Madness

Yeah. That's the state of my life currently. Pure, unadulterated madness.

We (my REI partners and I) lost a Baltimore deal due to analysis paralysis. It would be really nice if we could get analysis to run more quickly. I know that people may see different things about a property after multiple views/visits, but we had pretty much determined that we wanted go with this property over another deal in Patterson Park. It even had a full bar in the basement, which is kinda cool (sort of). The place needed a LOT of work though. Thankfully, there are other options available on the same street, and they may be better from a cash flow perspective too.

I'm looking to receive e-mail from another investor this weekend with a list of properties he is willing to sell around the DC metro area, primarily in Silver Spring and close in parts of PG County. (Yes, I have been deliberately vague.) I really want to look at picking up a condo or two, and possibly a multi-unit. I know I can put in more time to resolve the issues these properties have.

My wheat futures options got appropriately murdered. So ends my commodities trading career for the time being. I'll continue following the market sporadically, but this won't be something I concentrate on. There just isn't the time to do it right.

I should be able to post about some other deals I'm working on outside of the DC metro area. I'll keep you posted on those.

As for the software business, we have running code on Nokia and Palm phones. Motorola phones are a biznatch! Damn! Now that school is coming to a close, my partner will have a bit of free time before moving on to her internship. Now if we can only get MOT phones to work correctly. I'll be spending more quality time working on the architecture documents I've been writing, in order to solidfy our hardware and software needs and describe how all the components work together.

I'm going to have to drop some of the consulting work though, I think. I need to free up time to work on my faltering personal life, and even $60 per hour doesn't make it terribly lucrative to continue this stuff. I like my customer (since the others are friends, I don't charge them my full rate). It just requires a bit more involvement than I can justifiably give right now. That move is still under consideration.

As for the rest, its still madness. I'm just trying to hang on now. I swear I'm so inclined to take 2 demerol and some Ketel One and call it a lifetime. But I've made commitments to people, and I'm intent on seeing those through. And I guess some people might miss me too. Otherwise, I don't know if anything is worth it. Life sucks.

Until next time...