Bandits on the back porch…the joys of home ownership

You know sometimes I am just tired of owning property. All the little things that you have to deal with.  Its 10:48PM and Foxy Brown is going ape shit. Lily white is right behind her barking up a storm. I go to the back door, its dark, I can barely see anything when all of a sudden I see a gigantic raccoon staring at us. I don’t want to let the dogs out and I don’t want it to sit there and just stare at us so I grabbed a broom. Me and my big bad broom <heavy sigh>. I get out from behind the dogs and squeezed out the door, scared it was going to bite my leg off that’s how big it was. I ended up shooing the raccoon away and as I was squeezing back in the door Foxy got out, Lily followed. I spent the last 15 minutes out back in the dark, blind as a bat praying to god the raccoon won’t jump me.

My sorta kinda on again off again moving out tenant is really moving out. She has this dream to live on a boat and god love her I support her but goddamn it I now have to start looking for another tenant. Jakob and I were really comfortable with her and now…ohmygawd…to look again. My daily mantra, “one door closes and another opens”. Finding tenants. Not the good part of owning either.

Spent a good portion of the morning working on the WBW interview files. Then walked Lake Merritt with my girlfriends and our kids.  The home that is on the market weighs heavy on my mind. I spoke to Val about what was going on. The strategy she had in mind I already had in place but it doesnt seem to matter. I am 3 days from “D” day. I’ve been calling the bank every day to get information, to remind them that we’ve had 2 contracts in for over a month, I’ve done my due diligence, they have a complete package and the appraisal and hud-1 but Mr. Negotiator won’t give me a call back.  I am seething on the inside.

My mom flies in on Oct 1st.  She’ll be here for a month. It will be good to see her and we’ll tackle the backyard together (another negative to owning a home…I hate gardening) and we’ll discuss what the next best move would be for me.

Speaking of bandits…savvy and aware buyer knows that there are deals to be had. Good deals. I just checked the MLS. There are 1782 Active homes on the market in Oakland. 581 are bank owned (REOs).  In Alameda there are 148 Actives and 12 REOs.  Berkeley 119 actives, 21 REOs. Albany 33 active homes and 0 REOs. Emeryville 56 active, 7 REOs. San Leandro 340 active, 86 REOs and finally Richmond 873 active to 400 REOs. Of the 1782 actives in Oakland 40% are short sales.

Real estate for me is a love hate relationship. Some days I see my empire. Other days I long for the simpler life in another town.  I read a good article in Forbes or one of the Journals…I’ll have to look it up and repost it here…but it talked about the benefits of not owning, the freedom they have from taxes, property insurance, tenants, fix-it problems. And, as a result of NOT being a homeowner, they have money in the bank, take vacations, have a good cushion and no credit card debt. I’m sure patrick net would agree.

So I’m looking at either going through the tunnel to the Lamorinda area or perhaps checking out Marin seriously. But then again I might stay in the East Bay / Oakland area. Who knows.  I’m itchy. Its time for a new adventure.