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May 2026 - Newsletter

It's my Birthday month! The best gift you could give is a read & a referral!



This post may contain affiliate links. If you click the link, I may earn a small commission—at no extra cost to you.


📸 Lincoln NE Area Market Snapshot


This market is feeling more balanced but well priced and well maintained are still moving quickly. The interest rates have been going up a little but I think people are finally becoming numb or normalized to them. Last year seemed to be quite a bit slower and like everyone was still shocked into little action. This year they are realizing lifestyle matters and a big part of that is where you live so the lock in effect seems to be less of a topic. Overall, we're seeing a more balanced market emerge, which is good news for both sides of the transaction.


For Buyers: You may have more options and slightly less competition, but desirable homes are still selling fast, so being prepared matters.


For Sellers: Buyer demand remains strong, and homes that are priced correctly and show well continue to sell quickly and for strong prices.




👫 Realtor Matchmaking


I want you to know a little more about why I'm building :

My Favorite Realtors - A Realtor Matchmaking Service


Many of you know that I'm passionate about educating people on real estate through my No-BS Home Buyer Live series. I truly believe that informed buyers and sellers make better decisions and have a much less stressful experience. These transaction are some of the largest they will make in their lifetime and I don't take that lightly.


That's a big part of why I started My Favorite Realtors. My goal is to help more people by providing free education and connecting them with Realtors who are the right fit for their unique situation—whether they're buying their first home, investing, relocating, or selling across the country.


Right now, I'm helping past clients sell their Nebraska home and relocate to another state. Their move involves a contingency purchase and a challenging timeline & life circumstances, so finding the right agent on the other end was critical! Being able to connect them with a Realtor who understands those complexities has been just as important as helping them with the sale here.


Honestly another part of my vision is creating a business that allows me to continue helping people while having more flexibility to work remotely and spend time with my family. To make that possible, I need your help!


If you hear someone talking about buying, selling, investing, or relocating, I'd be grateful if you'd send them my way.


Whether they need education, advice, or a great Realtor, I'd love the opportunity to help!


You can always send me a text, give me a call or start a group message with the person that needs some help otherwise you can also fill out this form:

Click to be Matched or Refer Someone Else!


I truly appreciate any help and look forward to meeting the important people in your life and helping them make important decisions!




📝 A Note from Your Favorite Realtor


My birthday month was a great month! Don't worry i'm not actually someone that celebrates the whole month. I'm more of a celebrate the day by doing mostly the same stuff you do everyday. I will tell you though I don't feel bad if my gift to myself is not on my actual birthday, and yes there will be a gift to myself.


This year it's a massage! On sale of course - I found a May special that she is willing to honor after May. Which thinking about I need to confirm the time (she is out of town until the 1st).


Anyway I'll give you the May recap and then you can look at all the pictures I forget to post on social media...


Our May consisted of finding an egg growing inside of an egg, a hospital visit, camping, golf, baseball game, more camping, and some cake & chocolate covered strawberries for my Birthday! There has definitely been some business strewn in there too but I promise you don't want the photos of random houses before they are ready to list 😂 I know you are just here for the photos of the cute kids!


For Mother's Day we decided we needed to use up Eliezer's extra vacation days so we made a little extended camping trip to the Black Hills in SD. On the way up there we got to stop by Norfolk and see the cousins. We even got to watch Adalynn throw shot put (Eliezer's old track event of choice) and discus. It was pretty fun to see Ezrael cheer on his cousin seeing her PR and even encourage a distance breaking grunt!


We were a little worried we weren't going to be able to make the trip because just before our trip we were in the emergency room for Ezrael because he had pnemonia and was doing some of what is known as retraction breathing. Luckily it was a quick trip and probably over worried parents but he got treated and feeling better. (We know we will have another medical bill coming in from this, if you are in the same boat be sure to check the Money Tip today as we touch on how I saved $1,100 recently on a medical bill)


The thing we got really worried about was Evany catching it too. The night we spent in Norfolk I did not sleep as she was breathing funny. So we hit urgent care as soon as it opened the next morning and got her looked at (no pnemonia but a double ear infection). After some treatment we were given the okay to keep going and just be extra mindful of her breathing too.


Once we made it to the Black Hills everything was good. Everyone was feeling good and we got to enjoy some beautiful mountain and nature views, a chuckwagon dinner with live music, mostly nice camping weather, Mount Rushmore, the Badlands, WallDrug and Mitchell SD KOA. It was a lovely trip spent with my little family and the kids managed the long drives a lot better than we expected.


The rest of the month seemed to go by pretty quick. I got back and had a Realtor golf tournament and i'm proud to say we did use a few of my hits! My goal was at least 1 so that was exceeded and I even had a few successful putts. The holes were sponsored by different companies and one even had a fishing contest in the pond on the course. I sadly did not catch a fish (very disappointed in myself) so I did not take home the prize of $5 but two of my coworkers did!


Evany attended her very first baseball game and it was a Salt Dogs Friday Night Fireworks so she also got to see her first fireworks! Ezrael got to run the bases at the end too. We were quite impressed with his ability to stay seated for the whole game watching intently. We already have plans to go to two more games.


