A week off

Taken a week off of updating this. Here's a summary:

Wrote a few articles on the topic of Condominium Owner Advocacy- investigating distribution / publishing channels- posted top Active Rain, Article Base, my own blog.. etc. It will be read, for certain. Hoping to get a frightened reader base so that the message will have greater impact.

Met with David Gurvey, who told me the management contract for 1010 Wilkes has gone to a company called Landmark. Pretty happy to see that the Cash Cow is no longer in Brydges' portfolio. I'm sure it was subsidizing many of their unprofitable contracts. David is really, really fun to talk with.

Worked on taxes. Almost there.

Prepared graphics for S2C project.

Investigated Management companies for my portfolio.

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And now for today- it's 3 o'clock pm, finally got to my "Office." Went for a lunch meeting with Kevin Buckner, an enthusiastic and entrepreneurial young accountant who's just opened his own firm. I expect it will be a successful endeavor for him. He's good friends with Derek Banera, through whom I met Kevin. Talked a lot about a lot.

Had to go to Pritchard today: Dropped-off a ledger statement to unit 4, which is in arrears. Went to unit 3, because the Government decided not to pay rent anymore for that unit, but no one told me. She left a message for her worker while I was there, and I expect a callback in about 10 weeks. (sarcasm).

Went to Assiniboine Credit uniooon again to meet with the account manager, because I need a mortgage statement. Hilariously, they don't do annual statements of mortgages, and thus two schedules had to be printed: 1. the total amounts paid each month during the year, and 2. the amounts by which the outstanding principle decreased throughout the year. The Interest Expense (what I'm actually after, as it is tax deductible), is the difference between the two. Hope my math is still good.

Onward:

1. Sending e-mails to my management company short list

2. Finalizing some graphics and sending revisions to Sanjoy for s2c

3. Preparing new special promotion for CRDC, will send Sanjoy revisions and request to make a "Special Deals" section on website. Thinking of doing a special on single - family or multi-unit homes- provided with elevations and color schemes, I can probably do it for $600 per image.

4. Updating tenant ledgers

5. Updating financial statements

6. Getting MS community going. Must learn Wordpress better!

Regroup, refocus

Okay, so I finally finished some major parts of the Fleet house that were holding me up in other areas.. so it's reasonably livable now, and I can concentrate on other stuff. Feels liberating.

Had a good group over on my birthday, that was fun, some people I don't see very often, drank a lot of wine. Felt awesome the next day, having had the burden of looming work on the back of my mind lifted. Went for breakfast, hit the gym with Mike, caught a flick, when home, made home made pizzas, watched an old favorite with the brother, hit the sack for a fantastic sleep. Woke up early today and for the first time in a while, shot right out of bed, as if I was getting up on purpose, (which may have been the case).

Anyways, finally motivated to begin making progress again.

• Wrote the Spence Neighbourhood Association to see if I can join the Board. The goal is to get involved with some housing initiatives in the city, as they tend to be high-profile.
• Contacted I&ES to find out where my damn cheque is for ______. 9 days late. Its always a screw-up with that branch- someone is overworked.
• Bought Skype credit. Yay! I can make phone calls again

Now, at 9:30 am, I have an entire day ahead of me, (except for 7:30 pm and beyond, at which point I will be distracted by a squash game). So for today, I shall:

• touch base with my friend and Number designer (Mike Brown) to see if he has any numbering ideas for 467 Pritchard. The concept is that I want the building to stick-out, not as a crack-house (all crack tenants are gone, thankfully, and I don't think the cops have been there fore a long time now), but as a neighbourhood landmark.
• going to hit the 10-inch-thick inbox on my desk and see if I can process it down to nothing
• more work on income taxes! Fun!

With the last two of the above-mentioned duties for the day taken care of, I'll be able to sleep like a baby.

My new tenant at Westgrove is great. He's done so much work for me already, but it's gonna cost me. However, everytime he fixes something, it brings the house closer and closer to its optimal market price. For instance, he has the basement washroom completely functional now, with new toilet and vanity installed. He's also intending to drywall it, as the old panelling is kinda dated. Yippee, now the house has two washrooms. He's also purchased a high-efficiency front-load washer, the cost of which I agreed to split with him, as long as he leaves it when the lease is up. Score.

So things are coming along.

D

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