After a couple weeks of frantic work, both at work and at home, Sabine came to a couple realizations. The first one was she could do something about a worry bothering Andrea and Paige. Several nights they had expressed concerns while sitting around the campfire in the evening about whether their retirements would cover the rent here. With Silas’ message about retirement coming probably five years earlier than projected, they were worried about their next jobs, what to do when they retired, where they would live and so forth.
With this in mind, Sabine came up with a solution. She knew it would work as long as she was able to pull it off without telling them right away. She would work it on her trip to town this weekend. She also wanted to swing by the music store and talk to the guy there about mischarging her for the guitar.
The other problems she was working was Christmas gifts and barter items. With all these secretive errands, she needed to go to town alone. She didn’t want to panic people with her worrying about barter stuff. She also needed to go to the bank. She wanted her stuff out of the safety deposit box.
Saturday came and Sabine slipped out early for her errands. She went to the bank first. It was a short errand, just checking the balance and emptying her safety deposit box of the items she was worried about being found. In here was some of her most precious possessions like the KIA bracelet with her brothers name, the dog tag chain she used to wear, the balance book for her overseas account with all her deployment money and the money she got from her brother’s insurance, and a few other small items. Most of this went into her pockets except the bracelet and the dog tag set. Those she put on. She stopped and looked at the dog tag set for a moment. She had worn this set on her deployments.It originally was her brother’s, returned after his death. On it then were two tags and a ring. The two tags were her brother’s and his fiancé’s, both killed in the same IED blast. The ring was his custom wedding band he would wear for the first time at their wedding. To this chain, she added her own tag for her deployments. She would now add her new tag with her new identity. She felt better with it in place.
With the money she had available to her, she came to a decision about her earlier plan.
Sabine showed up at the house of the owner of their house. They have never met. She got right to business.
“Sir, I would like to purchase your rental property at” she red the address off of the paper in front of her as if she didn’t know it by heart. “And I have a fair offer.”
“I’m not looking to sell.” The offer took him off guard.
“Look. Right now, all you pay for on it is the taxes, you collect rent, you don’t improve it, and you have no interest in it to live there. Correct?”
He was taken back by her blunt assessment of the situation again.
“Correct”
“Here is my offer” She handed him a slip of paper with a number on it. “This is more than the land value and is probably the best offer you will get in the next five years.”
He looked at the number. “This place is worth more than this.”
“Let’s be honest sir, you owe nothing on it, taxes will be due at the end of the year, and in six months, when they announce the base is closing, you won’t be able to rent it for enough to even pay those taxes, much less any up keep. This offer is pure profit for you. Hell, your tax attorney can show this as a loss for you and save you money as well. If you reject my offer, I'll come back in a year and offer you a quarter of what I am offering you today.”
They went back and forth for about thirty minutes. At the end of their discussion, they came to an agreement. She would have her agent come finish the paperwork. Sabine would now own their house through an intermediate company. She wouldn’t tell the rest right now. She would just have the management company inform the group that the rent was changing, only for the better. All of the money they paid would just go to the household repair and improvement fund.
She went to the realtor she had chosen and laid out her needs. Not long after that, she was out the door to her next errand.