Greetings

Jackson Browne~ Farther On 

Greetings from Illinois. I am wrapping up my 3 week stint here in my birthplace. The weather has been wild- everything from 9 inches of snow, to what is best described as a flash flood with a kick ass thunderstorm & such heavy rain I could not see the freeway. Also warm sunny t shirt weather. This trip was designed to be a marathon of sorts- dismantle our childhood home  Mom had for 45 years, as she is too elderly & has major health issues to stay alone & maintain the old house. Old it is too- built in 1926. We cleared out 45 years of stuff. We have that house totally empty & clean. Mom has experienced major changes since I saw her 5 months ago. I am so glad I went to visit her every chance I had, because now there is Noro Virus in her area, she has contracted it & it is highly contagious, so I can’t visit her the last few days I am here. So I am really glad I seized the moment when I could. Carpe Diem! Seize the day!

Yesterday, I did a 5 realtor interview sprint & had my first glimpse into what the whole damned sub prime mortgage debacle really looks like, right here in the Nation’s mid section. We kept seeing “Short Sale” on the comp properties listings.

A short sale is a situation where a house is on the brink of foreclosure, so the desperate lender allows the owner to sell the place for less than they owe to avoid the foreclosure. What that means is you wind up with houses that are being dumped on the market for $50,000 or more than what they are actually worth. Lots of them. So that totally screws up the market for the rest of the sellers. You can ask for more, you can even hold out for more– but those folks who do might have the place sell 400 to 500 days on the market.- that is more than a year, or closer to two years- if it sells at all.

 It was quite depressing to see the domino effect. Their self bail out is screwing with my Mom’s sweat equity into the place for all those years. NOW I really get the nuts & bolts of what the whole sub prime mess is like for the average person & it ain’t pretty.

 Anyway, I will have to spend my last days here getting paint quotes from paint people. Not a project I can stick around to see done, but get the ball rolling.

 The irony of all this is I work in the travel industry. Hellofa vacation Eh?

 No you are not seeing double– I took the liberty of posting twice today.