MASTERS OF COMMON SENSE

Someone once told me that they can never become a cop because they could never think fast enough on their feet to react to a emergency situation and then perhaps miss a step and make a fatal error along the way, but even though a positive fast reaction is definitely an advantage worth having, it is not the total answer to good police work nor to any other work similar to this type of scenario.  Plain common sense, pure and simple, is the avenue that leads toward development, ingenuity, innovation and creation.  Just think of it...let's say...a surgeon, for example, who operates on a damaged human vein where a insertion tube is needed to connect it to a heathy vein and, of course, a certified surgeon is more than properly trained to tackle that type of task, but let's just say that during the surgery process, the surgeon pulls in a stranger off the street and has him perform the same type of surgery...of course...this would probably end up in total tragedy.   Now let's say that the same stranger has common sense and continues to perform these same type of surgeries six times a day five times a week.  I could ensure you after several months to a year, that same stranger could probably out perform the surgeon simply by practicing and using good common sense to do that very same procedure.  Now if there's any doubt in your mind of this assumption why don't you give it a try yourself by taking on a special project that is totally foreign to you and then check out the results, but remember use good common sense to the best of your ability because a person with the notion of mastering good common sense could probably accomplish just about anything.  

RELIEVING THE STRESS IN REAL ESTATE DECISIONS

March 16, 2017

                                                                                                                                     Cruz Balderas 003227

RE-41-Practice (6p-9p)

Instructor-Gary Carter

Guest Speaker-Christine Cerda

Today our real-estate class had the privilege to hear Christine Cerda give her oral presentation regarding her client training manual entitled “The Power Of Real Estate-The 10 Steps To Buying and Selling! “ which is written by her, that explains or is design to help an individual reduce stress and access their inner resources while in the process of succeeding either in everyday life choices, managing other people, their surrounding environment along with the daily changes in life, for example, selling and buying a home, but at the same time, understanding the needs of their families while in this process.  She also added to her booklet that as human beings it is our natural extinct to experience stress, but by applying new reasoning and improving intellectual health, we can help defeat the battle against stress among ourselves.

The booklet emphasis on different principles involved in a real estate transaction that includes the buying process where you figure the purchasing strategy or finding access to financing by obtaining a pre-approval letter from a loan company of your choice always available in case you find a home that is to your preference because the real estate market is very challenging and there might be other individuals that might share the very same interest, therefore,  It is a good idea to have immediate access to a pre-approval letter, so that you can show that seller that you are more than qualify to purchase their property.  This also fully explains why it is best to use the service of a qualify real estate professional, who can help you in marketing, negotiating, monitoring and prepare the involved paperwork included in a real estate transaction.

Other aspects mentioned in Christine’s booklet are other important matters, for example, finding the dream home, writing the offer, inspections and contingencies involved in a real estate transaction, title insurance and escrow, which oversee hurdles like fire insurance, termite and pest control inspections, judgements, liens and holding title.  A final step after the closing process is how to preserve your home by knowing what to improve on your property in the future that will enhance its value.

In conclusion, I find both Christine’s lecture and booklet to be very beneficial and informative toward not only to the realm of the real estate market, but also to other types of employment where it’s concept can be utilized to ease the complexity behind human stress and other related health issues.  There is a interesting point brought up by Christine toward the end of her booklet where she states: “The home is the place where men go to seek refuge and truth.  The home is compromised of heart, opportunities, mind and embodies family.  With great responsibility comes great power and in the United States, it’s owning land.” 

                                 

A CHOICE FOR THE BETTER

It was 1994 and my third year on patrol, which classified me as a seasoned cop, and I had already worked two hours into my swing shift as I conducted a routine patrol check through the south-side section of Dinuba.  I was tickled-pink about these new pair of eye glasses that I had just bought that had costed me $300 out-of-pocket...titanium-made frames that were supposedly multi-flexable, which could withstand any type of abuse especially during a physical confrontation.  As I was heading eastbound on Magnolia Way, the passenger window to my patrol car was slightly opened and I vaguely heard someone yelled out  “Pinche motherfucker puto whey” when I passed by the Magnolia market located at the south-west corner of First and Magnolia Way and as I turned to my left, I saw a skinny short Mexican man, who I recognized as Martin Gil, wearing a large Mexican sombrero along with a sarape and drunk on his ass acting stupid as usual!  He was staring me down and even flipped me off as I cruised by as he went on telling me some more shit, in Spanish, that I couldn’t comprehend, but I’m pretty sure they were not very friendly remarks, so I just chuckled inside and continued driving eastbound since he had done nothing wrong and I was in no mood of dealing with this crazy motherfucker because previous experience had thought me that Gil can become very combative especially with cops when he was in that condition, but a hour later, dispatch came over the radio, “2117...Dinuba...R/p at 1125 Magnolia reports a disruptive male subject bothering customers at his store...1125 Magnolia Way...2118 is also enroute.”  “Damm it” I thought, “Why today of all days!”  I instantly knew who this disruptive male was.  “Fucking Gil...he just couldn’t go home...could he!”  I said out loud.

