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Today’s date…. July 6th 2019…. The time…12:53am

“Grief does not change you, It reveals you.”

—John Green—

Max here and wow, it’s been a very long time since I’ve chronicled. Tonight as you have guessed it, It’s Friday and I’m at the club…..how’s the club? Meh! I would say it is descent, but my BOSS would say that it’s not good enough. We have a descent crowd for the day after 4th of July.  A few girls are saying that they are making money.  But that’s the club, that’s not me….

How is Max doing? Max is mentally lost. One of the best things has happened to me and yet I don’t feel like I have achieved a milestone.

Apartment #1, the one that I have been working on for years, the one that I added almost hundreds of lights, the one where the city tried to shut me down for not having a permit to do the lights, the one where I had multiple electricians come and work on it, the one where I literally spent hundreds of hours working on it. I could go on and on about how much fucking god damn work I did on that damn apartment, and after all these years it is finally done, finally rented. But yet for some reason, I don’t feel accomplished.

What else has been happening, well apartment #4 (an efficiency) is now empty. The girl that was living there decided to leave and left her dad to live there, here Dad did not pay rent and was also selling drugs from the apartment. And so in the middle of June I went to evict him, and I told his daughter that I told the city about him selling drugs from my apartment. And so he (The drug dealer) sent me a message, as if I was doing something wrong by informing the city about him….. What these fuckers don’t get is that I am now old, is that I come from the fucking hood, I got no problem pulling out my gun and walking on my property. Remember I was born in Texas. Most of us still believe that our home is our castle and we have every right to protect it.

So now that the drug dealer is gone, I now am having to repair all the shit that they fucked up and not to mention that the fucker also stole my fridge. And so now I decided to do a few upgrades on it and I will also raise the rent from $350 to $450. Remember this is not a great part of town, but it doesn’t hurt to try and see if I can get a good renter.

BREAK IN WRITING

I took a break in writing, I had to deal with a few people and then I got distracted from my thoughts. Sadly my thoughts are all over the place, from my bills, to my emotions, to my family and everything in between.

Now where was I……Ah yes raising rent for the efficiency, I am a little hesitant to try and get $450 for this efficiency, however, rent overall is going up. my 3bdrm 2.5bth is going for $1200, however, I made that place look like a $2k a month unit. the custom cement counter tops wrapped around the stove with wrap around lights around the stove was a big seller. But the efficiency just doesn’t have enough space for me to create very much. So I’ve decided to stucco the outside of the efficiency and also resurface the tub and put new panel walls around the tub. I’m sure that I can get someone to rent it for $400 which turns out to be about $13 a day. While $450 would be about $15 a day. Idk, all I can do is try. Besides this repair/ and remod will cost me near $2.5k and at $450 it will take me the better part of 6 months to recoup my remodel costs.

What else is going on in Max’s life? Well my new enigma…. the guy that was living under a bridge, that’s a whole story in it’s own right. Lucky he doesn’t seem like he does drugs, or does much drugs, but the issue that is as bad a drugs, is that he has never learned the discipline of being at work. And I am definitely sure that for someone in his position, it is extra difficult, not having a place to live, not having anything, not knowing when and where your next meal is coming from. It’s just gotta be difficult, but I offer him work, and only when he decides to come to work is when he makes money from me. Many times I have to wait for him to come around, And this is after he tells me what time he will arrive. Then he walks off the job and comes back when he wants. Luckily I pay him by the job and not by the hour. However the point is that if he would discipline himself to work then he could make more money from me and put himself and his wife in a better position. And recently I felt bad for him, he once asked if he could stay in the upstairs unit that I began repairing, My heart felt for him, to see that he had no where to stay and to know that he will sleep under a bridge, so I allowed him to stay in the upstairs unit. This unit has no shower. And I specifically told him that he could only stay there for one night………. And what does this mother fucker do? He ends up staying there for multiple days in a row. He found an open window and decided to make that his temporary home. WTF! This is the point where I learn another lesson of….. if you give someone an inch, then they will take a mile. I found out because I was on my way to work one Saturday afternoon and I decided to stop by the apartments to check on Mark’s work….. and what did I find? I found my new enigma and his wife walking up the stairs to the upstairs apartment. I had to personally make sure that I changed all the locks to the apartment and I had to ensure that every window was locked and I had to buy a chain and lock to ensure that the downstairs gate was locked.

