I've been a land baron for many years... not really, but that's always been the joke term we've used since we own a rental property. I've had it for many years, basically since I first moved to Indiana back in 2003. when I first moved there for a job I went down and looked for an apartment. I didn't have much luck, everything was too expensive. I was just a lowly Christian school teacher- I certainly didn't have much money to spend on an apartment just for little ol me! i had gone around to all the places i had heard about and didn't find anything i could afford. everything was too expensive, really gross, or way too small. i could handle small, but a 400 square foot loft apartment for $750 was a bit much... about to give up, i went to the local grocery store to pick up one of those weekly ad things that they put by the newspapers (this was before everyone had the internet on their phone and people still read the newspaper...). i noticed a two bedroom for only $500. wow- what a find! i went to check it out and it was a duplex. i hadn't even thought about looking at duplexes, i just assumed they would be too expensive. i really loved it and convinced the guy to let me rent it. i was very releaved to have a place to stay that was in my budget. a couple months after settling in and feeling comfortable in the new job and new place, i saw a sign on the front lawn that said 'for sale'. uh oh! thinking the worst, i gave my landlord a call. 'i saw the for sale sign. does this mean i'm getting kicked out?' 'nope', he said, 'the new owner has to honor the leases'. what a relief! my next question i asked was 'ok, how much are you asking?' and within a month i owned the place! it was really cool to own the whole duplex, i lived in half and rented out the other side, which meant that the renter actually paid the whole morgage- i was living rent free! but it did mean i had to do a lot of repairs and stuff. a small price to pay to own my own place!
a few years later i met and married diana (i know, i still cant believe it either!). she moved in and we made ourselves a home together. we went through some rough times with renters, everything from needing to call the cops, taking a delinquent payer to court, many many plumbers, and even digging out the front yard! when ledger was born the small place got a little tight and we moved on to another place, but we still kept the duplex. we rented out both sides and maintained it even when we moved up to Michigan. thought it was often frustrating to manage the place long distance, it was still worth it due to the extra income. this past winter we had a lot of issues with the place- we had to replace the roof, furnace, water heater, and a bunch of issues with the plumbing. it was getting to the point where we were actually loosing money on it for the year! well, that was enough of that then. we decided it was time to let it go, it was time to relinquish my role as land baron... we went about finding an agent and getting it listed. much to our surprise, it was a very hot property! we actually ended up raising our asking price two times- and then accepting a bid that was several thousand above the highest asking price! not only were we going to get rid of the rental property headache, but we were going to be paid quite handsomely for it! we were beside ourselves with delight!
after all the paperwork went through, we headed down to visit the old place one last time. it was good to see it again with diana and reminisce about it for a while.
goodbye, old friend, you served us well but you will not be missed!