Upon my arrival, I saw Gil screaming at the store customers as thy entered inside, but he became completely silent as I stepped out of my unit and approached him.  “Good afternoon...Mr. Gil,” I said, in Spanish, “We got a call that you have been harassing Hajaj’s customers.”  “Me importa madre...pinche placa.”  he replied.  I knew at that point that there was going to be some trouble with this guy so I positioned myself at a angle where my handgun would be farthest away from this dumb ass and I noticed that he was concealing both of his hands behind his sarape.  I took my portable radio out and asked for Ronnie’s (2118) location while Gil kept yelling profanities at me and it was a good thing that I was keeping a eye on him because as I was putting my radio back into its holster, he made a forward thrusts at me with his right hand using the sarape as cover, but I quickly grabbed it before he can touched me and I immediately realized that he was holding a grape cutter and attempting to stab me with it.  Seconds later, we both ended up on the ground of the Magnolia market parking lot next to my patrol car and I quickly got on top of him holding on to the very hand that was holding the weapon.  Hajaj and his hoodlum friends approached us as we were wrestling around and I thought at the time that they were going to give me a helping hand, but instead they formed a circle and huddled around us as if they were about to watch a high prized boxing match.  I became concerned about my safety and I tried not to expose my handgun too much by shielding it with my right elbow then suddenly Gil was able to release one of his hands from my grip and attempted to strike me in the face, but I tilted my head back just far enough that he was only able to grab at my new $300 dollar glasses and he crumbled them right before my very eyes and tossed them onto the roadway.  He then rolled on his stomach as I tried to look where my glasses had landed and he started to crawl underneath my patrol car.  I grabbed him from the back of his belt and dragged him back toward me, but he quickly turned around and took a swing at me with his cutter barely missing my face and as I attempted to clasped his hands together to put the cuffs on, but he started hitting me in the face with his fist while the whole frickin neighborhood closely watched us in their front row seats.  Finally, Ronnie Pack and his newborn trainee, Brian Young, arrived, but they couldn’t see me at the time because I was too busy rolling around on the ground on the other side of my patrol car, so he called out my name and as I looked up to reply, the sneaky bastard slipped away from me and started to crawl under my patrol car again.

