It's a new month and I want to wish you all a happy new month. It's your favorite gynecologist Dr. Wanda Maya and I'm back again with another video. Like I said, the revolution is happening. It's time to make Africa home again. I've been telling you what the retinins are doing here in Ghana. I've shown you a restaurant owned by a retinine, so which means whenever you come to Ghana, you'll find a place to eat. I've shown you where you can have fun, which is also owned by a retinine. I've also shown you properties that are owned by a retinine. So if you really want to return back to Ghana, definitely you'll have a place to sleep. But today, whenever you come to Ghana, I know that at some point in time, you will feel sick. So I need to bring you to a hospital. And this is where I present to you Luca Health Medical Center, which is also owned by a retinine and she is an African-American. How amazing, right? Don't forget to like the video. Hey, and you are new to the channel. It's your boy Mr. Ghana, baby. No, sorry. Your favorite gynecologist doctor, yeah? But do me a favor, 500,000 subscribers already, which means we can hit a million. I know each and every one out there has a family member. Do so by introducing this channel to your family member. Come with me because I don't know, maybe this video might be long. I get super excited whenever I want to talk about something that is done by retinine because I'm saying that it's time for both Africans on the continent and Africans in the diaspora to make Africa home again. Come with me and let's go talk to them. I am Maya. You are the president of Luca Health Medical Center. I am. Yeah. It's an honor to see you. It's a pleasure to have a conversation with you and tell you about the things that we're doing. I'm excited to have this conversation. But first of all, you need to tell me your name and where you're from and why you're here. Sure. My name is Rodney Armstead. I was born in the U.S., born in Los Angeles. I currently, when I'm home, house out of the Northeast. But Ghana became interesting because of the larger Black Ivy vision. The larger Black Ivy vision is about building enterprises on services and goods across Sub-Saharan Africa, Tanzania, Kenya, Ghana. These things that we do are intended to improve the quality of life, improve the services that are offered for people that live in the regions that we're serving. It also allows us to bring new resources in that otherwise might have been difficult or challenging. But overall, a tent is always to improve the quality of life. We can improve the circumstances because we can employ people because they can work. I got involved because knowing the CEO, Cheryl Mills and Executive Chairman, Tony Welters, we had worked. Tony Welters and I had worked together for decades and asked me to consider this five years ago. And when I looked at it, I said, wow, we used the word transformational too liberally in the United States. But the opportunity to come and do what we're doing at Luca Health to create a medical surgical specialty center with the type of investment and commitment that we were talking about was truly going to be an opportunity to do something transformational. So that's what motivated me to kind of leave the states and come here. And I've been living here like the last four years. Okay. So I guess your name is Linda. I am Linda. Welcome. Thank you. Linda Abuaji. You're Ghanaian? Yes, I am. Very much Ghanaian. Very much Ghanaian. 100% Ghanaian. But your accent doesn't sound like a Ghanaian. I'm Ghanaian born American raised. Oh, okay. Yes. Wow. Welcome. Thank you. To Luca Health. I'm sure you've seen a lot of great things so far. No, I've seen a lot. I'm here to explore. But the only person who can take me around. So I just wanted to know what is Luca Health all about? Welcome. So Luca Health is a state-of-the-art multi-specialty center. So what that simply means is we have multiple specialists that see you and consult with you. And then if you need surgery, the same specialists will also do the surgery for you. And how long does the surgery take? Usually our surgery, because it's an ambulatory surgery center, that usually means outpatient. That means we do surgery on the same day and then you're discharged the same afternoon. So for example, if you come in for your procedure, you'll check in at 7 a.m., you do your procedure, and then a few hours later, 12 o'clock, if everything is fine, the nursing team and anesthesia team check you out, you'll be discharged for the day. Same day. So you don't admit patients in here? We typically do not admit patients. So we assess patients before the surgery to make sure that they're a good candidate. Is it the first of it kind in Ghana? It is the first of it's kind in Ghana. I get to a surgery, I think I sit in the hospital for more than a month. Well the good thing about Luka Health is we're bringing a lot of that technology into Ghana. So the rest of the world, the developed world is moving in that direction where it's a lot of outpatient surgeries to keep the risk of infections in hospitals lower. And the techniques that we use also help the patient recover faster. So bringing it to Ghana, it is the first of it's kind in Ghana. Multi-specialty center. Are you one of the doctors who does the surgery? I'm not a doctor. I'd love to be a doctor, but no, I'm not a doctor. So I'm the director of ambulatory services. So a lot of what Luka Health focuses on is the customer service aspect of it, as well as the patient experience. So we're patient centric. So we make sure that the patient has a good experience from beginning to end. And I'm in charge of all that. And I want to know what kind of surgery goes on here? So we have a general surgeon. We have a gynecologist. Oh, I am a gynecologist.  I know. I heard you're a very experienced one. So we have an internal medicine. We have a nephrologist. And we also have ENT. And a urologist. My name is Maya. Hi Maya. Gynecologists in here. I'm sorry about that. Oh, okay. You don't believe that I'm a gynecologist? Yeah, whatever you say, Maya. Thank you. I like your names. Very nice. Thank you. You work in here? Yes. With you? As anesthetists. As a surgical physician assistant. Born and raised in Ghana? No. I was born in Cameroon. And partially raised in Cameroon. Then lived most of my life in the U.S. What about you? Same here. Are you guys together? Yes, that's my husband. That's beautiful. But why are you hiding that from me? We didn't hear that. It's a family affair. But I wanted to know. You left the U.S.A. to work in Ghana? Absolutely.  A lot of people. People told us that. Yeah. But we're originally from Africa. Africa. So this is home. It's not crazy. It's home. Yes. We sold our home. Packed up. Two kids. Two kids. And brought them over. To Ghana. Wow. And how has the experience been like so far? Amazing. It's been amazing. We keep telling our friends back in the States that. They need to come. They need to come. Come back home. We have a lot of people back there with knowledge and clinical skills that they can come back home. And help our people. So that's what we hear. You know, I know your doctors working in here. Definitely. There are some kind of changes that you guys are bringing on board.  So for us, I'll give you an example. We don't, in Africa, there isn't a lot of outpatient surgery center.  And you leave the same day. You don't stay for a week. No, stay for two weeks. You stay for a day. You go home the same day. We don't have that in Africa. And that's what we've brought here. And that's my specialty. I love outpatient surgery. Because what I give anesthesia, I make sure that our patients leave the same day. So that's something that, you know, I feel like if we bring that into our community, our practice here, it will change everything. You know, we've got a lot of, especially Nigerian doctors, African doctors out there. Yes. Yes. I mean, then, you know, we try to change that narrative, right? Thank you. A lot of Africans leave here, go to the UK, go to the US, go to India to seek medical care. You know, those are things that they don't have to do. Because what happens, we are here. We've brought those skills. We're doing minimal invasive procedures. So the good thing about that is if they go out there, they have to pay for a flight, they have to pay for a hotel. Then the aftercare is not that adequate because they go in and do a procedure then they come back to Africa. So who flew up? There's that disconnect. The surgeon in the West, there's no communication with the surgeon here or the physician here that has fallen up on the patient. But once you have our procedure done with us, it's a one-stop shop. If there's any other thing that needs to be done, we can just refer you to the other physician around the corner. So you actually have better quality of care. That's beautiful. Doc, can you tell me your role in here? So I work in internal medicine and nephrology. Internal medicine looks after adult diseases. Anything about the age of 18 that deals with medicine.  