Oh Poop!

I hope I'm not talking over your heads, but I'm kind of in a bad way at work.  We use Microsoft Outlook for our e-mail.  And while I was in Boston, I had to create a .pst file for the massive amounts of correspondence that have with our clients all over the place.

When I was transferred to Kissimmee, I checked with our IT folks and told them that I was moving but that I needed my account to stay active and that I was going to have everything transferred to Kissimmee.  They told me it would be no problem and that my .pst file would 'follow me' on the company's intranet.

This was ten weeks ago.  And it worked perfectly until yesterday.  Yesterday afternoon I couldn't access all of my file folders.  Outlook told me that I couldn't access my H-drive or the server that had my file folders.  No big deal.  I figured that the server was down for maintenance or something like that.  We have communication outages from time to time.

But this morning I kept getting the same message.  I couldn't connect to the server – therefore, I had no access to my files.  So I contacted my IT folks here and got the bad news.  My e-mail never followed me, though it acted like it did.  The Boston office has a new group that does their IT and that server is no longer active (or inactive) on the intranet.  And I have seventeen weeks of work, files, and e-mails on that server. 

Why didn't I put my .pst file on my CPU?  Well, what if my CPU crashed?  Up until now, I was able to access my files from ANY computer because my files were on a "floating" h-drive.

Now I've got nothing.  Our IT guy said that the Boston office would try to get my .pst onto a DVD and send it to me.  I really, really hope that works.  Otherwise, this is just an expensive lesson learned.  Man, I am toast.  I didn't throw away anything.  It was all categorized by project, person, boss, and priority.  My desk might look like a bomb, but my files were… were…  were something.  But now they are gone.

I had a little pity party for myself earlier.

On the house hunting front, Sara and I have a realtor.  I wrote him a letter and sent it to him.  Want to read it?  I hope so because I'm going to post it.  But before that, here's the background.  Sara's going to be in Washington for one week.  That one week has to be a productive week and not some "lets drive through some neighborhoods and tell me when you see something" kind of a week.  A fast and furious "we know what we like and here's a list – so let's go" kind of a week.  If this guy doesn't want our commission, I'm sure there is someone else who does.  So here goes…

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John,

Thank you for the warm and enthusiastic greeting.  Sara and I look forward to working with you and choosing our new dream house.  I'm sure you've worked with people like us before, trying to find a house from a thousand miles away (or even seven thousand).

 

I see that Sara has e-mailed you our lists of websites for houses that we like and a few reasons why we like each one.  Now - we realize that some of those houses will most likely be off of the market by the time Sara is in Washington to look at a house and put a contract down.  Time waits for no man…

 

Have you had a chance to review the listings that Sara sent?  I hope that with the notes we have put with each link that you can start to get an idea of what we are looking for.  And if anything new pops up (between now and whenever), you can shoot us an e-mail "Hey!  Look at what just came on the market!" kinds of notices.

 

Since we don't have the luxury of time (and having weeks and weeks to look around in person), I want to make sure that the time Sara is able to spend with you is eventful and productive.  What we do have is the luxury of time before hand, and the internet in order to get the nug-work knocked out before her visit.

 

As you can see from our combined notes, we are looking for something in the 250K to 300K price range.  I'm sure that Sara will get the pre-approval application knocked out in the next day or two.

 

We are looking for a house with 4+ bedrooms and 2+ bathrooms.  Wood floors outweigh wall-to-wall carpeting in every room.  Big windows and open spaces are a plus.  A basement is a plus-plus.

 

As you can see from my links and notes I like trees and sidewalks and a good kitchen. 

 

Sara wants a house in a good school district.  A low maintenance house with a yard without a ton of flowers and bushes.  While I wouldn't say that our past horticultural experiences were a disaster, they certainly weren't as successful as we had hoped.  I'm much better at ripping out rose bushes (with my Jeep) than keeping them alive.  Sara's Butterfly bushes were a big hit.

 

I understand that you might not be too terribly familiar with the DuPont area, but as our lists indicated, both of our number one house was Coldwell Banker listing at (1755 Hoffman Hill Blvd).  It meets a lot of the criteria listed above (tidy yard, some wood floors, trees to the West, schools with good ratings, etc.).  Maybe one of your realtor colleagues could give you the Cliff Notes on the area before Sara actually comes out.

 

I look forward to keeping an open dialogue throughout the next few months.  Even though you and I won't meet in person for another three months, I think you'll know me pretty well though e-mails.

 

I like to ask a lot of questions and I tend to be a bit demanding and up front.  Please don't take offense.  I'd just rather not mince words and cause any confusion with what we are looking for.

 

Sara and I had a terrific experience with our prior realtor through USAA Mover's Advantage; and based on your introduction – this will be no different.

 

Warmest Regards,

Michael

 

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So what do you think?  This guy come back right away with a "How I work for you" four page letter that spells everything out.  I've only skimmed over it so far, but I am impressed.

I think this will be a good realtor for us.  Gotta go.  It's getting late.