I was so fired up about my damaged glasses that I told the other officers to opened the back door of my unit while I picked Gil up from the back of his pants and flung him inside my patrol car and I must of threw him pretty hard because his head banged against the other side of my unit.  I started to clean myself up while Gil was kicking the shit out of my back seat, then Brian Young came up to me holding a pair of some damaged glasses in his hand and said, “Check this out Cruzer...I found his fucking glasses!” and he crushed them saying at the same time, “Let this be a lesson to that motherfucker!”  “What the fuck are you doing Brian!” I yelled, “Those are my glasses!”  Brian’s face turned red and purple as he looked on with total resentment on his face “Oops...I didn’t know.” Well there I go to the PD with my fuckin crooked glasses on because I couldn’t see without them while Gil kept kicking everywhere in sight with his cowboy boots and threatening that he was going to kick my ass when he got out jail.  “Titanium glasses...multi-flexable...my ass!  I kept repeating to myself as we pulled into the PD parking lot.  I waited for Pack and Young to arrive before I opened the back of my patrol car because Gil was still acting like a prick so I figured that we were going to have to hog tie his ass, but he must of felt something because all of sudden he sat straight up in his seat and became motionless.  “ Are you going to behave...Mr. Gil?”  I asked.  He nodded his head so I carefully opened the back door and escorted him into the booking room, but as I was unlocking the door, Gil took a step forward and grind the heel of his boot against the bottom portion of my knee, so I pushed him away and his head struck the corner of the PD’s intoxilyzer machine.  The impact caused him to dropped to his knees and then flat on his face where a large flow of blood began to ooze immensely from his head.  Suddenly at that exact moment, Pack and Young walked in, and upon seeing the large puddle blood, they immediately walked back out.  “Oh shit!” I thought, “I think I killed the poor bastard!”  In panic, I grabbed the back of Gil’s T-shirt and gently shook him around, “Gil...Gil..estas bien?”  He still had his eyes closed and appeared unconscious, but seconds later, he opened them back up and looked at me while blood continued to trickled down his forehead.  I instantly felt a rush of relief as I stood him up and I quickly yelled out for Pack to assist me.  “Hey we didn’t see nothing at all..Cruzer” was the first thing that came out of his mouth.  “Ronnie call the Sarge...will you.” I said.  “Hey the fucker asked for it.”  he replied “Just call the Sarge...will you Ronnie”  I said again.  I used several paper towels to try to slow down the bleeding from Gil’s forehead, but even though the cut was of small size it was fairly deep and widely opened.  A few minutes later, Sgt. Tully poked his head in and I explained to him all the details that led up to Gil’s injury.  “So...fuck him,” he said, “He’s still alive..isn’t he...just put his ass in the cell.”   I shook my head, “Naww...Sarge...I really want him checked out,” I replied. “I just want to make sure he’ll be ok.”  Tully rolled up his eyes and sighed, “Ok” he said reluctantly and left.  

Ten minutes later, Dinuba paramedics, Shawn and Rick Doyle, came waltzing in and started to ask a few questions.  “Mr. Gil...how did you get hurt?” asked Shawn in Okie Spanish.  “Gil looked at me for few minutes and then said, “I fell.” in plain English.  I was completely shocked from his answer.  “No..no..no..that’s not what happened,” I said, and I tried to explain the truth, but Shawn quickly interrupted me.  “Sorry Cruzer I have to put down what he said.” “But that’s not how it happened...Shawn.”  I said.  “Sorry...Cruzer..he’s the victim not you, if he said he fell..then he fell!”  he replied.  The paramedics then taped a few paper stitches on Gil’s forehead and left.  While I was rolling Gil’s fingerprints, we were both completely silent, but I couldn’t help, but feel guilty inside for what had happened between us and then finally I heard him say, “Why did you push me...Balderas?”  I raised up my pant leg and showed him a long red scrape that ran from my knee to my ankle.  “Oh” he said.  “You don’t remember...do you.”  I asked.  He then began to cry and gave me a long tale of a lost marriage, a life of poverty, hardship,and a broken down family, who lost respect for their father, but most hurtful of all was the shame of what he had become.  I told him a little bit of my life also of how I was able to overturn a life of gangs, hard drugs and excessive drinking to a man, who was now wearing a Police Badge and supporting a family by putting his faith in God and pleaded to him for mercy, love and forgiveness.  I then closed the iron door to Gil’s jail cell and as I was walking away, he called out my name, “Balderas.” I walked back to his cell and noticed that he had a stern look on his face and I thought perhaps he was going to yell some more profanities at me, but instead, his eyes looked down and I realized that he had stuck his hand out through the small opening of his jail cell gesturing a handshake, which I complied and shook it , but at the same time, I asked him, “Why didn’t you tell the ambulance guy the truth...Martin?”

He cleared his throat and replied, “Because you are a good man...and I didn’t want to mess anything up for you because of me.”

A few years later, I was in investigations driving a blue Malibu and working on a case that brought me to the Magnolia neighborhood.  After not seeing Gil for a few years, I was finally able to see him standing in the same corner of our confrontation from a few years back and he was still yelling at people that passed by, but I also noticed that he was holding something in his hand, which appeared to be a book, so I parked along the side of the roadway to see what he was up to and I realized that the book he was holding was the holy bible and he was actually preaching the word of the Lord to the public.  He spotted me, smiled and waved as I returned the same and drove away.  I later learned that Gil had turned his life around and got his family back on track including his wife and had become a devoted Christian.  I guess Gil finally made that important decision in his life that had placed a positive impact and found not only his true self, but also the pathway to joy, good integrity, gratitude and the humbleness of fellow man like I have done when I was younger....a choice that is not that difficult nor impossible...a choice that well complete you and give you high self-esteem... a choice that will give you your self worth and true understanding of life ...but ultimately and most importantly a very important and vital choice of overall self-improvement...a choice for the better.

