Moments of Clarity

movin' on up (or out)

On moving:I'm going to put the plan into action when I get back from this monster trip or more likely when the 3rd quarter is done. I'll be doing even more now (just came up) toward the end of June and have a very full September already w/1 trip to Holland.

I'm still TORN between keeping the house in CA and renting it out. I'm pretty sure that we can get enough to come close to covering the P.I.T. (and gardener :). Steph's friend could lead the way with finding a room mate, etc. She said 2 bedroom apartments are about $1400 in corona. So could a 4 bedroom house fetch $1600??? You betcha. If I can make that work, I'll keep it. Otherwise, I'll probably have to wait another 7-10 years before I could sell the house for the $500k it would get now. Could be more for all I know. Crazy values, crazy people. I'd experience no "relaxing let down" from having a pile of cash, etc. but then again, it's all perspective. How many people do you know that own 2 houses...one of which is in the fastest growing county in the US (Riverside). I could manage. Something tells me that someday, I will appreciate having that house during a cold Iowa winter. After some period of time, I will pay it off w/someone elses help. Hey, at least I can buy 1 year of fairly stable rent from a friend of Steph's and she's repsonsible, etc.

Living in Des Moines, I could be 265 miles from business in Peoria (a 3 hour drive instead of a full 2 day adventure w/non-desireable flight times) 700 miles from my mom and dad. Decent distance to make it possible to drive to get together but far enough that we're not expecting to see each other every weekend, etc.

Working remotely would expose my business to a lot of new opportunities and really wouldn't change much. I would plan to visit CA for 4 days per month. Depart Des Moines on Saturday or Sunday, go into the office for Mon-Wed..possibly half day Thursday and head home. I actually think that this would FOCUS our company more since those days would have to be very structured to maximize efficiency and results. I will buy a house w/an office that could accommodate meetings w/clients. That may drive up the price but a good investment.
Other decision to make revolves around setting up another corporation (a DSI sister company) or joint venture between me and DSI or me setting up my own company and working as a "rep firm" that pays DSI a commission. Not sure about the structure and would have to work out w/the owner of my company. I'd probably set up a company either way.

posted by Doug @ 6:23 PM