Reader Mail...

Clarence asks: "so what's going on w/ the albatross condo?"

Well, nothing. Sort of. The missus and I have been working on various other things this week, although we're going to draft some literature about the place and start getting it out there. We've been waiting to hear back from "Rick," the curiously helpful mortgage lender trying to determine whether I qualify for another mortgage.

I should have seen it coming...

The situation with our creditworthiness is long and complicated, but I believe I can sum it up this way: Grace has the credit, but I make the money. It's yet another kink in our overall investment plans. Now, my credit isn't bad, but it ain't great, either. Call it the wages of a misspent youth. (Or 20s...)

What's that got to do with Rick and the condo? Well, I had an inexcusable lapse in my judgment. I didn't know why Rick was so interested in helping us try to unload our condo, but I thought he might know a way to profit off of helping us to lease option the place. Maybe we could pay him a small fee or something. After all, he said he specialized in finding deals where other investors would walk away. Rick got all of our information last Wednesday. He said he'd call back in a couple of days to let us know about our eligibility for another place. We're not particularly interested in buying another place right now, but if we could, great--as long as the payments are at least $1,000 less than we're making now.

He called back and briefly told me it might be possible, but he "wanted to get some more eyes on the paperwork." He said, "I'll call back Monday or Tuesday."

So far: silence.

I sent him a nice e-mail this morning, but I haven't heard back yet. So, it's starting to look like he realized he couldn't do a damn thing for us, and now he's just going to disappear. That kills me because the guy was so friendly, we have a lot in common, and we spent a good amount of time talking about WAMU's inexcusable decision to cut back on their bluegrass broadcasting.

Anyway, live and learn. Maybe I'm writing him off too soon, but as anyone int his business knows, there are a lot of asshats out there.

So, we'll start canvassing every place we can to get the word out. Craigslist, FSBO sites, REI clubs, friends. Maybe I'll even get one of those long, narrow signs and stand out on the curb, dancing and flipping it to grab peoples' attention.

In the meantime, the beat goes on. I've got some moving gigs this weekend, and Grace is working on launching a local REI club's newsletter. It's pretty snazzy, if I do say so myself. I do the design, and she does all the grunt work of finding contributors. She's well-qualified for such a thing. As a reporter for five or six years, she's got the skills to produce a quality publication. I urge anyone who wants some exposure to contribute, either with copy or advertising. We're literally counting on this to bring in a little money, so, I know you'll do the right thing, dear readers...;-)