The Successful Landlord Blog

Just a small site update today. Yesterday I installed a plug-in for this blog which runs Wordpress called Snap Preview Anywhere. It’s a really neat system that allows a web site user to drag the mouse over a link to an external web site and see a thumbnail image of the external web site.

I think that the uses for this are going to be HUGE. For instance, it helps to prevent the following condition. I for one have total Hyperlink Attention Deficit Disorder (I think I just coined a term) where you click a link to briefly preview a website and end up clicking on five more links to other web sites thereby forgetting what you were even accessing the internet for.

Go ahead, try it here now. Wait….where was I?

Just a quick post for Friday…

One of the single-family rental houses is rented to three younger (19-22) year-old girls. They are smart, fun-loving and quite humorous. They are also surprisingly responsible. They pay the rent on-time…every month and they don’t call me to come and repair stuff unnecessarily. The other day I had to go over to this house to repair a broken light switch in the common bathroom (i.e.- not the master bath).

On the wall hangs a sign that really cracked me up. Here it is reproduced verbatim:

BATHROOM GUIDELINES

1. BOYS: This is an all female establishment. Put the damn toilet seat down before you leave. It was down when you came in, wasn’t it? If that’s too hard for you, go pee outside.

2. TOILET HANDLE: It sticks so make sure to pull it down before you leave or it won’t stop running. (note to self)

3. HANDS: Wash them, NASTY!

Thank You.

THE MANAGEMENT

I swear, I must have laughed for five minutes about that last “guideline.” Why, oh why can’t all my tenants be like these girls.

Happy Friday and have a good weekend.

Today I ventured out to buy a new dishwasher for one of my tenants. They have been extremely patient since the existing unit had basically been ruined by the previous dirtbag tenants.

The stores I went to were the local Best Buy and a regional bargain-basement type place called Appliance Direct. Appliance Direct usually has scratch & dent stuff, floor models, etc.

First I called Appliance Direct to see what they had in inventory. Here’s how the conversation went.

Me: “Hi, I would like to find out what your cheapest price is on a dishwasher.”

Appliance Direct: “Well, it’s going to be about $150.”

Me: “About $150 or $150?”

Appliance Direct: “Well, it could be between $140 and $180″

Me: “Ok, what brand is that?”

Appliance Direct: “Well, it could be Whirlpool, Frigidaire, GE, it all depends on what’s available.”

Me (to myself): “Hello, it’s 2007 in AMERICA! Get a computerized inventory system!”

Me: “Ok, thanks, I guess I’ll have to come into the store.”

So, I go into the store to experience this wonder of a Luddite business. The sales person proceeded to walk around the floor looking for what I asked for only to say that the only one they had was scratched-and-dented and it was $180. I have only two words for Appliance Direct in Melbourne, Florida: C-O-M-P-U-T-E-R-I-Z-E-D I-N-V-E-N-T-O-R-Y !!

Ya, thanks for playing…N-E-X-T!

Then I proceeded to the local Best Buy again in Melbourne, Florida. After wandering around the appliance department for like 20 minutes, I approached the drone greeter at the front of the store to ask if there was anyone else who could help me BUY SOMETHING.

After getting a blank stare from this guy, he sends out a page on the public address system for the whole store for customer assistance in the small appliances department. After 10 more minutes, I had had enough. I went home to order it on the web and to my dismay, there were none of these inexpensive dishwashers…in all the Best Buys for 50 miles around. Nice!

So, the winner of this sale was good old Lowe’s Hardware. Quick, efficient, in-stock and inexpensive. SOLD!

I guess Best Buy was too busy adding up the sales from christmas to sell me anything and Appliance Direct just plain SUCKS!

Ok, so this kind of going to be a rant but anyway, here you go. A couple of weeks ago I mentioned that I had aquired the domain name LANDLORDSUCCESS.COM (without the hyphen) and I was all exited about it.

Well, how I aquired it was I bought it from someone who had registered it as soon as it was deleted from the internet registry. The person who registered parked it ar Sedo.com who puts up a landing page full of ads and a “for sale” link.

The trauma that ensued after I bought it was incredible. Basically there were about 5-8 phone calls to both Sedo.com & 1and1.com (my registrar). Then finally I received an email from 1and1.com saying that the new domain was ready.

I have NO IDEA why this transfer took 2 weeks when I can register a domain and have a web site up on my web server in 4 hours. Anyway, LANDLORDSUCCESS.COM is now active.