The third floor of house #2 is now vacant, which I was really dreading. The third floor is older and with age comes wear and tear, and the need for a good cleaning. I have been over there for 2 days so far and put in around 13 hours worth of work Today I have had some help which makes it go quicker. Some areas of concerns have been the gas on gas stove, the rugs, and the bathroom. Because of the condition and age of the rugs I might have to rip them out and replace them. My original thought was to steam clean them, but because of the pulls and discoloring that might just be a big waste of time. The bathroom has a stand up tile shower stall, which hasn’t been cleaned properly since installed. The grout is a very yellow/ orange color because of mildew and the hard water. I sprayed the bathroom down with bleach and recently purchased an AWESOME grout brush at target for $2 BUCKS! I have to say that I’m actually excited to try the brush, LOL, and hope it makes a big difference (I’m sure it will) the paint in the bath room is the other issue. There is no exhausted fan so the steam build up has made the, none mildew resistant paint peel and crack in many areas. It’s not to the point where I HAVE TO repaint but if I can't rent it out immediately then the going to repaint it. The sweet 1970's gas on gas stove has many issues and is a horrible almond brown color. I would like to replace this unit but I have not budgeted for that type of purchasing seeing as how I'm purchasing and installing a washer and dryer in the basement. hhmmmm. If I have the stove serviced which will cost around $150 it will be in perfect working condition, so I will most likely go that route. I may take the casing off and just spray it all white, which would make it look a Ton better. Here is a short video of day two of the clean saga, LOL. Enjoy!

I feel as though in every social situation where there is something gotten there needs to be something given. If you constantly give give give and never receive eventually you will not want to give any more and may do something to justify all that you have given. As a landlord I try very hard to ensure that I give back to my tenants, AKA not a slumlord. I'm constantly fixing and updating items that not only increase the worth of my houses but also please my tenants greatly. One example recently was cleaning out a storage room in the basement for a tenant of mine so she could move some AC units and a bike down there. This was something that I needed to do eventually, but not right away. I also had to replace a cracked window from a built in china cabinet. The cabinets had been there for a while and people had painted over the hardware a number of times (which I hate). So what did I do, I replaced the glass, repainted both of the doors and the cabinet itself, replaced all the hardware, and scraped all the paint off of the glass from people doing a half ass job many times before. This took me all of 2 hours, the hard wear cost about $5.00 and the paint was already there. She is now much happier and my cabinets look about 10 times better a win-win in my book. However the bigger win for me is having rent on time every month and not having to beg or baby sit people for it. I gave movie tickets a little while back to everyone because they all paid on time. This month, having my birthday on Halloween and my love for jack-o-lanterns, I purchased 5 pumpkins and handed them out to tenants. Pumpkins were $5 each (Shaw’s supermarket) and I’m going to keep 2 so it only cost me $15 for the pumpkins and made some people very happy.
One other thing I would like to mention is that I recently sent out an e-mail regarding fire’s in apartment building in providence. This is a serious issue during the winter with space heaters so I sent out an e-mail regard space heaters and safety. There was also a list of local centers that assist people if they have trouble affording heat.

If you are not living under a rock, than most likely you are aware of the foreclosure crisis that is happening all around us. One issue with foreclosures is that houses are left abandoned and in most cases unmonitored. Where house #2 is, is a very real picture of what the foreclosure crisis is doing to the housing market. The house that is directly next to my house has been abandoned for quit some time. Apparently many other people have noticed it has been abandoned as well and have been squatting there. Well it’s New England and the nights are getting cold so they are going in there to get warm. But not only do they have a roof over their head but they also have power and gas, because they were never turned off. At night there are people walking all over the 3 floors and are even cooking in the house. They gained access by a fire escape in back where there is a window they just kicked right in. I have called the police a number of times complaining of a break in but nothing has been done. Today I received an e-mail for one of the tenants voicing her concern of her safety and the safety of my house. I told her I would look into it and find who was responsible, this took much longer then I expected. I started with the town tax assessor’s office, which was little help but was able to give me the name of the lender they had on file. This sent me down a long dead end road of calling banks and mortgage companies that had sold this mortgage 10 fold. So after about 3 hours I was still no closer to finding the owner of this property. I ended up going do to the town records office and spoke with this very nice, very beautiful girl (I got her number J. She was able to help me by giving me more info and a few other lender names they had on file for the owner. One of the lenders was able to tell me that they were holding the dead and the property had been foreclosed on. After I told them about the squatters they informed me they would send out an assessor to look over the property and determine what needed to be done. She said they would most likely board up the windows and turn off all the utilities. If there is no sign of any assessor in the next 2 weeks I will be forced to take matters into my own hands and board up the windows on my own. The last thing I want is a gas explosion because some drunks snuck in and decided to light their crack pipe with the gas stove.

