Monday, December 15, 2008

Getting Back On Track

My delightful tenants who were so good about paying their rent suddenly fell on hard times and haven't paid me a dime since November. Supposedly, they have enrolled in some sort of government program and will be receiving rental assistance any day now. I want to believe them because I like to think the best about people and, well, I want my rent money.

In the mean time, I haven't made much progress on my mortgage repayment plan. This was starting to get me down so today I decided to move on regardless of how my rental situation turns out. I was able to pay the mortgage for November(you might recall that I already spent November's money on a shed) with money pulled from a stock that I sold, a sign-up bonus from my bank, cash back rewards and the money that I used to be spending on life insurance(which was cancelled). The December payment came from the money that I should be putting towards an extra principle payment. After all of that was paid and because I had some excess from November's budget, I made an extra payment of $520 today! Finally, a little bit of progress. New mortgage total: $54,287.

Since January 2008, I have been able to pay $17,000 extra towards my mortgage principle, a little over $20,000 total if the regular mortgage payments are included. So, regardless of how my rental situation ends, it has been a great year, my rental house made a profit and I have learned a ton of stuff about landlording(many important details will be added to the next lease!).

Assuming I find a nice new renter after my short term renters leave in March, my mortgage plan is back on track and I will be mortgage free in 1 year and 8 months! Yea! I'm starting to feel motivated again :)

6 comments:

Over the Cubicle Wall said...

Progress is always good, even when it wasn't exactly what you were expecting. Your short term renters are coming soon right? That will be a nice chunk out of the mortgage right there.

Daizy said...

Yes, they will be here soon. I am nervous because I haven't seen the house since last March even though the current occupants insist everything is great. I want to see it for myself. Hopefully I'll be able to when they leave Jan 1.

Over the Cubicle Wall said...

Can you do a walk through with them before they move out?

Daizy said...

Supposedly they are only moving one street away so I should be able to find them again. Plus I have their deposit. It is my only house, my first house, and the key to my retirement plan so naturally I am overly anxious...hopefully for no reason.

Anonymous said...

I will be in the same situation soon, renting out my first house after moving into a cheaper place. I am nervous about finding good tenants.

It's amazing how some people can think it's OK to not pay the rent if money is tight, but somehow the satellite TV bill always gets paid and there are always cigarettes to smoke.

Daizy said...

Yes AlexK that is so true. I don't even want to know where their money went but they did mention that they were getting rid of the jacuzzi that was costing them $100/m to heat. Yikes.