Welcome to Chez Cliff!

"Do something that scares you."

So far through westsiderentals, I have received four phone calls.  I’m working on times when people can come and see the house.

I arrived at my house, yesterday, after having finished another day.  I already had my mental checklist of leisure things to do.  You know, those little things that make life worth living?  Within seconds of walking through the door, my cell phone chirped.  "Real Estate Agent" showed up on the caller ID.

Clifford:  Hey bud, what’s going on?
Agent:  It’s time to get you moving again.  We’re refying.
Clifford:  Already?  Excellent!  What do you need me to do?

My assignment is to dive back into my credit history and fix a couple of "dings" I received years ago.  With what I’m doing, my score should jump about 100 points.  Another topic for another time.

While I’ve been puttering around the house, fixing all those little things, it hasn’t quite been the same as when I first got the houses.  At that time, I was equally scared and excited.  I’ve recognized that these houses are but a stepping stone.  And as long as I keep plotting, scheming, and moving . . . everything will turn out the way I want it to.

Once again, I find myself wishing that tomorrow were already here.  And apparently, tomorrow has arrived.

What’s the plan for the refy?  Actually there’s three. 

The first is to reduce my monthly payment.  Plain and simple.  I want to at least be able to break even if I rent out both houses.  And for what I paid for them, I still believe that to be feasible.

The second is I want to sell these houses at a primo price.  If I want to receive a primo price, then I have to have a primo piece of property.  Cosmetically, the house is looking great.  What needs to be done is the kitchen.  Right now, it’s horrible.  Two things that people look at when buying a house:  bathroom and kitchen.  A small equity line of credit will accomplish that for me.

The third plan:  Sorry, that’s classified for the time being.

"Do something that scares you."

I love that!

I only have a minute. 

Today I received the phone call.  Things are happening.  I predicted January but it’s happening now.  And I have work to do.

I’ll be back tomorrow.

‘ve been stalling these past few weeks because someone knows someone who’s looking for a place to rent.

I can’t stall anymore.

I’ve also decided to use westsiderentals.com.  I’ve used this service before when looking for an apartment.  How this works is you pay for this service for 3 months.  During these three months, you have access to all kinds of listings with photographs, floor plans, etc.  You can search by number of bedrooms, number of bathrooms, etc.

As a renter, I was charged for this service.  As a landlord, this service is free.  I like "free".  I figured that there are many more renters out there versus landlords.  Now I’m a registered landlord with their website and my property is listed.  Also for free, they are sending a photographer out to the house to take several photos of it.  And he will bring a "FOR RENT" sign for the front yard, indicating to people how to apply.

I elected to go through westsiderentals.com for two reasons.  First, I have identified the kind of people that I want to rent the house to.  Professionals.  I want people who have jobs, sit in front of a computer all day, and eat lunch in their cubicle.  Second, the type of people who use westsiderentals.com are in a decent income bracket and have already paid the fee to use the website.  If people are too cheap to pay for the service, or don’t have the money, then I don’t want them.

Two barriers to entry.

Credit Checks:  In addition to the landlord association, westsiderentals.com gives me the option to be able to run credit checks through their website.  Of course I have to be registered to do so which I’m in the process of doing.  I am thinking that one stop shopping for a renter would be the best way to proceed.  Westsiderentals.com prides themselves on pairing good tenants with good landlords.  Just part of the process.

Historical Information:  One thing that westsiderentals.com does not do is track all the "historical" information.  The landlord association tracks people in their database.  If they were good tenants, then the landlord fills out a piece of paper stating that the tenants were good.  If they weren’t, for whatever reason, the landlord can inform the association and it will be in their records.

So, for instance, let’s say some former tenants of yours stole a stove, refrigerator, skipped out on last months rent, stole the toilet seat lids, left 1 ton of garbage in your yard (sound familiar?) then I can report them to the landlord association.  The next time those tenants fill out an application, the landlord can check with the landlord association and see all those things that are not on the credit report.  In this case, the tenants stole everything under the sun.  And their records with the landlord association reflect that.

Yes, I do believe in karma.

I hope everyone had a great holiday.  Me?  It was good.  Restful and experimental.  Just the way I like them.

First, thanks to Engineer X who showed me an easier way to get the paint off the walls.  He and I did almost an entire wall in about 3 hours, without the aid of a steamer or fancy equipment.  He started another wall for me, which I’ll finish sometime this week.  Maybe next weekend I’ll paint something . . .

Let’s talk about food.

Oh yeah!

When I was little, I remember the first time I saw cranberries.  I didn’t know what they were or how they tasted.  And, of course, you can imagine my surprise when the can was opened and the "contents" came onto the plate.  I thought to myself "Oh, this is like jello!"  Salivating like Pavlov’s dogs, I waited until we got done saying grace before I attacked.  If we were eating jello with dinner, I would be damned if I was going to let this slip by me!  Since I offered to help set the table, the "contents" were conviently set by me.  I piled three slices on my plate, which earned me a "You better eat all that!" from my mother.  The rest of the sides came and I politely took very little of each.  Today was going to be the day of jello and I was going to be happy!  I cut the first piece and slammed it into my mouth.

Clifford:  "What the heck is this in my mouth?  This isn’t jello!"
Mom:  "You’re not leaving this table until you’ve eaten everything on your plate young man!"
Clifford:  "But I thought this was jello!"  (Casting glances, looking for the dog).
Mom:  "The dog isn’t going to help you.  He won’t eat cranberries!"
Clifford:  "Mental note.  If the dog won’t eat it, neither will I!"

I have avoided cranberries like the plague.  Until now.

I read about this last week and I immediately thought of my favorite cooking phrase "Everything probably tastes good as long as it’s prepared properly."  Some of the foods rescued from the abyss:  Spinach, asparagus, brussel sprouts, liver.  Why oh why do people boil brussel sprouts?!?!?

I digress.

Cranberries by nature have a tart taste.  Some people like that.  And these are the same folks that can eat "Lemon Heads" like popcorn.  Me?  No way!  I like to taste something but I don’t want it contort my face into the shape an anteater.

So this is what I did.  (Step 1)  I took the cranberries and I did a quick boil in a sugar/water mix.  After about 5 minutes, they were ready for the next step.  (Step 2)  A juice cocktail was added: juice of a lemon, half an orange, and 1/4 cup of grand marnier.  With the cocktail followed a cubed apple.  (Step 3)  After about 20 minutes, this delicious berry smell had permeated my house.

Step 1.	Step 2.	Step 3.

Along with that, I also did some Cornish Hen.  I was going to prepare this Thanksgiving Day but elected to wait until the weekend.  It was my first time with this bird and, fortunately, I was able to find two great specimens for about $14.  Way cheaper than the $50 at the local restaurant!  It’s very easy to do.  Just drop the bird in the oven at 425 for 30 minutes and you’re done!  The stuffing, which I never created before, was easy as well.  But because I can’t help but to experiment, I made a blueberry/corn muffin stuffing.  When it was done, I can tell you that I was having to beat the neighbors off with a stick!

With a bottle of Beaujolais nouveau, dinner was served!

This is the way life should be.

I took some photos of Signal Hill and Shoreline Village, which is next to Long Beach.  Check out the new photo album.

To all you loyal readers out there I wish you a Happy Turkey Day.

I’ll be taking a few days off from my blog.  Correspondence begins again on Monday.

I’ll see you then!