SO YOU WANT TO BUY A HOME...huh..(you might want to read this!)

A close friend of mine asked me a question the other day, “Hey Cruzer..how come I had to pay money upfront for my house if I just got a loan for it?”  He was actually talking about the closing costs of his brand new house, which he had to pay out-of-pocket before he can receive the keys to the front door of his new home, which was approximately $4360 in cold hard cash for a $112,000 home.  He didn’t quite understand why he had to pay for something after being approved for a large amount of money where some of it could also had been included (which is a option) in the payment of the closing costs instead of having to borrow from immediate family just to pay for it...I mean...that was the reason why he asked for the loan in the first place!  So I, being a real-estate broker myself, made him buy me a beer as I explained the birds and the bees concept behind the finance expenses involved in a real estate transaction.

First of all what are closing costs?  Closing costs are fees charged to a new home owner that are associated (connected) with your home purchase and loan at the closing or final period of a real-estate transaction, which are incurred by the buyer or seller. These costs vary pending on several factors for example-the type of loan, where you want to live and the property you want to buy, but usually closing costs are approximately 3%-4% of the total purchased price of the new property. The following list are closing items that were included in my friend’s residential contract:

NON-RECURRING FEES:

1. Application Fee >$61- (This fee covers the cost for the lender to process your loan application.  Before submitting the application, ask your lender what this fee covers.  It can often include items like a credit check or appraisal, but not all lenders charge a application fee and it can be negotiated.)

2.  Loan Origination Fee >$1000- (This fee covers the lender’s administrative costs, which is a approximate 1% of the total loan, but some lenders do not charge this fee.)

3.  Appraisal Fee >$450

4. Credit Report Fee >$35

5. Underwriting &  Processing Fees >$1175- (This also goes to your lender, which is the cost of researching whether or not to approve you for the loan.)

6.  Tax Service Fee >$89

7.  Title Fees >$975- (This fee is paid to the title company for doing a thorough search of the property’s records.  The title company researches the deed to your new home to make sure that no-one else has a claim to your property.)

8.  Escrow Fees >$475- (Paid to the escrow company for conducting the closing.)

9.  Recording Fees >$100- (A fee charged by your local recording office , usually city or county, for the recording of public funds records.)

Also included with these fees are the 1st. payment of the following pre-paid items:

Fire Insurance 1yr + 2 months >$392

Flood Insurance 1yr + 2 months (only if needed)

Tax Impounds 7 months >$822

Private Mortgage Insurance (PMI) >$50-(If you are making a down payment less than 20%)

Pre-Paid Interest 10 days>$120

Down Payment Given       $5000

Closing Costs                    $4360

Pre-Paid Items                  $1384

Total Cash Needed           $10,744 to be paid upfront from the buyer’s pocket.

Often many of the fees that make up the closing costs are negotiable, but some are completely unnecessary, especially fees such as high administrative fees, mailing fees and courier fees.  Remember you can shop around and may be able to find lenders, who can offer a loan with lower closing fees.

HOW CAN HOME BUYERS AVOID CLOSING COSTS?

One way of avoiding upfront fees is by getting a no-closing cost mortgage, but typically when a lender offers a deal like this there is a high chance that the lender may charge you a higher interest rate on your loan or wrap the closing fees into the total market owed, in which case you end up paying interest on the closing costs.

Another way of avoiding closing costs is where the home buyer can negotiate with the seller to pay for the buyer’s closing cost.

USING A REAL ESTATE AGENT:

Remember a real estate agent is neither a loan agent or writes out the loans, but can make a good recommendation for one, so it’s always a good idea to use a sales agent especially if there is no charge to have one.  It’s like having a free attorney by your side, who is familiar with the real-estate field, who can give good advice and explain any technicality or real-estate jargon more clearly to you and take care of all the involved paperwork to make sure you are covered all around on this transaction.   All real estate agents (both buyers and sellers) get paid by the seller, which is usually a 6% commission (I only charge 4% myself since I have no overhead) and just because the home has a sale sign with another agent’s name it doesn’t mean you have to go to that particular agent to buy the home, you can choose any agent to represent you.