Thursday, September 30, 2010

So much stuff

You never realize how much stuff you have until you move! Steven and I finally are done moving and I could not be happier! It has been quite the past week and a half, not too mention work as been insane for both of us. Steven is currently working in his empty office sitting on the floor. I would take a picture and post it but the charger for my camera is somewhere in a box and of course my camera is dead!

I managed to unpack almost every wedding gift in 24 hours last weekend little to say I got no sleep at all! I have been obsessing about pillows...just call me a pillow fanatic! Seriously I have bought 3 different sets of throw pillow for our living room. All of them have been a different color, I just can not decide. Currently we have green and brown. I think I am liking them the best together but Steven does not really like them. I just want green pillows for some reason. I have never liked the color green until recently!

Our garage is full of miscellaneous boxes full of who knows what that we are hoping to go through and clear our so we can fit 2 cars in the garage. I have everything to my name in the garage. This would include all my cheerleading uniforms, high school mums, old baby clothes, and stuffed animals!

Ella is still trying to adjust to the change. I think dogs have a harder time with change then anyone else! She just does not understand what is going on. Steven has decided that Ella is a "City Dog." She has no idea what to do with a back yard. She treats it like a jungle. She goes to the restroom on the concrete instead of the grass, she is just unsure of that grass.

The good news is we have a new pet in the backyard. His name is Petey. He is a giant frog that Ella loves. He comes out every single night near the back door. Our 1st night in the house Ella just stood by the back door and cried because she wanted to go play with Petey.

I promise I will post pictures as soon as I find my charger!!

Saturday, September 11, 2010

The Calm before The Storm

We close on our house on Wednesday and I am anticipating complete overload! Steven is at work and I am sitting at home going back and forth between a 90210 and Keeping up with The Kardashian marathon. I just can not decide which one I want to watch....so I will watch both :)

I am guessing this is 1 of the last peaceful, non hectic weekends for a while due to buying a home and football season...not to mention just regular day to day life. We close on Wednesday but then are leasing the house back to the current owners till Sunday. The next week we are having done like concrete seals, carpet replacement, and cleaning. Then Saturday, September 25th, is move day!

I haven't packed or really done a thing. Tomorrow I am going to go to Aledo to get some of my stuff out of my parents storage and maybe I will decide what my next project is but we will see.

Project 1 on the house is a rug and throw pillows! There are so many things we have but yet so many things we need that we have never needed before....like lawn stuff...who wants to buy lawn stuff...not me!!! To bad we have too because we have yard now!

I think I will go back to 90210 and Keeping up with The Kardashians and enjoy my last Saturday of relaxation!!!

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Goal Achieved.....420!

I have achieved the largest goal that I have ever been given and words can not describe how big this accomplishment is. It has become a running joke with my investment manager, president, and CFO of my company. 420! What is 420? 420 was the NRI I was given to hit in April to achieve the best interest rate for the refi of my 480 unit apartment community I manage. There was an email that circulated that stated, "All eyes will be on Amy!" I remember thinking, "You have got to be kidding me, how am I going to do this!?!?"

NRI stands for Net Rental Income, it basically takes all the charged rents you have in place and then counters in all your automatic losses and that gives you the NRI for a property. In March/April My property sat at roughly $385,000 NRI and I was told you need to get to $420,000. I remember thinking and saying to my staff they are asking us to squeeze a grapefruit out of a whole the size of a blueburry! I had no idea how I was going to gain $5000 in 6 months in NRI much less $25,000! I honestly thought there was no way....what the heck am I going to do??? Talk about stress plus I was getting married at the same time!!! Are you kidding me.....

So when you are given lemons you make lemonade. I had 6 months to prove myself as a young female in a position that had HUGE responsibility! I knew I had a great staff if I could just motivate them and remain positive up beat attitude when really I was going home thinking what the heck!

The end of May my NRI closed out at $413 which was a huge accomplishment but the problem was it was not a true number, not all the May move outs where accounted for due to Memorial Day Weekend. So the 1st week of June we dropped to $395 and I remember being so discouraged! All these people are seeing the $413 number and thinking Amy is doing great and I was the only one that knew it was not a true number. I had to figure out a way to make up that $8000 by the end of June. Talk about team work!!!

I rallied my girls together and WOW!!!! They blew me away! The A-Team was created and they were just as motivated as I was! Not only had I led them to being excited about a work goal they learned knowledge that only managers know! That has been the best part, watching them get just as excited as I am!

So here we are at the end of this 6 month journey that has consumed my life and Guess What...... we did it!!!!! Last week the VP of assets for GE Appliances came out and was so impressed by the growth we have made. He made a joke that I should have been given the goal of $450 because I made $420 look so easy.

Not only did we reach $420....we beat it!!!! We are sitting at a beautiful $425 and still going strong! Words can not express the excitement this goal gives me! I honestly thought there is no way I can do this growing NRI like that in such a short period of time is impossible but what do you know!!!