Unemployed!

After a long six months of living apart, and our longest separation so far of a whole month, Ellen has finally worked her last day as an employee of someone else. Now she will be able to spend much more time in Alabama. We have completed the first item on our things to do for 2007!

Our thought processes are quite different, and often the final solution of a problem or even a day-to-day operational issue is somewhere between what Jim would do and what Ellen would do. This makes us a strong team and will help us to move forward much quicker with Arrow Woods Estates and the issues that it faces!

We have put some of our single family home properties that we own in Florida on the market. We know that the sales market is soft, but we have held the properties for long enough that even selling at prices less than appraisal will net us a substantial profit. Our base of operation is definitely moving, and we have already found issues with being long-distance landlords. Future decisions may result in putting other properties on the market as well, including our personal residence. We believe our money will net us better profits by investing in Alabama during the current market conditions.

Jim has some potential buyers on the string, with them telling him they are just waiting for their income tax refunds to actually complete the purchase of homes in the park. We need to sell one more home to access our Clayton LOC which will enable us to then purchase more homes to put in the park.

The City is taking over the water billings on February 1, which will effectively raise our usable cash by $600-$900 per month as well as cut our expenses.

We have one eviction currently filed and expect to file another on February 9. (That particular tenant was given 60 days notice to move.) Albama's new law changes have stopped us from filing our own evictions, however. Since we are a company evictions must now be filed by an attorney. That makes the cost higher plus takes a little longer than if we personally filed.

MOM is over for another year, but we are looking forward to San Diego and MHM in early March. These conferences and talking with other like-minded people are rejuvenating! There is no island.

---