I'm a Ghanaian, absolutely. Born in Kumasi, grew up in Kumasi in primary school, then came to Akraa at Chimotah school and college before leaving the country for a while. Where did you go to? I spent 20 years in England, 10 years in Canada and one year in the Middle East in Qatar before returning home about nine months ago. Doc, after spending all these years out of Ghana, why do you want to come back home and work in Ghana? Returning home was the best thing I ever did. My father grew up in Ghana. He was a doctor, went abroad, came back. His stories were that Ghana was the best place to live and it's been the same for me. Ghana is where I come from. It's where my heart is. This is my people. Here I am one of a group of people. I'm not different from everyone else. I belong and it's really a blessing to be able to participate in giving healthcare back. Anything back to your environment and your people. I'm very, very happy to be back. Doc, are you trying to say back in the days when you were working out of Ghana and you did not feel like you belonged there or something? Essentially, I was treated very well but my heart has always been here. The people here have the same genetic bond with me. That bond never goes away. For me, it's very deep. To break that and accept another people as your own, some people can do. But for me, I have always been at home. I have never spent 365 continuous days out of Ghana. Every year I come back twice. In fact, there was one year I came back six times. That's how precious Ghana is for me. You're working in Luka Health Centre right now of which I believe that most of the people that are working here are put Africans in the diaspora and Africans on the continent. How does it feel like working with people like that? I love working in multicultural environments because everyone brings something different to the table. Everyone has learned art of medicine in a different country. You have a different perspective. When you come and meet people, you always learn something new and I love learning. Plus, you also get different perspectives, different approaches. When you add that to what you already know, it always improves you. Plus, that team gives you an understanding of how people from a particular culture behave. So when you meet patients from that culture, you know how to relate to them. Interacting with people makes it much easier to interact with a broader group of people. It makes you a better doctor. If you cannot interact with people, you cannot practice medicine. I just want to know, the CEO is a black American. Yes. And you're also a black American. Yes. I just want to ask you this question.  Establishing something like this here in Africa. He said it's sub-Saharan Africa. I've seen the other project that you've done, IE Mesa Park. Yes. The housing. Yeah. This one. Do you think that it's time for African-Americans and Africans to work together to liberate Africa to come together to build a continent? Do you think it's necessary at the fair moment? Yeah. I think that there's an extraordinary opportunity here. What I mean by that is this. If you look at the political environment that's going on in the United States today, it's really nothing new. But it's unfortunate that the dynamic that's playing out is creating an opportunity for people to really kind of re-evaluate what the U.S. is about. And particularly for African-Americans who fundamentally have been really kind of like the center of the negative attack that's occurred as a result of the dynamics of the political circumstances there. I think the conversations you hear and a lot of my colleagues call me up talking about how things have gone. I think I want to come over there and some of it is that's like, yeah, they've kind of talked about it before, but the opportunity is even more relevant to them now because they feel, hey, look, things have got to be, you know, they've got to be good opportunity there now. So what I share this at to say is that there's a momentum of foot for people to want to kind of really be open about considering, you know, coming to the continent. But I do believe that there's an opportunity to share, you know, what's rich about the Ghanian culture, what's rich about the African-American culture, bring those together because I think that there are some learnings that can be had on both sides. And it's just going to require everybody to be willing to be open, right? And so sometimes we kind of get stuck in our ways, but it's really about saying, hey, look, let's embrace each other and we're better together than as, you know, as individuals. So if we can bring a lot of that energy together, I think that it would be very, very positive for the continent. How does it feel like working with Africans on the continent as an African-American? It feels very good. It feels very natural. I was very excited when this opportunity became available with Luca Health. I've always dreamed about coming back or coming to visit Mother Africa. And so this has allowed me to do two things I'm passionate about, health care and, you know, sort of get a sense of my roots, you know, as an African-American. So, yeah. Do you feel safe in here? Absolutely. Especially at this point in time with everything that's going on back in the United States with the, you know, the killing of African-Americans almost on a weekly basis. The continued fueling of the fire by the current president who just wants to continue to divide us. And, you know, it just seems so surreal right now. I feel like I'm watching a documentary about the civil rights movement in the 1960s. It's just crazy over there right now. But what really excites me about being here is how passionate the Ghanaian people are about what's going on in the United States. And you know what I want you to do because this is owned by an African-American and definitely we have a lot of Africans in the diaspora who I believe that they can do more on the continent. So if both of you should send a message to our fellow brothers and sisters living in the diaspora to return home, what will that message be? The message will be, please come back home. Come back home. Africa is the future. We as young people, we have to take charge of our future. We cannot let people actually talk about our narrative. We have to be the narrative. So come back home. Come develop Africa. Come help Africans, your fellow brothers and sisters. Bring the knowledge that you've learned from the diaspora. Come back home. Do you think Africa is the future? I think Africa is the future. I think when you look at the resources that's on, that's available in the continent, I think that what you've seen is development that's fundamentally occurred in other emerging countries that fundamentally are now becoming increasingly more developed. China is a classic example of a country that figured out how to embrace and transform its large rural areas and large populations into creating an opportunity for them to be able to work and drive income to support their families. But fundamentally China is a powerhouse in driving a lot of economy and commerce that pushes out of the country, right? So if you look at that, you basically say in Africa, we just have begun to scratch the surface of what the opportunity is. And I think things are fundamentally delayed, but I think investing dollars will continue to move toward the continent. I think as investors particularly and others begin to see how things fundamentally begin to develop here, I think you'll see more and more investment come in that kind of supports this, but I think that the continent is extraordinary in its resources and it just hasn't been leveraged and sought after from an international investing perspective, but I think you see indicators where a lot of money is increasingly coming into the continent and I think a lot more people are going to be more and more interested in coming here because there's just untapped resources. Who are the people that are expected to come in here? Anybody that needs medical and surgical care. So if you have, if you've seen your general practitioner and you need to be monitored or managed in a particular way, so a specialist needs to see you, either referred to a specialist or referred for surgery or the place to come to get your... Where is the location? So we have two locations. You're currently standing at our new flagship location, which is Lukahelk West. So this is in the same campus as MDS Lancet in East Lagoon. The second one is also in East Lagoon, but it's over by the underbridge if you're familiar with East Lagoon. It's in the Occasional Medical Center campus as well. Do you think that someone like Wode Maia can afford it? Absolutely. A whole Wode Maia. It's not too expensive for you. A whole Wode Maia you can afford. And again, think about it this way. How much is your health worth to you? Health as well, you know. Absolutely. You've got to do the investment. And it's very, very affordable. So it's important that people look at it as value for your money. So if you're investing in your health, then you know that long-term you know what is already wrong with you and you know what you're dealing with versus coming up on, and we're having issues of cancer and things that we're finding out later and then are only going to be treated. But the best prevention is to know earlier so that you know how to treat it. So it's very affordable. Very, very affordable. Very affordable. High quality, very affordable. If I should understand whatever goes on here, you're trying to tell Africans that enough of spending your money abroad for your health care instead of doing it here at Luka Health Center. Absolutely. There is no need for you, so if you have family members that are in Ghana, from here to go to check-up abroad, they do the check-ups right here. We have internal medicine who can do the check-up for you. We have the resources, we have the physicians, we have the knowledge base all right here in Ghana. If you need surgery done, we can do it right here in Ghana also. You don't have to fly abroad to do the surgery. Do you regret coming out together? Absolutely not. Absolutely not. I thought you were going to say absolutely not. Absolutely not. So it's always in my dream to come back to Ghana. I've always, always, always had Ghana at heart. As I mentioned earlier, I am Ghanaian-born and American-raised, so I left Ghana very, very early, and I've always been in my deal, and you can ask my friends, you can ask people that I deal with all the time, is they always said Linda said she would move back to Ghana. However, I didn't think it would be this early. I wanted to come back to Ghana and make an impact in health care. I didn't think it would be this early. I'm glad that it is, but I don't regret it at all. I made the move and I haven't regretted it since. Thank you so much for talking to me. Thank you, thank you, Woody. Absolutely, pleasure to meet you.


