a year, but in the end, crazy person #1's choices continued to follow her and she agreed that moving is better than being evicted.
When it gets to that point the emotional drama becomes very taxing because kicking someone out just stinks. The fine women in our main office knew then what I know now, crazy never works out. It might be a temporary fix, but long term, it is not a great move for the neighborhood.
This I learned the hard way through crazy person #2...stay tuned tomorrow for the hard fought battle of the weed...
I started this job in June of 2008 out of sheer desperation and an unreasonable desire to be home with my kids. Filled with heaps of self-doubt, I applied with no expectation of being hired. I was hired with no expectation that I would succeed. I simply needed the job and trying seemed better than the alternative. It's not like I had some wildly successful career prior to having children or some really useful skill to fall back on. What I did have is some hard knock experience in being a small-time landlord and a relentless calling to be a stay-at-home-mom. Put those two together and viola--Resident Manager seemed like the perfect fit.
What I didn't know is that the complex I was hired for was a hot mess. My boss, Dana, handed me my first vacancy report and there were 14 apartments listed. In a 48-unit complex, 14 vacant units means things are bad. Very bad.
Next to each vacant address were progress notes about what work had been done and how close they were to being ready. I scanned the list, trying not to look terrified, and noticed the word YUK! in Dana's handwriting.
"Um," I asked, "what does 'yuk' mean?" (Is this some fancy real estate term that I am too green to know?)
Dana replied, "When I went to check out that apartment, I opened the door, said 'yuk,' closed it and decided that will be the last apartment we deal with."
Oh, so yuk actually means yuk.
That was just the beginning. I have a story or two to tell about those early days, but then I will never get to the point, which is, "Vacant is better than crazy."
See, what I have learned the hard way, both as a landlord and in working for a landlord, is that screening tenants is the most important work we do to improve a property. Laws generally protect tenants over landlords so it's really important to keep the crazy people out because once they are in, it's pretty difficult to get rid of them.
Back up to 2008. By the grace of God, and through the desperation of not wanting to lose my stay-at-home-mom job, I rented apartments like crazy that summer. It was shocking actually. I would walk a potential resident through a half-finished apartment, my wild kids would be tackling each other in the living room or flipping themselves over on the breakfast bar and the person would actually apply to live here. Nice people. Decent people. With jobs. It was really more than I could have asked for.
Fast forward to 2009. Over 16 leases came up in a span of 2 months, mostly in the late summer and fall because of our initial leasing options. We did not think that through obviously, but I'm pretty sure no one, including myself, thought that I would actually lease all of those apartments by fall.
Many people stayed, but a handful of people moved on for very valid reasons (since this place being a crap-hole was no longer the number one reason people were moving). One couple was going to pick up their daughter in Vietnam to come live with them after 2 years of being separated. Another guy got married. One young couple bought a house. One guy retired and headed back to Chicago where his family lived. Stuff like that. Oh, and one guy couldn't stop himself from hosting parties for young cadets who thought it was funny to pee off the balcony. We asked him to leave. (Sometimes credit report does not indicate all possible factors of decent tenancy.)
When it all shook out I had 4 or 5 apartments becoming vacant over a 2 month period of time. Still thinking that I could get fired any minute, I panicked. It's true. I totally freaked out. The economy was bad. That whole 1st time home buyer incentive was keeping people out of the rental market. It was really slow and it was fall. I rented a couple in the early fall to some very nice people but then I got stuck.
November and December are terrible months to rent apartments.
I don't think one normal person even called. Every. Single. Person. Was. Crazy.
Why would you move right before or during the holidays? Why would you move in the winter in Nebraska? Only crazy people do that. I'm sorry if you've done that. You are crazy. Just go ahead and admit that it was crazy and you wouldn't do it again. It's OK, we all make mistakes.
So there I am thinking my head is on the chopping block, not one normal potential applicant is on the horizon and crazy person #1 comes along. She is moving from another city in Nebraska because her 20-year-old, drug addicted daughter is threatening to destroy her life and the life of her 17 year old daughter. They left town to make a fresh start. She transferred to the Walmart down the street and her daughter would be homeschooling high school.