Now fast forward to about a week ago…. It was probably a Tuesday and I told my enigma to meet me on Wednesday at 8am if he want’s work. So Wednesday rolls around, and I pull up to the apartments. I go to unchain and unlock the lock to the gate for the upstairs apartment, and as I walk upstairs to the balcony, what did I find???? I found my enigma and his wife laying on a blanket. I was like WTF!!! He said…”We got here about 30 minutes ago” I thought to myself…. “Got here 30 minutes ago??” “Mother fucker, the gate is almost a 5 foot gate with pointed spears at the top. why the fuck would you jump such a difficult gate then walk up the stairs, lay a blanket in the corner of the balcony? Especially if you got here 30 minutes ago?”  Do you know how much effort it takes to jump a gate like that? That’s not something that you do when you arrive just a few minutes ahead of time! After he told me that he got there 30 minutes before me and was just waiting for me, I looked at him, shook my head and walked back down the stairs. Needless to say he knew that I wasn’t happy….. Now fast forward to about 2 days ago… Since that time on the balcony I had several talks with him about him not being able to be on the property when he is not working. I know in my heart that he understands. I even told him….”Why is it that you don’t go and sleep on your sisters porch?” His reply…. “Because she will call the cops on me”… I thought to myself… So because I am not threatening to call the cops on him, he is willing to take advantage of my kindness. This just doesn’t work for me. I ultimately decided to be kind and threatening at the same time. So what did Max do?

I decided to go to Walmart and buy him and his wife a 6 man tent. I told them, that the cost of the tent was about 80 dollars, but that I care about them and that I can’t have them on the property when they are not working. I explained the depth and breath of understanding their situation, I explained to them that I freely give the tent to them and that if they want, they can sell the tent, but I also explained in great detail, that if they just use the tent for one month, then they could have enough money to find a place to rent. I then told them that if I catch them on the property when he is not working that I will call the cops on them. I told them that it hurts me to have to call the cops, whether or not they understand, they are taking advantage of my kindness. Since then, I have not seen them on the property when he is not working. Now, let’s go back to a couple of days ago….. My enigma was working on the efficiency and I had the upstairs unit open because Mark needed something from there, a tool or something like that. So it was the end of the day and I decided to close up the upstairs apartment since Mark had gotten whatever he needed. So I walk upstairs and do a walkthru of the apartment, just in case his wife would be in there.

I open the door, the door opens to the living room and kitchen. Everything looks status quo. I then move into one of the bedrooms, the door to the first bedroom was open so I walk in and also notice that the door to the half bath was open, again everything looked status quo. I then walk to the second bedroom, this bedroom door was closed. I walked in and noticed that one of the windows was open. Now mind you, I was also checking all of the windows to ensure that they are locked. So I locked the window and then looked in the main bath, then I walked into the last bedroom. By this time I had walked all of the apartment and found only one open window. So I walk into the last bedroom and every thing looked status quo, and while I was walking to the last window, I decided to peak in the closet for the bedroom, the closet is a double door sliding style of closet, I slide one of the doors open and what do I find…..I find my enigmas wife sleeping in the closet with the closet door closed, in an apartment that has no A/C in the Texas heat. I looked at her and said, “babe you know you can’t be in here” She said “I know” and she slowly got up and walked out of the apartment. As I was locking the apartment, I told her that she could wait for her husband in the efficiency, since he was working on the outside of the efficiency.

