Marshall County Post

Marshall County Post, Thursday April 11, 2024— 5A M eetings and Hap- penings are pub- lished at no cost and there is no guarantee of publication. Marshall County Child Dev. Center & Chil- dren’s Center for Au- tism will host the Help- ing Hands Golf Classic, Thursday, May 9, spon- sored by Waste Manage- ment. If you would like to participate as a spon- sor, player, or donor, call 931-684-8681. * April 11 – La Leche League of Lewisburg will meet Thursday from 10:30 a.m. to 12 p.m. at the Marshall County Me- morial Library. * April 13 - Nick May- er Chevrolet GMC Lew- isburg will host a Cruise In with the Tennessee Valley Corvette Club on April 13 from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the dealer- ship, 861 North Elling- ton Parkway, Lewisburg. Bring your Corvette, Hot Rod, or Antique Car. Food trucks will be on site. Free Admission. All proceeds from sponsor- ships will go to HOPE- town of Lewisburg. For more information or to sign on as a sponsor, con- tact Carl Grammatico at 931-334-3185. * April 16 - The Mar- shall County Board of Public Utilities will hold its regular monthly meet- ing Tuesday, April 16 at 9 a.m. at 624 West Com- merce Street in the Doug Rogers Board Room. * April 16 - The City of Lewisburg Planning & Zoning Commission will meet in their regular session on Tuesday, April 16 at 4 p.m., at Lewis- burg City Hall, 131 East Church Street. * April 16 - The Lewis- burg Parks & Recreation Advisory Board will hold their regular meeting Tuesday, April 16, 5 p.m., in the large conference room at the Lewisburg Recreation Center, 1551 Mooresville Hwy. * April 17 - The Budget Committee for the City of Lewisburg will meet on Wednesday, April 17 at 2 p.m., at Lewisburg City Hall, 131 E. Church Street. * April 18 – Lewis- burg FCE will meet at the Sr. Center in the Hardi- son Annex at 1 p.m. * April 21 – The Mar- shall County Amateur Radio Society will meet Sunday at 2 p.m. at the Hardison Annex at 230 College Street. For more info, contact Phil Dyer at 931-993-2413 * April 22 - The Air- port Board of the City of Lewisburg will meet Monday, April 22, 2024, 2 p.m., at Lewisburg El- lington Airport, 1877 Franklin Pike. * April 23 - The Mar- shall County Emergency Communications District Board of Directors will have their regular sched- uled monthly meeting on Tuesday, April 23 at 9 a.m. The meeting will be held at the Marshall County EOC office located at 230 Col- lege St. * April 23 - Lewisburg Gas Dept. Monthly Board Meeting, Tuesday at 3:30 p.m. at 505 N. Ellington Pkwy. * April 27 – The an- nual meeting of the Co- chran Cemetery Board of Directors will be April 27 at 2 p.m. at Shoney’s Restaurant, 431 N El- lington Pkwy. If you are interested in serving and participating in the future of Cochran Cem- etery, please plan to at- tend. * April 29 - Lewisburg Electric System will hold their regular monthly meeting Monday April 29th, at 5 p.m., at the Lewisburg Electric Sys- tem, located at 599 West Ellington Pkwy. * April 30 - The Com- munity Development Board of the City of Lew- isburg will hold their regular monthly meeting Tuesday April 30th at 12:00 p.m., at the Histor- ic 1st Ave Building, locat- ed at 207 1st Ave. North. * April 30 - The Cem- etery Advisory Board of the City of Lewisburg will hold a meeting Tuesday April 30, 2024, at 4 p.m., at Lewisburg City Hall, 131 E. Church Street. * May 9 – La Leche League of Lewisburg will meet at the Marshall County Memorial Li- brary at 10:30 – noon on Thursday, May 9. * May 9 – Junior’s House Blue Ribbon Walk at the Lincoln County Fairgrounds. To sign up and to sponsor: www.Ju- niorshousecac.org * May 10 – Corners- ville kindergarten gradu- ation, Friday at 8:30 a.m. * May 13 – There will be a VFW meeting at the VFW Building, May 13 at 6:30 p.m. All combat veterans are encouraged to be a part of the Lew- isburg Veteran commu- nity. Dear Savvy Senior, Can you recommend some good cell phones for seniors? My 79-year- old mother needs to get a new mobile phone and has asked me to help her fi nd one that she would like. Searching Daughter Dear Searching, For older adults, choosing a cell phone is not a one-size- fi ts-all proposition. Some se- niors love the latest high- tech smartphones with high-megapixel cameras, while others prioritize simple phones with ba- sic functions. So, the