I checked out two potential places to live this week. Both would be large enough to run my business comfortably (and both were OK when I explained what we do), and live simply.
One sucked, and one was amazing. The problem is that the amazing one is an actual apartment (not a sublet) and I had to fill out an application.
Can you beat this?
I’ve been working on getting all my Bankruptcy documentation together and everything is looking pretty good on that front. I purchased a cheap credit report (I had already used my free ones this year) to double check everything for the BK petition. Apparenty, my credit is “bad”. See, they even told me so:
This is no shock to me at all. I just loved the very blatent “you suck” of the picture. Oh well, I’m an all cash guy for a long time anyway. Sigh.
Life at the office
It’s now day 25 of living in my office, and it’s starting to wear me down a bit. I knew this would happen, but I figured I had a few months before it would really start effecting me (bear in mind, I have no mattress, just a camping pad and blankets). My productivity has been way down this week, mostly due to just being exhausted and stir crazy.
I’ve discovered a few things:
- I don’t love milk as much as I thought
- Who needs butter anyway?
- The thing I really miss is cheese.
Living where I work to working where I live
I decided to go with my gut and apply for the apartment place. It’s 2 bd, and the guy was cool with my running my business from the location. The problem is the application. It’s going to a tenant screening company and I’m sure I’m screwed. I wrote a great cover letter on why I would be a great tenant, but I imagine to hear a rejection from them tomorrow. But it was worth a shot.
If I can find a place for both my business and bed (not that I have one yet) that only runs 300-400 more than my current office I will consider that a success. Housing in Seattle is insane, especially studios/1 bedrooms. If I get denied on this app, I will be looking exclusively at sublets.
Biz Update
Business revenue continues to be pretty stable around 7K a month. My newest project is going really well, and even though we still only have one client, that is by choice. I’ve been really trying to refine our system for our one client, and if we do well (we already are), it could lead to referrals galore. This is my Plan B project.
My Plan A (my plans for getting out of all this debt!) project is about ready to launch soon as well. I’m very excited about the potential of this project, but it won’t generate any real revenue til Nov. at the earliest. Thus, the forey into a different niche with Plan B project!
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
Honestly, I wouldn’t stress out about cheese and refrigeration. Soft and semi-soft cheeses require refrigeration; hard and processed cheeses don’t. Just buy small amounts that can be consumed in one or two sittings. We Americans tend to be a bit food paranoid. In Germany it’s common to leave milk on the counter all day; just look for the ultra high-temp pasteurized (UHT) milk.
Good luck with the current place! You can always cross your fingers and hope they run a background check (instead of a credit check) on you…or the company just pockets the money and calls your references!
You can really fix your credit in six months. Perhaps a little longer in your case, like a year. Count the negatives, and start ticking them off. High limits may be shifted. Dispute lates. Nit pick over each one, because they do the same. Deny everything, and demand proof. Slowley pare down the list of negatives.
My opinion is that you are so much better off as a non-customer to America’s financial institutions. You will keep so much more of your own money. You are still in the credit card cultural trance if you think this is important enough for a whole post. You are lucky to be poison to these companies — understand that.
Just a suggestion – if you are planning to sign a new lease, please run it past your BK attorney first as I am not so sure you are supposed to be taking on any new debt this close to the BK process, especially if you are filing a Chpt 7. While this may not technically be new debt in your mind, and you might be signing for this under your corporation-self and not personal-self, a BK Trustee may not see it that way. The last thing you want to do is get your BK dismissed and not discharged so please, tread carefully when it comes to doing anything other than the status quo!
Have you considered a move down to the Tacoma area here?
Cheaper rent and it would be an opposite commute for your employees (if they are coming from the north, but you know what I mean)
You could probably get a house for the price of a studio apartment in seattle.
Ignore Ms. Scrooge.
Signing a lease and taking on new debt are very different things. What the bankruptcy law pertains to is running out and getting a pay-day loan for a couple of thousand, right before you discharge your debts. In other words, trying to profit from your bakruptcy.
This doesn’t apply to a lease for two reasons:
1) A lease is not debt, and actually isn’t discharged in a bankruptcy. Therefore, since you won;t be dodging it, it’s not applicable.
2) All debts and obligations in a bankruptcy hearing are examined by a judge who looks at need. Buying a $30,000 SUV a month before bankruptcy would be forwned upon. Renting an relatively inexpensive apartment will most certainly not.
I envy you, if I had a business that i could basically do from anywhere, i’d move to … oh Cle elum.. I think they have high speed over there, and rent is Reeeeal cheap…
just a thought