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Updated: Aug 29, 2022

Driving my kids to cross country practice this morning we listened to the radio. The DJ asked, “Who did you go to school with that did something really special?” He kept emphasizing the “something really special” part, and 100% of the callers talked about prominent actors they had gone to school with. “Something Really Special” was code for famous celebrity in most listeners' minds.


Photo by Guan Yoanda


Flashback to my conversation last night with my 16-year-old daughter Jaden. It was late Sunday night. I reminded Jaden that we would leave promptly at 6:30 am for practice on Monday and that if she were late, she would have to figure out how to get to school on her own because it wouldn’t be fair for Jaron, my youngest, to be late to practice because of her. Time management is Jaden’s Achilles heel. I also brought up a few other frustrations I had with her last week and I guess my tone given the time of night was frustrated. With the strength of character Jaden possesses, she looked me dead in the eye and said, “You only talk about all the bad stuff I do. What about all the good I do? Why don’t you ever talk about that? What’s the point if you only focus on the bad?”


I looked at her stunned and I wasn’t sure if I would handle her comment with grace and respect or if my ego would quickly lash out with some defensive garbage. Fortunately, I took the time to reflect before speaking, and she was right. This girl is an amazing, straight A student, a varsity cross-country and track athlete, a kind and loving soul that truly cares about people and shows up for others. And I don’t usually tell her how great she is. I don’t acknowledge all the things she does right in her day and usually focus and bring up the things she doesn’t do well and need work.


I was behaving like my mother and her mother, and most mothers and most people all over the world. We are quick to point out flaws and judge others and ourselves harshly when things don’t go right. We neglect to commend ourselves for all the things that do go right. If you look at your life, my guess is that most of you do way more “right” than “wrong” in your everyday lives. I bet that you probably got your kids dressed, fed, and to school today, and that you probably got yourself to work. You’ll probably come home after a full day, pick up groceries, run errands, pick up the kids, and head home to make dinner. You will probably ask your kids about their day at school, check homework, schedule their after-school activities and try to schedule family time for the weekend. You will do all this and not give yourself any credit for any of it. You will focus on the things that went “wrong” in your day and try and figure out how you can be a better version of you the next day because today’s you just wasn’t good enough.


And guess what, today’s you will never be good enough in your mind!


What does this have to do with the radio DJ’s morning question? I would like to propose the idea that we are all shamed by society, our parents, our families, and friends into defining success as this grandiose, unachievable (for most of us), measurement that involves all or some of the following: lots of money, fame, and celebrity. We value money and celebrity to the point that we neglect the real, true magnificence of our own beings. This is not a criticism of celebrities or the rich, but rather a commentary that I hope will urge you to see all of the amazing contributions you make to your family, your job, your community on a day-to-day basis.


Your actions are more worthy and valuable to those you love and care for than money and fame will ever be. You are the SOMETHING REALLY SPECIAL! You don’t need fame and fortune to be magical. Accept Who You Are Today. Love who you are today. Setting future goals is important but waiting to celebrate a future you that is not here yet is a self-defeating and personally abusive. Celebrate the amazing person you are right now, and verbalize appreciation and gratitude for your kids, husband, family, and friends. The something really special we all need to aim for is kindness, compassion, and love for ourselves and others.


Tonight, when you are finally in bed after a long day, think about how special you are. Give thanks for the person you are today, the person that showed up for the people they love even when it was hard.

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Writer's pictureJeanette Miura

After 5 months of dealing with the real estate market, I am happy to be three-weeks-in living in our new home. Our official move-in date was July 21st. It’s been said that selling and buying a home is one of the hardest, life changes there is. Moving requires strength and a lot of humor to handle all the physical and emotional demands involved. For me it was a roller coaster ride with twists, turns, and sometimes zero gravity! I am grateful this chapter is over!



As crazy as the process was of leaving our home of 17 years, this experience was transformative. I have learned so much about myself, mainly that I am absolutely human and big life changes can trigger my fears and unleash the “ugly” side that I try to keep hidden. Fortunately, I’m still married! My husband and I had a running joke that if we made it through this process without killing each other, we’re good for life! There were plenty of rough points, but we made it through together.


I am currently working on developing amusing, provocative, and creative articles and broadcasts that will hopefully entertain and inspire you. I love hearing from you and do read all the emails you send. Please send any story ideas or articles you’d like to share to fierylivingme@gmail.com.


Stay tuned for new posts and continue living well by loving life!

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For the past month my husband and I have been working crazy long hours, sacrificing our free time to make home repairs in preparation of selling our family home of 16 years. We finally listed 11 days ago and have had two weekends of open houses. Here’s what we learned so far and how the interest rate hike (up to 5% now) will impact our selling and buying potential in 2022.