So the point of this part of the blog is that as a person in real estate, as someone that cares about people, that you still have to draw boundaries with people and sometimes you have to draw very strict boundaries, even if it hurts you to have to draw those boundaries. Now luckily, my new enigma was working that day, but to find his wife hiding or sleeping in the closet was just absurd and weird and completely unnecessary.

So yeah that’s my new enigma. For me, while I am living it, this current life in real estate, I am just baffled that I am actually having to deal with situations like this, and when I write it, it just (in my own eyes) sounds unbelievable. But then again I guess baffled and unbelievable can sometimes coincide with each other.

Now what else is happening…. We’ll my bills are just piling higher and higher, and what’s worse of all, this is happening at a time when the country (USA) is having its best unemployment numbers and the economy is doing extremely well. How can I be so in debt with such a good economy. This is something that I must fix.

Then there is the issue of my family on the island, every time I think about them, my heart hurts. I would go into detail, but this is not the place. What I will say is that I must find ways to help them. I must also find a way to be able to meet my brother and sister on the island. I have 2 nieces and 1 nephew. This issue of my family takes up a portion of my mental time. All I can do is try.

And as for my own personal house….Well that hasn’t gotten any better yet. I have been spending so much time and money on the 4plex that my own house has been suffering.

Then there is the issue of the grass ticket…. I am sure that I have mentioned about it. The city gave me a $500 ticket for not cutting a small portion of grass at the 4plex. Since that inception of the $500 grass ticket, I personally spoke with the supervisor for the city’s “code enforcement” they are the ones that give tickets for tall grass, broken cars sitting in clear sight and also for not getting permits for repair or remodel work. I talked with the supervisor and he told me that he was going to dismiss my ticket and that I would not “have” to go to court. I was a little unsure of whether or not to believe him, but by the time our conversation finished, and I drove away from my meeting with him, I decided to not go to the court date because he said that my appearance was unnecessary. So what happens several weeks later???? I get a letter in the mail that says that I did not appear in court and that I now owe the city $500 for not cutting my grass. Needless to say I was livid! ….”This mother fucker just told me that I didn’t have to go to court and that the ticket was going to get dismissed, only to find a letter in the mail that says that because I did not go to court that I now owe the city $500. ” I was so upset. I eventually called my city councilman. I gave myself a couple of days before I called my councilman. I wanted to make sure that I calmed down and had time to think clearly. Maybe it was just a mistake. Mistakes happen. So I told my councilman that mistakes happen, and that maybe the supervisor just made a mistake. Because in all honesty, the supervisor was a very well mannered person. I talked with him for about 30 minutes in the rain, and I genuinely felt him to be an honest person. Which is why I was so beside myself that I got a ticket in the mail for not attending court. And so I explained to my councilman that I felt that maybe the supervisor made a mistake, and after speaking to my councilman he (the councilman) reached out to the supervisor, and informed the councilman that the ticket would be dropped.

Well, I could definitely write more, but the night is about over, and I am debating whether or not to visit the 4plex. Remember I gave Mark the incentive to have the efficiency done by Monday. And Mark doesn’t have a phone…. Now why doesn’t Mark have a phone???? Mark doesn’t have a phone because he broke it. He broke it because last week he called me expecting me to give him money for a job that he didn’t finish to our agreed condition. He began to raise his voice at me over the phone, so I went straight hood on him. I yelled at him and cussed at him for what felt like 10 minutes, I didn’t let him get a word in.  In the end I just hung up on him. ( I really went off  on him) there was no need for him to think that he could get more hood than me. Needless to say, I did my job…. He tried to piss me off, so I turned it around and pissed him off so much that he said that after I hung up on him that he got so mad that he threw his phone against the wall. (his phone was already a cheap phone and he already didn’t take care of his phone) but this time, I am sure that he got extra pissed when he realized that he completely broke his phone.

Talk about a boring life eh.

Until next time…….

Max.