In the world of Save. Spend. Splurge.: Real Estate Talk happens

“I help maintain properties for absentee landlords. I think most people imagine landlords to be rich guys on Long Island. But most of my clients only own one or two properties. A lot of times they were inherited. Part of my job is helping to get squatters out of the buildings. There are professional squatters out there. You can’t even call them criminals. They know the laws and they’re working within the system. If you catch somebody breaking into your house– that’s ‘breaking and entering.’ But if you happen to live out of state, and somebody breaks into your house and you don’t notice for six months, then that person becomes your tenant. It doesn’t matter if you gave them permission or not. If you want to evict them, you have to go through the legal system, which is very expensive. So it’s usually cheaper to pay the squatters off. The laws themselves aren’t bad. They were enacted to keep predatory landlords from evicting people without due process. But like all laws, there are people who have figured out how to abuse them. I have one squatter who has been living rent free in an old building for six years. He hasn’t paid a dime. He’s well dressed. He’s always very polite and professional when he answers the door. But we’re offering him $80,000 to leave and he’s asking for more.”

A photo posted by Humans of New York (@humansofny) on Mar 21, 2016 at 10:33am PDT

What I liked this week:

• I love Humans of New York. This particular post shocked me. PROFESSIONAL SQUATTERS? What the hell was I doing paying $5000 a month for rent in Manhattan!!!?!!?!??! This one about a formerly lonely widowed man was so sweet as well.
• I have but in black polkadot and I love it! Comes in , and too.
• Parenthood around the world: I love these Motherhood posts from Cup of Jo and the anecdotes at the end of the post are fantastic. I love hearing about how other children grow up around the world. I didn’t grow up in a baby proofed house, I ate terribly processed, over-sugared and junk food my whole life and I turned out just fine. 🙂
• HOW MUCH DO I WANT THIS ? SO. MUCH. And I sorta want or as well but it is not my style these days. This .
• The rise of the Gen Y Suzy Homemaker. Maybe it’s my mother’s influence but I never imagined staying at home and loving laundry or watching my kids. Interesting that we’re swinging back to that.. They get great educations at elite universities and then… stay at home. In my day, we called it getting the M.R.S. degree. It’s not my thing but I love an educated woman. (H/T to Jamie)
• . They’re so cute! These cameo earrings are nice too, and envelope earrings? I die.
• This is wonderful.. I see NOTHING WRONG with a cisgender consultant (Monica Prata) teaching trans women how to be ‘feminine’. Trans women haven’t had a lifetime of feeling like a woman from being a little girl experimenting with glitter and princess dresses all the way to accessorizing, wearing skirts, how to walk in heels… etc. So maybe it isn’t ALL women’s idea of being feminine (skirts, heels, makeup), but as trans women have not had the chance to do it their whole life, maybe they want to try it out and see if it is the kind of ‘feminine’ they want to be. Or not.
• What a stylish top for work. I love it in ivory. This is also kind of very Kate Spade-y.
• And then I read this and think: This is UNBELIEVABLE that people are even saying this out loud. It is one thing to privately think it (fake joke or not), it is another to publicly say it. What a jackass…. and by the way, where are the comments from the male tennis players refuting this BS and calling him out?
• I need to pierce my ears so I can wear these maps on them or mix it up with these drusy gems. I’d wear them with .
• If you want to know how I feel like sometimes at work, you can watch this [Video below]