Rental Property
Remember how we recently rented out our rental property in Vegas? Right after the new tenants moved in, our property manager notified us that the water heater wasn’t working. Yea. So I’m thinking, “So much for our first rent check.”
Good news! We have enough money left over in our property management account from the last tenant’s security deposit to cover the $850 bill.
Of course, we no longer have that cushion in our account — leftover because the last tenants broke their lease and thus did not get their deposit back — but we also avoided having to pay for it out of our personal savings. Phew.
Auto Issues
The Hubs drives a ’99 Toyota 4Runner — when he’s not deployed, that is. I drive the lean, green, mean machine: aka, a 2002 VW Eurovan. Both of them are doing strange things right now. You might recall my mentioning that I am clueless about cars. Clueless.
I drove the Van today by the shop where we get the oil changed to tell them about this mystery (to me) light that’s been coming on now and then for the last two or three days, complete with a piercing buzzer-beep screaming at you, “Warning! Warning! Do not ignore this red light!”
Turns out the light’s for the coolant, which seems to be fine — at least the temperature gauge shows everything’s fine. So it’s probably some kind of electrical short. But what if it’s not? What if the gauge is malfunctioning?
That’s the gist of what the guys at the shop told me, anyway. They couldn’t actually know for sure without the light actually being, you know, on. Which it wasn’t at the time. Of course.
And it hasn’t come on again since. So maybe it is just one of those electrical flukes?
The 4Runner makes a really loud noise whenever you start it. It lasts about ten seconds and then stops. My best, completely uneducated guess, is that it’s the fan belt. Or just something to do with the fan. It sounds a bit cranky right when you turn off the engine, too, like when the engine is still cooling.
Have I mentioned I know nothing about cars?
So I need to get the 4Runner over to the Toyota place. And I need to call the VW dealer and see what they have to say. Normally, we would avoid them… $$$ …. But the mechanic from the shop followed me out to the car and did a sort of between me and you thang that a dealer would be the best route to try first because they might actually know exactly what’s wrong right away, thus actually saving me in the long wrong from being charged by the hour for the regular shop to tinker a couple two hours or more.
Now I just need to figure out which of my friends to hit up to help me drop the cars off, one at a time, at the respective dealers. Or maybe the dealers will provide transportation for me to get back home? Sigh. Have I mentioned that The Hubs normally deals with this stuff? I’m feeling like such a rambling whiner. I think it’s time for him to come home now.
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I strongly recommend that you get a male friend to come in with you and pretend to be your brother or somesuch (a friend of your husband’s maybe) when you go in to the dealer next. I am normally quite non sexist about stuff (I tote 40 and 60 pound sacks of dirt in the garden, shovel, hike miles, used to be a marathoner) but most pretty women get their faces ripped off at auto mechanics.
Also, I recently got estimates for some body work after a hit and run and body shops and garages are hurting now in the bad economy, and a formerly reasonable body shop owner tried to charge me $5000 for a job another is going to do for $1600 (equal reputations).
Good luck.
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I hate car problems! We try to avoid the dealers too. But sometimes they are necessary.
At least you’re not stranded somewhere. I hope it all works out.
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