Category: neg-am

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Week Recap (With Links!)

-My post on real estate the other day stirred up quite a little flurry of emails. A couple of them were soft and fuzzy like Easter bunny rabbits. And some of them were jagged and nasty with the intent to maim and cut me. Ha ha! I am a robot and cannot be cut. I still think the bottom line is – be smart and do your own research.

-The day when we have to be out of this house is creeping closer and will leap at me in a few weeks. Scary.

-I started reading Breed’em and Weep a few weeks ago. I do actually cry sometimes and I have bred some, so I guess I’m allowed. Her latest post, an open letter to teenage boys, has lots of good stuff in it. This post resulted in me sending her a fan letter, an action that always results in almost immediate remorse because I am a dork.

-If I could afford it and wasn’t moving and didn’t have to figure out how to pay for a new crown for my stupid tooth, I would buy SuperHero Jewelry.

-We had our first craft trade day at Leahpeah’s Craft. All I can say is that next month will be an improvement which is a nice way of saying I think no one traded anything. I’m reminded of a dance in junior high and no one wants to dance first. But next month, I’m uploading something(s) really awesome and everyone in their right mind will be compelled to participate because they will want one THAT MUCH. !!

-I interviewed for a job yesterday and found out that one of the people in on the call knew my uncle and his family from Arizona. Small world. This particular uncle is a judge and it brought to mind a very hyped up reunion we had one year when there were bodyguards following him everywhere. Us kids/teens all thought it was really awesome or rad or something. Good times.

-You’ll all be happy to know that my first marriage has been officially annulled according to the Catholic Church. I received the letter in the mail yesterday and it states it was no one’s fault and that we are all just great etc. I’m not Catholic but I do appreciate that these men are Holy Men and are acting in a way they feel inspired to. I don’t understand how a marriage of almost 14 years which produced 4 children can be annulled. (Um, we obviously consummated.) But in any case, my ex can now marry his wife in a Catholic church and have it be a valid marriage which makes them very happy and me happy by association. I suppose it also means that should we ever wish to, Joe and I could get married by a priest and have it be a valid Catholic marriage also. Religion is still a weird area for me. I think because I was raised in such a structured religious environment I am a little loathe to get involved or join any other organized religion. I mean, if I wanted to do that, why not just go back to the Mormon church? I already know all the good and bad stuff in that religion and have the 13 Articles of Faith memorized. Also, there is no sudden and repetitive kneeling in the middle of the service. Just lots of little kids and dry cereal and crayons.

-Joe upgraded his phone. This new, improved phone comes with voice texting. It’s my new favorite game.

For example, he says into the phone:
Leah comma I’m coming up on Topanga Canyon period I Love you exclamation point Love comma Joe period

And what I get is:
Betty, thank you hiding sheet tactile canyon. Lambda unit! Lilac, Chet.

To which I reply:
Oh, Chet! My tactile canyon is hiding under the sheets waiting for your lambda unit. I love you, too! Betty.

And he has no idea what I’m talking about.

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Current Smarts: Real Estate

If you just want the tips, skip to the end.

Some people notice that on my resume, I have a 2004 listing as a Real Estate assistant. I worked with my friend, Margot, and had a great time. She is a Real Estate Agent and only works with reputable people. In fact, she can be a little anal, but all in a good way, because there is no way something shady is going to go down while she is in charge. What you don’t see in my resume is a 2002/3 listing of loan ‘consultant’ which is what we called ourselves. I’d like to forget about the time I spent doing it. But maybe the lessons I learned have some value and I’ll try and share what I know here.

At the end of 2002 I was newly back to San Diego and looking for work and I needed it fast. I found a job with a company that did home loan refis. Our target market were the sub-prime people – those people with kinda bad to really terrible credit but still able to qualify for a refinance loan because they had equity in their home or their bankruptcy was over 3 years old.

I remember my first day on the job. I was sitting near the center of a very long desk, maybe 8 or 9 of us all together, each with a phone, a pad of paper and pen, and a computer printout of leads. These were supposedly ‘warm’ leads, meaning people that had qualified by merely existing, owning a home and hadn’t refinanced in the past 2 years which meant they most likely had some equity. It was a given that they had bad credit. My job was to call each of the people on the list, ask if they had received the letter we had sent them X number of weeks ago and ask if they could use a little extra money. I seriously tried. I made the first two calls, got hung up on, made another call, found someone that was vaguely interested but said to call back when her husband was home and then started listening to the people around me. Holy crap, they were full of it. They were saying all kinds of things that I knew weren’t true. But the fact that they got around 1% per done deal was the motivating factor for them to say just about anything they thought would help get the paperwork started.

I asked to see the owner of the company, who I knew was upstairs. I had done ‘training’ the week before for an entire afternoon, like 4 whole hours (sarcasm intended), and I’d seen his office. The floor manager didn’t want to let me up to see him, but finally did let me, calling ahead and saying in a sarcastic tone that I was someone new with ‘some qualms’ to talk over. Then he chuckled and sent me up.
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