Rental Property Stuff

I did do some real estate related stuff today, although not exactly what I talked about in my blog just this morning. That's the way the rental property business goes - no plan survives the first call of the day.

I started the day with some paperwork and busywork - paying a few bills; ordering a part for our motorhome (not real estate related); calling the bike shop (also not real estate related); and calling to complain about my new computer battery which is total junk. As I was getting ready to head to town to do some rental property work, I received a call from the alarm company who was ready to install my new alarm system in the store room of the pink elephant. So, I headed to the bank and post office; picked up a kitchen sink sprayer at Lowes; and then went to the pink elephant to meet the alarm company. The alarm company was there as promised and I let them in so that they could get started installing the alarm.

While the alarm was being installed, I went to one of my 1-bedroom apartments to fix the kitchen sink sprayer. That only took about two minutes, but the tenant had several other little things that needed done. I installed a new strainer in the kitchen faucet; removed a broken light bulb and replaced it with a new one; and turned up the temperature on the water heater. After doing those things, I showed a one bedroom apartment to an older guy who rode up on a Harley.

I then returned to the pink elephant to see how the alarm was coming. They were making good progress and within a half hour the system was done. It is an excellent system with two very loud sirens - one inside and one outside. It has a motion detector and a door sensor. It has a smoke alarm. All these things are fairly standard in an alarm system. What makes this system interesting is that it has a cell phone type transmitter which transmits the alarm signal to the monitoring center. I don't need a phone line for the alarm and no-one can cut the phone lines to prevent the alarm from working. The other nice feature with this alarm is that it has a key chain remote that allows it to be turned on and off from outside the building without using a key pad. In addition, the key chain remote also allows for a zero delay time, meaning that the alarm will sound IMMEDIATELY if a criminal opens the door or sets off the motion detector!

After the alarm was done, I came home and went mountain biking at a nearby course. I was obviously the first person to ride the course since Hurricane Ike blew through and there were many trees blocking the path. Even so, I was doing well until I was about 3/4 of the way through the course. At that point, I hit a particularly bad spot and ended up going over the handle bars. I wasn't seriously hurt, but did cut my hand and broke the mirror on my bike. I finished the course and called it quits. Top on the agenda for tomorrow is to take my bike (and my riding partner's bike) to the bike shop to get them both fixed (the bike shop was closed today). Both of our bikes have taken quite a beating this summer and are in need of some much needed repair.