Board Rooms and Babies

Real Estate Investor's Team Part 4

2012-01-03T08:35:00.000-08:00

Here it is... the last role we will include in the real estate investors team is a reliable contractor. If you do a search for contractors in your area you will probably come up with dozens to choose from. However, just as with your real estate agent you will want to do a bit of homework to be sure you choose a professional who is experienced, reliable, and does quality work.

A few things to consider. Does the contractor have a license and what is the class of the license (A,B,C)? How long has he/she been in business? Are they able to provide you with any references? Are there any reviews online about this business? Seek out state run websites like this one to review license info and any complaints on file. It's also never a bad idea to look them up on the better business bureau site as well.

We have worked with contractors who walked out on jobs, finished months past deadlines, and did poor quality work....but we have also worked with a contractor who did great work, finished in the time we agreed upon, and was very professional throughout the process. One key point to remember is not to simply look for cheap labor. BELIEVE ME....in most if not all cases you get what you pay for.

Real Estate Investors Team Part 3

2011-12-29T21:21:00.000-08:00

So let's keep it going with the real estate series. We have already explored why having a good attorney and realtor is crucially important and those are two fairly obvious relationships to build. The next role that is important for most investors is knowledgeable mortgage broker.

Mortgage Broker

It seems to me that the lending business is an ever evolving facet of the real estate industry, especially in more recent years. You will need a mortgage broker or loan officer who is familiar with the loan options and regulations that might apply to your specific situation. This is unless of course you are able to completley fund a deal on your own. Perhaps you find a property that is exceptionally cheap or maybe you are the kind of person that just has a couple hundred grand lying around, I don't know, but if either is the case you may not need a lender at all.

Understanding your loan is key..what is your interest rate...is this an ARM (adjustable rate mortgage)? If so how far up or down can it adjust? When can it adjust? Is this an interest only loan? How many years is the loan for..15..30? Are there pre-payment penalties? Is the loan assumable? Can the loan be sold to another lender? These are all things to know/understand and good loan officer or mortgage broker can help you with this.

So there you have it, the third role is a mortgage broker.

DIY:Secretary Desk Re-do Coming Soon!

2011-12-28T09:55:00.000-08:00

One womans's trash truly is another woman's treasure and craigs list is a great way to find these treasures! Andrew and I recently picked up this great piece, an old secretary desk and I am siked to give it a new life! Be on the look out for this beauty in the next week or so.

Real Estate Investor's Team Part 2

2011-12-20T16:49:00.000-08:00

A few days ago I wrote a post HERE about the team of professionals that I suggested you surround yourself with before you get started investing in real estate. The first role was that of a real estate attorney, the second role I will discuss today, which is a GOOD

REAL ESTATE AGENT

The scary thing about this role is that it's fairly easy to become a real estate agent and it's not always as easy to tell the difference between awesome agents that take their job seriously and people who just wanted to make their own hours. Andrew and I have worked with SEVERAL (seven to be exact) real estate agents and only ended up maintaining a relationship with one.

Why is this role so critically important? Investors truly need experienced, serious agents. This is the individual who will be marketing your property for sale, negotiating with buyers on your behalf, advising you on pricing in your area and handling your potential offers. You need this person to be professional, responsive, and ideally experienced in working with investors (since it is very different than working with first time home buyers for example). You should consider interviewing several agents before choosing the person that will work best for your needs. Don't just call the agent who listed the house your interested in or the guy who happens to have the biggest ad in the real estate book.

We have had many encounters with agents over the past several years that I hope you never have to experience such as...

*Agent burped and smoked cigarettes while he showed us potential properties...I don't even know what to say about that.

* Agent showed up to show me a property with wet hair and wearing sweat pants. This is a red flag. First this shows me that you don't take me seriously as a buyer. Second, if we rehab a house and use this agent again to sell, how will she present herself to other potential buyers?

* Agent stopped responding to phone calls after we put an offer on a house and had a closing date. Just because the deal is locked in does not mean the agents job is done...

* Agent showed up late to meetings with Andrew, the contractor and I. Punctuality is always appreciated, especially when there are multiple parties involved.

* Agent was supposed to show us a property, sent someone else instead without notice and always called and emailed through his assistant. This is where a good and experienced agent may turn out to bite you in the behind. I swear I had one phone conversation with this guy to set up a showing and he was "too busy" to speak with us directly ever again. Although his assistant was very nice.