So that's me saying, you're not between my legs and reins, you need to do something. Now if he hadn't responded, I would go ahead and I'd use the tail end of my rope, and I would encourage him to respond.


Sometimes when writing about some of these older games, it can be tough to find even the most basic information. Take Incantation, for instance. I know it was made in 1996 by Titus Software, the same group that's made games that ranged from interesting, like Lamborghini American Challenge, to mediocre, like Realm and Prehistoric Man, to just plain bad, like Blues Brothers or Prince of Persia 2.  Where did I teleport to? Do I go to the left or right? And what is this stuff I'm collecting? This is where it would help to have an instruction manual, but there's no scan of it online anywhere, and if you want to buy a copy somewhere, good freaking luck, because Incantation is one of those quote-unquote rare games, so this game gets a price of something like $350 if you want it complete in the box, which means that the cheapest you'll find the manual alone on eBay is around $60. No thanks. Magazines are no help either, GamePro's review of Incantation is a whopping 8 sentences. I couldn't find anything an EGM or Gamefan, and while Nintendo Power doesn't actually review the game, it does offer a couple of paragraphs prior to the game's release, but again, there's not a whole lot there in the way of solid information. What I've been able to cobble together is that there's 6 different worlds split up into a couple of stages each, and you have to find 3 golden feathers throughout each world to unlock a boss fight, and these feathers could be anywhere, hence the warping from earlier, so you have to wander around until you find all 3. Warp points could send you to another part of the level, or to a totally unrelated bonus stage. What's really irritating is that once you've visited a warp point, it stays there, so while you're zapping enemies, you could accidentally hit it again, and inadvertently warp yourself out of there. That's so annoying. So you bounce around throughout these stages, getting rid of enemies, and collecting these coin things that earn you extra lives, and they're counted up after you defeat a boss. You can also upgrade your projectile to 3 different things. A fireball to a homing weapon to these bomb things. The game does allow you to combine two of them, but honestly the bomb weapon is so awful that you'll just want to avoid that one altogether. You start with 3 lives, and plenty of opportunities to get more. No saves or passwords here, but you do have unlimited continues. You also have a very forgiving health meter, and most enemies are pretty easy to take care of. The platforming is pretty simple, the boss fights are very simple, and I'm running out of stuff to say about this one. I will point out that the environments look great, the backgrounds are deep and detailed, and your character's sprite is well done. But the music is so incredibly dull that you'll hardly notice it at all. Worst of all is the sound design, just listen to this. Come on, you have a magic wand, you should be zapping stuff into oblivion.  Seriously, there are Atari 2600 games with better sound design than this. Plus there's no indication that I'm actually doing damage to anything here. Also the way this game ends is laughable, you beat the final boss and then you're greeted with some generic text saying thank you. Geez, this game was made in 1996, you couldn't come up with a better ending than that? So yeah, it's tough to find any real information about incantation, but it turns out that's for a very good reason, because nobody cares about this game. And there's no reason to, it's the most bland generic platformer ever. I will say one positive about this title is that if you have a small child you're looking to get into older games, this would be a good one to start out with because it's a very easy playthrough, albeit a bit confusing at first with all the warping. But if you're older than the age of five and want to play incantation, you're better off looking elsewhere. Not that because it's bad necessarily, just because it's so dreadfully boring. And I want to thank you for watching and I hope you have a great rest of your day. Thanks for watching, and I'll see you in the next one.


In 1982, a series of audio tapes were delivered to the Hylia Florida School for Boys that contained very unsettling audio. These tapes were delivered in our long intervals before Robert R. Fuller, claiming to have been a religious leader, walked into the school, and shot and killed 27 students, along with four teachers. He then burned down the school, with few escaping the flames. The bodies were never found, and it seems like no one ever even acknowledges the massacre. Three tapes survived the fire. These tapes were, coincidentally, known as the most unsettling of the tapes. The first tape was of a man, presumably Fuller himself, saying a string of numbers. Nothing is known about the numbers or their significance to the massacre. The second tape was of Fuller repeatedly saying, Hylia School for Boys, Fun for All, and Full of Toys. Going to, supposedly closer to the school than the first tape. After further inspection of the tapes by local authorities, one of the detectives had a sudden panic attack, and started to beat the other detectives. The third tape is the most infamous. It is of Fuller in the school, shooting and killing the students. It contains a slowed down, and reversed segment of Cinnabon's third piece, in which piano keys are repetitively banged down in rapid succession. Screams of teachers and students can be heard in the background, along with Fuller mumbling something. This tape is infamous, because it was recorded within the school grounds. It is also infamous, because many of the people who heard this tape went into rapid and sudden fits of insanity. I have included the audio from the three tapes, but listen with caution.


Hi guys, welcome. I will be giving you a campus tour today and I'll be highlighting some of the key events here on campus. We're currently on the west side of campus and if you look off to your left, you'll see our College of Natural Resources. It includes measures such as insect biology, nutritional science, and others devoted to studying the environment. Up here right up here you'll see Valley Life Sciences Building. It was built in 1930 and today it currently houses the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, Integrative Biology as well as Plant Biology, Moffitt Library, one of our undergraduate libraries here on campus. Next to the main entrance is also the Free Speech Movement Cafe. So we have a rich tradition here at Berkeley of political activism and the Free Speech Movement is one of the most prominent events that have happened throughout our history. Off to your left here is the CV East Asian Library. It is the first free-standing structure built to house an academic East Asian collection on an American University campus and it also has the largest collection of Japanese maps outside of Japan. So off to your right here you'll see Memorial Glade as well as the University Library, also known as Go Library. Memorial Glade was actually donated to staff and students who fought in World War II. The University Library is the main library on the Berkeley campus. It is one of 27 libraries. Straight ahead you will see Sather Tower, otherwise known as the Campanile. So it was originally constructed in 1914. It houses archaeological remains from La Brea targets in Los Angeles. Upstairs you can see a great view of the Bay Area. To your right this is the Hospital of Business. It was built in 1995 and was all funded from private donations. To your left this is the California Memorial Stadium. It contains 75,000 seats and it's home to our California Golden Bears football team as well as the women's lacrosse team. Alright, turning on to the south side of campus. To your right this great building is Worcester Hall. It's one of the most energy efficient buildings here on campus. It's home to the undergraduate College of Environmental Design, which includes the Departments of Architecture, Landscape Architecture, and also City and Regional Planning. Now we're headed towards Sproul Plaza. This is right here to your right. So although it's not geographically the center of campus, it very much is so in terms of student life. A lot of different student clubs, set out tables, to hand out flyers letting you know about upcoming events and also trying to get more students to join their clubs. And to your right here this is the Zeller Ball Hall. So Zeller Ball Hall is a main performance auditorium here on campus. This stop here is for the Recreational Sports Facility. This is our student gym here on campus. And the gym contains weight rooms, exercise machines, racquetball courts, basketball courts, and a swimming pool. To your left here we're passing by the Tank Center. And the Tank Center is this salmon and also teal colored building. It's the health service building here on campus. So right now we're on Shattuck Avenue. This is the downtown side of the Berkeley campus. You'll see there's a lot of different eateries, very popular with students. To your left you'll also see the Bard Station. Bard stands for Bay Area Rapid Transit. And that's our subway system here in the Bay Area. Alright, we can see the west area of our campus just ahead. This is Lee Cushing Center for Biomedical and Health Sciences. It's a new 250,000 square foot building that opened in 2012. Thanks for joining us. Have a great day.