Let me just pause here. This incident just proves that you can never make assumptions about people. I think the moment they said the word homeschooling my mind conjured up images of all of the wonderful moms I know who have chosen to home school. You may have some other stereotypes of home school families that could trigger your crazy meter, but every single one of the families I know that home schools is amazing and their kids are amazing.
So when she applied and did not exactly meet our qualifications I somehow found myself going to bat for this crazy single mom and her home schooled daughter. As it turned out, "home school" can also mean sitting at home all day watching your Rent-a-center TV and texting all of your friends you met on the internet. They lasted almost a year, but in the end, crazy person #1's choices continued to follow her and she agreed that moving is better than being evicted.
When it gets to that point the emotional drama becomes very taxing because kicking someone out just stinks. The fine women in our main office knew then what I know now, crazy never works out. It might be a temporary fix, but long term, it is not a great move for the neighborhood.
This I learned the hard way through crazy person #2...stay tuned tomorrow for the hard fought battle of the weed...
Thursday, November 24, 2011
Thanksgiving!
Instead of making a New Year's Resolution this year I chose a word: Joy. One of the things I've been working through is looking up every verse in the Bible with the word joy. There's quite a few of them, and for some strange reason I'm doing it backward (starting in Revelation, ending in Genesis). I look up the verse, write it down and try to squeeze out anything I can learn about joy.
I've made my way to Ecclesiastes (Thankful to be through with those major prophets who remind us that if we ignore God there will be no joy...) and here was today's verse:
"Go, eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart, for God has already approved what you do." Ecclesiastes 9:7
I'm frequently amazed at God's timing, how I would land on a verse about enjoying eating and drinking on a day like Thanksgiving! I'm not always sure how to interpret the book of Ecclesiastes because it seems so sarcastic, but I think the point is that our lives are so short it's ridiculous so we really should enjoy the great parts that God has given us.
Today we enjoyed a great meal and games with good friends. My heart feels merry and God approves. He is the inventor of celebration and it's a great gift to be able to have a day of rest and enjoy all that we have.
I hope you have experienced the same form of joy that we have today!
I've made my way to Ecclesiastes (Thankful to be through with those major prophets who remind us that if we ignore God there will be no joy...) and here was today's verse:
"Go, eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart, for God has already approved what you do." Ecclesiastes 9:7
I'm frequently amazed at God's timing, how I would land on a verse about enjoying eating and drinking on a day like Thanksgiving! I'm not always sure how to interpret the book of Ecclesiastes because it seems so sarcastic, but I think the point is that our lives are so short it's ridiculous so we really should enjoy the great parts that God has given us.
Today we enjoyed a great meal and games with good friends. My heart feels merry and God approves. He is the inventor of celebration and it's a great gift to be able to have a day of rest and enjoy all that we have.
I hope you have experienced the same form of joy that we have today!
Monday, November 21, 2011
Conversation Gone Wild....
I grew up in a generation and a family in particular that had rules about what could be discussed openly. Many topics were, or at least seemed to be, off limits. It was never OK to share anything that happens in the bathroom and certainly no one talked about what happens in the bedroom. I don't know if these were imaginary rules of my own making or if I just picked up on them as I went along. I'm just telling you how it felt.
I know that my mom did want me to have good information about sex, for example. In fact, I still have a book that she gave me about How You Got to Be You or something like that. I don't remember her giving me the book...if she handed it to me and said, "Read this and let me know if you have any questions." Perhaps she did. I'll give her the benefit of the doubt because she was, and is, a great mom all things considered.
One thing I did feel is that I already knew more than I thought my mom thought I knew, if that makes any sense. I'm not sure if she thought that she was my only source of information and so if it wasn't something she had told me I was in the dark. Particularly in my teenage years I can feel the eye rolls coming on as she tried to give me warnings or instruction or whatever she felt I needed, and believe me, I did need all of those...it just seemed so uncomfortable because there was not an openness to talk about any of it.
