What? You Actually Want Me To Earn Money With My Degree?!

Gotta keep it short tonight. I have some good stuff cooking right now. Today I have been working on a real estate blog entry for some friends who are trying to sell a farm for sale by owner here in Rowan County. It is a really neat property. I'm pretty pleased with how the post is turning out. You can see it HERE.

The blog is one I started a couple years ago for my real estate business. Well, the business is gone, but the blog remains - as does, technically, my corporation. Anyway, I am thinking about possibly marketing this service to an agent or two in my market. Now to figure out a price. Based on the time that it has taken to put things together, I think that my initial thoughts about pricing were way too low. The cool thing is that I also own two other blogs with great names that I could market in this way. Hey, maybe I can earn some money with my English degree after all!

I've been contributing to two blogs (make it three with the one I just linked to) right now in addition to trying to finish some software testing that I am doing. Who would have thought.

Long Time, No Write

Wow, it has been a long time since I posted anything here. The real estate world is a pretty busy place, and I found that I just couldn't keep up being a full time agent and a closet writer. By the end of the day it was just too much - especially after a nasty bout earlier in '05 with appendicitis.

So, what have I been doing? My dad has retired from the real estate business (lucky him) and is moving on with his well earned life of freedom. That means that the business has fallen to me, and I must admit that it has proven to be more than I want to handle.

I guess when you sit down and analyze everything, and look at the core competencies of what you are doing, and you realize that you absolutely HATE doing about half of those things, that you realize that it is time for a change.

This realization, of course, begs the question, "So, what do I do now?" See that has kind of been the question since middle school. When someone asked me what I wanted to be then, I wanted to be an officer in the US military - preferably a fighter pilot. However, with pretty horrible vision, and not quite making the cut at the Air Force Academy, that dream (forgive the pun) crashed and burned, leaving me with the burning question that has haunted me since: "So, what do you want to be when you grow up?"

So far, I've pretty well just gone with the flow. Fresh out of college I went into insurance sales. Then I tried software testing. And finally I have given Real Estate a shot. I guess most of these jobs have had some good points - except for insurance. That TOTALLY sucked.

I kind of wish that I had known about career surveys and stuff like that before I went to college. Perhaps then I may have been able to pick a track that would have put me into something more like a permanent career. I have taken a couple of these surveys since I came to the decision to get out of Real Estate. And I have actually been somewhat surprised by what I found out.

It turns out that I am a bit more artistic than I had thought. I mean, you can't be a conservative AND artistic too, can you? Anyway, it has got me to thinking about some possibilities that I hadn't considered. I did look at teaching VERY briefly, but the income from that is less than I'm making now. Even with 2 months off in the summer, that is not an acceptable option. (Even though I think that the teaching part would be pretty fun.) I am considering writing though. I know it is a long shot, but what if I could write the great American novel?

I suppose that means that I need to find something to pay the bills in the meantime. I will probably go back into software testing because I enjoyed that for the most part. I guess time will tell.

So here's to all of you out there who don't know what you want to be when you grow up. I feel your pain!

Too Little Fun Working Tonight

It has been one of those days. Not that anything went terribly; on the contrary, everything went great today. I got to visit with an old client and we had a great time. I got to get to know some new clients, and I really like them. I had a couple of great meals and got to simultaneously watch about 3 baseball games while I was eating supper. The only real negative is that I have just been at it for a long time today and I'm tired and haven't gotten to play much. I guess the main problem is that I have more to do than I have hours to do it today! Oh well, I guess that is life. I really value my "me" time. And I find that blogging is so much more fun than real work! Today I didn't get to do much of that (blogging), and by now I am tired and ready to go home and get comfortable for a little while before heading to bed. So, I hope that I don't disappoint, or for that matter, please anyone too much by only posting this wee blog entry tonight.

A Real Estate (And History) Lesson

I don't know if this is a true story or not, and I'm too lazy to check it out on urbanlegends.com. I've seen it floating around ever since I started working in real estate. For those not familiar with what an abstract of title is, this is the documentation of a search done by a real estate attorney to demonstrate that the person selling a piece of property has a clear title (in other words, the seller has full right to sell the property to whomever they choose without someone else laying claim to it). I've always been impressed by the attorney's creativity and wit in response to the incompetent bureaucratic nit!

A New Orleans lawyer sought an FHA loan for a client. He was told the loan would be granted if he could prove satisfactory title to a parcel of property being offered as collateral. The title to the property dated back to 1803, which took the Lawyer three months to track down.

After sending the information to the FHA, he received the following reply (actual letter):

"Upon review of your letter adjoining your client's loan application, we note that the request is supported by an Abstract of Title. While we compliment the able manner in which you have prepared and presented the application, we must point out that you have only cleared title to the proposed collateral property back to 1803. Before final approval can be accorded, it will be necessary to clear the title back to its origin."

Annoyed, the lawyer responded as follows (actual letter):

"Your letter regarding title in Case No. 189156 has been received. I note that you wish to have title extended further than the 194 years covered by the present application. I was unaware that any educated person in this country, particularly those working in the property area, would not know that Louisiana was purchased, by the U.S., from France in 1803, the year of origin identified in our application.

For the edification of uninformed FHA bureaucrats, the title to the land prior to U.S. ownership was obtained from France, which had acquired it by Right of Conquest from Spain. The land came into the possession of Spain by Right of Discovery made in the year 1492 by a sea captain named Christopher Columbus, who had been granted the privilege of seeking a new route to India by the Spanish monarch, Isabella. The good queen, Isabella, being pious woman and almost as careful about titles as the FHA, took the precaution of securing the blessing of the Pope before she sold her jewels to finance Columbus' expedition.

Now the Pope, as I'm sure you may know, is the emissary of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and God, it is commonly accepted, created this world. Therefore, I believe it is safe to presume that God also made that part of the world called Louisiana. God, therefore, would be the owner of origin and His origins date back, to before the beginning of time, the world as we know it AND the FHA. I hope you at the FHA find God's original claim to be satisfactory.

Now, may we have our loan?"

The loan was approved.