11-07-2012, 01:26 PM
So, I don't often say much about our products. But I have to share my experience with Shannon's new "optimus" engine.
I am the webdesigner among many other roles here, and everyone may have noticed that I have not met my word on switching our site to the newly redesigned site yet. This is because conflict in my personal world, specifically in regards to living situation, went upside down.
I live(d) with two guys in a fairly large house. One of them was fairly new, but a bit over a month ago started letting a female friend of his stay here. This friend has been freeloading, and causing problems everywhere which I simply don't and would not tolerate. I'm a professional and I should not have to put up with drunk people mouthing off to me and crashing on the couch on weekdays. It has been nothing but conflict, and in the case of conflict when one tenant and their guest has violated lease agreement they should be the ones having to fix the situation or find a new place. Not me. However, the landlord decided he liked this girl (for very unprofessional reasons) and it quickly turned into a nonstop situation of me being uncomfortable living here and my rights being walked all over. Of course, if any of you know me-I'm not someone that allows myself to be disrespected. I let them know when they were out of line. But this was an extremely toxic environment.
So I had to move out, and fast. I had to do it in 30 days or less. I am an incredibly, incredibly busy person and this came at an extremely bad time (as you can see by the site not being switched over). So having been told all about this new optimus engine, I plead my case to Shannon, and he agreed to produce a title to help me get a new place (btw-please don't plead any case to Shannon-we are business partners and our success is mutual so if one of us is doing poorly we both suffer. If this wasn't such a crippling situation that would in turn affect both of us I would not have asked him for help). So he made an optimus title he humorously called "Find a place, Fast!". The goal was not only to find a place quickly, but to do it safely, and have it be ideal.
So here's where the journey begins. Day 1 on the sub:
I was in a frantic state when the sub began. A panic mode, to go out and get a place as soon as possible. Just to get out of here. I was ready to burn any bridges necessary with the current housemates to get it done. I would have signed a bad place, just to get out. I have many material possessions for a bachelor that are worth well over 20k, so any of these quick-fixes that I was ready to do would have put me, my health, and my finances at risk should anything go wrong. I got an offer from someone I do music with-to rent from them. This was very eerie. I had not talked to him about my situation at all, he knew absolutely nothing about it. I politely turned it down as it did not meet any of the criteria I wanted and would be very temporary but to get an offer out of the blue day 1, was incredible. It felt good to have a safety net. It seems like the sub was testing me- how bad do you really want this? right now? And my answer was no, not that bad.
What I really wanted, was a place of my own, with lots of leg room, downtown next to all the venues I normally drive to every day. I'd save hundreds every month in gas, parking, lost time just by moving alone. I also wanted a place that if I were to meet a good woman, there'd be plenty of room for both of us to live together in a peaceful, safe, and nice environment.
So after day one and several days following, nothing happens. In fact, it seems to me at this point that the best option is to back off. In hindsight, here's what happened. When it started, I was not mentally or emotionally in a good position-I was ready to burn bridges. And while the engine gave me the option should I want to get out immediately, on the spot, I turned that option down. No bridge burning, I wanted a long-term solution and I wanted to find fairly quickly but I had around 30 days and I could tolerate living here until then. Shannon programmed in to do this process safely. The engine was clearly getting me to a better mental and emotional health and saying "OK, I guess you didn't want it THAT badly. Sit back, do your thing, and I'll be back soon". So, that's exactly what I did. Around Day 5 I had a good talk with the landlord. We came to an agreement about what was to happen, and both got to a positive position and outlook. I gave him November's rent (which I wouldn't have if I left in a huge hurry) and we agreed on what would happen with the security deposit. The process could not have gone smoother. It turns out, that during my unhealthy time I had not considered that I needed the old landlord as a living reference! Had I not calmed down, even though I had reason to be angry, this would have turned around and seriously screwed up my chances of getting a good place. Rent history can be everything.
