May 18, 2018

   The United Way’s ALICE project (Asset Limited, Incom Constrained, Employed) has just reported  that 43% of American households do not earn enough to cover basic expenses such as food and housing and, in the same breath, that the unemployment rate has fallen below 4% for the first time since 2000.

   Our own state of California (and only two others in the country) has the largest share of struggling families at 49%. With a national average of 66% of all jobs paying less than $20 an hour, perhaps this all is no surprise but it’s clearly putting a smack on the housing market and why so many are renting instead of buying a home.

 

   You may have seen me wandering about our yard with a grab stick patiently, endlessly, picking up pine cones. You would not be the first to wonder why an otherwise normal appearing man would spend time trying to undo one of nature’s efforts to make more pine trees. Nobody has come right out and called me loony yet but I get a lot of curious looks from people driving by.

   Dry cones are a good way to start a wood fire in the stove of course. And getting outdoors beats sitting at a computer or watching TV any day. There is yet another reason and that is when you step on a pine cone your ankle wants to go sideways which is not a good thing.

   But the title of this post is that there is a dark and sinister REASON THEY KEEP FALLING AND FILLING UP MY YARD ! This took a great deal of thought and I’m pretty sure the logic holds. What happens you see is that the tree feels the cone hitting the ground. It actually senses the 4 or 5 ounces of weight resting there nearby and takes some measure of comfort from that sensation.

   You’ve read that plants might have feelings, right? So maybe it’s true and when some yo-yo comes around and starts collecting these pine cones the tree thinks to itself, why I better get busy and replace them!

   This, gentle reader, is why your yard and mine will never lack a rich carpet of pine cones to twist your ankles when we wander amongst them.

April 27, 2018

The three of us, Sally, Hillary, and myself, just got home from three hour class on real estate ethics in Redding. Here are a few take-home thoughts that seemed worth sharing:

• many professions have ethics codes but real estate is the only one that has the mechanisms to enforce their own, ranging from letters of discipline to revocation of license.
• the core idea is that the highest and best use of land is in the nation and public’s best interest and Realtors participate as guardians of that land.
• in many ways real estate practitioners were the first environmental movement for this reason.
• real estate is more of a pillar to the US economy than any other industry.
• the term “Realtor” is trademarked by the National Association of Realtors and unauthorized use (eg. by an agent who does not belong to the NAR and therefore does not subscribe to the Code) can be prosecuted.
• the Code over 104 years old, it was first adopted in 1913 and has been amended, expanded, and clarified hundreds of times to keep up with changes in the real estate industry.

As with any industry, there are abuses but in our business, knowing that we can be reprimanded, fined, or even lose our license for failing to abide high standards of service to you, our client makes us proud and keeps us sharp.

Bruce

April 24, 2018

I’ll find a picture for this but in the meantime I just wanted to share how each of us may feel about our formative (musical it seems) high school times. Right now I’m listening to Roy Orbison for example, Anything You Want, You Got It. The support singers did a lot to make his fame and I’m sorry to admit that I blast it on Pandora when I can. Sally usually goes in the other room.

It’s emotional of course (now it’s the Ronettes and Be My Baby so it’s pretty clear how far down this road I’ve gone).  But don’t we all hear tunes like these in relaxing, romatic moments?

Our time was the 1960’s. There was a lot of folk music but also some very serious rock as well. Percy Sledge did his When a Man Loves a Woman (you almost carry those lyrics when you hear that lead-in) and there were countless others.

But before Percy, in our high school senior years there was a whole group of slow-dance 45’s. In the Still of the Night being one of my prom favorites to this day. “In the still of the night sho-be-do . . .”. It was so lovely and so smooshy I’m amazed I didn’t marry the girl that night. And the Flamingos with “I Only Have Eyes For You“.

And on it goes down memory lane.

Bruce