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Arizona

July 26th, 2009 by Kenric

Vacations

I just got back from a weekend camping trip in northern Arizona.  One great thing about AZ is that in only a 2 hour drive, you can go up to 7000ft where it is 80 degrees outside and escape the 100+ temperatures.  It certainly makes living in Phoenix a little more bearable in the summer time.

Last week I was in Breckenridge, CO for my mountain biking trip.  We rented a 3500sf home near Peak 8.  It was a nice home that slept 14.  We were able to negotiate the weekly rate from $4,000 down to $2,400 including taxes and fees!!!  This house was probably worth about $2 million and was renting out at $2,400 a week!  I wonder how the vacation rental market has been during this year.

Real Estate

My tenant has moved into the Chicago condo.  He wasn’t too happy with its condition so I told him to hiring a maid service to clean the interior.  He sent me pics of the walls and some were in pretty bad shape.  So I also had the interior painted for $500.

E-Businesses

E-business sales seem to be picking up finally.  Nothing new to report.  I’m so wishy washy on whether or not to do another store or to expand my current ones.

There’s a store called optics planet which I buy stuff from time to time.  They originally started out selling telescopes, microscopes and binoculars, hence the name.  But they now sell a whole lot more than that.  Based on their order numbers I was judging that they make several hundred sales a day (500+).

They were a niche store that expanded to sell many items.  I don’t know where they rank for binoculars, but they rank well now for rifle scopes and rifle accessories.  I buy my laser sights and rifle mounts from them.  Does it matter that their name is optics planet?  The reason I bring this up because it shows that your store name might not matter too much and that you can push its product limits.  Which is why I’m thinking that I can expand my first ebiz store into a larger department store type instead of opening up a whole new store.

Gold

Gold has gone up $26.  Yay, I’ve broken even on my gold coin. LOL

Miscellaneous

Koi pond is really close to being done.  I got my bottom drain and my 4″ PVC piping.  I just have to finish digging the drain lines and install the bottom drain.  Then I put in the liner and fill it up with water!

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