property problems

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When graffiti is not art.

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vw graffitiOne Sunday morning I had to drive to the office to meet a client. The front of my car was not facing me (I was not parked in my driveway), so as I got into my car and drove away everything seemed as usual. I arrived at my office and got out of my car, met with my clients and finished the paperwork. Then we were headed to meet at their new home to do a property “walk through”. They left the office first and I was to follow. As I left the office, now the front of my car was facing me and behold I was shocked! My car had been tagged! I still had to drive to the other side of town and meet my clients and I was so embarrassed. My yellow VW Beetle ruined! How was I going to get this off? Well the good news is that it all came off pretty quickly with the product – Goo Gone! Not a spot left and no harm to the paint on my car.

After this incident, I became more aware of issue of graffiti. What do you do if you spot graffiti?

Both  Santa Cruz and Watsonville have Graffiti Abatement Programs.

In Watsonville, property owners are required to remove graffiti within 48 hours. The city will no longer provide free unlimited removal for private property owners. The city will continue to remove graffiti from public property. If your property is part of a Home Owners’ Association, it is your responsibility to contact the HOA and have the graffiti removed within 48 hours. The ultimate responsibility for the removal rests on the property owner if the HOA fails to remove the graffiti.

If this happens to you, make sure you file a police report, I did.

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Is it the pickles or the tomatoes that make a tuna sandwich soggy?

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Why a blog referring to a soggy tuna sandwich? Isn’t it “the worst” when you expect to eat a tasty tuna sandwich made with sourdough bread; you take that first bite and you find out it tastes soggy! Well that was the case with my husband after he bit into the sandwich I made him and found it was soggy. He was very disappointed! Later at an opportune moment he made me aware the experience. To make his point, every disappointment or problem was later called a “soggy tuna sandwich”.

The truth was that I had made the sandwich the day before. On that day, he didn’t take it to work so I just put it in his lunch bag the following day. Lesson learned –  I should have just made a new sandwich and not repurposed the old one.

So the soggy tuna sandwich refers to the day-to-day challenges in business.

Property management has its daily challenges. Every day is a new experience.

The purpose of my blog is to tell a story of my interesting experiences and some of the lessons learned.

I will share the situations I encounter in my property management world and write about the personal interactions and conversations from the viewpoint of an experienced property manager. 

In demonstrating the lessons, I will make reference to the resource that help me identify, analyze, and work through each situation.

I hope my experience and insights will help you when interacting with Owners, Tenants, and other Service Providers in your property management business or real estate investment business.

If you would like to view my website, click here.