*hearing a hawk calling
*my sweet dog
*yummy dinner last night

My husband and I own 2 homes, because we each owned one when we met, and we plan to move into mine sometime in the next few years. (It is closer to work, is a larger house, and has less land to take care of.). In the meantime, we have been renting mine out. Being landlords is not something either of us ever would have chosen, but the longer we do it, the more comfortable we feel about it. Our most recent tenants moved in in April, and then decided to break up in July, so we released them from the lease. They have both moved into their new places, although there is still some stuff they need to remove and they haven’t cleaned the house yet. Yesterday we put the “for rent” sign out in the front yard, and today I already got a call (which is kind of amazing, because the house is on a side street that doesn’t get much through traffic, but that is how our last tenants found the house too.)

Much as I’d rather not have to rent the house out, I look at it as an opportunity to meet new people and to help them reach their goals too. We had one couple who wanted to buy the house when I briefly had it on the market before we decided to keep it. They couldn’t afford it, but when we decided to rent instead, they ended up renting it for 5 years, until they could afford to buy a house of their own. We had another tenant who rented out house so that he could adopt a dog he had fallen in love with. He stayed until he got married and bought a house of his own. For the most part, they have all been nice. I am looking forward to seeing who our new tenants will be. It’s also interesting seeing the different ways they have set up the rooms, and it’s given me some ideas for how I would like to decorate when we move in.

Being a landlord has definitely been a learning experience, but doing the food has definitely helped me handle it better. For one thing, my people skills are much better since doing the food. And even though I still get stressed out sometimes, I am much calmer about things than I used to be.
Allison