Hello everybody, E here. Welcome back to another book review. Today, we are talking about Friday Black by Nenna... Nenna, is it Nenna? Nenna, I'm not sure. Kwame, Ajbrenja. This is a fantastic story collection. If you don't want to hang out and watch this review, I don't blame you.  This is one of those collections that change that change your whole perspective on something. I'm talking about the writing. I'm not talking about the politics of the book or any of that stuff. We'll get to that in a second. But the the writing here is so fresh and human and polished, but it also feels very raw in places. And I don't mean raw as in unpolished. I just said it was polished. But there's a feeling like there's so much passion and raw is the closest thing I can get to describing it to you. There's an urgency to it. These are stories that you just feel like you have to read. If you're of a certain mindset. We're gonna get to that in just a minute. But the the themes and the topics it's very current affairs. It's very topical as far as the political you know temperament of this country is concerned. The the thing is it's not that political though. The stories are deceptively deep in places. There are some fables. Especially the lion and the spider. That was a great story. There's more of a fable aspect to it. There's a literal fable told in that one. I'm a big fan of anything. A story within a story. I'm a huge fan of that. There's at least two stories in here like that. Now with the going into the political aspect of it. There's not that there's not there's no name. There's no name-jopping. It's not like he's Trump bashing Obama bashing or any politician bashing. There's no politician bashing. What he's doing is he's taking real-world topics and flipping them on their head and making them and writing speculative speculative fiction about them. There's a story about a man who's haunted by his aborted children. There's another story about a school shooting where the I'm trying not to give spoilers but I want to talk about what I enjoyed about these stories. There's one story where there's a there's a school shooting at a college and the shooter ends up being stuck with his victim in the afterlife. That's that's all I'm going to tell you about that one. The very first story though right out of the gate you can go and read the look inside on Amazon and decide for yourself if it is too quote unquote predictable not predictable political for you. The reason I say that is the first story is probably the most current affairs topical kind of deal that you are going to you find in the story. So if you can get through that one you're going to love if you like that story you're going to love the rest of the collection. I can see how this might feel a bit preachy to my conservative friends or to the Trump supporters out there or anything like that. Trump has never mentioned not Republicans and conservatives aren't really mentioned either. It's more of the mindset and not you know just labeling everyone with a broad brush stroke which I was impressed with. The but that I want to hit this home. The thing that makes this collection so good is the writing. The imagination is stellar. It's outstanding. There are stories in here that just absolutely blew me away with how not not really how original they were but the twists on the tropes maybe like the haunting trope or the trope about you know violent not really trope but violence in public that kind of thing how we deal with and how we perceive violence on the news things like that. The only stories that didn't really hit me were two toward the end. The second the last and third from last stories that were both of them are about working in retail. One is how to sell a jacket as told by Ice King and the other one is in retail. The Ice King story it was all right. I like the ending of it. I like the message behind the story but in retail felt too short. It just didn't seem to go anywhere. Maybe I completely missed the theme that that's entirely possible and then he finishes it up with through the flash and I completely forgot about those two stories but every other story in this collection. Let me count here we got one two three four five six seven eight nine ten eleven twelve thirteen one two three four five six seven eight nine ten eleven twelve no it's twelve out of the twelve stories there's only two that didn't fire on all cylinders I would give every single one I give all ten of those stories five stars that's how good they are and even the in retail and the Ice King story I'd still give three stars so if I if we're if we're gonna throw stars on something I would give it four point probably four point seven five four four point eight stars that kind of deal um because it's nowhere near deserving of like a four point five or a four it's an outstanding collection which brings me to the fact that it's my third favorite collection of all time right now um Clive Barker's books of blood will always be at number one uh I can't imagine anybody coming along and dethroning that just like I can't imagine anybody coming along and dethroning Stephen King's it is my favorite book of all time Marissa Pessel Marissa Pessel and Joe Hill have come close uh the goldfinch came close um but I don't expect that to ever change with this one I have Clive Barker's books of blood I don't think that one will ever change right underneath that is Things We Lost in the Fire by Mariana Anariques and then we have this one by uh Nanakwame Ajaybranya I think I got that right it's the first name that's bothering me and I can't find any pronunciations of the name online but Friday Black there's another story in here um called Black Friday uh well no no it's Friday Black about Black Friday um the retail you know thing so there's three stories in here about working in retail but I like the story Friday Black especially because um I once worked on a book with my friend Jeff Brackett called Shucklers I ended up leaving the project but he went on to to complete the project um it was based on a short story of mine called he who has the last laugh um about and my my story my contributions to the novel opened up with kind of like a uh it was basically zombies but not zombies and more like more like the raid zombies from uh 28 days later but uh anytime someone laughed that that was the triggering point hang on I got something on my leg oh I kicked the shit sorry um anytime someone laughed they turned in like this maniacal killing machine kind of deal um and that happened during Black Friday at a chain store like Walmart and this has notes of that I always find it it's amazing I know he's never read my read my piece um and this of course came out long I mean I wrote my piece probably five years ago um probably more but uh there was so many similarities and I find it amazing when stuff like that happens knowing that two creators shared absolutely no content with each other and came up with roughly the same idea and because I like that idea I love that story so that's a little aside there um the the standout stories in this collection are through the flash Lark Street Zimmerland is amazing uh the Finkelstein five um let's see here the Lion and the Spider uh Friday Black but I I believe that my favorite my favorite story in here um is Light Spitter and that is the story of the school shooting I highly recommend you guys pick up this book get through it excuse me uh if even if you don't read every single story just about every single story is worth the price of admission so when you get in here even if even if you only like two or three I still feel like you will think that this collection is worth your time so have you read Friday Black uh let me know down there in the comments below uh if let's try I know I brought up politics and current affairs and things like that let's try not to rant and rave uh rant and rage about that stuff down there in the newly due if you didn't like it let me know why but I have a feeling that people that don't like like this book um will have very strong opinions I don't mind that but please don't be rude about it I will just delete your comment it's as simple as that um and what I mean rude is you know calling name calling things like that um you can express your opinion and we can have a discussion same with if you like the book uh but let me know don't just like this book is great I want to know details I want to know exactly what you liked about the book so I can come back and talk to you about the book that's what the comment section is for me it's a conversation it's a place to have a conversation so let's have a conversation about this book down there in the doobly-doo but until next time I have been E you have been you this has been another book review I'll talk to you guys later bye bye