There has to be a balance.These incidents did not all involve the same agent or company...This is why I suggest shopping around before choosing an agent. On the flip side of these scenarios are agents who are fantastic. Professional, responsive, knowledgeable and experienced. That's what you need.

Realtors, feel free to leave a comment or link to your website.

Work From Home: United Health Group

2011-12-18T21:43:00.000-08:00

Just a quick post on a few work from home jobs I found recently. United Health Group seems to have quite a few telecommuting postitions open. As of today they have a number of ads on career builder. If you have experience in any of the fields they are hiring for you may be in luck! A few that I have seen posted are Intake Manager, Field RN Case Manager, Business Analyst, Clinical Quality Analyst, and Claims Business Process Consultant. There are several more so you may want to hop over to career builder and check em' out!

Real Estate Investor's Team: Part 1

2011-12-17T10:50:00.000-08:00

So here we go, kicking it off with a couple suggestions for you in the real estate series. First off, here is my little disclaimer. I speak from personal experience. As I mentioned in my first post in this series my husband and I are real estate investors and landlords, however I am not an agent, broker, lender, contractor, attorney or anything of the sort so again, I speak from personal opinion and experience. Now with that said, let's get down to business.

If you are considering seriously investing in real estate and potentially managing your own rentals you are probably pretty anxious to jump out there and find some deals. My suggestion to you however would be to take step back, breath, and first put together your "team". Yea, your team...there are a few different professionals that you should seek out BEFORE you ever move forward on a deal or even start looking at properties. I will discuss the first role in this post and the others over the next few days so keep checking back!

REAL ESTATE ATTORNEY

The first relationship you should establish is with a good real estate attorney. It's so easy these days to take a much easier and less expensive route to self property management. Just google a little info on landlord vs. tenant laws for your state, download a lease agreement online and boom your in business....risky business.
This may seem like a good way to get started but it may be a decision you live to regret. There are 4 million scenarios that can go down when you are investing in a new property or managing a rental that you already own and it is much easier to handle if you have a pre-established relationship with a good legal professional. I have called our attorney for advice and documents dozens of times this year alone and had I not had his legal advice in these situations we would be out of pocket thousands of dollars...literally. I'll quickly outline for you a few of the situations that we have come across where having an attorney came in handy.

1. Tenant pays rent late, only pays a portion of the rent, or stops paying all together. In these situations there are very specific processes that a landlord must follow in order to receive judgement for the amount they are owed (at least there are in Virginia). This may sound simple but believe me it can get very complex. Protect yourself. The other bonus here is that in many cases if you end up having to go to court the attorney may go on your behalf which makes life much simpler and more convenient for you!

2. Creating a lease agreement. As I mentioned before, you can easily find lease agreements online and even at some office supply stores, however if you find yourself in some sort of legal bind with a tenant you may end up wishing that you didn't have some generic 19.99 lease you found online. Having your own custom lease drawn up allows you to have a more comprehensive document with information that is specific to the property you are renting and in accordance with the state laws where you live.

3. Contractor walks off the job. This scenario applies most often to rehabs as opposed to rentals. If you have a contractor working on a big job for you, let's say 30,000 worth of work and for whatever reason the relationship goes south, you will never be more thankful to have good legal advice a phone call away. This is why I suggest having a relationship with an attorney before problems arise so you are not shopping around for legal advice in a moment of crisis.

4. Closing on new property. This is not a necessity but when you are closing on a new property it is nice to have the peace of mind that your own attorney's office handled the deal. Not to mention he or she may give you a little better price on closing if you already have a relationship with them and bring them business often.

5. Lease purchase agreements: If you are going to allow someone to lease purchase your home you will need someone to draw up the agreement and eventually handle the closing. This is also a situation where you could potentially expose yourself to unnecessary vulnerability if you are not careful, having an attorney in your corner is a must.

So there you have it... first step...get an attorney!

Painting a Ceramic Tub

2011-12-13T17:59:00.000-08:00

When you own a home and decide to rent it out, it's always a toss up as to whether you will get it back in decent condition. Unfortunatley in some cases tenants leave homes in much worse shape then the way they found them. Andrew and I just happened to be in that sitation exactly with one of our rental properties recently...

The tenants had lived in the house for about three years and left it pretty beat up. One of the areas of the house that was in need of serious help was the upstairs bathroom tub which looked like this...

