Patricia Kennedy

At the top of my bucket list has been learning to ride a horse. And last week, I joined my friend, Jean, for lessons at the Woodland Horse Center.

I've been on horses before, but I'd never learned how to get the horse to go where I want to go at the speed I'd like him to go, and to stop when I'd like him to stop.

It's about communication.

So my new buddy, a gorgeous roan named Applejack, is teaching me about communication, and not just with a horse. A lot of it applies to clients as well. For example:

• It's subtle. It's easy to say "canter" when you want him to trot.
• If you don't say "go" just right, he'll stop altogether.
• You really need to show the horse who's in charge, but sometimes the horse is in charge - unless you're really good.
• Sometimes the horse will give you this look like he must think you are a total idiot.
• Sometimes you are a total idiot - at least when it comes to horses.

So while I'm trying not to get too concerned about Applejack's judgments of me as the human who rides him every week, I'm learing to sit on an English saddle and post and trot and basically sit on this guy's back without falling off.

And the other fun thing is the shopping opportunity at the tack shop. I got my cute new helmet - although I'm striving to get one with a fuzzy surface - they are really cool.

And Jean got these chaps - I have to have some! They are beautiful brown supple suede.

There are also boots and outfits and saddles and before long I'll be leasing a horse! Then I'll need to buy one and move to Potomac where thre are lots of places with stables that go with the house!

My broker will love all this. I'll have to sell a lot of real estate to support my new horse habit!

© 2009 Patricia Kennedy. Unless otherwise noted, the content, both written and in pictures, is the property of Patricia Kennedy . If you would like to use this image, please email me (housepat@mac.com) with your request. I'll almost certainly say yes, and ask only that you provide a link back to my original content as well as an acknowledgment. The same thing applies to any other material you see posted here on Active Rain or on any of my other blogs.

A lot of us have started to go nuts as lenders are getting more and more nitsy, driving our beloved clients crazy with last second requests for documentation and other paperwork issues that seem to come to a head about two days before settlement.

This morning, I had a talk with a lender who has been making loans as long as I've been selling houses, and we were laughing about how it's getting to be just like the good old days! So now, I'm coaching all of my buyers on what to expect during the process. By preparing them for all of the stuff that is totally annoying people right now, I'm hoping that if they expect the nitsy, it won't annoy them as much. Here are some of the things I'll have them be on the lookout for:

• For a while, the lenders were all pretty casual about pest inspections. Well, now it there is a single carcass of a single once alive termite on the property, there will have to be some evidence that the little guy did not die of natural causes like old age. This means evidence of prior treatment, either in the form of paperwork documenting when the treatment was done or a new treatment. Same with repairs of termite damage. You'll probably need someone to certify that it was done by a licensed termite repair contractor, or you will have to bring in a licensed termite repair contractor to say it was done properly.
• They are looking at condominium documents more carefully, with an eye to saying no to people buying in buildings that look like the owners' association might be in trouble. In projects with a lot of short sales and foreclosures, this could further compound the problems they are having with owners who cannot pay either their mortgages or monthly association fees.
• If you put any money into your checking account that was not your regular pay check, you will have to account for it. So if you are self-employed, keep good records of your clients' payments. Same if you are on commission. I just had some buyers need to get a letter from grandma saying the $1000 check they deposited was, in fact, a wedding present.
  
• If you are getting a large gift from your parents, you may have to document that they did not borrow the money to give to you. You'll also probably have other lender's guidelines about the amount as a percentage of your down payment.
  
• It is taking a lot more time to get the papers through the lender's system - getting the loans through underwriting and then getting documentation to the title companies. It's like they are trying to do the work with fewer people, which means the fewer people are going to put your papers in higher and higher piles that take longer to get to.
• And they keep thinking up new things faster than we can add them to our What to Expect list!
  

We used to have to deal with these situations all the time before about the mid-1990's. All lenders were a pain, but it didn't seem like a pain at the time because we were totally used to it.

And yeah, they expect to get picky, picky, picky! And trust me, it will still be easier than when I was a new agent and had to walk through the snow for miles to hand deliver the extra documentation!

Most of our leaves are now on the ground. So, on this gorgeous top-down Sunday, I saw this gorgeous red tree out in Potomac, Maryland. And I had my I-Phone handy, which didn't quite catch the way the sun reflected off of the bright red leaves.

© 2009 Patricia Kennedy. Unless otherwise noted, the content, both written and in pictures, is the property of Patricia Kennedy . If you would like to use this image, please email me (housepat@mac.com) with your request. I'll almost certainly say yes, and ask only that you provide a link back to my original content as well as an acknowledgment. The same thing applies to any other material you see posted here on Active Rain or on any of my other blogs.

Recently, a family member had a stroke. His stomach was upset. He thought he had food poisoning and looked like crap, and friends insisted on a visit to the emergency room. He was very, very lucky. Not everyone is, because the symptoms often don't look like a stroke, unless you know exactly what to look for.

There might be a fall, the person might be a little disoriented and loopy. There might be a numbness is the face and really bad headache. And the person having the stroke might insist he is fine - just a little trip and fall.

If you are with someone and suspect he or she might be having a stroke, here are some hints:

• Ask him to smile
• Ask him to repeat a simple sentence coherently
  
• Ask him to raise both arms

If he has problems with any of these tasks, call 911.

Then there is another sign. If you ask the person to stick out his tongue and it comes out crooked - off to one side - that is another sign of a stroke. Again, call 911.

A suspected stroke is nothing to mess around with! Getting to the hospital as quickly as possible is key to surviving and making a full recovery from a stroke.