YES I DID!  October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month! Ironically I was diagnosed with breast cancer October of 2004. But first let me go back in time- I had participated in the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life event in Tracy in honor of some friends & family who survived cancer. Little did I know that in the following months I would be diagnosed with breast cancer, and be back the next year as a cancer survivor myself.

The thing that bothered me the most was that my broker's wife (who I used to play softball with) had died of breast cancer the month before (Sept 2004) I was diagnosed in Oct of 2004. I was still getting over the grief of her death. She was only 42 yrs old. I never thought, "Why me? I thought, "Why now?" My husband and I were planning our retirement - there's so much more that we want to do."

I had been so busy with our Real Estate business that I postponed my mammogram checkups for 2 1/2 years, so when my broker's wife (Cecilia) died of breast cancer I knew I couldn't put it off any longer. When my doctor asked me to come back for additional testing, "I intuitively felt that something was wrong. It's what I call woman's intuition."  It wasn't a lump, it was a calcification. I would not of found it in a self exam. It was confirmed that I had cancer. It was devastating. It's not just knowing your days are numbered. God knows all our days are numbered. It's knowing that it could be over a lot sooner than you want it to be. I didn't feel like I had done enough for God, my family, etc....     

My husband and I have spent alot of time and training as Ninja realtors, (if you don't know what that is I will post another blog about it) so we quickly realized that we needed to change our thoughts to change our reality. First I have to give credit to my lord and saviour Jesus Christ. Second we have a strong family and network of friends that helped me through some of my darkest hours. It meant so much to me that friends and acquaintances called me with their stories.

From the time I was diagnosed I continued to work selling homes. I had to go to Florida for a week for a real estate conference. Which I ended up taking a friend with me because we were so busy my husband had to stay home and take care of our clients while I was gone to the conference. My surgery was scheduled for December 03, 2004 it so happened that I had to show a listing I had in Antioch at 7:00pm the night before. It takes me 45 - 50 minutes to drive there from Tracy- Manteca. Yes I sold the home. Praise God.

I thought I would of been back to work by Christmas. Boy did I get a shock. That surgery took so much out of me I would get tired real fast and easy. I didn't get back to work until January and by February I was diagnosed with Skin cancer. I ended up having that surgery the same month. I had to recouperate from that. It was pretty hard since it was on my shoulder and I couldn't move my arm while it healed.

I had several scriptures that I read daily! "My grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect in weakness." (2 corinthians 12:9)

This December I will be cancer free for 3 yrs. Yeah!

Remember to support Breast Cancer Awareness Month and the American Cancer Society.    

I just wanted to share this. My daughter was asked to be her friends Maid of Honor about 1 year ago. Well, in the meantime my daughter (Krystal) got pregnant. She was very worried about being in the wedding because she said, "Mom, I'm going to be 8 months pregnant! I don't think I can be Melissa's Maid of Honor I'll be huge and fat". I told her she made a comittment and she has to be there for her friend. Was I wrong? I don't think so. In fact I think even pregnant she looked as good as the bride.

In the pictures below, she is the tall blonde on the right of the bride. Our granddaugther is a ham so she had to be in this picture with her Aunt Krystal at the reception.

Yes if you laugh at this picture I'll know why. My daughter pointed it out right away. Oh well that's what the little ham gets. LOL....................

Here I am red eyed and blogging my heart out. I love active rain. Until the next one.

 AND THE NEWS ROOM WHEN SILENT........... ALL JOKING ASIDE 

   I FEEL VERY STRONGLY ABOUT BEING CAUTIOUS WHILE SHOWING HOMES!  We just had a bulletin emailed to us from our local Central Valley Association of REALTORS which read:

                   ATTENTION! Nearby Incidents Suggest You Put Your Safey First!

    You may have read or heard news about personal security issues for agents while showing properties. Recently, an agent was assaulted while showing property in the Greater Sacramento Area. Two other incidents involved suspicious calls to agents asking for after-hours meetings. While these specific incidents were not in San Joaquin, Stanislaus or West Merced counties, please be aware they did occur.

