Everything You Thought You Knew About Real Estate

What, I pray tell, did I hear here first?  Well, it's the news.... the BIG news: due to Memorial Day next Monday, the Club will be dark next Tuesday.  That doesn't mean you can't got have lunch at the Spaghetti Factory, it just means you'll be alone... all alone.  Well, anyway... back to our story.  Today it was President Gary's swan song as Prez of the Month, and I am the first to tell you he's done a terrific job, stepping up to the podium as he has.  Congrats, Gary.  Our next meeting will be on June 5th and it will be Past President Conrade Mayer throwing his weight around for the month.  Today's meeting started off lacking a greeter and since the projector didn't work either, we didn't even get to see who was supposed to fill that role.  Nevertheless, the Prez eyed Bob McBee in the crowd and singled him out to lead the Pledge, which Bob handled without missing a beat.  Departing from tradition, Jerry Smuts was selected to lead the song and although the volume was a trifle underwhelming, the melody was excellent.  The anonymous quote for the day was something about successful men, but I prefer the old adage: "You don't need a parachute to skydive; you only need a parachute to skydive twice."

 

 

In any event, the meeting got off to a more or less rousing start at that point as we all started consuming mass quantities.  Since the projector was not in working order, the announcements were handed our verbally (sigh) and here's a few:

 

1. The gospel according to Brud states that we had a great time at the B Street Theater reception last Saturday and he was right.  The performances were epic and the reception was as good and tasty as your poor reporter has seen in a long time.  Kudos to Becky Harvey and Jennifer Chiappone for a terrific job setting up the victuals and adult beverages and to past member Pat Murphy who did a very nice job of presenting the plaque to our one attending sponsor, Mayor Linda  Budge.  Well done, all of you.  (See photos below) 

 

2. If you want to pour wine at the State Fair, contact Ross Johnson.  This is a fun event every year, and those who participate always sign up again.

 

3. We're dark next week, due to Memorial Day on Monday (re-read the headline)

 

4. The End of Year Social (the EYS for the literati) is on Saturday, June 9 at the Sacramento Yacht Club.  It's a barbecue starting at 2:00 P.M. and running until... uhhh.. well... much later.  Your chairman for the event will be emailing out maps prior to the event so no one gets lost.

 

 

And that was about it for announcing, so we went to the raffle and today it was for $144.  Surprise of surprises, the big guy's number was called and he reached in and snatched the orange ball for a huge payday.

 

With that, the selfsame big guy got up, asked Jennifer for her kind assistance and  ran riot over his friends in the room (and probably a few enemies too).  First off was President Gary Spainhower for overlooking his pin at the B Street reception on Saturday.  Next, the Sarge asked Steve Forseth about his recent travels and he not only fessed up to going to the Grand Old Opry, but also garnering a brand new great grandson (what's with the sudden flurry of great grandparents recently?)   Congrats, Steve.  Because neither Paul Schubert nor his henchman, Sean Twilla, was present, the Sarge was forced to skip over his two most potentially lucrative targets, so he turned to Mike Passof, who had stolen our caterer for the EYS.  When the Sarge asked if anyone thought we might be dark next week, young Doc Dufficy's son Brud appeared unaware, so he paid.  Secretary Sharon Ewing admitted to moving to Lincoln next week, now that the house has closed and so she paid.  Becky Harvey got so excited about Merlin's tale of terrific times with Youth Exchange students over the years, that she is volunteering to take in a student next year.  Way to go, Becky!  Finally, President Gary chipped in for having almost completed his last meeting as President.  Nice job, Gary.

 

 

With that, we moved to our guest speaker, and she wasn't even technically a guest, as Becky Harvey was introduced by President Gary for a classification talk on her real estate practice.  Becky gave us a brief personal history and then talked about her practice, which is now with NEXT Real Estate.  She discussed the ins and outs of real estate, figuring out how to price it, get it appraised and the myriad other activities that surround the home buying and selling process.  They say that lawyers shouldn't represent themselves in court and that mantra holds true for home buyers and sellers.  It is a complex system of transactions and processes and Becky made it clear that you need a pro to help you through it.  An excellent, informative talk and at the end Gary, in his last official act, stiffed her on the book and the room cleared faster than the bench at a hockey fight.

 

Wait!  There's more!  See below for the B Street reception pics (if you didn't/couldn't go, you missed something special.)