Offer accepted, kind of

Finally we have an offer accepted!!!!!!!!!!!! by the seller, but now it has to go to the bank and that can take months also the bank can turn it down. So we just have to wait.

If you didn't know, we have been looking for an investment property for the last 6 months or so. We have some money sitting in savings that is earning a whopping $7 a month.  So the goal is to take part of that money and turn it into $100 to $200 a month (or more).

We submitted the offer site unseen because to wait in this market, is to lose in this market. Besides I wasn't too worried because I knew that we would have to put some money into it and it was going to be a rental anyway.  Also the home inspection should turn up major stuff and that would let us walk if needed. As long as it wasn't trashed I was good to go with it.


The problem we have been facing is that the market for the low end properties is booming.  We have submitted 4 previous offers, some above asking, and we were beaten out on all of them. Actually every one had multiple offers with about half of them being cash.

Some of the sales were traditional, some were foreclosures and this one is a short sale. I think that the reason we got a jump on this place is that it is not listed in the San Diego MLS. The agent is in Orange County and so is the listing. Why? I have no idea. "A" found this place on a real estate site. 

It is next to a golf course and has a pretty nice view from the balcony. The inside is rough and we will need to put some $$$$$ into it to get it ready for rent if we get the place. It is two bedrooms and two baths with 1070sqft. The listing shows a garage and most units have them, however when I looked at it today all we have is a large walk in storage closet. I am kind of pissed about that.

From the Front

Right side of living room

Left Side of living room

Kitchen

Master Bedroom

Master Bath

Master Bath

Laundry next to master bedroom

2nd bathroom

2nd bathroom

2nd bedroom

2nd bedroom

outside storage unit

Outside storage unit

From the balcony off the kitchen

Complex pool

Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's day everyone. "A" and I decided to go out tonight and since we didn't make any reservations we weren't sure where to go. I know that I didn't want to go to any chain restaurant and "A" came up with the idea of going to the Blue Boheme (French Cuisine) in Kensington. When we got there they asked for reservations and since we didn't have any the only place we could sit was outside, seriously?  That worked perfect, just like being in France. OK, not quite but still it worked out really well.

For this weekend they had a special three course menu. You had four choices from each course (appetizer, main,desert).

I took a picture of the appetizer and the desert before we ate but the main course looked so good that we were almost done by the time I remembered to take a picture. So all you get is empty plates...Sorry.

Appetizer

The main course...Sorry :(

Desert

Sunset and Storm Clouds

As most of you know I have become somewhat of a shutterbug and movie maker. I have really wanted to start doing time lapse photography but my Nikon wouldn't take interval photos, so I had to take actual video and then speed it up. The big drawback to that was huge files. To produce a 30 second clip could use 600mb of space or more.

So now that I have an iPhone I am experimenting with apps to find the best one, hopefully free, that fit the bill (pun intended). Here are two clips that I made yesterday and today. The first one is from my iPod touch and the second is from the iPhone. The iPhone is in portrait mode instead of landscape because I screwed it up.

As always you can go to my YouTube channel to view them as well. You can also double click on the video to go to full screen or click the little box just lower right next to the "YouTube" symbol.

Superbowl/Birthday Party

We delayed our January birthday party this year because of illnesses and everyone being busy. So this year we decided to combine it with the Superbowl. I didn't really care who won as long as it was a close game and at half time it was beginning to look like a blow out. However in the end it turned out really good.

Instead of hot wings I decided to make Emeril Lagasse's Asian Chicken Wings and, like the game, they turned out really good. They were a lot harder to make than my usual wings and I am not sure I would do them again but it was worth the effort today.

With everyone over it was too much for little "k" and she just couldn't keep her eyes open.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBlFfeoC1U8