I've started my property management company

I've called it Responsible Property Management, which was the fourth name change.  Now I have a DBA (doing business as) which lets me use that name on my bank account.  There's no going back!

I drew the logo for it myself.  It's the first artistic thing I have done in a long time, except for taking photos.  I've been neglecting other stuff too, like cleaning my house!

I'm doing a rehab of a 3 unit building on the northside.  It's had bad tenants and been really neglected.  It's nice to be able to be in charge of a project like this, where I can find someone dependable to do the work.  It will be done this weekend and I'm going to start marketing it and find some good tenants.

I've hired someone for a few hours a day to help me keep track of my schedule and all the things I have to do.  This is the busiest I have ever been and I am enjoying it.

After the Snowstorm

After the Snowstorm, originally uploaded by Melsky.

This is from January. I really like snow and I enjoy the winter. Sometimes it can be very challenging though! I have a lot of pairs of snowboots. I have to wade through uncleared snow a lot for my job. I carry a snowshovel and road salt in my car all winter.

This is next to an apartment building we manage. The footprints are from me and the National Grid (power company) worker going to check the meters. There was a problem getting the power turned on because someone had tampered with one of the meters in the past.

The window of my office on Salina Street

The window of my office
Originally uploaded by Melsky

This is a Maneki Neko, a cat that brings good fortune by waving it into your business. This one is actually animated! You can see the snow falling in the reflection too. We had a snowstorm a couple of days before christmas and it was really cold, but it started raining on christmas night and now a few days after christmas it's sunny and warm with blue skies.

I have not been writing much in my blog lately. I get busy at work and then I'm writing descriptions of rental properties and putting them on a web page. By the time I'm done with all that stuff sitting down at the computer and putting up photos and writing about them doesn't sound very appealing!

I have been taking photos a lot though. I'm going to be putting up my backlog of photos this week, though they are not too seasonal - fall foliage anyone?

And I am determined to write in my blog a bit more.

Demolition of Northside House

Lately I've come across two houses in the Northside area of Syracuse being torn down. This gives me mixed feelings.

They are probably past the point of repair and have been abandoned for so long that it's a good thing that they are being removed. The people who live in abandoned houses are very destructive. They tear things up and break stuff for the fun of it. The house is probably saturated with body fluids and garbage if they are tearing it down.

It's so sad that any house is allowed to get to this point. I am the rental agent for a lot of apartments and houses in that area and most of the houses are well built and charming, though in need of some TLC.

But it's better to have an empty lot than a bunch of crack heads and I hope that weeding out these places will help improve the neighborhood.