And now stay tuned for the program that is rated tops in popularity for a longer period of time than any other West Coast program in radio history. The Signal Oil Program, The Whistler. Signal, the famous Go Farther gasoline.  I am The Whistler, and I know many things for I walk by night. I know many strange tales hidden in the hearts of men and women who have stepped into the shadows. Yes, I know the nameless terrors of which they dare not speak. And now for the Signal Oil Company, The Whistler's strange story, The Little Things. It was night in the small Northern California town. The weak old-fashioned street lamps were almost obscured by the heavy blanket of fog that rolled aimlessly in from the sea. The misty quiet of the town was disturbed only by the muffled arrival and departure of an occasional automobile. Neon signs of the local honky-tonks and bars weakly portrayed their identification and merchandise. Beneath one of these signs stood Johnny Larson. From his pocket he drew a wrinkled piece of paper, held it nearer the dim light to study the penciled address. Then striking a match to the dry paper, he watched it burn quickly into meaningless ashes. Yes, from now on, Johnny Larson was going to take good care of all the little things and let the big things take care of themselves. He ground the ashes to a fine powder under one heel, then moved toward the street to hail a cab that he saw emerging from the fog. Hey, taxi! Where to, chief? The 400 block on Olive Street. Okay. You almost slipped, didn't you, Johnny? Almost forgot to take care of a little thing. You caught yourself just in time, or you'd have given the driver the street number you so diligently burned. But now as you settle back into the seat of the cab, you reflect again on the five long years you've just spent behind bars and the little inconsequential things that had put you there. You promise yourself you won't forget again.  You peer both ways into the fog and listen. No sound of footsteps, no one nearby to see you enter. You walk quickly up the wooden steps. At your knock the door opens a scant distance, only enough to allow a thin shaft of light to pierce the darkness about you. Yeah, who is? Larson. Okay. Eddie's upstairs. Look who's here. The man of the hour. Come in, Johnny. Come in. Hi, Eddie. How do you feel after your vacation, Johnny? Lonely. Same old Johnny. Everything for the lads, huh? Come here.  Bernie, how? Meet Johnny Larson. Best in the business. Hi, Johnny. Hi. Laura is Johnny. Is she in this, Eddie? Up to a pretty neck. And caught me out. Now, wait a minute, Johnny. I know you did five years because of a double-crossing date. Sorry, Eddie. Maybe it's some other time. There'll be no other time, Johnny. This is it. Okay. Looks like I'll live longer if I go along, huh? Okay, Eddie. It's a deal. Good. Hey, Laura, fix us a drink, will you? Okay. Bernie, Al, I want to talk to Johnny here alone. Sure, Eddie. We'll be right downstairs if you need us, boys. Ah, they're good boys. Always do exactly what I tell them. Yeah, I'm sure they do. How do you want your drink, Johnny? Drate? A little water. I want you and Laura to get along, Johnny. I want everything to run smoothly. We're in this thing together and we'll get out together. Fair enough? Fair enough? Oh, I'm sure we'll get along. Won't we, Johnny? Yeah, we'll get along. You know, look, Johnny, here's a setup. Every day now, the local bank will have over $200,000 in its vault. The cannery payroll. I wondered why you picked this bird. It'd be a cinch for you, Johnny. You never worked a suite of setup. The bank's nothing but a tin can. This tin can never been knocked over before? That's a funny part. This payroll business has been going on for years. Never a hitch. And I tell you, this vault's as simple as a piggy bank. 19-10 equipment all the way through. Good. When do I case it? You won't. Not in person, anyway. That's Laura's job. She'll have so many pictures of the inside of that bank, we'll be able to build one of our own, just like it. And the pictures will be all yours, Johnny. With them, you can become familiar with the whole layout. No, those alarm systems are not as easy as you think. Some of the simplest looking and the most dangerous. Not this one. Like I told you, it's turn of the century stuff. Any smart high school kid could take it apart. Sounds okay. Now, how about the split? That's my look, huh? You'll get your share. I just thought I'd ask. Sure, Johnny. Sure. And I think we better turn in this thing could break any time.  Oh, I could. Had a long trip. Show him to his room, Laura. I'll see you both in the morning. Your room's down the hall and to the left. You lead. I'll follow you. Looks pretty good to me. Johnny. Huh? You know Eddie very well. Why? Oh, nothing. Only, uh, wouldn't hurt to keep your eyes open. Thanks.  I will. Good night. But you don't forget what Laura said, do you, Johnny? You wonder what she meant and you intend to find out. You turn off the lights in your room. Sit quietly on your bed until you hear a door slam at the far end of the hall. You quietly open your door. Then move quickly, noiselessly down the hall until you hear Eddie's laughter from one of the rooms and you inch close to the door and listen. Don't worry about it, Laura. Give him time. I don't know, Eddie. I don't like it.  But why him? Why not somebody else? You like Johnny, huh? Fell from quick. Is that it? No, that's not it. It's just what I think. What you think isn't important, Laura. Oh, forget that. I do the thinking of this job, all of it. And it'll go just the way I planned it. On a cape of this big, we need a fall guy. And Johnny Larson is made to order. He's our pigeon. With 1951 model cars beginning to make their appearance, this is the season when a lot of drivers get new car fever. But if a look at your bankbook tells you that a new car isn't for you, then why not enjoy the next best thing? And what is the next best thing to a new car? Why it's your car powered with Signal Ethel. You see, this premium grade of Signal's famous go farther gasoline is engineered to bring out the best in any car of any age. The quickest starting, the smartest pickup, the smoothest ping-free power that sends you smoothly and high up hills that make other cars clatter and shift. And I don't get the idea, of course, that Signal Ethel is going to let you step away from all new cars. After all, smart new car drivers use Signal Ethel too to bring out all the exciting performance that's built into today's power-packed high compression motors. But of this, you can be sure the next best thing to a new car is your car powered with Signal Ethel gasoline. Well, Johnny, somewhere along the line you must have overlooked one of the little things.  You know Eddie's right. You are tailor-made for that role. The next convict with your reputation could shout his head off about a double cross and no one would listen. Finally, you go to bed and fall into a restless sleep, certain of only two things, that there will be a fall guy, but it won't be you. Late the next morning, a persistent pounding on the bedroom door, a wake show. OK. Eh... San Quentin must have made you cautious, Johnny. I should think you'd want to get away from locked doors. Ah, but I guess, Eddie. What time is it? 11 o'clock. Well, what's all the noise about? We're cracking this thing tonight. Tonight? Yeah. Canary payroll was delivered at 8 this morning. First time they ever brought it in on a Saturday. That's right. It is Saturday. How do you know if the payroll was delivered this morning? You underestimate me, Johnny. OK. And what about the pictures? Laura walked in that bank this morning at 10. When she walks out, she'll have more photographs than the family album. Look, this picture business, it's pretty risky, isn't it? Now, when it's done my way, Johnny, you see, Laura has a small camera fastened inside her purse. A tiny hole in one side of the purse holds the lens. All she has to do is hold the purse in any direction and press the back of it where the cable release is, and she's in business. She opens her purse for a Kleenex and turns the film. Simple. She could take a picture of the bank president himself and get away with it. You've got it all figured out, haven't you, Eddie? Always, Johnny. Always. Yeah. Now, what's the getaway pitch? Now, we split up in two cars. The boys and I'll take the sedan, you and Laura, the coupé. We want to avoid all possible suspicion. And how about that split? We'll meet in Las Vegas tomorrow and divide the hallway. Las Vegas is a long way off. I'd prefer my cut right after the job. Sorry, Johnny. My plans are made. Besides, you'll have my deposit of good faith with you. What do you mean? Well, Laura, of course. She's worth a million in any man's language. Well, thanks for the compliment, Eddie. But a million's a little high. Laura, baby, how'd it go? Oh, wonderful. No trouble at all.  Good, good. Now, as soon as you get those developed, the better. I knew you'd be impatient, Eddie. Look, I'll use the big closet over there for dark room. You should have the wet prints in about an hour. Good. I'll be downstairs. Give me your car when you haven't finished.  I guess everybody gets a little nervous. Boy, when this is over, I'm going to make the most expensive dress shops in Los Angeles think they were hit by a whirlwind. Los Angeles? You bet. As soon as I get my share, I'm heading for the best shop. Can I take a little while to get to LA from Las Vegas? Oh. Well, I guess I just... I can't get Los Angeles out of my mind. Ever since I was a kid, I've wanted to put on the dog there. Sure, sure. I know how it is. Yeah. Well, I guess I better get those pictures developed. Yeah, maybe you're better. We can't keep Eddie waiting. Well, Johnny, Laura's slipped on a little thing, hasn't she?  