In January, Adam and I decided it would be in our best interest to move to Spanish Fork, since he works there and has to be at work at 7:30 in the morning. On the other hand, the earliest I ever go to work is 9, so it's easier for both of us if we get a little extra sleep in the morning and I make the commute. Well, we found what appeared to be a great opportunity--a 2 bedroom, 1.5 bathroom townhouse style apartment in SF, all at a discounted rate if we'd be the on-site apartment managers. Well, we went for it and signed a contract with the property management company...and two days after that, got a notice on our front door that the property was being foreclosed and would be going to public auction in February, something that the property owner hadn't bothered to communicate to the property management company.
So, February rolls around, and we hear nothing, until the last Saturday of the month, when a realtor from Zions Bank stops by. I guess no one bought the building at the auction, so now the realtor is trying to find a buyer for it. So, he needs to gather all sorts of information about the apartments and what condition they're in and stuff. (And, during all this, we had one tenant decide to move out.) Since we are the on-site managers, and since Adam was at work and I happened to be home when the realtor stopped by, I have become the contact person for the realtor. I've exchanged many, many phone calls and emails with him, trying to get him all the information that he needs. Additionally, an appraiser had to come do an appraisal, and I spent 3 hours with a locksmith who needed to rekey some stuff and make copies of keys for each apartment. Everyone has been very gracious and has thanked me for being so helpful and stuff, so I'm not complaining about that. It's just very time-consuming...and the being in limbo thing can be very confusing...like when you need a plumber and you don't know if the bank will pay for it, since they technically own the building right now.
Wednesday night, Adam and I were just finishing up dinner when I heard the garbage disposal in the apartment next door running...and then water started backing up in OUR sink. To make a long story short, the sinks are on the same plumbing system and there was a clog somewhere down the line, so their sinks and ours were backing up. And whatever the neighbor was trying to do to clear the clog wasn't really helping the problem. (We had a Popsicle stick come up through our sink, among other things.) Granted, we weren't solving the problem, either, but at least we weren't making it worse. Now, normally, the owner would be responsible for this...but with the bank owning it, we didn't know what to do. And I haven't actually ever talked to anyone at the bank--just the realtor, the appraiser, and the locksmith. So, I called the realtor and left him a message, hoping he'd get back to me. He didn't respond Wednesday night, so we decided to go ahead and call a plumber before the neighbor could do too much damage. (The neighbors are very nice...just also a little...interesting.) Well, the plumber comes and quotes a rather extravagant price. (Maybe it's what any plumber would charge, but it felt like a lot, especially since we weren't sure the bank would agree to reimburse us.) Well, rather than solving the problem, the plumber broke his snake and couldn't fix it or our clog. So, he left, unpaid, saying he'd send someone in the morning. Well, in the morning, we didn't hear back from them, but the realtor made some early-morning contacts at the bank and got approval for a plumber. So, we called the tool-breaking plumbing company and told them not to send someone, and the bank-sent plumber came, solved the problem, and the bank footed the bill on that. So, it all worked out in the end...but I have to say that all this drama might not be worth the discounted rate we're getting...
Markus signing away
A couple brief videos...which don't really have complete stories, but still, they give you a little bit of a feel for how awesome Markus is.