After much scrubbing with every cleaner known to man, the tub still looked the same. It was literally stained that way. Ideally in a situation like this you would buy a bath fitter or some sort of insert to cover to whole tub/shower and give it a more updated look all around. However, we needed a "budget friendly" solution for this and a bath fitter wasn't going to cut it. So we used ceramic tub and tile paint.

The paint worked like a charm and the bath tub literally looks brand new. My only complaint about this product is the fumes are extremely overwhelming. Even with all the upstairs windows open while wearing a mask it was still VERY strong. Anyhow in the end the tub looked like this.

Real Estate... a Dead Investment?

2011-12-09T09:43:00.000-08:00

Despite the variety of reality TV shows that are still able to show us the thrilling side of investing in real estate, the term "flip" still sometimes feels like a four letter word...and uh..not because it's spelled with four letters. The real estate meltdown that we experienced over the past several years has cost many families their homes and unbelievable figures in foreclosure costs for financial institutions. However, for the real estate investor this new environment created a mixed bag of unbelievable opportunity, risk, and new challenges.

My husband completed a degree in Real Estate and Urban Planning with memories of guest speakers who owned dozens of properties and made a solid living buying, selling, and renting real estate. Andrew and I now own 5 properties (one being our home).
The game has definitely changed over the past several years but would I call real estate dead? Absolutely not. Home ownership is still valuable and real estate investing still offers limitless opportunity. Be sure to check back often as I will post our do's and don'ts on investing, interviews with Mr. Real Estate himself (lol, my nickname for Andrew), info on mistakes we made, and a few tips for you as well!

Work From Home: Rat Race Rebellion

2011-12-08T11:37:00.000-08:00

OK moms and dads, here is another great resource for finding work from home/telecommuting positions. Rat Race Rebellion is a great site for a couple reasons. 1. They list new positions every day and 2. They actually research the positions to make sure that they are legitimate positions so you don't have to do the scam scan yourself! Check it out!

Jobs Most Likely To Work From Home

2011-12-06T10:31:00.000-08:00

I sat on the sofa and my soap box last night for a couple hours scouring the internet for telecommuting jobs. And while there are plenty of opportunities to work from home, realistically speaking, many of them just are not my field. I was feeling a little guilty that I hadn't considered this before.

I knew when Andrew and I got married that when we had children I would not be OK with the idea of daycare. But some how I didn't make it a big enough priority then to make sure that I wouldn't have to worry about that now. So here I am a month away from returning to work from maternity leave. I have to admit I feel a little guilty about complaining. With so many people unemployed in our country today I should express nothing but gratitude to God for blessing me with the job that I have and don't get me wrong, I am thankful for it. TRULY THANKFUL. I can remember a time in my life when I struggled financially and that has never been an issue since I had this job. I just wish I had considered going back to school to learn a skill that is more likely to work from home so that I could be the mother that I want to be. Right now, nothing seems more important.

When looking for jobs online that allow you to work from home, try searching for "telecommuting jobs" instead of "work from home jobs". I have found that the by typing in "work from home" you will likely get bombarded with a lot of scams to sort through before finding legitimate work. The word telecommute is more likely to point you to legitimate companies with real job opportunities that you can do from home.

The legitimate positions that I have seen online most often that offer the ability to work from home are in the fields of information technology, medical coding, and medical transcription. I have also found quite a few customer service positions which may work if you have kids old enough to allow you to be on the phone. Happy job hunting!

Mama Drama

2011-12-02T20:37:00.000-08:00

I have a confession. I am a bit of a control freak..but in a responsible not psycho kind of way. I try to have a plan about pretty much every aspect of my life but I have quickly learned that having a baby throws things off just a bit. When I was pregnant I wanted to be THE BEST MOM EVER so I "planned" the kind of mother I wanted to be. A natural birthing, cloth diapering, co-sleeping, breast feeding, stay at home mom. Yup, that's me. I had done loads of reading on these topics and had convinced myself that this was best for our son and thus became my plan...

But lets run down the way these things actually turned out shall we? My natural birth became a c-section, we are using cloth and disposable diapers, my son slept in our bed for the first month but now sleeps in a "co-sleeper", at one point I had to supplement with formula, and I will be heading back to work in about a month.

So.... my plans did not go as planned but we are still here, the world didn't come to an end.

