Personalized Pavers Now Available In LARC’s New Memorial Garden

LARC, a not-for-profit organization providing services to individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities, is selling personalized memorial pavers that will be displayed in their newly developed Memorial Garden. These engraved bricks are $200 each and will be personalized and installed in time for summer 2023.

LARC’s Memorial Garden came to fruition last spring, as volunteers from The Lansing Garden club planted over 34 native species of plants, 18 bushes, and 1 tree. Diane Lund, Garden Club founder, was instrumental in creating the schematics for the project, with plants purchased by LARC.

The Garden is located just outside LARC’s client lunchroom, on the west side of their Campus located at 19043 Wentworth Avenue. Patrons will find that the garden is easily accessible from their West parking lot. At the corner of the garden, there is a memorial bench sitting upon a bed of rustic-colored landscape pavers. It is here where the final engraved pavers will be installed.

Ernie Gonzalez, Executive Director for LARC said, “The last couple of years were very hard on LARC. We lost five clients, one board member, and several of our greatest supporters; all while dealing with the complex circumstances surrounding COVID.” He added, “Our Board of Directors felt that the development of a Memorial Garden would be a beautiful way to remember our loved ones and their legacies.”

You can now purchase one of these 4 x 8 bricks through March 10. Bricks may be personalized in memory, or in honor of someone special. Your patronage will help support LARC’s mission while leaving a lasting legacy for your loved one. Order forms are available at LARC, or on their website: www. larclansing.com. For more information, please contact their Development Office at (708) 474-1540.

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Repair It or As-Is?

MIKE BUDER

Last week, I listed a home that looked terrific, but the central air had come to the end of its functional life. Oh, it powered on with its loud grinding motor, but its cooling days were obviously over. I called out two of the area’s HVAC experts to take a look. I received two competing bids to replace the central air compressor. The contractor bids where enough money to make the seller think about not replacing the unit and just selling the home with the AC “as-is”, with a disclosure that the unit was dubious. Now, that is option one. Doing the work and replacing the AC unit will cost the seller about $2,800. But my concern was that buyers, once they realized they would have to repair or replace the unit, would deduct a lot more than that from their offer. Over the years, I’ve noticed that most buyers overestimate what it will cost to fix anything that needs to be repaired or replaced in a home that they are considering buying. I will often use the example of the bedroom doorknob that put a hole in the drywall. The seller knows that to repair the wall will take $10

Real Estate Questions & Answers

CATHY & JIM HIGGINS

Question: My daughter is trying to buy a house and the mortgage broker she is dealing with told her the closing cost would be between $4,000 to $5,000 on a $113,500 house with a $10,000 down payment. This seems a little bit on the high side. Is this a normal charge or is she being ripped off?

Answer: The closing costs paid by your daughter reflect the requirements of the sales contract, transfer costs and loan expenses. Whether these amounts are reasonable or not depends on how the agreement was negotiated, the transfer costs for the local jurisdiction and the loan expenses. For instance, is your daughter paying additional points up front to get a lower interest rate? At the very least, why doesn’t your daughter speak with other lenders to see what alternative financing options are available.

Question: What do the terms “Under Contract” or “Sale Pending” mean?

Answer: In real estate it is a routine matter for buyers and sellers to sign a sales agreement. That agreement, however, does not mean the house has been sold -- that title has been transferred. Instead, there may be a period of time allowed for the purchaser to have a home inspection inspection, to line up financing under certain terms, to check the title, etc. In this situation, the property is “under contract” but not sold, so other offers may be made. Such offers may also be accepted by a seller, usually as back-up agreements -- meaning they have no value unless the first offer falls through.

E-mail us your Real Estate questions at Cathyah@aol.com. Thinking of selling your home? Call Cathy & Jim Higgins, Licensed Broker/Realtors in Indiana & Illinois. IN: 219-865-4361 IL: 708-828-3304. McColly Real Estate. Website: www.Cathyhiggins. com. Personal Real Estate Journal: www. Higginshousechat.blogspot.com in material and an hour on a Saturday and that hole is history. But when the buyer sees that hole… “IT’S A $500 HOLE”.