The last few months have been crazy, hens the lack of posts. I had a tough time with the apartments as far as renting them and closing in general, and retaining tenants, which I will get into. House #1 is fully rented, with 2 great sets of tenants who are very respectful and honest. House #2 is another story all together. House #2 has had some issue from the difficult closing to tenants abandoning the property and leaving everything behind. I had to recently send an abandonment notice to them and there mail has already been stopped. I have been dealing with this very well and have taken all of the legal actions and precautions necessary to insure that I go about this the right way. I have heard many stories, one from my dad, regarding this issue and how if not taken care of properly can cause many problems for the landlord. I have recently decided to start making video segments of different events at the house. I will start recording everything from installing items to tenants moving out and maybe some tenant interviews.

The biggest reason for me doing this is to raise exposure of who I am and what I'm about. Let's start from the beginning. I was born in 1982 and I’m a male who grew up in Rehoboth, MA. Rehoboth is a small town consisting of 1 traffic light and probably about 10 streetlights. I went to DR high school, which was a combination of Dighton and Rehoboth. High school was fun, and always interesting. I played soccer my first two years in the fall, track in the winter, and tennis in the spring. I switch from soccer to cross-country during my last two years of high school, which I enjoyed very much.
I was actively involved in DECA my junior and Senior year, which is a marketing organization for high school students. This organization helped to build me into the individual I am today. Up until joining DECA I wanted to be a chef, I still cook very often, but I decided to go for business instead. During DECA I placed 2^nd, at the state level, 2 years in a row and then placed 3rd at the national level while competing in Anaheim, CA. My project in Anaheim, CA was in the entrepreneurial franchise category, and my concept was to open a Krispy Kreme Donut shop. I will never lose my entrepreneurial drive, which will grow stronger as I get older. I'm contently conceiving new ideas that only get brought to market years latter (makes me wish I had started them).
After HS I enrolled at Johnson and Wales University where I majored in Business management and minored in HR and leadership. Johnson and Wales was an excellent choice for me and was a great school. I learned about many ideas and concepts and had the chance to perform them in real world applications. During my time at JWU I had the opportunity to work on many committees and participate in many out of class activities. Some of the activities I was involved in were:

• Collaboration between JWU and Autocrat to create a approved transporter list and determine the most efficient way to deliver product between RI and Mexico
• Worked on a marketing committee to help retain and attract local companies for co-op or collaborative learning opportunities. The strategies implemented were surveys, promotional flyers, direct marketing campaign, and a convention where students and potential companies could come together to share ideas (not a job fair).
• I worked at Texas Instruments on an educational enrichment program. This program was designed to get us into a management type position, and to get us looking at process improvement. Our project was to take processes that took an average of 25 days to complete and bring that down to 5 days. Not only were we able to reduce the process but also we were able to apply the process to another product line and bring the total time from 45 days to 12 days, thus greatly increasing their productivity.
• I was able to go on a work aboard program to Almelo, Holland and work at Texas Instruments. Our concentration in Almelo was to prepare TI for their ISO/TS 16949 Audit. Working overseas was an amazing experience and one that I would do again in a hear beat.

After my three and a half years at JWU (because I graduated early), I decided to continue my education directly after graduating. I enrolled in JWU's fast track MBA program and was accepted. I was accepted into the program based on my grades and my participation in their undergraduate program. My concentration in graduate school was global marketing. During my one year MBA program at JWU I learned core business concepts in:

• Branding
• E-commerce
• Importing and exporting internationally
• Advertising
• Accounting
• Finance
• Marketing
• Technology
• Management

I develop a comprehensive understanding of how each of these business disciplines function individually and interdependently.

During my years at JWU I worked many part time jobs included a ski shop during the winter and lifeguarding during the summer. I was head guard for 4 years at various pools, finally ending my lifeguarding career at 2nd beach in Newport, RI. I also had the great opportunity to work at Hope Global in Cumberland, RI in various positions. While working at Hope Global I had the chance to start off in their QC department and assisted them with a variety of systemic issues involving customer specifications. From there I working in the marketing department and created a unique and well laid out product brochure as well as beginning to design a new more interactive web site.