Remember to take extra caution anytime you are meeting someone for property showings, open houses or just to discuss buying or selling a home, especially if you will be alone.    

September 9-15 is Agent Saftey Week. The NAR web siteprovides excellent agent saftey tips to consider both in and out of the office. 

        Here's my personal advise: ALWAYS listen to your inner spirit (you know, your gut feeling) if you are going to show a property to someone you don't feel comfortable with ask someone to go with you. It could be another agent or a family member just so you are NOT alone.  My husband has rode along with female agents before because they had a buyer that they didn't know and it made them feel safer. 

BUYERS- this could apply to you also. Unfortunately it's best if you are cautious as well.

                                      I'm only happy when it (Active) Rains!

How about Tracy, California? Have you ever thought about it?    Do you know about Tracy? Let me give you a little back ground you might love it so much you'll think about wanting to live here. I've been here for over 20 years and I know you'll enjoy it too.

  Tracy started as a railroad town in the 1800's. The city was named for Lathrop J. Tracy. Yup Mr. Tracy, you can see a carved statue of him located across the street from the Orchard Resturant on Toste Rd. It used to be Tracy Pontiac, Cadillac, GMC when the artist was hired to carve out Mr Tracy with a chain saw in the late 1990's. I know this for a fact because I was there when he did it.

Where is Tracy you say? It's located in the San Joaquin Central Valley about 80 miles east of San Francisco and about 70 miles south of Sacramento.  We used to be a farm town but now we are a growing community for commuters who work in the Bay Area. We have the Ace Train that a lot of our commuters ride into the Bay Area.

Tracy has numerous parks, a low crime rate, quality schools and affordable housing.  This city is great for children. All my children were raised here and I kept them out of trouble because Tracy has so much to offer for families with children. Sports is really big here. They have football, basketball, baseball, swimming, softball for girls you name it and it's here. This is a great family community.            

Tracy has it's big DRY BEAN FESTIVAL coming up soon. We are the bean capital of the world. 

Now it the time to buy here with the housing market at a all time low. Tracy is normally on the high end on price for homes.  
Check out the great prices in Tracy now.

TALK ABOUT LOCATION- Tracy is the place to be.

Stay tuned for more posts on Tracy neighborhoods and community happenings.

  I never thought I would become a Activerain addict!  It's crazy..I was never a big computer person but after reading and going to Tech seminars, I have realized that the future in Real Estate and most everything else is going to be on the internet.

I love all the information from other REALTORS around the states. It's a great source of information when you get it from other professionals.    

I was very pleasantly surprised to see Jeff Turner founder of Real Estate Shows on Activerain. How cool is that to find out he is the founder. I was pretty shocked. I didn't think about it before when we signed up for Real Estate Shows.



Anyway I am now a Activerain blogger......and I'm hooked.....LOL

Okay so this is not for First Time Home Buyers Only but I did get your attention.   

You need to make sure you check out this listing. The Price has been Reduced -Reduced- Reduced......

NOW selling for only $220,000. and $3,000 toward buyer's non-recurring closing costs.  Buyers this home is great for a first home purchase. If you are an investor then this home is the one for you. Move in ready.

 It's embarrassing we have to sell this home so low.....

Please visit this home at www.1208frankette.com for photos and more information regarding this home.

Call for a showing 209-609-9565

I took Ralph Nudi's advise. I figured if it worked for him it could work for me. So I thought I would try it. All my children are grown & his son was so cute I wasn't sure what picture I would use.

So I figured I would use a picture that touched my heart when I saw it. I really hope it touches yours too. All I have to say is God Bless our Troops and all the men and women that are and have served in the military. If is wasn't for these brave soldiers we would NOT be a FREE country today. Notice the sacrafice this young man gave for his country, an eye, hand, & leg.

