Rolling Stones

May 28, 2005

gather no moss.

And so the plans are already in motion, thanks in part, to a combination of cell phones, web sites and discount airlines.

While planting flowers today I ran through all the iterations again and decided that spouse and I should head on over to Phoenix to see if there is really something that we would be willing to buy in that over-heated market. We are under a time constraint, as a property for swapping has to be identified within 45 days of closing on my first deal.

I had already decided, courtsey of site 59 that I would head on out to Albuquerque this Friday, returning on Monday.

Site 59, for those of you who may not know, is a great site for last minute air fare/car deals or air fare/car/hotel deals, generally for 3 to 5 days max, always over a weekend. (click on image for link)

So if you have the time and the cash, and fancy a trip to just about anywhere in the United States, they have flights for every weekend, and you don't have to deal with the advance purchase thing at all. During peak travel times, you are going to find fewer flights, but my flight cost me maybe a hundred bucks more than it would with a 2 week or month advance purchase, and I have a rental car thrown in as well.

For discounts on the airline thing, nothing seems to beat Southwest. My original thought this evening was to book a second flight out to Phoenix two weeks from today, and fly the Mrs out from ABQ. It turned out that there were still cheap flights for next weekend on the web, so I tracked my wife down on the rim of the Grand Canyon and we decided on a plan.

My son-in-law is a commercial realtor in Phoenix, and his grandfather is a residential realtor. We'll fly out on Saturday morning to Phoenix, get picked up and taken around to as many condo's and houses as we can fit in and then be back at the airport in time to catch a 5:00 flight back to Albuquerque.

That gives us Sunday in ABQ to look around some more, or hike in the mountains and think a bit.

I go home Monday afternoon and that's that.