Letter About Local SEO to the Loving, Litigating Ladies of Legal Aid…
A few years ago, I wrote an article entitled “How to Get Along with Your A**hole Landlord” for a website in San Francisco, a good while before I started my own digital marketing company in Charlotte. But, I never thought I’d actually end up renting from a landlord who was truly a Professional A**hole.
I won’t go too deep into the story about all of the mess that he put me and the other tenants through here in Charlotte earlier this year. I will just say that, in the end, he ended up shooting himself in the foot by not paying attention to the Protecting Tenants at Foreclosure Act, when he didn’t tell any of us that the property was under foreclosure, and just tried to collect rent money up until the last day, without giving us any notice to leave.
After he himself left the property, Fannie Mae took it over. I was still living here, and that’s when I found out that I was protected under this Act, being that my lease isn’t up for several more months.
Then, one day, months after he’d left the property (September and October of this year, when the auctions were going on for the property, everything was in limbo, and I was just waiting to find out who my next landlord was going to be), I got a notice to appear in court in late November, saying that he was trying to sue me for back rent for August 2023, the month before he’d left the property himself because of the foreclosure, as well as rent for the two months after he’d vacated the property because of the foreclosure.
The funny part is that this super alcoholic idiot had left all of the paperwork at the property about the foreclosure that he didn’t tell us about that had been going on since the beginning of the Summer! So, I just called Legal Aid of North Carolina, and showed the lawyer all this evidence.
I mean, the paperwork said that he’d known about the foreclosure approaching for almost my entire lease, which had started in early March of this year. The foreclosure paperwork that this drunk dummy had hidden from us all Spring and Summer, he’d left at the property, and I used it against him in court in late November.
My wonderful attorney, International Law Specialist and Advocate, Danya Nayfeh, won my case in a classy, non-confrontational manner. She kept me calm in court, and was just outstanding.
Danya successfully proved to the judge that he didn’t own the property anymore, Fannie Mae did. He didn’t get a dime from me at all, and I got to finish out my lease.
I was so grateful to her that, a few days later, I called Danya and told her that since I still live in Charlotte, that I would love to provide SEO services for Legal Aid through my independent search engine marketing company, Trade Storytelling, if they’d have me, all year long in 2024 for a very reasonable price.
When I told her, she seemed happy about the idea, and wrote me this nice letter via email:
Hi Limus,
I hope you’re doing well! I inquired about your writing for us with my supervisor and he advised that I get in touch with our managing attorney about it! I’ll pass your resume along to her and get back to you when I hear back. Your writing looks great by the way :)
As for your case:
You contacted Legal Aid for help with your housing case. Your landlord filed against you for non-payment of rent. At your recent hearing, we were able to get the case dismissed. I advise that you use this time to engage in discussions with your new landlord about renewing your lease. If you are unable to reach an agreement with the new owner, you could find yourself in another situation in which they attempt to take you to court. If you receive new court papers (from either the old landlord or the new ones) or if you have any questions, you should reach back out to Legal Aid.
Your case file here is closed. It was wonderful working with you, and I hope that we gave you helpful service. If you have other civil legal problems, you are welcome to apply for help again.
Thank you so much for allowing us to serve you! I’ll be in touch about the writing!
Best,
Housing Staff Attorney
LEGAL AID OF NORTH CAROLINA, INC.
Charlotte Housing Unit
5525 Albemarle Road, Suite 100
Charlotte, NC 28212
I’m proactive being a Business Editor, so I wrote the Supervising Attorney for Pro Bono Programs and Disaster Relief at Legal Aid of North Carolina, Nicole Mueller, the following letter on LinkedIn after receiving Danya’s:
Dear Nicole,
I don’t know you personally, yet. But, with the way that Legal Aid of North Carolina just helped me win my case in Charlotte against my previously harassing landlord, I am absolutely SURE you deserve the Employee Spotlight I just saw online.
So, let me first say congratulations on that, and well done!
I sent you a message to connect on LinkedIn, so that we can talk about me possibly providing SEO services in Charlotte next year for Legal Aid.
The many lawyers across the United States whom I’ve written search engine optimized content for or have done other types of writing work for in the past decade (Beaverton Oregon’s Nurse Attorney Tara Candela, Akron Ohio’s Slater & Zurz Law Firm, or Philadelphia Criminal Defense Attorney Micheal Kotik, Esq., for example), I only charged ten cents a word. And, Nicole, that’s all I’d charge you as well if you decided to hire me as an Independent Contractor in 2024 to be your primary Independent Business Editor for online marketing in Charlotte as well as all across the Tar Heel State.
I think Dayna Nayfeh, the wonderful attorney who handled my case, may have contacted you about me, and what I am proposing to do for Legal Aid next year, with your blessing.
Please respond when you can, at your earliest convenience. In fact, feel free to just call me directly to my phone anytime during my business hours, which are:
9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Pacific
10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Mountain
11:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. Central
Noon to 8:00 p.m. Eastern
I will take your call over the weekend as well. I don’t normally take calls for work on weekends. But, if it means that I’ll have a chance at this opportunity to provide SEO services (through my one-man Charlotte digital marketing company) for Legal Aid next year, then I’d be more than happy to take the call if that happens to be the only time you can schedule.
I say that because I really want (and spiritually need) to do this next year. The way that Danya helped me, God just put it on my heart, like, “Limus, you better at least try to write for them…look at how much they just helped you!”
I know you’re busy, Nicole, being that you are the Supervising Attorney for Pro Bono Programs and Disaster Relief. So, when you get time, you could just shoot me a quick text, saying:
“Hey Limus, this is Nicole from Legal Aid, and I can talk to you over the phone at (insert time here) on (insert day here).”
You just don’t know how much what Attorney Danya Nayfeh did means to me. She was like the Angel that God worked through to come and save me from the person that Satan had been working through for my entire lease, which was my old landlord.
I could barely focus on my work every day because of him, and she got me back my mental freedom. I actually noticed that my productivity providing local SEO interview stories with Charlotte business owners actually increased over the last few weeks, because of how much less aggravation and agitation I was getting from him for the entire first half of my lease. I owe it all to her.
All that said, it really would do my heart so good if you allow me to do what I’m proposing next year, which is to research, write, and edit one interview story of 1,500–2,000 words with one pro-bono lawyer at Legal Aid of North Carolina each week in 2024. Only good can come from that much exposure of a wonderful organization like yours, and I want my Charlotte online marketing company, Trade Storytelling, to make it happen.
Thanks, Nicole, for taking the time to read this letter as well as for all the outstanding work you do for the community every day. God Bless, and I look forward to speaking with you in the coming weeks.
Peace & Love,
Mr. Limus Woods
Independent Business Editor
limusw@gmail.com
(843) 246–5387
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/limus.words
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/l-woods-abaa8a3a/
Medium Profile: https://medium.com/@limuswoods
Business: https://medium.com/trade-storytelling
Whether they allow my Charlotte online marketing company to write for them in 2024 or not, I’m still very happy that I got the help from Legal Aid that I needed, and I hope that any of you who read this story will contact them, too, if you ever have landlord issues like I did.
