As much as I’ve been disgusted with our local weatherperson, I’d say the downpour of rain we had today came as quite the surprise when looking just this morning at KIMT’s weather report stating no rain expected today. They certain got that very wrong because the rain continued well past our Noon hour. I guess from here on out, I’m going to be even less dependent on their predictions.
There were several chores I had to get done early this morning, and one of them was a “paying it forward” for a client of mine who was needing someone to do a little work in a home that’ll be coming on the market. It didn’t take but a good hour to get it done, and when giving it a good looking-over, I’d say it’s going to be a big help with getting it sold quickly. Unfortunately I had to drive back to office while it was pouring down rain.
When seeing our interest rates hitting five and three-quarters percent today, I’ll be even more on a burn to get my listings sold quickly because nobody knows how high they’ll go. We’ve had almost an entire percent point jump in less than thirty days which is troubling. If those rates continue to climb, we’ll be seeing people exiting the stock market and piling up on long-term securities which pay handsome monthly dividends. Most likely it would be the seniors with suitcases full of cash and to just give you an example, say there’s someone with 500K sitting around, and if the CD rates climb to 4%, they’d be getting a check every month for close to $1,700 which they’d be adding to their monthly social security. It may not sound like much, but the worrying about what their stocks and real estate investments are doing, wouldn’t be there any longer. Make sense?
My agent Brandon Neve just listed today a sprawling ranch located at 1502 – 9th St. SW which offers 4 bedroom, a half bath off the master, semi-finished basement, big double attached garage, and a privacy-fenced back yard. That particular district is very popular because it’s close to the hospital and all the west-side shopping, along with being all the closer to that drug distribution center in Clear Lake which employs a large number of Mason City residents. The ranch homes in this city seem to be the most preferred in these times, yet a number of years ago, the ranch homes were the ones our seniors normally purchased, but even the younger crowd is now after them. My personal taste of home styles has for some reason, always been the two-storied ones with tall ceilings and open staircases. The home I recently sold at 201 S. Vermont is another one I could “see” myself living in. It even has an enclosed front porch which made the home all the more welcoming.
I received a text today from a past customer telling me she’s planning on moving and wants me to list her home when it’s ready. That’ll definitely be a nice listing because when I had it listed last time, it was only on the market for about two weeks. The neighborhood alone will be what’ll place it a cut above the competition. Getting that message ended up being the highlight of my day.
I had a nice chat with one of my dear ones today, and while in conversation, she asked if I wanted a root from one of her Iris plants which has a color most don’t find. I gladly accepted the offer because I’ve always liked their look as well as their smell. Some day I’m going to create a nice patch of iris’ offering various colors. We also talked about peonies, and for some reason I forgot to tell her I took the above photo yesterday of a very old variety. The reason I like the older type, is the flowers don’t become so top-heavy from the size of their blooms where many of them end up on the ground.
My sale files are moving along nicely, but I’m beginning to get worried about several abstracts that have not yet been updated by our abstract company which is telling be they’re still back-logged, and since it’s summer, it’s likely some of their employees are on vacation. One of my buyers is very much wanting to close early, so we’ll see if I can get that abstract back in time to make it happen.
I’m still not sure what’s going on with our weather these past five years because it seems every year there are more evergreen trees dying, and most of them are either Spruce or Pine. Not but a month ago, I noticed a tall and stately white pine now dead, and for the life of me I can’t understand why because the last time I spied it, there were no signs of it being diseased. I’ll be sad to see that one go because whenever I’d be driving past it, I always marveled at its beauty. Speaking of trees, I’m hoping our City’s tree crew is staying ahead of the Emerald Ash Borer because I’m pretty sure I can now spot the diseased ones, and believe me, there are a great many of them growing on City property.
When seeing another pitiful sight in our Downtown, I couldn’t help saying to someone, “Well, it’s another example of how we think we must have something, but can’t take care of it, which in turn means that if people can’t take care of such “needfuls”, then they don’t deserve to have it.”, and while driving up and down or City’s streets, I’m noticing more than I ever have. Shame on those who think they have to have something but refuse to take care of it. Such wastes of time and money.
After reading the news out of Ukraine today, I was saddened when reading the Ukrainians have almost entirely lost another city to those evil Russians and their mercenaries. I’m going to continue praying the Ukrainians will prevail, and when they do, I can almost guarantee there’ll be war atrocities created by those Russians which will create a hatred for them that will last for decades. The younger generation of Russians have absolutely no clue what it’s going to be like living in an country where they can no longer have the luxuries they’ve considered a must in their lives. I feel no sorrow.
Tonight’s One-liner is: To vilify great people, is the readiest way in which little people can themselves attain greatness.
