Travel, training, home

I made it home from Michigan about 9 pm Friday evening. All the flights were good – very crowded but good none-the-less. The weather in Michigan was actually better than Mama had over the same timeframe. I got to sleep one night in my own bed, then we were off to California.

Mama had begun packing Friday so all I had to do was get the things together for the training portion of our trip. I hesitated to take my work laptop but since I already had it with me, it made the trip with us. I packed the MacBook also on the off chance we could work two computers as we were being trained. That turned out to be a good decision – even though the computer bag I carried for the trip weighed nineteen pounds.

When Mama and I got the airport in San Diego I had to download the Uber app. I have never used Uber or any other such app, so I was a bit timid about supplying the information requested to set up for a ride to the hotel. We had been assured that Uber would be the least expensive way to get around, so Mama and I were willing to give it a try. It turned out pretty well. I requested a “pool” ride from the airport. Mama was skeptical when we first got to the car and found two people already in the backseat of – what was to us – a smaller vehicle. I gave her the front seat and I squeezed into the back. The very young couple sharing the ride with us were from London and Edinburgh respectively. We had a delightful time talking all things England and Scotland with them during the fifteen minutes of the ride. We did not venture from the hotel that night, instead we ordered delivery – Italian. It was very good and such large portions that we ate on it for both nights we were there.

We met Frank at the hotel Sunday morning. Mama and I were all packed and ready for training by 8:30; sitting in the lobby of the hotel watching people come and go. Frank approached us from the hotel side of the lobby – we were not looking that direction. We were a bit surprised to find out that Frank was already at the hotel enjoying a cup of coffee as he waited to greet us. Even more surprising, we did not leave the hotel for our training. Frank had us set up the computers on the long bar that was set up in the reception/dining area of the lobby and we did our two days of training right there. It worked. We had very good internet access. We had access to clean restrooms. We had access to water, juice and coffee. It was unusual, but comfortable enough.

Frank is a very pleasant, unassuming gentleman about my age. He grew up in a farming community in central California. His path to the business he now teaches was a circuitous one; rehab of apartments, brokering high-rise apartments and other commercial real estate, and finally retiring to tax liens and tax deeds. He is an index finger keyboarder who was dragged kicking and screaming into the computer age. A perfect teacher for Mama. We connected right away. His patience was charming and as Mama struggled at various points he waited, coached a little and encouraged a lot. The system he taught us works well for Mama because it is direct, simple yet thorough, and it is very efficient. At this point I do not see any improvements we will need to make, but time will tell. He provided us with a wealth of templates, guides, webpages to use for reference and a clear path to the information we need to make this business work.

By the time we stopped for lunch the first day, both Mama and I were at the point of overflowing with information. Mama worked the pc while I worked in tandem on the Mac. It was really good for her to do all the steps of the process as we learned how to find the county websites, narrow our searches and capture the information needed to evaluate the deals we found once we are approaching the auction date. All the templates were provided to us; we just had to learn how to fill them out, title them properly and set up the files to make them easy to retrieve. Our plan is to find 75 potential deals coming up for auction in March, see which ones of those actually make it to auction (some will be redeemed by that time which will take them off of the auction list) and determine what our max bid will be on the ones that do make it to auction, study the bidding process for each county and be ready to participate in the auction.

It’s a high bar.