Selling a home “as-is” has the advantage of relieving the seller of the hassle of having to fix stuff and if the seller lives far away the hassle factor can be substantial. But there is a cost. In addition to the buyer overestimating the expense of doing repairs, there is another consideration. Buyers don’t seem to mind spending money on things they can see-like remodeling a kitchen or buying new furniture. But doing repairs to systems or fixing structure issues might just send them running to find another place needing less work.

If you are looking to buy or sell real estate call Mike Buder at RE/MAX 10 (708) 418-4444, E-mail: mikebuder@remax.net, Website: www.BuderHomes.com. Facebook Friend request Mike Buder: your comments are always welcome.

Mike Buder

A local Christian Businessman

YOU LOVE IT. YOU WANT IT.

YOU GOT TA HAVE IT.

Submitted By Patrick Zamkin

We all want to stay healthy and live independently throughout our retirement years. Unfortunately, that won’t be possible for some of us, so it’s a good idea to be prepared for health-related challenges — such as the need for long-term care.

As you may know, long-term care covers a variety of services, ranging from occasional visits from a home health aide to full-time residency in a nursing home. But while these types of care may vary in duration and intensity, they all have one thing in common — they’re expensive. Genworth, an insurance company, reports these median annual costs:

• Over $100,000 for a private room in a nursing home

• Over $60,000 for the services of a home health aide

Furthermore, Medicare typically pays very few of these expenses, which means the burden of payment will likely fall on you — or, even worse, on your adult children if you can’t afford the care you need.

Of course, you could hope that you will avoid these costs simply by not requiring any type of assistance — but the odds aren’t necessarily in your favor. In fact, someone turning 65 today has an almost 70% chance of needing some type of long-term care services in their remaining years, according to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services.

So, how can you protect yourself from the potentially enormous costs of long-term care? You could decide that you’ll pay out of pocket — if so, you’ll need to incorporate into your retirement budget a reasonable estimate of potential long-term care costs, and you may need to make some significant changes to your saving and investment plans. And the earlier you begin, the better.

Your other option is to purchase some form of long-term care insurance. Essentially, three types of coverage are available:

Traditional long-term care insurance –

A traditional long-term care policy covers long-term care expenses in your home or at a nursing facility. But policies will differ in terms of what services are covered and how benefits are paid. And you may also be able to choose whether you want inflation protection. Also, with some policies, you can deduct the premiums from your state and federal taxes. (Your tax advisor can evaluate a policy you’re considering for potential tax benefits.)

Hybrid long-term care insurance – In addition to providing coverage for home health care or a nursing home stay, a hybrid long-term care policy also offers a death benefit, so if you never need long-term care, your family could benefit from the policy’s proceeds.

Life insurance with a long-term care rider – You can find a life insurance policy that lets you add long-term care coverage through a “rider,” or optional add-on. With this type of policy, you can use some of the death benefit to pay for your long-term care needs.

Which policy is best for you? There’s no one right answer for everyone. A financial professional can help you evaluate all your options within the context of your overall investment and protection strategies. But keep in mind that all long-term care policies tend to get more expensive as you get older, so if you’re considering this type of coverage, you may want to get started sooner rather than later.

Edward Jones is a licensed insurance producer in all states and Washington, D.C., through Edward D. Jones & Co., L.P., and in California, New Mexico and Massachusetts through Edward Jones Insurance Agency of California, L.L.C.; Edward Jones Insurance Agency of New Mexico, L.L.C.; and Edward Jones Insurance Agency of Massachusetts, L.L.C. This article was written by Edward Jones for use by your local Edward Jones Financial Advisor, Patrick Zamkin, located at 18735 Dixie Hwy, Homewood, IL 60430. Contact us at (708) 798-9066. Edward Jones. Member SIPC.