I really felt not only a crazy kind of love about my unborn kiddo but a major responsibility to him. God gave us a beautiful baby boy after we had watched so many couples around us struggle to conceive so I did not take the situation lightly. However, it took me a while to learn that parenting is unpredictable, unplanable (if that's not a word pretend I said something else), and sometimes forces us to step outside of our plans to do whats best for our children in the moment.

Good Night...

Work From Home: VIP Desk

2011-11-30T11:25:00.000-08:00

Here is another possible work from home opportunity that you may want to keep your eye on. VIP Desk has work from home jobs, one of which is a Customer Care Representative. If you are looking for a customer service type of position this may be a good one to check out! If you work for VIP Desk or have in the past and have any thoughts to share please comment!

How to Calm a Crying Baby in Traffic

2011-11-29T07:08:00.000-08:00

This past Thanksgiving we drove home to visit with family. It's about a two hour drive but a well worth it trip to get a little quality time with everyone. A two hour drive however is a long time for a 6 week old baby to sit in the car and my little made sure to let me know on the way home.... He slept the entire drive but about half way we hit horrible traffic and as soon as the car stopped moving he woke up screaming.

So picture this...sitting in traffic moving about 5 miles per hour, still over 45 minutes away from home while listening to a baby scream at the top of his lungs! Unfortunately, my husband and I drove separate cars because we initially planned to head back home at different times so he was in the car behind me. I called him (on blue tooth...I was being safe people, geez) and told him I needed to pull over at the next exit which was still over a mile away. He could of course hear the screaming and suggested that I slowly drive over the rumble strips. I did...and can you believe it worked! I was driving so slow that it just made a low rumbling sound and rocked the car back and forth. Preston went silent then right back to sleep!!!!

I'm sure it wasn't good for my tires but it sure as heck saved my sanity for the next 20 minutes before I reached the exit!

Money Matters: Make a Budget

2011-11-28T20:40:00.000-08:00

OK, this one may sound a little overly simplistic but we can never under estimate the power of a budget. If you don't manage your finances with at least a basic monthly log of what comes in and goes out you are truly doing yourself a disservice, especially if you are trying to start cutting costs. It's amazing how much money we might waste in a given week or month if there is no plan for your income before it comes in.

Here are a few tips to making sure your monthly budget is a success.

1. Be sure to include all of your regularly occurring expenses. Don't forget things like money for groceries, gas, regular savings,and spending.

2. Be realistic. If you are used to spending money at will it's probably not a good idea to immediately drop your self into a 15.00 per week spending limit. Give yourself reasonable and sensible boundaries. This will allow you to start managing the way you spend with out being so strict that you blow the whole budget.

3. Hold yourself accountable and keep track of what you actually ended up spending. I use an excel sheet for this but a good ol' hand written log is just as good.

4. Be flexible. There will be times when things come up that don't allow you to follow your budget exactly. Unexpected bills and expenses can throw things off at times but its OK. Just get up, dust off and get back on track the following month.

Happy budgeting!

Creating a Picture Wall

2011-11-23T15:06:00.000-08:00

Since we moved into our new house, we have been slowly moving from room to room, painting, decorating and trying and make our house look more like our home. The most recent project was to take the blank canvas that we call the family room and add some pictures to the walls, new pillows, curtains, a new rug and yes we even got a little crazy and bought a couple lamps.

However my favorite piece to this puzzle was the picture wall. This was actually quite a challenge since I new I wanted to use a mixture of engagement photos, wedding photos, and a couple picture of the dogs. So to figure out which pictures to use, which ones should be black and white vs. color, and which should go in what size frames was a little crazy. Not to mention measuring the distance between each frame to make sure they were perfectly even and straight.

Nevertheless, it turned out great.The only thing left is to now add a few pictures of the new little guy!

Crackle Finished Dresser

2011-11-22T12:34:00.000-08:00

Another of my past DIY projects was to try and give an old dresser an even older look. My husband's parents had given us their old bed room set to use in our guest room and I wanted the room to have a more shabby sheek sort of feel. Because I was using two products that were new to me I started with the smaller dresser. I decided to use Milk Paint and Crackle Finish to give it a very distressed look. So here are the steps in a nut shell...and some take aways.

