Lending
The story gets stranger and stranger. The PayPal disputes didn’t turn out very well. I only got 1/4 back. The borrower still has the other 3/4. So, the strange part. One day out of the blue he asked to call me. He said he wanted to tell me about a struggle he was going through and that he’d give me all my money back if I talked to him. Keep in mind that I have a lot of information on this guy, and this call could explain why he seemed so strange. It didn’t. I agreed to talk, and we talked for about an hour. He told me he had a gambling addiction and got into a lot of debt. For some reason or the other, he would end up in jail if he didn’t come up with $20 to $40 thousand dollars in seven days. I was flattered that he thought I actually had that much money. After the phone call, I told him I wouldn’t be able to help him. At this point, I was on the fence whether he was a scammer or not. Even now, I’m baffled by the whole thing. After a day or two, I got an idea and told him I’d put him in contact with a property investor I knew. For some context, the borrower had a nice house, and if he had enough time, he would’ve been able to sell it for the money the normal way, but there are not normal, faster ways to sell a home. Something called a leaseback, and my contact knew a company who did leasebacks. I told the borrower that he’d be getting a call from my contact. Lo and behold, the borrower was able to come up with enough money so he wouldn’t have to talk to my contact about selling his home. Again, I really wanted to help this guy, and I was unsure whether he was a scammer or not because all of his info checked out. Nice house, good job, etc, etc. He still needed ten thousand though. After a day or two, I had another idea. I offered to buy his truck for a discount, but lo and behold, again. He somehow got enough money so he wouldn’t have to think about selling his truck. He still needed five grand though. And, finally, he asked for a thousand dollars to save him and his family. Well, that’s it. That’s the end of the story. I know I won’t be seeing my money again. I’m just so baffled by the whole thing. Is he a “professional” scammer with a full-time job and a nice house? Does he work with other scammers? So many questions. It was a good learning experience though. I lent him a lot of money, and I lost it all. I’ll avoid big loans from now on. Scammers probably avoid smaller loans. If they’re going to go through all that work, they probably want a decent payoff. Now, I’m in the red. I’ll give it a couple more months. If I’m not able to make anything, I’ll probably quit lending. It’s stressful. If anything though, it makes for some interesting experiences, and you get to meet some interesting people. It’s not all bad. There are some really good borrowers too. Really nice, respectable people who are great to work with.
PROPERTY
I couldn’t find anyone to rent the extra room, unfortunately, and I didn’t do much yard work or home improvement projects. I was able to pay off some principle of the mortgage, but paying it off is a very, very slow process. The good thing about money that goes into the house is that I won’t be able to waste it on anything else.
Knife Sharpening
I spent a little bit of time knife sharpening. I found a really dull knife and started sharpening the lower part, and it actually worked. The lower part of the knife easily cut through a tomato, but the top part (the unsharpened part) didn’t.
Todo Notes
The todo notes web app is coming along nicely. I replaced the buttons with icons and cleaned it up a bit. It still needs a lot of work though.