Linda Hinson

I have a prospect who is looking for a retirement home and she must be close to quality healthcare for her parents who live with her right now. She is from another state. Eventually, she knows one or both parents will require some type of institutional care. We bonded pretty quickly because my mother died recently from complications from alzheimers. I am familiar with most medical facilities in the county so I visited some that I had never seen to take pictures and pick up some literature for her. As realtors, don't we do some unusual activities? I was happy to see that even with our current economic state, our county is preparing for the future. We have been told as baby boomers age, they will place alot of stress on all areas of our society.

We have a new 200,000 sq. ft. facility being built to replace the old hospital. It will provide 74 private rooms and several surgical suites. The new Brunswick Novant Medical Center is due to open 2011. www.Brunswickcommunityhospital.com. A huge new medical office building was recently finished. Just up the street, Universal has just open a new nursing center, and another one is being completed in the Ocean Isle Beach area. That brings the number to six in the area. Prices range from upper $3,000 and up. When my mother passed, I was paying $4,600 per month. Just up from Brunswick Community College, a sign announces the groundbreaking of the new hospice house. Our county has many private doctors, many clinics, and several hospitals to choose from. Two of the most highly recognized hospitals, Duke and Chapel Hill are 4-5 hours away. I was more than happy to gather this information for her so she could be assured that she is making the right decision.

I was watching the news tonight, and a woman was talking about health issues she was experiencing because of a plant nearby. Of course, the representative for the manufacturing plant responded that they followed all guidelines state and federal. When I taught high school, I had many students on inhalers and other medicines for asthma and other pollution related illnesses. One day, a student mentioned a website that he had discovered so we took the time to check our zip code to see who the polluters were in our area. We were all surprised by the resulting information. The website is www.scorecard.org. Type in your zip code. Hit enter and you will find not only the culprits but the specific chemicals and the related illnesses. It is a real eyeopener. I love the pristine beaches we have and even though I am concerned about the heavy reliance on tourism; I have to admit, it is nice that we don't have to worry about manufacturing chemicals.

I was watching a homeshopping channel this morning as callers were talking to the hostess about how they love to shop online and how many packages come to their door. Some even laughed about sneaking those packages into the house. Yesterday, I was in a local department store packed with shoppers standing in line to check out, many were using credit cards. It started me thinking about the sale of my mother's estate, and what I have learned in the past year. My mother loved quality goods whether it was clothes, jewelry, or cars. Most had to be sold to support her for the last few years of her life, and what I discovered was that I was hardpressed to get 30% of what she paid. Dresses that were $200 might recover $30 or the coat she paid $400 might sell in a consignment shop for $25. Her diamond estate ring that costs $3200 didn't bring more than $1000, etc. Why do we spend our hardearned money for these luxury items when they have little value. We can't put 20% down on a house but we can buy a brand new car that loses value the day we drive it off the lot. We can't pay for our children's college because we bought a bigger, more expensive home than we really could afford or even worse, we bought that vacation home instead of saving for our children's college. We not only had to have that new dress (not on sale) because it is the newest style and heaven forbid that we wear last years dress to that function but our children grow up with all the insecurities of listening to parents squabble over finances. Do we sacrifice a solid financial future for that golf membership or the country club membership or what is even worse, we buy our 16 year old a brand new car but we don't have the $10-20,000 for their first year of college. I was recently shocked when I ran into a friend at the beach who had just sold her business. She and her husband were looking for jobs with health insurance as a benefit because they never had any and as they are getting older, they need it. She was sick last year and she had to pay cash over $20,000. Why was I surprised, she lived in the most elite neighborhood in our hometown, drove a new mercedes every few years and they belonged to the country club. The money from the sale of the business was all the retirement money they had. It is so sad that people sacrifice a solid future by squandering today for meaningless "things". Dave Ramsey and Clark Howard are my heroes!

What a beautiful day at Sunset Beach today...just gorgeous. Tourist shops are starting to open in preparation for spring break. Brunswick County is waking up in preparation to the end of the winter.I had floor duty on the island today and it was so nice to actually see cars in the public parking lot. People were on the beach and fisherman were fishing off the shoreline. Of course, they were wearing waders. This will be one winter I will be happy to see the end of. For the past several winters, my roses have bloomed all during the winter. This year, I probably lost plants. I had a cute couple come in looking for some foreclosures; unfortunately, there aren't any. Good for us; bad for buyers. I did find them some good buys; however, I found a few properties priced below $400,000 which is great for the island. Three years ago, no one could find a price like that anywhere. The next couple wanted to move up; they didn't want to sell their existing property. They will convert it to a rental. They want to be closer to the water than their present home. All in all, it was a productive Saturday.

This morning as I was getting ready for work on beautiful Sunset Beach, I watched a segment on one of our local television channels featuring a lady who had been married for over 40 years. The feature went on about how they had loved each other and how they had traveled and enjoyed their life never expecting any significant change. Her problems started when her husband was diagnosed with dementia, snd she reached a point where she could no longer care for him. She placed him in a facility which was costing her several thousand dollars per month out of pocket. (I have said in earlier blogs...medicare nor medicaid pay unless there is an injury requiring rehab or end of life care.) Her solution to resolve the issue was to divorce him, but she would still be his wife, but now she doesn't have to pay. This is a current trend, according to the news. Recommendation...be sure to hire a good attorney.

When I was at work, I read the Raleigh News and Observer and there was an article about free dental clinics being held throughout the area. Again, a pregnant woman was featured who just thought it was so wonderful that she could get all that dental work for free. She went on to say that she had a couple of children at home and with one on the way, her plumber husband couldn't afford dental care. (What did it cost you the last time you called a plumber?) People were lining up at midnight, according to the reporter, for this free dental care.

Before I retired from teaching, my class was reading the paper and in response to an article, we were having a discussion about two hospital...one public...one private. I saw it as a wonderful opportunity to encourage them to stay in school and plan for additional training so they could afford health insurance to go to private care rather than a public facility. We all came to the conclusion that the best doctors were at the "For profit", not the free "Non-profit" ones. Of course, that led to a discussion of medicaid. I made the mistake of saying that medicaid was set up for the poor...Wow! You should have seen how upset a group of them were. Several jerked out their cards and said, "I'm not poor. I live in a nice house, drive nice cars, etc. My family lives well." They had no problems explaining why they get all the entitlements...you just have to learn how to manipulate the system. One even told me, you don't want to have a child by the same man because the judge will let him pay less in child support but if the child is by a different Father, I get more money...she was pregnant for the 2nd time in the 10th grade.

Why is this a topic? People are poor for a reason...they make poor choices. They drop out of school, they get pregnant, they squander their money, etc. The lady who divorced her sick husband. Guess who is now paying his $7,000 a month bill for the next 5-10 years. The woman who already had 2 children and pregnant with the 3rd but she couldn't afford a dentist. She can continue having children because in NC, we have programs to cover these children all the way to 18. Does she have to be responsible?

How does all this apply to real estate? These two stories are repeated throughout our country, and we are drowning in debt. Why do we want to encourage low to no down payments, extensions to tax credits, and low FICO scores to get people into home so when they have a crisis, they walk away. What happened to saving enough money to make your down payment? What happened to having a savings account with enough money to tide you over during that rainy day. It may be good for my business today but what about tomorrow...so do I feel sorry for people, sure I do. Do I feel sorry enough to want to take my tax dollars to help...only once. Everyone is entitled to make a mistake; however, the poor seem to make the same mistakes over and over and over.