Anita Makes the Trip

On Friday night I was at the shipping depot, doing my job and minding my own business. At 8:10pm, I get a call from my mom Anita.

“Hey, I'm about a half an hour from Smalltown. Do you know of any hotels in the area?”

Yes. After 4 years, my mom (with her fiance Tony) was finally coming to Smalltown to see Property X, the property she bought but has never seen in person. The property that has given me so much trouble and sapped my money for so long.

On Saturday morning we went out to see Property X. Once parked in front of it, Anita had this look of chagrin on her face. She started complaining about dumb things like the windows not having shades or the color of the house. I couldn't take it, so I started yelling at her to focus on more important things like, oh I don't know, maybe the fact that the entire place needs a new roof?! The fact that the neighborhood sucks?! The fact that I've already spent over $6,000 of my hard earned money this year on repairs for that one awful place and it's a money pit?! Anita finally realized what was most important and agreed that she needs to get the roof done.

The next day I took her and Tony out to breakfast and she said that she is thinking about selling the house. Yes!!! But she wants to wait until she gets the roof done and the mortgage paid off, which will be sometime next year. So it looks as though I'm stuck with that place for another year but I don't mind it too much. As far as problems go, things have been as quiet for Property X as it can be. When Anita remarked that she should sell Property X and buy in a better Smalltown neighborhood, Tony retorted, “Why are you so focused on Smalltown?! You can take that money and use it for a down-payment in a better city like Connecticut (where he does real estate).” I really like that guy.

It was nice seeing Anita, and I've always liked Tony. It's good to see an end to my management of Property X approaching. It's good to know that, when I buy more properties next year, I can focus on them instead of focusing on a place that I don't own and loses money every year. And it would be nice to get my mom out of that investment. Since she plans to retire sometime this year or early next year, Anita wants to move down South like Virginia or Louisiana and I want her to be as comfortable as possible. Getting rid of Property X won't just be a relief for me, but will more importantly be a down-payment to an easier retirement for someone who really deserves it. Getting a buyer for a place like that in that neighborhood will be difficult, but I've seen properties sold in worse areas so it will simply take time. Whatever happens, it was nice to see Anita actually give a damn... even if it may only be a temporary damn.