Notice her nervousness. She knows she blundered when she said Los Angeles instead of Las Vegas. But she doesn't know how much. You know she didn't go for the double cross. But you don't know how much she goes for Eddie. She's already warned you to keep your eyes open around Eddie.  And in about an hour, Laura comes out of the closet. I've got some prints for you, Johnny. Good. Still a little bit wet. I'll watch it. Yeah. How are they? Fine. You did a good job. Real good job. I'm glad you think so, Johnny. These shots of the alarm system are perfect. Yeah, I've handled this kind before. Simple. How about the vault? Duck soup. Eddie was right. The whole setup is ancient. Looks big and impressive, but the easiest kind in the world are crack. Eddie said you know what to do with it, all right. You got more prints? Oh, yeah, a lot more. Wonderful setup. Can't get over what an old-style vault this is. Guess I'll call Eddie and tell him they're ready. Yo, wait a minute, Laura. Look, what's with you and Eddie? What do you mean? I mean, how many double crosses would you pull for Eddie? I don't know what you're talking about. Look, baby, I know all about it. It's all fixed for me to be the sacrifice. Oh, you're not feeling very well, Johnny. I better call Eddie. I wouldn't if I were you, Laura. It'd just end up with somebody getting hurt. There'd be no 200 grand, no Eddie, no Laura, and no Johnny. Now, what do you say we be friends? Well, you've got to believe me, Johnny. I have nothing to... Sure, sure, I know. You don't like that double cross idea. Eddie knows you don't. I heard you telling him. That's just one more reason we should be friends. Because if Eddie found out I knew, he might get a little worried about you. You wouldn't tell him that I... Relax, Laura. We're friends, remember? What do you want from me? How does Eddie figure on framing me? Well... The pictures. The, these pictures? Yeah, the ones you're holding in your hands. Your fingerprints are all over them. He was going to leave them in the vault. Well, what do you know? It's pretty clever for Eddie. After the getaway I was to run out on you in Las Vegas. Eddie knew you'd try to find me, but he also knew the cops would be trying to find you. Now he was banking on the cops finding you first. He probably would have. Might have been fun, Laura. What are you going to do? Go through with it, just as if nothing happened. Well, how do you expect to get away with it? I don't know yet, but I'll find out. Call Eddie up here. What? You heard. Only when you give him the pictures, you'll be given the ones I haven't touched. Outside of that, we act as if nothing happened. You ever suppose he finds out? He won't. What about me? Don't you worry, baby. Johnny'll take good care of you. Now go out of the door and call Eddie. Did they come out okay, Laura? Johnny thinks so? Don't you, Johnny? Yeah, just what I need. Ah, swell. Pour those some of the snaps, Laura. Yeah. Let's see him. You watch Eddie as he takes the pictures from Laura. Carefully, he holds them on the edges by his forefinger and thumb, taking care that his fingerprints won't appear on them. You feel Laura's stare burning into you as Eddie speaks. He's a perfect Laura. A cinch for you, huh, Eddie? Nothing to it. Hey, I think we can pull the whole job in under 20 minutes. It won't take me five minutes to crack the alarm system in the vault. All depends on how long it takes us to get inside the bank. Ah, that'll be the easiest part. There's an old ventilating set up at the rear of the bank. Alice walked past it several times. We'll be able to rip it right off the wall. It'll leave a hole large enough for you to get through. After you get inside, you can let us in through the side door. And by the way, are you going to handle things while we're pulling the job? We leave the coupé here at the house and pick it up in the getaway. Laura will drive the sedan, stay outside as a lookout. That way, Al, Bernie and I can work inside the vault. We'll have four suitcases that I hope to fill. Mm-hmm. And with the three of us working inside, it shouldn't take us more than 10 minutes. And what about me? After you open the vault, you keep your eye on the street from inside the bank. And keep your ears open for any signal from Laura. Sounds okay. Ah, I think that covers it. I'll just take these pictures with me and let the boys get familiar with the layout. Uh, we, we're still gonna split in Vegas? Yeah, why? Nothing, nothing. Just thought you might change your mind. You'll get your share in Vegas, Johnny. Well, I won't get to Las Vegas if I don't get something to eat. How about you, Johnny? No, not now. Maybe later. I'm gonna think about that alarm system a while and then get me a little more sleep. I got a lot of catching up to do. Yes, Johnny. And you have a lot of thinking to do, too, haven't you? You're pleased with Laura. So far, she's played her part well. But the big obstacle remains in your path. You'll have to get rid of Eddie and his henchmen after the job is over. And you don't know how to do it. After Eddie and Laura leave you alone in your room, you automatically lock the door behind them. Then you study the other set of pictures, but they offer no solution. You pace the floor, thinking, searching your mind, looking about the room as if you'd find a solution there. Finally, your eyes fall on the door. The door you always lock behind you without thinking. And it's an idea, isn't it, Johnny? Locked doors. Locked doors. That's it. You hurry back to the pictures, leave through them quickly. And then you find the one you're looking for, the picture of the vault. And you smile triumphantly as you scrutinize it carefully. Here's Johnny. The solution to your problem had been right before your eyes all the time. Confident now, the mental strain of the past few hours gone. You suddenly feel very tired. You stretch out in your bed, sleep as if drugged. Many hours later, Laura's insistent voice wakes you. Johnny. Johnny, wake up. 4.30 in the morning, everything's ready. Don't usually get up this early, especially on a Sunday. How could you sleep knowing what you know? Practice, baby. Practice. Johnny, I've got to know. What are you going to do? Get myself off the hook. Yeah, but what about me? Don't you worry, baby. I'll take care of you. It's a promise. Okay, Laura. That's the alley up ahead. Here we go. Everybody knows his job now. You all set, Johnny? I'm all set, Eddie. I'd park a half block down the street, Laura, and keep your eyes open. Got it. All right, Al. You get to work on that ventilating system. Bernie, you check the street. Eddie's men are well-trained, aren't they, Johnny? Not a moment lost. In a matter of seconds, you hear the faint sound of metal against stone. You begin to feel uneasy. But you don't have long to think about it. Before you know it, Eddie's voice brings you out of your thoughts. Okay, easy.  All right, Johnny. You experience that old feeling of excitement as you're lifted up to the ventilator hole and clamber through. Once inside, you spot the alarm system control. Quickly but cautiously, you put the alarm system out of commission. Then you move for the door. Work patiently with the door locked until you feel a lock spring. You swing the door open. Good work, Johnny. Get the boys. This won't take long. You move for the vault. Go to work swiftly and methodically. You work with the combination slowly. Then reaching up, you take hold of the gigantic handles of the door and pull gently. The door hesitates. Then swings open. Beautiful. Al, Bernie, let's go. Johnny, keep your eyes on the front. Watch Eddie and his men as they waste no time loading their suitcases from the stacks of currency inside the vault. You see Al close the lid on his suitcase and start toward you. Oh, here, Al. I'll take that. Go back and help the others. Oh, okay. Yes, Johnny, that suitcase holds enough for you, doesn't it? You watch Al hurry back into the vault and you notice that Eddie is preparing to leave.  In that moment, you slam the vault door shut and lock it. Then you let yourself out the side door and onto the street. The grayness of the pre-dawn greets you from the east. You hurry the half block to the sedan and Laura. Move over. I'll drive. Johnny, what happened? We're in, baby. Let's go. The others? Naga's rats in a trap, baby. I locked them in the vault. Vault? Look at the people at the bank when they opened it. You'll find three very dead guys. That vault won't be open till the bank opens tomorrow morning more than 24 hours from now. They're finished, baby. They can't live sealed up like that. Johnny, I'm frightened. I didn't think... No, but I did. And thinking got me over 50 grand in that suitcase back there and a wide-open highway ahead of me. How far have we come, Johnny? Oh, a hundred miles or so, I guess. Must have. Tons up now. That's strange. We... We haven't seen any cars. You sure you know where you're going, Johnny? I've never been so sure, baby. Never been so sure. What are you stopping for? This is in the middle of nowhere. Yeah, I know, baby. I know. It's the end of the line for you, Laura. Johnny. Johnny, what are you... Oh, Johnny. No. I don't need you anymore, baby. And I can't trust you.  