Now please help me get to 499 comments!!    SEMPER FI

OH while you are helping me get 499 comments - please stop by this home for sale located at 1208 Frankette Modesto,CA For Sale at $220,000 plus $3000 buyers credit toward NRCC

Thanks

After reading about Neal the Real Deal Bloom'sBlog on his Jack Russell Terrier, it made me want to comment on my son's dog. 

My son and daughter in law owned a 3 year old Jack Russell Terrier named Bailey. He was are very cute and smart little guy. He had beautiful markings.  Anyway, about 2 weeks ago they noticed that he was acting funny but didn't think nothing of it at first.

Then he started to walk kind of wobbly so the took him into the veterinary office. The Veterinary told my kids that Bailey has blatter stones. Blatter stones?  Okay.....so they did surgery on him. After they surgery they said  to take him home and give him the medication and he will be okay.

Well they brought him home and after two days he was not getting better. So they took him back to the veterinary office and they were told that his heart just gave out and couldn't take it.

What a sad time for my son and daughter in law. You have to understand this was their child. They have no human children. So needless to say they were very upset and distraught.

They were told that sometimes in Jack Russell's they (I guess they are talking about breeders) breed for beauty for show dogs a lot of times and end up breeding the sturdiness and health out of them. I don't know I'm not a breeder.

Anyway you can view a short video of my son holding Bailey over a pool and he starts moving his legs like he's swimming. Go to www.myspace.com/hansonhomes

Rest in peace Bailey!

Until next post.....

Do we believe this stuff?  Wall Street has been full of doom and gloom these days, but for the average investor in for the long term things are not that bad. Well tell us something we didn't know. Anytime a investor is in for the long term they are as a rule not affected.   

Wallstreet is saying that for the most part, investors are still ahead for the year, having more money in their portfolios than they did on Jan. 1.

They are saying "if you have cash to put in the market, buy. WELL DUH.......... Some of the things I hear them saying sounds a lot like a bunch of bull to me.

  I know that this is a good time to buy. I do tell my buyers and investors that they should buy now. But most of the response I have been getting lately is that they want to wait until the prices of homes come down. Well isn't that just typical.  I remember hearing that from my seller's just before the market started on it's down hill slide. Then I had those same seller's wanting their home on the market "Johnnie on the spot" and they wanted top dollar to boot. Yeah they were in denial. We all know what has happened since.

One thing is for sure one day all this will pass! The question would be when? I don't have ESP. I did forsee that the market could not continue to climb in the manner is was or every home would of been over 1 million dollars within 1 more year.

If I had ESP I could of estimated the erosion of the mortgage & credit markets. Well I feel a little better now that I have that off my chest.

I guess I'm just frustrated with the last two buyers I've had. I went against my own principles and showed homes without a buyer's contract and got burned. I found out that this person already had a Realtor when she told me she didn't. So I did the work for someone else. Serves me right for not following my own rule. I just got anxious and jumped the gun. Oh well, lesson learned again.

 CURRENTLY PRICED AT $ 259,950 But make any offer! They are going to reduce price even more.

This home is located in an established West Modesto neighborhood. This spectacularly updated home features a large family room off the entry, separate formal dining room, large backyard with low maintenance landscaping, and a 1 car garage with workshop. The home is conveniently located in close distance to schools and shopping centers.

• 2 Bedrooms
• 1 full bathroom
• 2 car garage
• new carpet, new dual pane windows
• new linoleum, Fresh pain in & out
• Lighted ceiling fans in both bedrooms and lighted closets
• Backyard with low maintenance,Mature shade trees,gated Dog Run
• Detached 1 car garage with workshop area, and alley access

fRONT

CHECK OUT MORE PHOTOS ON VIRTUAL TOUR ONLINE. GO TO www.1208frankette.com

BRING YOUR INVESTORS OR FIRST TIME BUYERS. CALL US AT 209-815-6709 OR 209-609-9565

BLOGGING BY MARCELLA R HANSON WITH REALTY 1 TEAM, INC.