Hope Leitner, Realtor®, CRS

Your eyes will automatically blink 6 times while you are reading these words. That is because you blink about 12 times every minute whether you try to or not. Buy don't worry - the average blink lasts 1/10th of a second so you want miss much. The tiny muscles that blink your eyes are the most active muscles in your entire body, yet the human vision process is an amazing and complex system which engages more than just your eyes. The optic nerve connects the back of your retina to the visual cortex of the brain all the way at the back of the head. Seeing these words right now requires about half of the brain to get involved.  Did you count your blinks? 

A key factor in attracting home buyers is the cleanliness and orderliness of a home. While buyers are sympathetic toward sellers who must live in a home while selling it, most buyers can't see past the normal clutter of a lived-in home.  Buyers view dozens of homes in a row. When they walk into a home, they're instantly comparing it to a sparkling clean, well-staged homes they've just seen. If a home is even slightly cluttered with toys, books, furniture and refrigerator magnets, buyers can be turned off, simply by comparison. The solution? Work with me to spot potential problem areas. I'll help you figure out where to put your energy for the highest impact. Then start packing. Move 70% of your stuff out to a storage unit, and clean, clean, clean. 

Once upon a time, there was a small body who banged a drum all day and loved every moment of it. He would not be quiet, no matter what anyone else said or did. The community called on many wise people to help quiet the noise. Lots of good ideas were offered.  The first wise person told the boy if he continued to play the drum loudly it would harm his eardrum. The boy did not fear the consequence and continued to bang the drum.  The second person told him that drum-beating was a sacred activity and should be carried out only in special occasions. The noise continued.  The third offered the neighbors plugs for their ears.  The fourth gave the boy a book; the fifth gave the neighbors books that described a method of controlling anger through patience.  The boy still banged the drum. Finally, an older child from the village came along. He looked at the situation, handed the body a hammer and chisel, and said, "I wonder what is inside that drum?"

The cost of insomnia is measured in billions of dollars. Insomnia, or the inability to obtain sufficient sleep, affects up to 40% of the general population. The cost of this inability to get enough sleep was estimated between $92.5 and $107.5 billion each year - this was calculated in 1994 before the advent of modern device distraction. Devices like smart phones, and tablets often times sit on a nightstand within arm's length of the bed and interfere with out ability to sleep. If a good night sleep is what you desire, try these tips: Go to sleep when you first feel sleepy. Wake up when you naturally feel alert. Get your worrying over before you go to bed.  Sleep with electronic devices more than 10 feet away. Rather than out thinking insomnia you can usually change some simple behaviors and put a sleep disturbance to bed. The good news is that the restorative health benefits of sleep, such as improved memory, curbed inflammation and lower stress, start to re-appear as soon

There is a story about Thomas Watson Sr., the first president of IBM. A young worker had made a mistake that lost IBM one million dollars in business. She was called in to the president's office, and as she walked in, she said: "Well, I guess you have called me here to fire me." "Fire you?" Mr. Watson replied, "I just spent one million dollars on your education!" As Robert Kiyosaki author of Rich Dad, Poor Dad  said, "Don't waste a good mistake...Learn from it!"

Four million golfers in Japan carry hole-in-one insurance. This is because it is customary for golfers in Japan to throw a lavish party should they hit a hole-in-one. These parties are serious business and have been known to cost more than $10,000. Seeing the opportunity in 1982, Kyoei Mutual Fire and Marine Insurance Company started offering a policy to cover the cost of this social expectation. Today for the equivalent of about $68 a year, the policy will cover the cost of a celebration party up to $3,000. Almost 40 percent of amateur golfers in Japan own one of these policies. 

The scene is a lecture room in a medical facility of a university.  The professor of medicine is addressing the students after completing their final exams. "Ladies and gentlemen," he says, "I congratulate you all on completing this course. I wish you all well in your future honorable procession. That leaves only two more things to say. The first is this: half of the things I have taught you as medical facts are, in fact, false! The second is that neither I nor anyone else today knows which half! Sometimes the end of school is the beginning of true education."