Why We Are Selling

In July of 2021 my father passed away quite unexpectedly. In October my mother moved into our home and shares a room with our 15-year-old daughter. Not the ideal roommate for an independent teenager. As much as we love our house, it just doesn’t work for the number of people in our household. We started our home buying and selling journey earlier this year, and finally listed on April 21st.


Did We List Too Late?

That’s the big question! Did we board the sale train too late? Did we miss out on a bidding war? February 2022 recorded the highest home sale price hike of the past two years with a 19.8% increase. The lack of inventory coupled with an extremely low interest rate made February sellers very happy. According to Mortgage Reports, in January and February the average seller sold their home for 1.3% above asking.


What we discovered in early 2022 was that the houses that we liked all sold for $25,000 to $75,000 over asking. One house we looked at sold for $100,00 over asking, and some of these were cash offers. Even with the lower interest rate, there was just no way we could compete with the overbidders, and more importantly, we didn’t want to. Overall housing prices felt inflated because of the sustained low inventory and we were skeptical of having any of our offers accepted.


After meeting with our agent and a stager, we decided to make some improvements to our home before listing. Was it worth us making the improvements and listing later? We could have tried to sell the house 3 weeks earlier at the end of March “as is”. But according to data from the California Realtors Association, it seems that home prices began to stabilize in mid-March and continued to normalize through today. Even though buyers are being more cautious right now because of higher interest rates, supply is still lower than demand.


Higher Interest Rates Means Cautious Buyers

Mortgage interest rates are fluctuating between 4.9% and 5.42%. This hike in interest rate is changing the game. In the real estate community we keep hearing that: the market is stabilizing. Inventory continues to be low and it is expected that some sellers may pause their plans to sell as they wait and see what the summer months bring. For us this stabilization is promising and we like the new, slightly slower approach to selling and buying. According to Coldwell Bankers, the number of mortgage loan applications processed decreased by 14% in April. However, this decrease does not affect the consistently low inventory. Sellers will still sell, but it may take a little longer than usual.


How Many Days Can You Expect Your House to be on the Market?

According to the California Association of Realtors report, most houses sold within 9 days of being listed in February compared to 22 days in March. This correlates with the increasing interest rates and eliminates the speculative buyer group. At first glance as a seller, this data can seem worrisome, but when looking at the leveling that is occurring in home prices and the number of people competing for them, this works out well for those looking to sell and then turn around and buy right away in the same area like us.


Even though it may take longer to sell our house at this point, we are excited about the prospect of not having to severely overbid or of being caught in a bidding war for the house we purchase. Yes, we will have a higher mortgage payment due to higher interest rate on our conventional mortgage, but every single house we considered buying before the interest hike went well over asking and would have cost us more in the end. The higher interest rate actually gives us solid ground to bid from with a real possibility of having an offer accepted.


The New Home Buyer

For a family like us we have time on our side and a great deal of equity too. Slightly declining home prices will still yield us more than we had hoped to get for our house. But where does this higher interest rate leave first-time home buyers? What will they have to do to compete in this crazy game?


The house we are currently selling was the very first home we bought. And we bought in the early 2000 when you didn’t need much of a down payment and lenders where gambling with home loans. First-time home buyers today face many more challenges than we did. First, you need a very healthy down payment to even be considered. In the case of a bidding war, a first-time buyer with only 10% down is not able to compete with the buyer coming in with a 40% down payment. And when houses sell for over asking, the first-time buyer usually doesn’t have the capital to float the cash discrepancy that arises when the lending bank won’t appraise the house as high as the sale price. This can prove to be too much for first-time buyers to handle.


But, not every first-time buyer is in the same position and some creative solutions are always being explored. A first-time buyer with a good income to debt ration will still be eligible to purchase a home within their price range. The rising interest hike does help these first time buyers too. Even though they can expect their monthly payment to be approximately $198 higher with the increased rate, they may be able to buy homes that are not as popular. And any home purchase continues to be an investment and will continue to be an investment. Programs for first-time buyers will also be coming out by summer which will feature lower down payments.


In the end, we expect to sell high and buy high. We are moving because we need to. This forces us into the housing market. You can expect home prices to continue to rise, more slowly than in February, but they will continue to go up since the demand for houses continues to surpass the supply of houses available at this time. The rest of 2022 is predicted to continue being a “sellers” market.


NOTE: On day 15 of listing our house we will be accepting an offer. The market continues to confirm that your house will sell despite the interest hike! I’ll keep you posted on our buying journey.




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