I got off the road with my telecommunications job in 2003 and took a desk job in Alpharetta, GA.
I had been on the road for five years and, it was time for a change. I was offered a desk job by an old Manager to support Georgia/Alabama Verizon Wireless 3G as a Customer Support Associate (CSAM). My job was to ensure that the Norel product worked as designed and work with Verizon if there was an outage or any issues. Once the issues were identified, I would work on root cause analysis, present it, explain how we are going to fix it, and ensure it does not happen again.
I also needed to ensure new parts of the network were introduced, upgraded, and deployed. This was a 24/7/365 assignment with other States backing each other up.
Fast forward to 2010, our Company won the 4G contract for North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee. I was allowed to manage those three States, and I relocated to Mooresville, NC. Most normal people would rent but since I am not normal, I bought an acreage to rent out and make money.
It was a great plan on paper as I was going to rent my Georgia house to pay down that mortgage and buy the NC property and rent part of it out to pay that mortgage. Sounds awesome except tenants are assholes more time than not, useless which is why they cannot buy themselves.
I will write a separate blog on my Georgia rental. That tenant paid my mortgage down for 13+ years rented and then bought it “as is”. We did each other a favor as he got a deal, and I did not have to fix anything. Looking back, he was really lucky as the price really increased along with the mortgage rates and he would have never been able to buy anything. WIN-WIN as I banked!
OK, here is the scoop on my five-year stint living in North Carolina five minutes away from beautiful Lake Norman.
The acreage had a manufactured home on the front of the property and a three-car garage in the back of the property with a loft above the garages. I would rent the front house to cover the mortgage and live in the loft above the garage for free. I also bought the lot next door:

Here is a picture from the loft on one of the few snow days we would have during my time there:



It was an amazing setup with two bedrooms a kitchen that overlooked the common area:


It was not technically free as I spent a lot of money and sweat equity getting the property ready to flip as I knew this 4G gig would not last a long time. I also ended up buying the lot next door, so I had just over three acres to move, weed, and piddle around in the three-car garage.
It was so awesome as there were three full-sized garage doors and a bathroom.

I would end up renting the loft, so I put up a temporary wall. Two bays went with the house, and one bay with a washer and dry went with the loft. It was such a badass setup, and I would have made a fortune if Airbnb was a thing. Plus, the property probably doubled at this point too.
It just became too much for one person to manage. I was often working 60 hours a week, traveling all around the Carolinas and Tennessee at a moment’s notice. I also had my Georgia rental, and my condo rented out to snowbirds at the same time.
I used to say “I had seven toilets for one asshole” due to having so much going on at once.
I remember the day clearly when I had officially decided to sell the place. The septic tank was seeping and the year smelled terrible. I would see pools of leaking in the yard and knew it was not good, so I had someone come out and take a look.


I had to get the yard dug up as one of the two septic fields was not working. Thankfully, it was just a broken switch between the two fields, and one was doing all the work and overflowing.
The septic tank was also full and needed to be pumped out too! Shitter was full!

I think it cost me $5K to fix the septic issue but the thought of it possibly costing $50K for a new septic system was enough for me. The roof on both front and back house needed to be replaced and there was also a termite issue every spring. It was one thing after another.
Soon after, I would get laid off which made it official.
I was done with the South and moving my ass to Arizona where I had my condo waiting. I knew that my telecom days were coming to an end so bought it as a soft-landing spot closer to home in Canada. It worked out well, I was able to bank on the sale of the acreage and move west.
Such a great five years living the reck neck life with the local NASCAR people. Mooresville, NC is known as race city USA (click link) most of the drivers and garages are located there.
Dale Earnhardt JR lived 15 minutes from me on his amazing western ranch. No invites for me!!