best cell phone for your mom will depend on her com- fort with technology, pri- orities and budget. Best Cell Phones To help identify the best cell phones for older adults, I consulted Wire- cutter, a product testing and recommendation service from The New York Times who recent- ly tested 18 cell phone models. Their testing focus was on three di ff erent areas, including best phones for older adults who are comfortable with technology and want to upgrade to a full- featured smartphone with robust accessibility settings; best cell phones for seniors who are not tech-inclined or who pre- fer a smartphone with fewer features, as well as those who are experi- encing vision, hearing, or dexterity issues; and best cell phones for elderly seniors who need speci fi c accessibility features due to physical or cognitive issues. Here are their top choices based on their tests. Apple iPhone 15 Plus: This is a great choice if your mom is comfortable with tech- nology and willing to spend more for a top-tier smartphone with a range of accessibility, health, and safety features. The 15 Plus has an easy-to- read, large (6.7-inch) screen and the most ro- bust health and safety features, including an o ff -grid SOS, a personal- safety check, and plenty of customizable acces- sibility options that help seniors with vision and hearing loss, as well as with speaking and/ or dexterity problems. ($899, apple.com). Google Pixel 8: If your mom has been using an Android device and is more comfortable with this operating system, the Pixel 8 is a high-end, reasonably priced smart- phone that tops their list for older adults. It too has a sharp, large (6.7-inch) screen with an excellent camera and many health, safety, and accessibility features that can help se- niors with vision impair- ment, hearing loss, hand tremors and more. And it costs signi fi cantly less than the new Samsung Galaxy and iPhone mod- els. ($699, store.google. com). Lively Jitterbug Smart4: If your mom wants a simpli fi ed smartphone that’s very a ff ordable, she might prefer this model. Like the Apple 15 Plus and Google Pixel 8, the Jit- terbug Smart4 also has a 6.7-inch screen, but this phone comes with a list- based menu (no icons) that provides easy navi- gation. It also o ff ers voice commands capabilities, and a number of health and safety services in- cluding a 24/7 emergen- cy monitoring service. This phone would also work well for people with memory or vision issues. ($150, lively.com). RAZ Mobility Memory Cell Phone: This phone is speci fi - cally designed for seniors with memory issues or more-advanced cogni- tive decline. Its unclut- tered, simple functional- ity allows users to stay in touch with family and friends while also reduc- ing common problems such as unnecessary calls to emergency ser- vices, spam, and fraud. It also has a dedicated SOS link on the screen that can alert up to three contacts; has GPS track- ing capabilities; provides caregiver controls and more. ($349, razmobil- ity.com). Snapfon ez4G: This is a non-smartphone if your mom doesn’t want or need all the function- ality of a full-featured smartphone. This simple cell phone provides large buttons, big screen type and an SOS emergency button on the back of the phone that will alert up to fi ve preselected contacts by call and text. ($100, snapfon.com). Send your senior questions to: Savvy Se- nior, P.O. Box 5443, Norman, OK 73070, or visit SavvySenior.org. Jim Miller is a contribu- tor to the NBC Today show and author of “The Savvy Senior” book. Budge Huskey Special to the Herald-Tribune L ast week the National Association of Real- tors announced a settle- ment agreement in the Sitzer Burnett case that would take e ff ect in July. For those who missed the declarations in the media that this outcome will render transacting real estate almost free, protect consumers, and make homeownership a ff ordable once again, the settlement does none of that. Here’s the truth. 1. The settlement forces brokers to reduce their compensation. False. The settlement in no way establishes a stan- dard or limitation on Realtors for what they may charge, nor servic- es they elect to deliver. Those fees have always been negotiable and there has never been any collective bargaining. In every market, there is a wide variety of fees, just as there are levels of marketing, service and competence. 