Men, you can check out right now as I give a distinctively female example of the lack of communication about all things bodily related. No really, go ahead and skip to the next paragraph. OK, now that they are gone, let me tell you this super embarrassing fact. When I got my period, I made my own pads out of toilet paper for months before asking my mom for feminine hygiene products. I remember laying out one summer at my grandparents pond refusing to get in the water past my knees because I did not want my toilet paper pad to disintegrate in the water. I think back on that now and I almost feel sad that I was so scared to ask my own mom for maxi-pads.
OK, hopefully any male readers have done themselves a favor and heeded my warning. Thanks if you did. If you didn't, I'm sorry. Anyway, at some point I rebelled against the secrecy and became probably too blunt about things and have allowed my big mouth to get me in trouble countless times. Fast forward to motherhood and now I'm trying to figure out how to make sure my kids feel comfortable talking about absolutely anything.
The problem with this is that I have boys. They do not seem to have any hang ups about sharing anything bodily related. I may have created monsters.
So yesterday after Rex's 7 year physical, I'm giving him the lecture about this being the only acceptable time to let another person handle his privates and we talk about how some people might seem to be nice, but they might just be nice to take advantage of kids. And I'm trying to use proper terminology and discourage the slang that he has so aptly picked up in public school and the conversation is going swimmingly until I think, "Wait a minute. It's not true. There are other appropriate times for such behaviors..." and before I can put a lid on it I say, "Well, someday it will be appropriate for your wife to touch them."
Why? Why on earth would I say such a thing to a 7-year old? Oh, but it's too late. It's out there and I can't undo it. But the why comes from everything I just explained about how I was raised and do not want my kids to feel that this is a closed conversation and that they are not allowed to ask questions about this stuff. Or that they were not given the right information. (She said no one ever is allowed to touch them--she lied to me!)
So he asks, "Did you have to do that mom?"
"Um, no, I don't have a wife." (Lame, lame, lame! I am in so much trouble now.)
"No, I mean, did you have to touch your husband's privates?"
"Uhhhh....."
It's too late now, I have to be honest.
"Well, yes, but I don't really feel comfortable talking about it right now. Let's talk about something else. What specials do you have at school today?"
And I've done it. I've closed the door and made it clear, "This is not something we talk about." Now I know how it happens. Door closed...and rightly so.
I'm sure if I really thought about it, I could give many examples of conversations gone wild in our house because my reaction to my upbringing is to swing the pendulum to the opposite direction. I have not found the balance and so I pray for grace that can cover over the multitude of parenting mistakes I make.
I know that my mom did want me to have good information about sex, for example. In fact, I still have a book that she gave me about How You Got to Be You or something like that. I don't remember her giving me the book...if she handed it to me and said, "Read this and let me know if you have any questions." Perhaps she did. I'll give her the benefit of the doubt because she was, and is, a great mom all things considered.
One thing I did feel is that I already knew more than I thought my mom thought I knew, if that makes any sense. I'm not sure if she thought that she was my only source of information and so if it wasn't something she had told me I was in the dark. Particularly in my teenage years I can feel the eye rolls coming on as she tried to give me warnings or instruction or whatever she felt I needed, and believe me, I did need all of those...it just seemed so uncomfortable because there was not an openness to talk about any of it.
Men, you can check out right now as I give a distinctively female example of the lack of communication about all things bodily related. No really, go ahead and skip to the next paragraph. OK, now that they are gone, let me tell you this super embarrassing fact. When I got my period, I made my own pads out of toilet paper for months before asking my mom for feminine hygiene products. I remember laying out one summer at my grandparents pond refusing to get in the water past my knees because I did not want my toilet paper pad to disintegrate in the water. I think back on that now and I almost feel sad that I was so scared to ask my own mom for maxi-pads.
OK, hopefully any male readers have done themselves a favor and heeded my warning. Thanks if you did. If you didn't, I'm sorry. Anyway, at some point I rebelled against the secrecy and became probably too blunt about things and have allowed my big mouth to get me in trouble countless times. Fast forward to motherhood and now I'm trying to figure out how to make sure my kids feel comfortable talking about absolutely anything.