Come on, move. Wait. Wait, Johnny, please. Johnny, you can trust me. I'll do anything. You're double-crossed, Eddie. For me, you'll double-cross me for somebody else. You're the only one left who can identify me. But I won't tell anyone, Johnny. I promise. Sorry, baby. I promise you I'd take care of you. Remember? Right now, during the rainy season, scientific lubrication is even more important to your car to keep moisture from working into vital moving parts and causing damage. That's why I think you'll be interested in knowing about some of the extras you enjoy when you have your car lubricated at a signal service station. First of all, signal dealers take no chances on memory when it comes to the many lubrication points on your car. Instead, they check against signals factory-recommended lubrication chart, which clearly shows every part. Then they use nine specialized signal oils and greases, so each part will get the exact type of protection it needs. And finally, just to make doubly sure not a single part has been overlooked, they check each part again, which is why it's called signal double-check lubrication. Now that's the kind of lube job you want if your car is to give you the long, trouble-free service that was built into it. And that's the kind of lubrication you get from friendly, independent signal dealers. Well, Johnny, you've taken care of all the little things, haven't you? Eddie and his boys are finished. And Laura, the only other person who could connect you with a bank robbery, is all through, too, lying dead by the side of the highway where you left her.  You and the $50,000 in the suitcase in the back seat.  The restaurant's almost deserted. Just the waiter and one other man seated on a stool at one end, reading a newspaper. Hi, stranger. Hi. Ham and eggs, over easy, huh? And coffee. Sure, right away. Want to see the paper while you're waiting? No, thanks. Oh. Hello, Mr. Hmm? Oh, hello. Mr. You're under arrest. What? I'm sheriff of this county. Okay, but I just got in your county. I couldn't have broken any laws. You're under arrest for murder, Mr. Now, wait a minute. You got the wrong boy. No, I don't think so. You murdered a girl back in California sometime early yesterday. Now, look, look, you're crazy. You got me confused with somebody else. I don't think I have. But there's one thing I'm sure of. You're the guy thereafter. I don't know your name. You're the guy, all right. Look at this picture on the front page. Right. Now, you see? It's you, all right. But, but how? It's the weirdest thing I ever heard of. The deputies who found the girl's body found a little camera rigged in her purse.  Let that whistle be your signal for the signal oil program The Whistler each Sunday night at this same time. Signal Oil Company has asked me to remind all of you who play cards. A 12-page booklet giving complete rules for the exciting new three-deck version of Canasta called Hollywood Canasta is yours for the asking at any signal station. No purchase required, no obligation. Any signal dealer will be glad to give you this booklet on Hollywood Canasta free while his supply lasts. Featured in tonight's story were Bill Foreman, Larry Dobkin, Gigi Pearson, Jack Moyles, Ed Max, Antonio Dare. The Whistler was produced and directed by George W. Allen with story by James J. Cullen, music by Wilbur Hatch who was transmitted to our troops overseas by the Armed Forces Radio Service. The Whistler is entirely fictional and all characters portrayed on the Whistler are also fictional. Any similarity of names or resemblance to persons living or dead is purely coincidental. Remember at this same time next Sunday another strange tale by the Whistler. Marvin Miller speaking for the Signal Oil Company. Stay tuned now for our Miss Brooks starring Eve Arden which follows immediately over most of these stations. This is CBS The Columbia Broadcasting System.


Personal Finance PowerPoint Presentation. Buying a foreclosed house, top five pitfalls. Get ready to get financially fit by practicing personal finance. Most of this information can be found at Investopedia. Buying a foreclosed house, top five pitfalls. You can find online. Look at the references, resources. Continue your research from there. This is by Amy Fontinier, updated April 23rd, 2022. Buying a house in foreclosure is often touted as a way for both owner occupants and investors to get a great deal on a property. So if you're looking into the property, you might say, hey, look, I'll look at the foreclosed property because there's certain stress involved within that. That might help us to get a deal, but obviously there's more obstacles involved with it as well, so you wanna be well aware of the pros and cons going in. So however, the potential financial rewards are usually not arrived at without a significant amount of hard work. So clearly you're not going down kind of the norm. The normal process of a sale, typically, would be that you have a seller who's gonna be able to put the, who's not pressured in essence to put the item on the market, who has the information necessary as they put the home on the market. So you got the buyer who then has all the necessary information to then come up to a deal. Clearly, if you're talking about a foreclosed type of property, you have some distress involved on the seller type of things, and you've got possibly bank and regulatory items that are going into place there as well, that then is gonna complicate the general scenario to some degree, although it could provide potential advantages to some degrees as well. So you need to know the pros and cons as you go in. Foreclosed properties have some common problems. In addition, there are some standard difficulties that you may encounter in purchasing one. While foreclosures can be great investments as fixer-uppers, either to live in or resell, they often come with challenges. Number one, problems with the property. So if you're in a foreclosed property, so if you can imagine, of course, if you are the person that the bank foreclosed on, now you have someone that was living in the property for some time that might have been under some type of stress that the bank's gonna foreclose on them, they probably might not be completely happy about that situation, which could be ongoing for some time. That could mean that at the least, they're not taking care of the property possibly as much as they would have otherwise. And at the most, there could be damage, almost even purposeful damage to the property, which wouldn't be good for the purchaser, of course. The most important thing is to keep in mind before deciding to shop in the foreclosure market is that these properties are given up by owners who can't afford their mortgage payments anymore. So clearly you're dealing with someone that was going through a tough time generally at that point. And again, they're probably not in the greatest mood about their property possibly not keeping up the property to the point they otherwise would. In this cases, the house may have been poorly maintained after all, if the owner can't make the payments, they are likely falling behind on paying for regular upkeep. Also, some people forced into foreclosure are embittered by their situation and take out their frustration on their homes before the bank repossesses them. So clearly you could see some people in the mindset of saying, okay, the bank's gonna take my home at this point in time. I'm frustrated with the situation possibly causing damage, some kind of damage to the home or seeing what they can do to take it basically extract value from the home before that is done. So this often involves removing appliances and fixtures and sometimes even outright vandalism. So clearly if you're in a selling situation where the seller is not in foreclosure and they're trying to sell their home and get the highest price for it and the buyer is trying to purchase the home, then the seller has an incentive to take care of the home and demonstrate it in its best condition. But obviously as long as the person who's getting foreclosed on is in the home, they don't have that same kind of incentive. It kind of reminds me one time when I had some neighbors that were being forced out, this was a rental type of situation, but they wanted to re-up the lease and they wouldn't let them re-up the lease. So in frustration, they actually dug up the tree in the backyard, which was a huge tree. It went under the fence, it must have taken them forever and it was an orange tree and they basically took the tree as kind of because they were upset about the situation but you can imagine that kind of thing as the type of thing that might happen if you felt like the bank was taking the property. So clearly you got to keep that kind of thing into consideration, which could be quite different circumstance than if you were buying from someone who's selling the home because they enjoyed the home, they want to