2. The settlement will, for the fi rst time, al- low sellers to no longer pay compensation for an agent bringing the buy- er. False. There has never been an obligation for a sell- er to pay buyer agent compensation, yet it is a practice that’s worked well. A past rule requir- ing an o ff er of some amount of compensation was a rule of display on a Realtor-owned MLS, yet it could have been as low as $1. That limitation was removed and today the MLS accepts all list- ings, regardless of buyer agent consideration. 3. The settlement prohibits sellers from paying a commission to a buyer’s agent and relieves sellers of the fi - nancial burden. False. The mandate re- stricts properties with an o ff er of buyer agent compensation from dis- playing on association- owned MLS, yet the practice can’t be restrict- ed in any other form of marketing. Sellers may still elect to pay buyer agent compensation to di ff erentiate their prop- erties. While sellers can elect not to pay buyer agent compensation, that doesn’t mean they will avoid the economics as buyers may write into any o ff er a contingency requiring the seller to cover the cost or request other concessions. 4. The settlement will serve to meaningfully lower prices and make homeownership a ff ord- able again. False. Values in real estate are determined by sup- ply and demand. Fees in a real estate transaction represent additional expenses, yet these in- clude not only commis- sions but many other related charges. Should real estate commissions be reduced by 1% be- cause of compression, that $500,000 home will now cost $495,000. Not only is the poten- tial impact marginal at best, but do you think the seller now believes the home is worth less and will happily give the di ff erence to the buyer? The reason home owner- ship is increasingly less a ff ordable is that homes in our market have sig- ni fi cantly risen in value these last few years. 5. The settlement is a win for buyers who will now be able to negotiate the fee for representa- tion. Questionable. For readers who have purchased homes, it is more than likely you were happy to have the seller compensate your agent so you didn’t have to. For buyers who had to provide the down payment and closing expenses, having the commission paid by the seller and incorporated in the home price al- lowed them to fi nance the amount over time instead of coming up with additional cash at closing. 6. The settlement will result in signi fi cant restitution to consum- ers who were “harmed” over recent years in their transactions by Real- tors. False. The settlement is huge, yet when one di- vides the amount by the number of potentially qualifying consumers it works out to about $10 per person. Those ben- e fi ting are the attorneys who have submitted a request to the court for over $80 million in fees. As a real estate pro- fessional for about 40 years, I have had the privilege of working with Realtors who rep- resent the public in what is likely their largest in- vestment. What I have witnessed are the count- less situations where an agent has gone above and beyond to help buy- ers realize their dreams and sellers maximize their returns, often serv- ing in ways far beyond their job description. Everyone would like to see costs lowered yet I do not see the De- partment of Justice go- ing after attorneys or other professions we wish would charge less. I always believed in the concept of free enter- prise. If one is willing to assume the risk of run- ning a business, one may do so at rates that allow a reasonable return for the capital investment and time. As I share with my sales professionals, you wake up every day unemployed and have to fi nd a job. Then you spend out of pocket and don’t make a cent unless you achieve someone else’s goals. The brokerage com- munity has always adapted to best repre- sent buyers and sellers whenever there is a shift in the environment. And we will again. Yet when an industry I love is singled out and the jus- ti fi cation is for false rea- sons, none of us should be quiet. Rich Cosner is the president / owner of Coldwell Banker South- ern Realty. Rich Cosner, president of Coldwell Banker Southern Realty, says don’t believe National Association of Realtors settlement myths Meetings and Happenings Best Cell Phones for Seniors