ChGK in the Prairie

Chapter 14: The Way Forward

Since July 4 fell on a Thursday, the team didn't take part in any ChGK tournament, and outpatient services were closed. It also meant the Congressional debate club's Thursday session was postponed to Friday.

Come Friday night, where the patients in the club learn, depending on where they are in the learning curve, notions of logic, critical thinking, speechcraft, government or other areas of civics the club volunteers and administrators deem important for the patients to be able to function in the outside world. Once again, Catria meets with both Ainslee and Patricia after that session ends:

"Finally, I got my ACT score back. I got a thirty-one" Catria announces to her.

"Now is the time to finish your application and then submit it! My only reservation is that you need to keep a close watch on any alcohol craving you might get in college" Ainslee warns her patient. "It's not that you're not smart; after all I saw people who aren't anywhere near as smart as you graduate from college"

It's in the bag! There might be other colleges who might be better academic fits, but Ainslee was right: alcoholism was a risk that's much harder to control if I went to college anywhere outside this city, Catria muses as she finishes reporting her ACT subscores into UMKC's system and she then stands ready to submit it.

"May you remain alcohol-free and study well in college!" Patricia makes her wish.

But before Patricia could even think of getting a mortgage preapproval, she believes the time has come to start looking at the house call data she has in greater detail, and then start looking at the neighborhoods with the most house calls within KCK. Personally, I'm not much of a renovator, so I'd rather buy a home with small-time repairs at most, which I believe I could handle with a bit of patience. Or otherwise without having to throw too much money at the repair, Patricia starts thinking while she peruses the house listings in the neighborhoods.

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And so it happens that so many of those properties fitting her criteria are foreclosures. But she heard a couple horror stories about foreclosures from her father that she stays away from foreclosures. Which means she might need to fork over more cash to get the same size of home, even in a neighborhood that otherwise fits what she wants out of a property. Not that she necessarily feels like she needs that much home to live the way she wants.

"This starts to worry me. You say you want to move into some of the more drug-ridden and dangerous neighborhoods of KCK for... job-related reasons?" Patricia's father asks her.

"You know I work in a psychiatric hospital and house calls can save patients' lives. Sometimes a house call may require paperwork being filed in an emergency for the patient to receive life-saving treatment. You should know by now how vulnerable an addiction outpatient can be, especially at early stages of recovery!" Patricia retorts.

"Please forgive me for not knowing about addiction recovery. Sometimes you sound like a drug addiction counselor. But even if you could inspect, appraise a property, and all that, foreclosure can be a nightmare because a title search will turn up liens and other claims on the property by their former owners' debtors. Normally the title search should be done by the lawyer you will engage to file the paperwork, and it's a pretty standard deal for real estate lawyers to offer. Sometimes they will offer discounts on one to entice you to do the other. Remember also that foreclosed properties are sold as-is, and banks will often attempt to sell them without allowing the potential buyers to inspect the property, or to visit it. Banks are notoriously opaque as sellers, and often foreclosed homes are in poorer condition"

A lien on property is what makes collateral, well, collateral. It gives a creditor the right to repossess title on property (the collateral) if debts aren't repaid. If the collateral is repossessed and later sold, the liens usually disappear, but not the debts. My daughter can understand that just fine, but there are other things I never told her about foreclosures until now, Patricia's father then muses on what a lien is. However, he does not feel it's appropriate to tell her about lien seniority. Which is more relevant to what happens to the former owner's debts than to the buyer of the foreclosed property.