So day 7 is where things get really interesting. What's unique about day 7? Well I originally told Shannon I'd like to find a place in a week, and have it be ideal. So after 5 days of doing nothing (except come to good terms with the old landlord) I started looking for places again. Didn't find any that really jumped out at me. On day 7, someone posted what looked to be a promising place just that day. I jumped on it, he e-mailed me back, and we arranged for me to look at the place in a few hours. The guy is a great guy, he had been living there for 10 years. When I got there, I was in awe. It was within a 5-10 minute walk to all the places I have to drive 30 minutes to every day. It's next to an ocean, and a large jogging/walking trail that goes out to a fancy boardwalk and old town. It's extremely spacious, in fact more room than I know what to do with. It's on the corner and the person living above is a quiet old lady. The guy was moving out with his wife to get a house, but had loved living here all this time. This place, was scary perfect. It is something I would have expected to find after 3-6 months of searching. It was so specific, so ideal, and met everything I wanted. If I had not been looking for listings that day and that specific time I would not have found it-and that's not all that was an incredible coincidence. Since he was a musician, we found common ground and started talking. Now, most of our conversation may or may not have been of terrible importance, but one peculiar thing had happened. Other people had looked at the apartment and were going to apply come monday (business day). During our conversation we got to bonding and all of a sudden a light-bulb went off in his head. He realized, "hey! Just remembered, you can apply online! Some other guys will be applying, but the management company is non discriminatory first come first serve. So if you want to be first, go to their site".
Well, guess what I did first thing when I came home? I downloaded their forms and filled them out as fast as I could. I had to re-do one page 3 times because I kept messing it up. The company doesn't actually allow online submissions-but they get faxes. Problem? No fax machine. Solution? Online service for a couple bucks to send a fax via a pdf file. Did it, done, first in line. Come Monday morning (day 9) I drop off the check for the application fee. Done. If I had not chatted with the guy about music, I wouldn't have been first in line.
Day 9/10 was some nail-biting. Clearly I was candidate #1 because they had said it usually takes a few days to process but a inquiry came up on my credit monitoring and a background check was done that same day. Because I run my own business as well as partnering with Shannon I could not give them traditional form of employment history. So they call back day 9 asking for tax returns to prove income. Problem? I've been re-investing all my money the last couple years up until recently to get things going with Shannon & my other projects. So, I gathered up what I could from all our e-transaction statements, and sent them over. I had to send the guy something he didn't ask for, and provide something else. Even the business name didn't match up and I had to explain that Red Stripe Media is partnered with Indigo Mind Labs, blah blah blah. Yeah, I had to be that guy with the long-winded explanation even though I'm totally legitimate, have a perfect rent and credit history going back the last 8+ years, and make more than enough to support the rent. I was seriously worried all of day 9, 10, and part way through day 11 (today). So he calls me saying he has some questions, I call back. He says they really need tax statements. Not good. I tell him well, this is what I have, and if it's really necessary I could get a co-signer. He says well, if you can't do tax statements, if you pay last months rent up front that will be good enough. Problem? No problem here! I'd rather pay it up front anyway. Usually that's standard anyway! Incredible. I could breathe again. They need some time to clean up the place, do any fixes patch-ups whatever since the guy has been there so long and it'll be ready on the 19th of Nov.
What's special about the 19th of November? That's the day my father happens to be driving up here to visit. What does that mean? Instead of my RX-8gt we have a large vehicle and I will have help carrying all the bigger unwieldy objects.
Could this have been more perfect and more incredible? No, I don't believe it could have. Shannon, you've saved me from a bad situation and helped me get to one that is nothing short of astounding and completely unrealistic had anyone asked me at the beginning of this process. Now I can get back to building the business and getting this site switched over already. Finding a Perfect place in 7 days that normally I'd only expect to find in months and having them give me the OK after 11? Unheard of.
