CURIOSITY VERSES NEED TO KNOW...A FINE LINE

The real estate industry really is a unique animal. In what other industry is it considered perfectly acceptable to ask a complete stranger "How much do you owe on your home?" or "How much can you afford to spend on your home?"? It is usually asked with a little more tact, but the inquiry is still the same.

So, the question must be asked....how much do we have a right to know? Should lenders have a right to information that the Realtor may not have a right to know? If a purchaser has supplied their Realtor with a loan approval from a reputable lender, does the Realtor have a right to know the details of that loan?

As an example, a selling agent presents an offer and a loan approval letter to a listing agent. Negotiations take place and the offer is accepted. A week prior to close, it is discovered that one of the conditions of the loan is the buyer starting their job. Three days later, it is discovered that the buyer must also present a pay stub. Did the listing agent have a right to know that the entire loan was predicated on a job that the buyer had yet to start?

Some may respond that the details of the loan it is none of the listing agents business. Others may feel that a loan being contingent on starting a job is equivalent to the contingency of a buyers house selling. If neither one takes place, the loan falls apart. How much should have been shared between all parties?

This is a day and age of transparency. However, in serving the public, how much information is too much information? How far should personal information travel? The message is certainly contradictory. Lenders need extreme amounts of personal information...Realtors need the results of that information...but should all parties have access to all of the information? It's a fine line that is walked...and one that all parties should be mindful of.

SIMPLY ASTOUNDING...AND SO SIMPLE!

I was raised in a sport-centered family. Football, baseball and basketball dominated the television. If my family wasn't watching it, my brother was playing it. When he got too old, his sons took over the spotlight and so the torch was passed.

By sheer chance, my children were introduced to soccer when my nephews began to play and there wasroom on the Under-6 teams. I started coaching the following year and didn't stop for 19 years. While I was never a player, I loved interacting with the players.

Ours was a humble beginning. We only played recreational soccer and stressed fun more than winning (even though we were always competitive and did our fair share of winning). I never considered the implications and the potential of our weekend games.

Maybe we never considered it more than a fun weekend, Nelson Mandela did. Can you imagine an international hero such as Nelson Mandela believing that bringing World Cup to Africa would heal wounds centuries old? He saw the potential that soccer could bring to the international community. Cultures worldwide play soccer. It isn't the property of a specific nation...it is loved by people worldwide. The only color that matters is the color of your socks, so the referees can tell who controls the ball. What an amazing, yet simple message this wonderful sport brings.

So, you may not be a soccer fan, or even a sports fan. You can however, enjoy the joy this competition brings to us all. Oh, and go USA!

PLEASE, OH PLEASE...WEAR A LIFE JACKET!

This weekend is going to be beautiful! After an eternity of cooler weather and rain, Sacramento is overdue for some warmer weather and this weekend promises to be it!

Along with the warm weather comes the beach lovers. Sacramento has no shortage of beaches. We are a river city with the American River meeting the Sacramento River right in the middle of downtown. People swarm to these beaches to enjoy the sun, the water and family.

And, every single year, despite continued warnings from a multitude of organizations to wear your life jacket, people drown. There are even "loaner" life jackets that people can borrow, so there is no expense involved...and they still drown. As much as I would like to believe that we will get through this coming weekend with everyone having a great time and doing so safely, history has not proven this to be the case.

We have an agent in our office who heads up a non-profit group called D.A.R.T. (Diving and Rescue Team). By the time they get called, there usually is a missing body. He tells stories of while they are looking for a missing kid who used a rope swing to drop into the middle of the river, there are other kids still using the rope swing with no life jacket. One family overloaded their fishing boat and to be sure that the baby wouldn't go overboard, tied it's life jacket to the boat. So, when the boat tipped over, the baby was stuck under it and couldn't float to the surface.

So, please people, wear a life jacket. Being alive is way cooler than being dead.