When my children were young, I would constantly correct their grammar. They would complain bitterly, but I kept doing it. Today, without exception, they thank me over and over and are now correcting their children’s grammar.

I am, frankly, disgusted at the incredibly bad grammar I hear all of the time. Even our President, in making an off-hand comment(not scripted) recently, used poor grammar. He is a Harvard graduate. How does this happen??

What is even more worrisome is that this bad grammar may someday replace proper grammar as acceptable. How often do you hear kids say, “Me and my friend”, instead of my friend and I?  How about the bachelorette with her repeated “Him and I” instead of “He and I”??  For anyone with a good sense of proper grammar, this is like fingernails on the old chalkboard.

Kids learn what they hear and experience. If they are not getting proper grammar at home, are our English teachers really impressing upon them the importance of good grammar??  It is such a great gift to give a child, as a first impression is a lasting one.  While good grammar says “educated”; poor grammar says “not well educated”.

Poor grammar creates a bad impression.  It is certainly not good in an interview process for a job or a selection process for college and it  leaves a bad impression with people who value good grammar.

I will keep correcting my grandchildren to do my part to help preserve our language as it should be spoken. It costs nothing and will pay dividends in their lifetimes.  I am sure there are many of you out there who feel the same.

Well,  just when Grandpa died you might have thought we were through with medical bureaucracy issues. From my last blog post you will remember Grandpa was ushered out of the hospital only to die within 2 hrs of discharge. This was orchestrated under the guise of hospice, but it was really a way to get him out of the hospital in time to prevent him dying there and  becoming a negative statistic for Kaiser Permanente.

When we went to make arrangements for Grandpa, we were questioned as to who was going to sign the death certificate. How would we know? Was there a problem?  Yes, there was. You see the doctor who saw Grandpa on the morning of his death did not want to sign the death certificate, because an ER doctor stopped by his room late afternoon to check on him. Since he was not the last physician to see Grandpa alive, he would not sign the death certificate. The ER doctor would not sign the death certificate for some reason which was never clearly explained to us. He was the last physician to see Grandpa alive. Next we were shoved off to hospice to have the hospice doctor sign the certificate.Since hospice was not at Grandpa’s home to evaluate Grandpa (although they had promised someone would be there to receive Grandpa when he was delivered home), which was not the case. By the time the hospice nurse arrived Grandpa was in the last hour of life and there was no evaluation done. Since he had not been evaluated by the hospice physician, the hospice physician  would not sign the death certificate as he had never seen Grandpa.  Well, this went on for two days until finally another physician from hospice signed the death certificate. He NEVER saw grandpa, so how could he sign the certificate attesting to a cause of death. Bureaucracy never ceases to amaze me.  Whatever is expeditious becomes permissible!!

I once thought I was pretty smart when it came to the medical world. After all, my former husband and daughter are both physicians. Well, then how come I never knew that a hospital was not a place to go to die?? I have just experienced this first  hand and need to share this with you.

The doctor’s informed me and my sisters our dad was not going to get better. The palliative care team wanted to speak with my sisters and myself. They suggested (actually pushed us) we put our dad into a hospice program. This made sense, because he was not going to get better. Little did we understand the real reason behind the big push. They wanted him out of their facility. We questioned them about why they would want to move him, if he was so terminal. They said it was, because he was going to be put on hospice and he would need to be moved to another facility that dealt with hospice patients.  Well, no facility wanted him, because he had been tested for swine flu and, even though, they told us the results appeared negative, he was “persona non grata”. They told us they would find him a place as we would have to move him.  I couldn’t believe my ears. He was close to death and we had to move him.  It was sometime during this shuffle that we learned the doctors had given him about 24-48 hours to live. Why with such a little time left did they have to move him? They found him a place all right, far from our homes. It took all day for them to do so. By the time they were ready to discharge him about 36 plus hours had elapsed and he was comatose. At that point I said to my sisters that we should just take him home to die in a warm, familiar and comforting environment. They quickly ordered an ambulance to transport him.  They loaded him onto a gurney in a completely non-responsive state. As they were moving him from the bed to the gurney  the sheet under him tore and he was dropped onto the journey quite roughly.  He was not responsive and I couldn’t believe they were actually moving him. We did not think he would live long enough to get home.  He did, however. We were told a hospice nurse would be there to meet us. HaHa. She did not appear until nearly an hour later, when it was obvious to us that he was close to the end. He died quite shortly thereafter. Her only role was to listen to his heart to verify the time of death.  We, all, found it interesting, however, that she said she could not believe the hospital had discharged him. To discharge him, he would have needed to have been stable and he WAS NOT. Why then was he moved???? Simple….the hospital did not want him to die in their facility. It would impact their statistics to have him die there.  We feel completely duped. Not that the outcome would have been different, but  we feel as though (under the guise of caring) they convinced us that palliative care vis a vis Hospice was what was needed, so they could get rid of him. For him to die within 2 hours of discharge is shameful on the part of the hospital. Two hours was all about statistics and nothing about compassion or humane treatment. I am appalled and outraged. They won’t pull the wool over my eyes again, but I am sure there is a family out there today confronted with the same situation as we were agonizing over the decisions that have to be made.  It is only going to get worse with a public health care option. It scares me to think about it. If you don’t have a health care advocate, you need one or two or three. We spent 12 days bedside around the clock and we still got the boot. God only knows what would have happened had we not been there to be his advocate.  NO, that is not true. He would have conveniently died days earlier and they would have had that statistic with which to deal.