The problem with this is that I have boys. They do not seem to have any hang ups about sharing anything bodily related. I may have created monsters.
So yesterday after Rex's 7 year physical, I'm giving him the lecture about this being the only acceptable time to let another person handle his privates and we talk about how some people might seem to be nice, but they might just be nice to take advantage of kids. And I'm trying to use proper terminology and discourage the slang that he has so aptly picked up in public school and the conversation is going swimmingly until I think, "Wait a minute. It's not true. There are other appropriate times for such behaviors..." and before I can put a lid on it I say, "Well, someday it will be appropriate for your wife to touch them."
Why? Why on earth would I say such a thing to a 7-year old? Oh, but it's too late. It's out there and I can't undo it. But the why comes from everything I just explained about how I was raised and do not want my kids to feel that this is a closed conversation and that they are not allowed to ask questions about this stuff. Or that they were not given the right information. (She said no one ever is allowed to touch them--she lied to me!)
So he asks, "Did you have to do that mom?"
"Um, no, I don't have a wife." (Lame, lame, lame! I am in so much trouble now.)
"No, I mean, did you have to touch your husband's privates?"
"Uhhhh....."
It's too late now, I have to be honest.
"Well, yes, but I don't really feel comfortable talking about it right now. Let's talk about something else. What specials do you have at school today?"
And I've done it. I've closed the door and made it clear, "This is not something we talk about." Now I know how it happens. Door closed...and rightly so.
I'm sure if I really thought about it, I could give many examples of conversations gone wild in our house because my reaction to my upbringing is to swing the pendulum to the opposite direction. I have not found the balance and so I pray for grace that can cover over the multitude of parenting mistakes I make.
Friday, November 18, 2011
A Tribute to My Secret Admiral on His Birthday
People say you will just "know" when you meet the right person to marry. I did have that moment when I knew, but I wanted to make sure that I knew because I was coming into the thing with a not-so-stellar track record of relationships or any kind of positive family example of marriage. The fact that he stuck around long enough to win this drama queen is tribute enough.
Believe me, I tried to sabotage the thing, but he never took the bait. That was different. Then we did have some real life drama of our own making, but through the whole thing he never wavered. He did the right thing. He sacrificed his plans. He did not play games, though I tried to drag him into many. He faithfully stuck by and let his overly emotional girl ride her own roller coaster. He was always waiting for me when I was ready to get off.
There was early talk of marriage and I once shared my fears with his parents. "I just don't want to wake up one day and ask myself, 'Why did I marry YOU?'" They laughed and said it would likely happen no matter who I married.
Maybe that day will come, but it hasn't yet. Because I know exactly why I married this man.
...his humility. I have married a man who does not rest on his laurels or recount the glory days. Instead, he digs in to the present and pours himself out for others.
...his priority is his family. He is certainly capable of climbing the ladder, but he doesn't because he wants to be there for us.
...his quiet confidence. For someone who can blab, blab, blab all day and have no idea what I'm even talking about, this is the best quality I could have in a husband. When he says something, he has thought it through. Oh the calm security we have because the man in our home exudes quiet confidence!
...his servant heart. This man asks me regularly if I need him to do anything for me. If he doesn't ask it is because he has seen something I need and has started doing it.
...his willingness to take risks. I used to think that his steady nature and love for the Mid-West would become boring, but we have been trying new things all along. Not everything has worked out the way we planned, but that leads me to my next thing...
...his unwillingness to wallow in defeat. Were it not his determination to move forward, I would probably be in a pit of despair somewhere. Instead, he pulls me along and doesn't let me throw pity parties.
...his unwavering belief in God's goodness. Just when I think that his silence means lack of faith, he reminds me that God has always taken care of us and will not let us down now.
These are some of the things I treasure most in my Secret Admiral. (Perhaps one day I will write our story for those who haven't heard it.) My respect for him grows each year and I know now, like I knew then that I could never live without him.
Happy Birthday Bo.
