Real Sage Advice

On a personal note

It's been a summer of meager postings here at Real Sage Advice. I've been incredibly blessed to be incredibly busy with my real estate business, The Senior Housing Search.com, and another new project we're launching to help seniors with technology.

In fact, all of the busyness has given me an opportunity to find, implement and practice a new time management system and improve my ability to keep all the balls in the air!

However, in the last two days I received three emails that have spurred me back into writing. Emails from people I've never met, thanking me for providing information about senior housing and aging issues.

This little blog has continued to work to provide information for families with aging loved ones even though I've neglected it.

With a heart full of gratitude that I've been blessed with a large number of real estate clients in this difficult market, opportunities to meet professionals who work with seniors that believe in me and my vision, and new opportunities to work with families with aging loved ones, it's time for me to give back again by way of writing in this little blog.

Get Found

As more and more websites are trying to cash in on the age wave, and there is more and more irrelevant and bad information about aging issues and senior housing, it's more and more important to "get found" on the internet. Here's a site I registered with today in an effort to "get found."  I'll let you know how it goes!

RssHugger is a weblog directory that basically combines Technorati, rss directories, and search engine optimization into one. If you own a blog, you can get your own page on rssHugger for 10 years by giving an honest review of the site on your blog. If you want to join rssHugger but do not want to review our site, you can pay a one time review fee of $20. This fee, allows the site's authors to keep out a lot of the spam/useless blogs.

Submit your own blog to RSSHugger

Loss of a Friend

I volunteer with Nokomis Healthy Seniors which is a block nurse program in Minneapolis. The goal is simple: to help seniors stay in their homes with a little volunteer support.

I found out my community lost someone very special last week. He's someone I visited on a regular basis with groceries and supplies from Wal-Mart. I was always greeted with a smile and a story. 

I'll miss you, Hank.

Old friends pass away, new friends appear. It is just like the days. An old day passes, a new day arrives. The important thing is to make it meaningful: a meaningful friend - or a meaningful day.
Dalai Lama

Follow the bread crumbs to get to the truth

A post at the Boomer Chronicles about nostalgia and appreciating the little things got me thinking this morning. Will our memories of our history correlate with what is reported in the media?  We are surrounded by media who tell us about the depressing and outrageous. Their job is to sell papers, not necessarily provide an accurate reflection about what is happening in our world.  I shudder at the thought of being judged through history by our fascination with celebrities with no underwear, the latest psychotic break, the stint in rehabilitation, and fashion. How shallow we will seem to our grandchildren! It seems blogging and Web 2.0 have provided an opportunity for us to leave little bread crumbs into the future of what it's really been like to be alive now. The media doesn't seem to capture the meaningful moments of our times, like remembering a favorite school lunch. School lunches don't sell papers.

Here are my bread crumbs for the week (also sure to not sell any papers):

Amidst the gloom and doom reporting of mortgage scams and foreclosures, there is something happening that isn't being reported. I spent my week working in real estate, something that doesn't even seem possible with the reports of the awful market. I sold 2 listings, talked with 2 families about listing their home, and met 3 first time home buyers who were interested in purchasing a home.

Social Study and History classes will look back at these years as the "Great Real Estate Slow Down" and "The first time in 40 years that real estate lost value."  I'll look back and think about my clients. People I was fortunate enough to work with during a time in their lives when big things were happening (their own bread crumbs).   

I am so fortunate to have chosen to work with older clients. I'm starting a bread crumb collection! 

New Featured Expert on Gilbert Guide

I've just recently been given my own little corner of the Gilbert Guide blog on which I am able to stand on my little soap box and talk about real estate, senior housing and aging issues.

The Gilbert Guide is actually a publication of senior housing and senior services published in New York, Pennsylvania, Texas and California. The key is the only senior housing and senior services that are published are those that meet the gilbert guide inspector's standards. It's the "A" list.

I'm just thrilled to be associated with an organization of such high standards and integrity.

Perhaps we are too Minnesota-nice to say "sorry, you can't be listed in our directory." Our Senior Housing Directory includes everyone. You can request a copy of the Minnesota Senior Housing Directory, or search my online database of Minnesota Senior Housing at TheSeniorHousingSearch.com.

How I blog

When blogging is a passion, not even a new puppy can stop you!

Pets-Loss and Happiness

  It's been a quite month here at Real Sage Advice.  I lost my best friend of 15 1/2 years to old age.  Her name was Kiya and she was a beautiful Siberian Husky. Together we lived in 9 different houses, went through 5 different cars, 3 different veteranarians, a wedding, and numerous life events-both difficult and joyful. Grieving is a tough process.  You have to force yourself to get through the days, often running on automatic until the grief siezes you and you have to pull yourself together and just keep going.   Each day gets easier.

Thank you for the emails wondering where I've been. I'm back and I'm climbing back on the soap box to talk about aging issues.

Now it's time to get back to issues on real estate and senior housing. 

Happy First Day of Autumn

Happy Autumn! The heat and humidity have broken, the mornings have that crisp autumn air and we remember why we live in Minnesota. Fall in Minnesota is a little piece of heaven on earth.

Top 100 real estate blogs-Seniors get a mention!

Most days when I'm blogging I feel like this ant.  Senior housing is such a big topic, and this blog is such a little voice in a sea of voices.

There are thousands, and I mean THOUSANDS of real estate blogs. Everything from blogs about blogging, marketing, mortgages, being green, title insurance, blogs for realtors and blogs for consumers.

Imagine my surprise when this little blog got a mention on the "Top 100 Real Estate Blogs" list. (It's listed under the "Niche" category.  I wonder in 10 years if working with seniors will still be considered a "niche?")

This is a victory for seniors.  For the real estate industry to recognize this discussion about senior housing and the special attention it deserves, well it's nothing short of a home-run.

Remember that song The Rubber Tree Plant?

Just what makes that little old ant
Think he'll move that rubber tree plant
Anyone knows an ant, can't
Move a rubber tree plant

Oh yeah?   Watch me!

Celebrate National Assisted Living Week by listening to a story

This week marks the 13th annual National Assisted Living Week.  This year's theme is Legacies of Love.

This theme "highlights the privilege, value and responsibility of passing the legacies of our elders' lives down through the generations that care for them and love them".  The week kicks of with Grandparent's day (always the Sunday after Labor Day).  Sponsored by the National Center for Assisted Living, I'd like to commend them on such a meaningful theme.

Every week I'm invited into a potential clients homes and I get to hear stories about their homes, and their families.  Most of the events in their stories happen during a time when I wasn't even born, or was very young. As I listen to my client's stories, some of them reference the same events in our country's history but many of of my client's interpret those events very differently. Some of the stories are purely for entertainment value, but most stories have a purpose-a moral. If I listen carefully I learn.

This week I'm going to make it a point to share some of the lessons I've learned from my client's stories.