Chapter 5

In five years many can happen in one’s life and for Ken Miller, it turned out that several significant things did happen. Looking back from when he graduated college five years ago, it seemed to him that he was doing well since he had no major complaints.

A rising stock market is said to lift all boats and Ken found that to be true. A close to ten percent increase a year in the value of his trust account amounted to a considerable amount of money. The adage “it takes money to make money” was certainly proven to be true in Ken’s mind. The rehab business was doing well. It had grown along with the cash reserves to where the loans were being done in the name of the corporation. Since no payments had ever been paid late the mortgage companies didn’t hesitate in approving the loans.

Another PM, Mike Casper was added to the staff and he worked in the San Antonio area. Ben said he had some inquiries from people at his prior work that he stayed in contact with who said they were interested in doing this type of PM work. Most of these people were disgruntled with the insurance company since they were cutting back on benefits and the workloads were becoming heavier.

The four PMs were close to averaging a finished project every two months. With them handling two projects at a time that was therefore coming close to four home sales a month for the corporation. The average profit of the houses in a growing market was at forty-three thousand dollars which made for a number of happy campers including Ken. Because of how good they were doing all of the PMs were operating at a max of twenty percent commission rate. Ken’s involvement in the business was reduced which gave him free time. He was thinking of what other type of business he could become involved in.

Tracy continued to do an excellent job and had another baby which was named Eric. She didn’t lose much time from work and now brings Eric with her when she works as Emily is in school. Emily became a good swimmer. If for any reason Tracy needs to stop at Ken’s house for work on a weekend or just to stop Emily from pestering her, Tracy will bring Emily to use the pool.

Ken did the studying and flying necessary to earn a Private Pilot’s License. His flight instructor, Ted Harris kept his eyes open for a plane Ken could purchase at Ken’s request. Ted phoned Ken to tell him of a twenty-year-old Cessna Skylane that a bakery owner had put up for sale. The rumor was that this bakery owner had over-extended himself and needed some money quickly. Ken along with Ted and a mechanic that Ted knew inspected the plane. The log indicated the mechanical work was up to date. The plane’s instrument panel had been updated with some Garmin instrumentation and the plane was IFR rated. Buying a plane was like buying a car in that there were negotiations as to the price. A price was agreed upon and the plane was purchased in the name of the KenMi corp.

With Ken now being IFR and VFR rated it was a good buy and the plane could be kept at Ted’s airport. Instead of driving to San Antonio even though it was only a one-and-a-half-hour drive, Ken would fly there and the log he was keeping would show it was for his business as the reason he flew there.

The most recent time Ken was with Beth turned out to be a bummer. That was because after they had made love she broke the news to him that this was probably going to be the last time they would be able to make love. She told him that she had been dating Byron Crenshaw who was a plant manager and he gave every indication that he was going to propose marriage. If he did do that she said she was going to accept as he was a decent guy and treated her nicely. Ken congratulated her and told her she was a super lady and she deserved to be happy.

The second time they made love that night he used the lubricated vibrator she had put on the nightstand. With her help in positioning it, he pushed it into her backdoor. Instead of the usual three-inch penetration, he would normally do, this time he pushed it in at least six inches with it on high speed. She violently shuddered, moaned, and then grabbed a pillow which she screamed into as she climaxed. Ken was somewhat pleased to see her reaction to him using the vibrator. It excited him to be able to bring her to that high level of excitement. Ken had never considered putting his shaft in her backdoor as he knew he couldn’t compete with what the vibrator could do.

Beth later said she had never cum that hard. She also said she was not going to be hesitant to tell Byron what pleased her and gave her pleasure. Laughing she said that she thought Byron was a quick learner.

A little bump on the road on how good things were going occurred in his social life. He was getting to be too old for the crowd at Vale’s since they were primarily college-age students. Now if he would stop for a drink he would alternate between stopping either at Vale’s or the Blue Sage lounge which catered to an older crowd.

He had met Rita at the Blue Sage and he took her out to dinner a few times. It worked out that every time they went out to dinner they would end up back at her place and he would make love with her. She was a nice girl and was looking for something permanent in a relationship. When she saw that wasn’t going to happen with Ken she turned down any more of his offers in going out.

A short-lived relationship he entered into was with a realtor Tara Roman who approached him at one of the open houses they had to sell a property. She asked that if they weren’t successful in selling on their own they consider listing the property with her. He said they only if the commission was reduced but the way things were going because of the interest they were seeing that would probably not happen. He then switched it a little asked if she had the types of property for sale that they would be interested in buying.

It turned out she did have some properties that Ken and his PM liked which were purchased for the corporation. Ken asked Tara out and she accepted. Dinner with Tara was interesting because she besides being good looking had a good business sense and it showed when she discussed Ken’s business with him.

“I can understand why you are trying to sell your homes by yourself to avoid paying a realtor’s commission. Making the biggest profit is your incentive which is understandable. If you don’t have immediate success in selling a house you may want to consider renting the house out on a yearly lease and when the lease expires then try to sell it. Over time the home may have appreciated and your profit will have increased. My firm does do realty management and for a small monthly fee, we can manage the renting of the house for you. By that I mean we will find the tenants, collect the security deposit and the rents, pay the bills, taxes, and mortgage and do this without any involvement from you. There should be some positive cash flow to you but you should look at doing this as being more of a growth investment rather than an income investment.”