About Juneau County, AK

Well, almost. But I’m done being the Board President of the Southeast Alaska Board of REALTORS®

Tonight we had our transitional meeting. I will step back as Past-President.

WHEW. What a run. We coordinated some great education, raised money for charity and RPAC, and started planning the state convention which will be held in Juneau in September 2010.

Congratulations to Gwen Place, as 2010 President!

One of the activities that bring me out of winter and into spring involves gardening. Catalogues, planning and dreaming! This year, it seems many of my favorite companies have either delayed sending them out, or perhaps have gone paperless. At least a few companies have switched to sending paper catalogues every other year as well. That’s fine – less clutter.

Part of a great landscaping plan involves planning. Our gardening season is wet, cool and short in Southeast Alaska, so there seems to be a lot of time to plan and dream during the long winters. This year is especially hard because we have so little snow cover. (Hopefully I mulched enough to protect my hundreds of bulbs!) When we have white on the ground, it seems to reflect what little light we have. Right now, the sun comes up about 9AM and it’s completely dark by 3PM.

As we start gaining daylight, it's easy to think of summer. I'm ready - yes, already!

In late winter, I look forward to summer hobbies, like fishing, gardening, hiking, fishing - oh yeah, I already said fishing! Tonight I was looking through photos on my computer and this one especially made me look forward to warmer temperatures and time out on the boat. I have friends who take their boats out in winter, but ours is tucked away inside a "boat condo" - a larger garage.

Yes, this letter is real.

December 4, 2009

Dear JP Morgan Chase –

I have enclosed some documentation and I hope someone can help me. I represent a homeowner who wishes to sell their home. We have an accepted offer. Payoff amount was requested November 6, and several times since.

A notice of default was filed November 25 - over two weeks after the first request for payoff (several times, we were told you never received the request). Are you just trying to run up the bill?

The title company was told that if they called again, they would “go to the bottom of the pile”. Money to pay the loan has been at the title company for weeks. This is NOT a short sale!

Fortunately, this is a cash buyer. If there were a new mortgage involved, this deal would have crashed and burned weeks ago. It still might though, because the buyer isn’t going to wait forever.

In the meantime, your company has called one of my colleagues to proceed with foreclosure. I don’t understand why you wouldn’t want to collect the full amount due on this mortgage.

Respectfully,

Debbie White, Broker

We all need to report every abuse we see from the financial institutions! I am also assisting my clients in filing a complaint with the OCC. Any suggestions from my fellow "rainers" would be most welcome at this point. I'm about to lose the deal, the seller their credit, the buyer their home. There's no good reason for this.

I get cranky when I’m hungry. I don’t mean just a little grouchy either. I mean I become unreasonable, and it can turn me into a very unkind person.

Because of this, I have a theory. If everybody had enough healthy food to eat, the world would become a nicer place.

When my boys were small, we had some pretty serious struggles. At times, I had a difficult time making sure all the bills were paid, day care was paid for, fuel in the car (or bus fare) and for a time, that I had enough money to keep two babies in diapers. I also had to make sure my children were properly clothed – especially during those long, wet and cold Alaskan winters. We had to buy food as well, and boys, especially growing boys, never seem to stop eating. They also run in packs – when you have a houseful of kids, they all get hungry and will eat the cardboard boxes when there is no more cereal!

Southeast Alaska has been very generous to me over the last 10 years and I’ve always tried to give back when I could. Last week, our community held a food drive for the Southeast Alaska Food Bank. I was out of town when advertising sponsorships were available. I really felt bad that I wasn’t participating. So, I jumped into my truck and made a little shopping trip.

My receipt was over 8 feet long. I didn’t really think about that except I was interviewed by every radio station promoting the event. Several businesses were bringing in large donations… Guess I got a little carried away. When they finally finished weighing the donation from Prudential Southeast Alaska Real Estate, the total was over 800 pounds! Great timing for our city manager, pictured here “behind bars”! He made his goal early and was released...

I think next year, we will try for 1000 pounds. That was a lot of fun!