Marsha Dashiell's Real Estate Blog

Kaiser Permanente raked in recognition Wednesday as 16 of its facilities were named on the list of 65 Top Hospitals in the United States, including Kaiser Roseville Medical Center.

The 2010 Leapfrog Top Hospitals rewards medical centers for outstanding success is such areas as infection rates, safety practices, mortality rates for common procedures and measures of efficiency. The 65 facilities were selected from a field of nearly 1,200 hospitals around the country.

Dr. Robert Pearl, executive director and CEO of The Permanente Medical Group, said in a press release that Kaiser uses technically advanced 21st century medical care.

“As a result we have lowered the chances of our members dying from heart disease 30 percent below the community around us, reduced mortality for patients admitted with sepsis by 50 percent, and dramatically reduced the risk of our members dying from cancer compared to the rest of the nation,” Pearl said.

Founded in 1945, Kaiser Permanente currently serves 8.6 million members in nine states and the District of Columbia, including more than 3.2 million patients in northern California.

“We received the award for meeting stringent criteria for providing high-quality care safely and efficiently,” said Sandy Sharon, chief operating officer for Kaiser Roseville Medical Center. “Our success in the areas of preventing infection, safety practices and mortality rates for common procedures was recognized. We were also recognized for our vast electronic medical record system, which makes vital health care information available instantly.”

The Leapfrog Group is a coalition of public and private purchasers of employee health coverage founded in 2000 to work for improvements in health care safety, quality and affordability. The independent advocacy group works with a broad range of partners, including hospitals and insurers.

The annual survey is the only voluntary effort of its kind. The 2010 list includes university and other teaching hospitals, children’s hospitals and community hospitals in rural, suburban and urban settings.

The selection is based on the results of the Leapfrog Group’s national survey that measures hospitals’ performance in patient safety and quality.

“This award is in direct alignment with our mission to improve the health of our members and the communities we serve, and it is a milestone in our journey to continuously improve care,” Sharon said.

story by Sena Christian of Roseville Press Tribune

“SHORT SALE” – This terminolgy can be seen everywhere, especially in today’s fragile housing market. Never before, has the word “short sale” been in the real estate launguage as much as it has been recently. The problem is, not too many homeowners know exactly what it means and how it may benefit them.
Here is a great explanation of what a “short sale” is and what exactly is involved in the process. I hope this helps.
The term “Short Sale” means to sell the bank short of what they are owed. As an example take a $100k house with payments of say $700.00 per month. Once this house goes into foreclosure the process can take 12 to 18 months just to get the house back in the banks name. The bank has to hire an attorney etc… to file the foreclosure so lets look at the numbers to understand the short sale process:

Original Balance: $100,000.00
While in foreclosure the bank doesn’t collect payments so 18 Months Payments lost 18 x 750.00 = $13500.00
The cost of an attorney easily will cost $20,000
Lost interest, fees etc….$2500.00

I haven’t included all of the banks cost here but we are already up to about $136,000.00. Add to the fact that this process can take over a year and the bank still wont have their money all they will have is a vacant property that can still take a long time to sell if it isn’t in perfect condition. And this problem is really exacerbated if the value has gone backwards which could put them $50k or more in the hole Once you understand this then you begin to understand the short sale process.

Now back to our $100k example. The bank knows they are about to lose $50k in fees, lost opportunity costs etc…. so they put the property up for short sale. The bank realistically in this situation will probably take any offer over $80k as it would actually be saving them money even though on paper they are losing $20k plus. To have the $80k now is a blessing rather than take a $50k hit later. This is the very essence of short sales and in today’s market banks are willing to do this.

The reason you need a bank to approve is they have to run the numbers like i just did. They will take the offer they have an calculate current losses with your offer and then estimate losses if they hold onto the property and look at which one nets them more. If the short sale offer nets them more now than they will get in the long run you will likely be accepted.

Once the bank accepts your short sale it is now on you to close. They don”t care about your down payment or anything of the sort all they care about is you cashing them out. You will still need to have either all cash or a loan all setup before they will even start the short sale process with you as this process costs them money as well and they only want to entertain offers with those that are qualified.

If you have any further questions, or would like to have a FREE consultation, please feel free to call me or email me.

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• Short sales – recognizing seller motivation (agentgenius.com)

In these times of so many foreclosures many people are left with the agonizing job of
trying to find housing that will allow their pets to stay with them. Many landlords and property management companies cringe at the idea of allowing a pet, but it doesn’t need to be that way!

There are plenty of us responsible pet owners out there! Sometimes even though people can find a rental that allows their pets, they have a hard time coming up with the funds for the pet deposit. The Placer SPCA has a new program for Placer County residents called, The SOS Fund.

“The SOS Fund was started in order to help with unanticipated one-time pet expenses, specifically to allow responsible pet owners to keep their pets in situations where there were unexpected emergencies,” said Placer CEO Leilani Vierra, “This can include funding for rental deposits, emergency veterinary care, or the fee for temporary boarding, as well as other necessary expenses related to pet care.”

To learn more about this program and all the other great services the Placer SPCA provides visit their website @

www.placerspca.org/

According to The Humane Society of the United States, the lack of pet-friendly housing is one of the top reasons people surrender their pets to shelters. (Taken from October 7th 2009 press release)

Another sad situation – when people loose their homes some of them just leave their pets behind. DON’T DO THIS! Your local SPCA is there to help you! Since this housing crisis has started I’ve rescued my cat Daisy, she was from a vacant house, was starving, declawed, and left to fend for herself. Last Christmas I also adopted a 13 year old dog named Blair, she had been surrendered to the Placer SPCA because her owners had to move from their house.