Greed is alive and well in the real estate world. I guess the temptation is just too great for many agents with REO listings. As an agent with 23 years of experience, I don’t work with buyers who are not qualified and motivated. When my partner and I make an offer on a home, we provide proof of funds and proof from a direct lender, where possible, to give a seller the comfort of knowing our buyer will close the transaction. Why have I had it??? Well, our offers are being shopped and used to get other buyers to overbid our offers. We have tried waiting until the last minute to send in our offers, but it doesn’t matter. My favorite line is ” we won’t be presenting offers until after open houses on Saturday and Sunday”. We all know why. These agents are trying to double end their properties. Just be straight up with those of us who have submitted legitimate offers and are working with good buyers. Don’t hang us out to dry for 11 days, as we recently experienced. This is just not right. I can understand wanting to double end a listing, but game playing does not belong in our profession. All of us love to double end as many of your listings as possible. Enjoy this run, but please  respond to us in a timely fashion, even, if you send us a ridiculous counter, so the  process continues. Right now it is not a “Buyers” market.  It is the REO agents’ market.

I thought this was incredible. My granddaughter’s daddy works in the foreclosure market. He went out for dinner the other night after entering a new listing into the MLS. When he came home his office floor was covered with faxes (all mixed up) representing 53 offers. Price $280,000. Ultimate sales price $370,000 (all cash) quick close. That beats the most offers in my career. Properties in foreclosure under $500,000 in California are selling (the big majority) with multiple offers. The buyers are in recognition of the incredible opportunity they have and acting on that recognition. Lesson: You never know, if the market has bottomed out until you turn around and you are heading uphill, once again.  He who hesitates is going to pay more.

There is a lot of hype today about short-sales. Are they really good values?? A property is a good value when you can buy it at market price or slightly under. A property is a great deal when you can buy it for 20% under the current market value. Not all short sales qualify as great deals. Just because they have been reduced by what seems like a lot of money may not be relevant. What is more important is how the price of the short-sale relates to the current market value of other comparables in the neighborhood. In addition, the seller is probably not going to have the money to do repairs to the property,  so it is important to understand the costs of repairs. In addition it is important to make sure you have a home warranty in place for those unexpected repair problems going forward.  If, indeed the property appears to have been reduced dramatically and, in comparison, with the comparables is bigger, has a better location, has good amenities and you like it……………..buy it. The market is offering you an opportunity that won’t come around again soon…….greatly reduced prices and interest rates at decades low rates.

The following is a link to a video made by a friend of the family. It is clever and certainly gets its  point across…..that Bernie Madoff……………made off.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zd8ArvnbVF0

How much sense does it make for the credit card companies to unilaterally raise interest rates to a level of usuary (in my opinion) when people are struggling in an extremely challenging economy? It is a complete recipe for further disaster. We bail out the banks, so they can stick it to us with their greedy practices. Where is the American taxpayer’s “bail out”?  I believe most cardholders really want to pay their bills and, if the companies would work with them, they would be made whole. Instead they push people to the edge until they force them into bankruptcy and, for some, suicide. 100% of nothing is still nothing, when that happens. This is a time in America when we all have to work together and help one another. Somehow that message has escaped the banks whose poor business decisions and greed have devastated many, affected everyone and have done it in a cavalier manner.

I, for one, look forward to the day when I never will use a credit card again. Maybe they have done me a favor after all!!!

I was having a conversation with a client recently to whom I have sold two homes. His current home, his primary residence is now way under water. The purchase price of the home was in the mid $800,000 range. Today the home is valued at around $500,000.

It would be important to note this client is a very conservative man, married with a couple of children. He is not impulsive. He is very analytical, extremely conservative and successful, and has an excellent job plus lots of savings.
For him, buying a home is a very arduous task, as he constantly questions himself about making the right decision. That is where I come in, providing him with enough information, market statistics and emotional support (hand holding) to make a decision.
Recently I called to tell him that I thought we should, in earnest, find him the move-up home he and his wife have coveted for so long. I told him the combination of today’s interest rates and low prices will not last. He agreed and thus began the portion of the eye-opening conversation I am sharing with you here.
I asked him, if he was planning on selling the current residence or would it become a rental property? With almost no hesitation, he told me he would just let the home “GO”. “Go,” I said. This was a radical answer coming from this gentleman. It must be a joke, I thought. I needed to probe further. “Let the home go,” I said, “as in let the bank foreclose on the home?” “Yes,” he replied. “It doesn’t make good business sense to keep it. If you look at the loss on the house in this current market and figure a modest gain going forward, it will take years for the home to reach the same market value as when I purchased it. At that point I would have zero return on my investment. Keeping it would be a very bad business decision.”
I must admit that what he was saying was true. Being analytical, he had looked at the numbers and arrived at his conclusion. He is right. It will take a long time to rebound to its original market value, but let it go…..I couldn’t believe he was actually serious. He was and is dead serious. From his point of view he is looking at the purchase of his current home NOW as a business deal gone bad. He sees no purpose in throwing “good money after bad”, so he wants to purchase his move-up home while he still has stellar credit, verifiable income and strong cash assets. Once he owns the new home, he will let the current residence go. He figures he is better off washing his hands of his bad investment and focusing his attention on building his cash reserves and making other investments that will give him a positive return on his investment. “After all,” he said, “I need to think of my growing family. If I keep the house, it will take years just to see the house reach its original value and I will still be behind the eight ball with no return on my investment at that point. It doesn’t make sense to keep it.”
Suddenly I realized I was staring in the face of a “new” type of foreclosure……….not one out of financial desperation, but one out of financial “choice.” How many others will be making this type of decision and what will  it do to an already unstable marketplace?