sell it and they're trying to move somewhere else and life is good for them. So after the occupants leave, the foreclosures sit abandoned, often inviting criminal activity. So if the foreclosed property doesn't have anybody in it because notice that the bank is really not in the business generally to resell property and take care of the property, upkeep the property and resell the property. They're in the business to make interest. They only have the ability to foreclose on the property in the event that there's a default. They don't want the default to actually happen. So there could be a pretty, as long as someone is not taking care of the property or in the property, one of the benefits of having someone living in property is hopefully they value the place that they live in and they're taking care of it. If no one is taking care of the property, then of course it's gonna deteriorate just in terms of nobody taking care of it and it will be subject to possibly people that might want to vandalize it and so on. So number two, maintenance and condition. Maintenance and condition can be a problem in foreclosed properties because of the circumstances under which the previous owner moved out and the amount of time the house may have been unoccupied. Bank owned properties are sometimes disgustingly dirty because of the time spent sending empty intentional neglect by the previous owner or occupancy by vagrants. When a home is locked up with no air circulating for months, built up dirt can cause the entire house to smell. So again, having someone actually live in the home is typically beneficial because of course they're gonna wanna sweep the floor from time to time and open the doors and so what, let some air, turn on the air conditioning or something. So just having it still, even if someone doesn't vandalize it is gonna have it deteriorate a lot faster over time, generally. The previous owner may have made changes to the home without obtaining the proper permits. A typical example is converting the garage into a living space so more people can live in the house. So if there's been some kind of conversion or something like that, then again, if it's not up to the standards, that would be a problem. These changes may be undesirable to the new owners or create headaches for them with local government officials. So obviously if they converted the garage and now you're trying to buy the house and now the garage looks like a living room, but it can't be a living room because under the current circumstances or the state doesn't allow that, then again, problems with that are caused. If the previous owner started to improve the home but fell on hard times, there may be partially finished work. So clearly they could have moved in with good intentions and then not finished things up. The bathroom may be redone while the kitchen has not been updated 40 years or there may be new floors in the living room while the bedrooms still sport outdated carpeting. Additionally, if any repairs were made, they may have been done by the owner themselves or by unlicensed professionals. In other words, people who may not necessarily have done the work correctly. Sometimes foreclosed owners are locked out of a property before they can move their belongings and in some cases they do not take everything with them. So many real estate owned or EO properties contain furniture, trash, clothes, and other items that you will be responsible for or disposing of when you become the property owner. Number three, vandalism and neglect. Damage is not uncommon in foreclosed properties and when houses are not lived in, it is easy for them to fall into despair from neglect. So clearly, again, having someone in the home means that it's less likely that someone's gonna vandalize the home. If everybody knows that the home has no one in it for the last year or so, then it's likely that people that wanna vandalize stuff will go and vandalize stuff. So in extreme cases, it may be caused by vandals or even former owner. When a property sits vacant for too long, new owners may have to continue with graffiti, broken windows, and other damage that could be caused. Broken windows can be common in REOs for several reasons. As mentioned previously, vandalism could be a cause. Also, when banks lock out owners while taking possession of the property, the former owner may break a window or door to retrieve belongings. Previous owners may also purposely inflict damage at the bank's expense by putting holes in walls or treating off baseboards and crone and crone molding in a rare or extreme cases. So notice that if you're gonna, again, you can kind of see the mindset of someone that feels like they got moved out of the home of the bank, took their home and so on. So obviously they might try to benefit from the situation by first taking things of value from the home that might be normally kind of part of the structure of the home, like trying to uproot a tree or something like that and take the tree or the appliances or whatnot. And then in more extreme cases, they might just beat up the home, obviously, and that would be a problem. So the previous homeowners might remove items of value from a foreclosed home, including appliances, fixtures, doors, copper pipes, and more, in worst case scenarios, anything that the homeowner does not take might be taken by thieves. Either way, bank-owned properties may be missing things that generally come with seller-owned properties. Number four, problems with the purchase. Foreclosures can still be a good deal despite all these potential problems. If you are willing to fix issues that most people don't want to deal with, you can purchase a home at a significant discount. So if you're saying, hey, look, I'm a fixer-upper, I'm happy to take a house that's been maltreated and I'll fix it, right? If that's what you do, you might say, that's the way to go. You still gotta deal with the complexities of just getting the deal done in that case then. However, you may encounter additional problems when buying the property and improving it to move in conditions. Lenders will not give homeowners money for a dwelling that they consider uninhabitable or appraised below the purchase price. So if you are an investor paying cash, this will not be a problem. The HUD section 203K program can also help in some circumstances. Common Sense says that banks should want to unload our EOs as quickly as possible, but in reality, banks sometimes drag their heels in considering offers and throughout the escrow process. So number five, no seller disclosure and competition. Since no one from the bank has ever lived in the house, they're unlikely to have any knowledge of the existing problems with the property. So again, no one has any intimate knowledge because no one's in it. So you will have to uncover everything yourself during the home inspection by asking neighbors or through experience after you become the homeowner. Because the foreclosures can be great deals, they are attractive to investors looking to flip properties or use them as rentals. So clearly a flipper situation that likes to fix up the properties are that would be this kind of thing they might be looking for. Since investors can make all cash offers with fewer or no contingencies and fast closings, their offers may be more attractive to the bank than those from would be owner occupants. So clearly if you could give cash transaction that's always useful to the person selling in this case, the bank. How can I buy a foreclosed home? You can buy a home in foreclosure through a real estate agent in a short sale or in an auction held by a lender. Should I buy a foreclosed home? Buying a foreclosed home may be cheaper than buying one at market price, but it can be a challenge and you may have to research options for financing if you can't pay all cash. A foreclosed home is a property that its owner couldn't afford to keep. So the house and property around it may be an ill repair. However, a foreclosure can help some individuals buy a large fixer upper that will regain its market value after some interior and or exterior work. What does a foreclosure mean? A house in foreclosure means the owner couldn't afford to make mortgage payments and the home has been seized by the lender. Typically we could think of the bank, the financial institution usually. Can I use a mortgage to buy a foreclosed home? If you want to buy a foreclosed home, you should be able to purchase one using the government backed or conventional mortgage, but the property will need to pass a home inspection and an appraisal. The bottom line, there is money to be made in foreclosures, but you should know the challenge. You are undertaking ahead of time and choose your property carefully. Don't overlook the fundamentals that make a property desirable because the purchase price is a bargain. You should also extensively research financing options for foreclosed homes. While you can go to the traditional route of using a private lender as you would for a conventional home, lenders can sometimes be reluctant to finance a foreclosed home as it is worth looking into loans from the federal housing administration, FHA or Freddie Mac.