I am the webdesigner among many other roles here, and everyone may have noticed that I have not met my word on switching our site to the newly redesigned site yet. This is because conflict in my personal world, specifically in regards to living situation, went upside down.
I live(d) with two guys in a fairly large house. One of them was fairly new, but a bit over a month ago started letting a female friend of his stay here. This friend has been freeloading, and causing problems everywhere which I simply don't and would not tolerate. I'm a professional and I should not have to put up with drunk people mouthing off to me and crashing on the couch on weekdays. It has been nothing but conflict, and in the case of conflict when one tenant and their guest has violated lease agreement they should be the ones having to fix the situation or find a new place. Not me. However, the landlord decided he liked this girl (for very unprofessional reasons) and it quickly turned into a nonstop situation of me being uncomfortable living here and my rights being walked all over. Of course, if any of you know me-I'm not someone that allows myself to be disrespected. I let them know when they were out of line. But this was an extremely toxic environment.
So I had to move out, and fast. I had to do it in 30 days or less. I am an incredibly, incredibly busy person and this came at an extremely bad time (as you can see by the site not being switched over). So having been told all about this new optimus engine, I plead my case to Shannon, and he agreed to produce a title to help me get a new place (btw-please don't plead any case to Shannon-we are business partners and our success is mutual so if one of us is doing poorly we both suffer. If this wasn't such a crippling situation that would in turn affect both of us I would not have asked him for help). So he made an optimus title he humorously called "Find a place, Fast!". The goal was not only to find a place quickly, but to do it safely, and have it be ideal.
So here's where the journey begins. Day 1 on the sub:
I was in a frantic state when the sub began. A panic mode, to go out and get a place as soon as possible. Just to get out of here. I was ready to burn any bridges necessary with the current housemates to get it done. I would have signed a bad place, just to get out. I have many material possessions for a bachelor that are worth well over 20k, so any of these quick-fixes that I was ready to do would have put me, my health, and my finances at risk should anything go wrong. I got an offer from someone I do music with-to rent from them. This was very eerie. I had not talked to him about my situation at all, he knew absolutely nothing about it. I politely turned it down as it did not meet any of the criteria I wanted and would be very temporary but to get an offer out of the blue day 1, was incredible. It felt good to have a safety net. It seems like the sub was testing me- how bad do you really want this? right now? And my answer was no, not that bad.
What I really wanted, was a place of my own, with lots of leg room, downtown next to all the venues I normally drive to every day. I'd save hundreds every month in gas, parking, lost time just by moving alone. I also wanted a place that if I were to meet a good woman, there'd be plenty of room for both of us to live together in a peaceful, safe, and nice environment.
So after day one and several days following, nothing happens. In fact, it seems to me at this point that the best option is to back off. In hindsight, here's what happened. When it started, I was not mentally or emotionally in a good position-I was ready to burn bridges. And while the engine gave me the option should I want to get out immediately, on the spot, I turned that option down. No bridge burning, I wanted a long-term solution and I wanted to find fairly quickly but I had around 30 days and I could tolerate living here until then. Shannon programmed in to do this process safely. The engine was clearly getting me to a better mental and emotional health and saying "OK, I guess you didn't want it THAT badly. Sit back, do your thing, and I'll be back soon". So, that's exactly what I did. Around Day 5 I had a good talk with the landlord. We came to an agreement about what was to happen, and both got to a positive position and outlook. I gave him November's rent (which I wouldn't have if I left in a huge hurry) and we agreed on what would happen with the security deposit. The process could not have gone smoother. It turns out, that during my unhealthy time I had not considered that I needed the old landlord as a living reference! Had I not calmed down, even though I had reason to be angry, this would have turned around and seriously screwed up my chances of getting a good place. Rent history can be everything.