1.Wiped down the dresser
2. Sanded it down
3. Applied two coats of milk paint (drying over night in between coats)
4. Applied one coat of crackle finish
5. Applied another coat of milk paint
6. Scraped it up a bit with a sanding block
7. Applied not 1, 2, 3, or even 4 but 5 coats of lacquer

OK, so just a few reflections on the process. I did not sand all of the existing finish off because I wanted some of the original dark wood to show through the nicks and scrapes, however milk paint needs a very porous service, so the paint didn't settle in the way I would have liked...lesson learned.

Also, I used a lacquer for the clear coat because an oil based poly would have stained it yellow and water-based clear coats cannot be used with the crackle finish. One word of advice if you happen to use lacquer on any projects. ONLY USE THIS IN A WELL VENTILATED AREA!!! I was working on this in our garage (with the garage door open) and the fumes still somehow managed to spread throughout my house! (This project was done before I had a baby)

Anyhow, here is a photo of the end result. This particular piece is pretty beat up (which I love) but I think for the second dresser and the bed in the room I will tone it down a bit to a more lightly distressed look. Enjoy!

Still looking for different knobs..

Work From Home: Elance.com

2011-11-21T10:27:00.000-08:00

OK mamas so here is the first of hopefully many tips on possible work from home opportunities for you to check out. Elance.com is a website where businesses can post ads expressing a need for people to do various free lance jobs. If chosen for one of the positions you would basically be working as an independent contractor.

How does it work? Well I'm glad you asked my dear. If you have skills in one of the various industries listed on the site such as writing, legal services, finance, IT, marketing, or administrative assisting (to name a few) then you simply sign up to create a profile and browse the job opportunities. Next you actually submit a "bid" for the work. For example you might place a bid for a marketing job and based on the job description you state that you are willing to do the work for 15.00 per hour. The owner of the ad then has the opportunity to read a bit about you and your skills in your profile as well as review your bid. Keep in mind there could be several other people who place bids for the job, some who may be willing to do the work for much cheaper than you. You really have to check out the job description and decide what you feel your time is worth while trying to stay competitive price wise.

To participate is free if you select the basic option which allows you to bid on 10 jobs per month. Or you can chose 25 bids per month for a 10.00 per month fee. If you have used this site before or have any additional info on it that you think might be helpful please feel free to leave a comment!

DIY: Updating a China Cabinet

2011-11-21T10:15:00.001-08:00

The first staining adventure that I embarked upon was a china cabinet that was given to us by my husband's 96 year old grandmother. I am sharing this project with you not only because it was the first real project that I did but also because I made several mistakes with this that I want to be sure you avoid. However, I have to preface this story by saying that the cabinet still turned out "OK", just not the way it should have. I have also included before and after pictures of the china cabinet below for your viewing pleasure.
My first mistake with this project stemmed from the fact that it was given to us by Andrew's (my husband) grandmother and it belonged to her for many years. Because of that I had sort of a sub-conscious fear of damaging it (despite his parents assuring me it was OK to stain it). It was a beautiful piece that just needed a little updating.

I followed the basic steps to staining furniture....
1. Prepare It: Thoroughly wiping the furniture down first to remove any dirt, dust etc. is a simple but necessary step (using a damp rag with a small amount of soap for this is fine). I also removed all of the hardware as well as the wire covers over the glass doors.

2. Sand It: Next comes the hard part. To sand the cabinet I used a small electric sander. Since this was my first project I tried to keep it relatively simple with a sander that was inexpensive and easy to use.
I ended up purchasing the Black and Decker Mouse from Lowes.
I was particularly excited about it because it has a compartment that traps the dust as you sand (well most of it). Also because the mouse is so small it worked well with of all the nooks and crannies of the cabinet as opposed to many larger orbital sanders that may be a little more challenging to work around small spaces. I used a sanding block for some of the more intricate details on the front.

My Mistake: This step is exactly where my first mistake comes into play. I was entirely too timid in this part of the process (because it was Grandma's china cabinet) . When using a stain it is very important to sand off all of the existing to finish to expose the naked wood. Properly sanding your furniture is also the opportunity to sand down any minor imperfections or nicks in the wood. Don't be overly afraid to damage the wood, be careful....but not afraid. I did not sand down the wood properly and ultimately regretted it once I got to the next step.