Believe me, I tried to sabotage the thing, but he never took the bait. That was different. Then we did have some real life drama of our own making, but through the whole thing he never wavered. He did the right thing. He sacrificed his plans. He did not play games, though I tried to drag him into many. He faithfully stuck by and let his overly emotional girl ride her own roller coaster. He was always waiting for me when I was ready to get off.
There was early talk of marriage and I once shared my fears with his parents. "I just don't want to wake up one day and ask myself, 'Why did I marry YOU?'" They laughed and said it would likely happen no matter who I married.
Maybe that day will come, but it hasn't yet. Because I know exactly why I married this man.
...his humility. I have married a man who does not rest on his laurels or recount the glory days. Instead, he digs in to the present and pours himself out for others.
...his priority is his family. He is certainly capable of climbing the ladder, but he doesn't because he wants to be there for us.
...his quiet confidence. For someone who can blab, blab, blab all day and have no idea what I'm even talking about, this is the best quality I could have in a husband. When he says something, he has thought it through. Oh the calm security we have because the man in our home exudes quiet confidence!
...his servant heart. This man asks me regularly if I need him to do anything for me. If he doesn't ask it is because he has seen something I need and has started doing it.
...his willingness to take risks. I used to think that his steady nature and love for the Mid-West would become boring, but we have been trying new things all along. Not everything has worked out the way we planned, but that leads me to my next thing...
...his unwillingness to wallow in defeat. Were it not his determination to move forward, I would probably be in a pit of despair somewhere. Instead, he pulls me along and doesn't let me throw pity parties.
...his unwavering belief in God's goodness. Just when I think that his silence means lack of faith, he reminds me that God has always taken care of us and will not let us down now.
These are some of the things I treasure most in my Secret Admiral. (Perhaps one day I will write our story for those who haven't heard it.) My respect for him grows each year and I know now, like I knew then that I could never live without him.
Happy Birthday Bo.
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
Black Friday--Love it or Hate it?
I have been asked more than once in the last few days about whether or not I am planning a Black Friday shopping trip. I confess that I have never gone shopping during hours when I normally sleep. Have I mentioned that I need a full 8 hours or I will turn into the world's largest cranky mama? The whole watching accidents happen outside the bedroom window incident this week has nearly wrecked me.
My dental hygienist actually admitted that she still goes shopping on Black Friday despite the fact that her grandma was trampled one year. As in, rushed to the hospital in an ambulance bleeding trampled. Yeah, still totally worth it according to her.
I guess I don't really get it. Maybe I'm irresponsible and don't understand what a great savings you can get by camping out all night at the store and fighting fellow shoppers for great buys. Maybe I don't really need anything that bad that I feel good about trampling grandmas.
Another friend seems to just like the thrill of it. Again, I don't know how thrilling it can be to wait in line for hours to save $50 on a laptop so I truly don't mean to judge. Perhaps I should try it. I guess I still enjoy the thrill of sleeping through the night after years of children ruining my slumber. It could take years for me to get over the beauty of a good night's sleep.
So I can't offer an opinion just yet. I might love it if I tried it, but I actually hate the idea of it. Does that count as a vote for "hate it"?
My dental hygienist actually admitted that she still goes shopping on Black Friday despite the fact that her grandma was trampled one year. As in, rushed to the hospital in an ambulance bleeding trampled. Yeah, still totally worth it according to her.
I guess I don't really get it. Maybe I'm irresponsible and don't understand what a great savings you can get by camping out all night at the store and fighting fellow shoppers for great buys. Maybe I don't really need anything that bad that I feel good about trampling grandmas.
Another friend seems to just like the thrill of it. Again, I don't know how thrilling it can be to wait in line for hours to save $50 on a laptop so I truly don't mean to judge. Perhaps I should try it. I guess I still enjoy the thrill of sleeping through the night after years of children ruining my slumber. It could take years for me to get over the beauty of a good night's sleep.
So I can't offer an opinion just yet. I might love it if I tried it, but I actually hate the idea of it. Does that count as a vote for "hate it"?
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