So day 7 is where things get really interesting. What's unique about day 7? Well I originally told Shannon I'd like to find a place in a week, and have it be ideal. So after 5 days of doing nothing (except come to good terms with the old landlord) I started looking for places again. Didn't find any that really jumped out at me. On day 7, someone posted what looked to be a promising place just that day. I jumped on it, he e-mailed me back, and we arranged for me to look at the place in a few hours. The guy is a great guy, he had been living there for 10 years. When I got there, I was in awe. It was within a 5-10 minute walk to all the places I have to drive 30 minutes to every day. It's next to an ocean, and a large jogging/walking trail that goes out to a fancy boardwalk and old town. It's extremely spacious, in fact more room than I know what to do with. It's on the corner and the person living above is a quiet old lady. The guy was moving out with his wife to get a house, but had loved living here all this time. This place, was scary perfect. It is something I would have expected to find after 3-6 months of searching. It was so specific, so ideal, and met everything I wanted. If I had not been looking for listings that day and that specific time I would not have found it-and that's not all that was an incredible coincidence. Since he was a musician, we found common ground and started talking. Now, most of our conversation may or may not have been of terrible importance, but one peculiar thing had happened. Other people had looked at the apartment and were going to apply come monday (business day). During our conversation we got to bonding and all of a sudden a light-bulb went off in his head. He realized, "hey! Just remembered, you can apply online! Some other guys will be applying, but the management company is non discriminatory first come first serve. So if you want to be first, go to their site".
Well, guess what I did first thing when I came home? I downloaded their forms and filled them out as fast as I could. I had to re-do one page 3 times because I kept messing it up. The company doesn't actually allow online submissions-but they get faxes. Problem? No fax machine. Solution? Online service for a couple bucks to send a fax via a pdf file. Did it, done, first in line. Come Monday morning (day 9) I drop off the check for the application fee. Done. If I had not chatted with the guy about music, I wouldn't have been first in line.
Day 9/10 was some nail-biting. Clearly I was candidate #1 because they had said it usually takes a few days to process but a inquiry came up on my credit monitoring and a background check was done that same day. Because I run my own business as well as partnering with Shannon I could not give them traditional form of employment history. So they call back day 9 asking for tax returns to prove income. Problem? I've been re-investing all my money the last couple years up until recently to get things going with Shannon & my other projects. So, I gathered up what I could from all our e-transaction statements, and sent them over. I had to send the guy something he didn't ask for, and provide something else. Even the business name didn't match up and I had to explain that Red Stripe Media is partnered with Indigo Mind Labs, blah blah blah. Yeah, I had to be that guy with the long-winded explanation even though I'm totally legitimate, have a perfect rent and credit history going back the last 8+ years, and make more than enough to support the rent. I was seriously worried all of day 9, 10, and part way through day 11 (today). So he calls me saying he has some questions, I call back. He says they really need tax statements. Not good. I tell him well, this is what I have, and if it's really necessary I could get a co-signer. He says well, if you can't do tax statements, if you pay last months rent up front that will be good enough. Problem? No problem here! I'd rather pay it up front anyway. Usually that's standard anyway! Incredible. I could breathe again. They need some time to clean up the place, do any fixes patch-ups whatever since the guy has been there so long and it'll be ready on the 19th of Nov.
What's special about the 19th of November? That's the day my father happens to be driving up here to visit. What does that mean? Instead of my RX-8gt we have a large vehicle and I will have help carrying all the bigger unwieldy objects.
Could this have been more perfect and more incredible? No, I don't believe it could have. Shannon, you've saved me from a bad situation and helped me get to one that is nothing short of astounding and completely unrealistic had anyone asked me at the beginning of this process. Now I can get back to building the business and getting this site switched over already. Finding a Perfect place in 7 days that normally I'd only expect to find in months and having them give me the OK after 11? Unheard of.
Andrew // Site Architect "Attack its weak point for massive damage" -Giant Enemy Crab
So I was holding my breath a bit wondering what was to come. Good thing I was already moving in a mostly compatible direction!