3. Stain It: In this step, your stain can be applied one of several different ways. Using a paint brush, a foam brush, or even an old T-shirt to apply even coats over the furniture. Allowing each coat to soak into the wood and dry for several hours before proceeding takes patience but is a key step as well. I used a paint brush because I prefer the way it holds the stain better than foam brushes and it is a little less messy than using T-shirts. Although many people like the T-shirt method because it allows you to rub the stain into the wood.
My Mistake: It would have been ideal to first use a conditioner on the wood to be sure that the stain went on and dried evenly...but being the instant gratification impatient person that I am...I didn't. I decided to use an oil based ebony stain but because I did not sand down to a clean layer of wood I was forced to treat my stain almost as if it was paint. So instead of the wood absorbing the stain to reveal a finish that still showed the beauty of the natural wood just in a different tone, the stain simply sat on top of the existing finish and dried as if I had painted it, not stained it.

4. Protect It: The next step after the stain had dried was to apply a protective coat of polyurethane. I used a Cabot oil based poly for this. Please note, I used this poly because the stain that I used was dark. If you are using a white wash stain or painting furniture white, I would NOT recommend this poly because it will leave a yellow tint on the furniture. With darker stains this cannot be seen.

5. Assemble It: The last step was to choose new hardware (also purchased at Lowes) and put it all back together. Well, actually it only separated into two pieces (top and bottom) but never the less it needed to be re-assembled. So the end result was this.

So like I said, it still turned out alright, just not the way it should have. It has a much more updated feel now and I certainly learned a lot in the process!

DIY: From Dresser to TV Stand

2011-11-21T10:12:00.000-08:00

One of my favorite things about DIY projects is that there are no rules. We can certainly look to experts for processes to follow, but every once in a while you will radically change the appearance and purpose of a piece of furniture and make it our own creation. My only regret with this project is that I do not have a before picture to show you. At the time that I was working on it I had no idea that I would be blogging about it later and therefore took no photos. I did however dig around on the internet to try and find a piece of furniture that at least resembles what this now TV stand used to look like so you could at least get an idea.

To be sure I give credit where it is due...I found this photo on the Mid Century Modern Chicago Blog. It is not exactly what the piece looked like before, but very similar. The major differences are that there were 6 large drawers not 9. Instead of the three large drawers down the center there was a door with three very small drawers inside.
I had no problem or reservations about completely re-purposing the dresser because unlike the dresser in this photo, it was very old, less than attractive and was actually just something the seller left in a condo that my husband purchased several years ago. When we first started dating, he didn't want it so I carried it from place to place where ever I moved for a few years. But once we got married and bought a home together, we didn't need a dresser...we needed a TV stand. So this is what I did..

This is by far one of my favorite projects because it changed not only the look of a piece of furniture that was on it's way to the trash, but it also changed the purpose. It reminds me of 2 Corinthians 5:17. Love it!

A Black and White Picture: The Interracial Family

2011-11-18T14:15:00.000-08:00

photograph by: Mary Dougherty

A few days ago I faced a challenge that every new mommy experiences, I ventured away from home without my baby. Yes, dad took on baby duty so that I could enjoy a little girl time out and it was great. While I was out I of course thought about and talked about my son non-stop and at one point showed a picture of him to a women who was an acquaintance but I didn't know her well. She was excited as I pulled out my phone to show her, rejoicing with me that I had finally delivered (I was pregnant when she saw me last). When I showed her the photo she looked puzzled for a second or two and then continued to congratulate me and tell me how adorable he is.

Later on I remembered her expression as I tried to figure out what had confused her and then it hit me. I never had an opportunity to introduce her to my husband. You see, when you combine a black women (with medium brown skin) with a white man (having fair skin and red hair) you don't get what I am sure she was expecting to see. I had to chuckle to myself when I realized. It had not occurred to me that she was expecting to see a baby with much darker skin.

When I look at my husband I don't ever see a "white man" and when I look at my son I don't ever see a "mixed race child". Their just my guys....the only two that have ever so effectively stolen my heart. That's it. Unfortunately it's not that way for everyone. Throughout our relationship Andrew and I have become all too familiar with how some people feel about interracial dating and marriage.

I remember times when we were dating that people would call me a "sell out" (yes, to my face) or give us dirty looks when we were out. And if that wasn't enough we also had a family member to personally express his disapproval of our intention to marry back when we sent out "save the dates" for our wedding. He then mailed Andrew a letter that we never read. Fortunately we were warned that it was coming and it went from the mail box to the shredder. That is how I think this sort of ridiculous prejudice should be handled and I would encourage other interracial couples to do the same. Simply dismiss it and move on.

