Yard working

I got the 3rd set of keys made today and now have keys of the entire building finally. Hopefully tomorrow I'll also have all the rent that was due this month...

Today I was back in action at the building with the helping hands of Ryan Grote. After giving him and my brother a tour (Mark hadn't see the 4th floor yet), we did some yard work on the backside of the building. I wanted to take advantage of the beautiful spring weather and get ahead of the spring plant growth by cutting back the old vines that had grown up the side of the building in the past. A lot of them were too high for us to clear entirely off the side of the building, but we made sure to clear the base of the building, so that we'll be able to catch any new growth early before it spreads. We picked up the trash that had accumulated in the high grass and used a shovel to scrap the top layer of vegetation off. Hopefully it'll make it harder for the high grass to grow back and once we're finished it'll give that side of the building some better curb appeal. 

Also met the neighbor next door named Randy who is a bricklayer. It could come in very handy since I've got a decent amount of tuck-pointing to do this summer.  At the very least he seems like a very down to earth guy who's trying to make things better in the area.

Last week I put in an offer on the vacant lot that sits between my building and the alley. I plan on turning it into a gravel parking lot with steps leading up the small hill that we cleared today and into the courtyard by making a back gate. Hopefully this week I'll hear back and be able to finalize the purchase. Fingers crossed.

That's just the start of my busy week. I also plan on calling and hopefully meeting with the Cincinnati Development Fund to talk about financing. With my dad having bailed me out so that I wouldn't lose the deal after the bank took too much time, I still need to find financing to pay back his loan to me. I know that I could go the long financing route that I'd started before, but PNC bank referred me to the CDF if I wanted to do a joint redevelopment loan and acquisition loan. My original plan was to wait to redevelop the building later after I'd paid off the acquisition loan, but it would actually be better long term for me to redevelop it now while the units are half vacant and accessible so that I could start getting a higher income sooner. From the way that they made it sound, CDF might actually help me through the process of redeveloping to a degree by linking me to people that I'd need to make it all work. We'll see what they say, but this could change the course of the project substantially.