As Christians we really must strive to fight our self nature that would be offended in these situations. When we consider the offenses we have committed against Jesus and his limitless forgiveness, there is no comparison.

Whether black, white, blue, green, or purple...whatever your skin color or national origin I challenge you to find love and accept love wherever it is... not only where it looks like you.

Money Matters: Refinance Your Home

2011-11-14T18:47:00.000-08:00

Everyone loves to save a couple bucks here and there right ? Whether you are a stay at home mom, a stay at home mom wanna be (like me) or someone who just wants to make smarter day to day financial choices most of us like to save money. So periodically I will share with you little tidbits and tips on saving money that have helped us to cut out some of our expenses and lower a few costs as we move in the direction of living on one income.

My first money saver tip is refinancing your home. I have to preface this by saying I am not a mortgage broker nor do I claim to be any sort of expert on mortgage lending and this may or may not apply or be a wise decision for you and it is a choice that should be well researched ( there's my disclaimer). However, in the environment that we are currently in where interest rates are extraordinarily low the opportunity may be available for you to refinance your current mortage at a lower interest rate that could land you in a lower monthly mortgage payment. If you are in a position where your primary goal is to decrease your monthly expenses as much as possible this could help you to save some dough each month.

Keep in mind, there are pro's and con's to refinancing one's home and depending on your specific situation it could be a fantastic idea or a very bad one. Refinancing your home essentially starts your loan over. For example if you have a 30 year mortgage that you have been paying on for 10 years and you refinance into a new 30 year mortgage you are now starting your loan over at year one. Also, depending on the lender and program under which you choose there may be certain requirements as to how much equity you need to have, which in our current real estate market may create some challenges if you have lost signifigant value in your home over the past few years. You may also be required to pay closing costs which is definetley part of the deal to ask about early on since the goal here is of course to save money. But again, this is not always the case. My husband and I own our home as well as four rental properties so we have certainly had our share of home purchase experiences and exposure to different refinance opportunities and believe me, they are a little different each time.

We were able to refinance our home recently and land a mortgage payment that is almost 400.00 less than our mortgage payment was at the time of the refinance! This is why I list refinancing your home as Money Saver tip number one!

Stay at Home Mom Challenge

2011-11-09T10:49:00.000-08:00

Ever since my husband asked me to marry him in November of 2009 I had dreamed of us having children. When I imagined myself as a mother, the picture in my mind was always of me as a stay at home mom. I wanted my primary responsibilities to be to caring for my children, supporting my husband, and taking care of affairs at home. However, somewhere along the line we became accustomed to living on two incomes and made several financial decisions/commitments based on exactly that. Now don't get me wrong, we have never been people to live outside of our means and with both our incomes life is more than comfortable. However, if we throw in the possibility of completely letting go of my salary the picture is very different.

So... we are now on a path...a journey if you will to determine a way to make it work. Between cutting expenses wherever possible, searching for part time or work from home opportunities, and even focusing on making some of our investments create more of a positive cash flow we are definitely on a "bring mom home mission".

A Love Like This

2011-11-08T08:07:00.000-08:00

There are few events that take place in a person's life that are so completely life altering and magical as having a child. Just a few weeks ago I had the honor of officially joining the ranks of women all over the world when I took on the fabulous role of "mom".

The day my son was born changed our lives forever. It's no longer just my husband and I and it's already hard to remember what it was like when it was. Throughout my pregnancy women would come up to me and tell me how I was about to experience a kind of love that I have never known. It sounded sweet and nice but I honestly didn't get it...until I saw his face for the first time. The first time I held Preston my whole perspective changed. I wanted the world to be perfect for him. I wished sadness didn't exist so he would never experience it, I wished pain didn't exist so he would never feel it, I wished the world and everything in it was perfect because he is my baby boy and to me he's perfect.

So of course as with anything that invokes a high level of emotion in me, my first instinct is to write about it. Thus the beginning of Boardrooms and Babies The title of this blog stems from my whole hearted desire to be a stay at home mom and the juggling act that comes from being a working mom.

Well I hope you continue to follow along with me in my quest to stay at home with my little man and hopefully we can learn from each other along the way!