Did you know if you don't use a Salt Dogs ticket on a certain day you can exchange them for another game?!


Did you also know that Lincoln Libraries give away Salt Dogs tickets with their summer reading program?! Learn more in Ezrael & Evany Exclusive section!


We actually won a 4 pack of Salt Dogs tickets from a Realtor event - Thank you BB Roofing for sponsoring the prize pack! Since we only used 2 tickets we get to go again (kids 2 and under don't need a ticket - unless they want their own seat but honestly there was a lot of extra seats around us anyway).


For Memorial Day we took our hail beaten camper (yep it was outside in Crete when the hail came down, pretty good golf ball sized hail) out to Mahoney and spent the weekend up there camping. We did a little trail to the tower, cooked yummy food, fished with no luck, went to a melodrama (Ezrael is meh about them so far), and played on the playgrounds a lot.


Lastly for my Birthday it was a pretty normal day! We went to a Commercial meeting in the office. Then Ezrael helped me pick out my cake at Wholefoods. I was fully prepared to get the Chantilly cake (which come to find out is a cult favorite), but Ezrael was insistent on the Chocolate Mousse cake. So we made a compromise and got a mini Chantilly cupcake and the regular Chocolate Mousse one too! It was my birthday calories don't count...😉


All in all May was a great month I look forward to a busy June in business and life! Here are the photos for May - if you actually read thank you!



Wishing you a pleasant June with lots to do and learn!




👶🏼👧 Ezrael & Evany Exclusive


Summer Fun for Cheap


School is out which means the kids will be craving entertainment! Check out some neat resources i've come across so far:



Do your kiddos love bowling?!


Even if they don't and you just want something new to do be sure to sign up for Kids Bowl Free! They get 2 free games per day per person *check your local bowling alleys that participate for days/hours.


Now this is nearly free or possibly free if your kiddo has bowling shoes. Otherwise you will need to rent the bowling shoes. They have a great affordable add-on options to add 2 adults for $34.99, or 4 adults for $39.99 for the summer season.


This is a National Program so shoes, and adult passes pricing may vary but there is no denying this is a pretty sweet deal!


We are going to try it out tomorrow with our friends/past clients that introduced this to us!


Would love if you use my affiliate link to sign up or share too :)




I came across this in a Facebook group but thought it was a pretty neat resource!


It has a calendar of Family Friendly Activities, Google Map/Calendar, Housing resources and Food resources. I wish I knew who to credit it to but I cannot remember exactly where I found it on FB.


It can be a quick and easy way to check the daily calendar and you can even do a quick add to your own calendar!!!




This one is also local but in general it is great to check your local libraries for activities - they often have something for all ages!


They have a reading challenge where if you read 10 hours, do 8 out 20 activies, and visit the library 4 times you can get lots of prizes. Even just registering qualifies you for prizes! The theme is Unearth a Story so they have lot's of Dinosaur related activities across the different libraries this Summer.


Hope to see you at some of the events or out and about reading! Here are the prize details!


Every person who registers for the Summer Reading Challenge will receive:


All ages completing the Summer Reading Challenge will receive the following coupons:


Children will receive these additional coupons:


Teens will receive these additional coupons:


Adults will receive these additional coupons:


Completion coupons will be available beginning on June 15!


What free/cheap things are you doing this summer?




💰 Money Tip


Medical bills can be a big unexpected bill (in our case expected) and can really derail your finances. I beg you to always try to negotiate them!


As you know we recently had a baby and she was born in the hospital so we were aware we were going to need to be bringing some money to cover the cost. However I did not stand idly by and let me run me over without questioning what was going on.


So let me give you a quick breakdown of what I did to help negotiate down our medical bill!


  1. I got the itemized statement and went through everything. Here's what I found

    1. They charged us the highest level of emergency triage.

    2. They charged us a level II nursing care.

    3. Everything else seemed reasonable (other than the cost of a single tylenol pill but that wasn't where I was most concerned).

  2. After reviewing the itemized statement I called to let them know I thought things were incorrectly coded.

    1. Regarding the emergency I told them I walked in just fine, and it was clear noone was dying. You might not have known I was even in labor when I walked in, I was managing contractions very well!

    2. Level II nursing after looking it up is typically for babies that are born 32-37 weeks or full term babies with respiratory problems. Evany had absolutely no problems and the nurses barely came in so I was really dumb struck by this one.

  3. I explained my reasoning for those two items and asked for them to review them. I was disappointed how this turned out but still glad I got practice trying to fight it.

    1. They told me it doesn't matter if I felt it wasn't an emergency but that every person that comes in to have a baby unless they are scheduled to be there (like a planned c-section) will be triaged at the highest level of emergency. They declined to adjust that.

    2. They also told me that because my baby had a specific blood type that she was at a higher risk of jaundice thus it required a higher level of nurse care. This one still pissed me off quite frankly. They maybe tested her bilirubin levels two more times than a normal baby and only out of precaution. All of her tests (which is just a little instrument held to her skin for a few seconds) came in under the threshold. None the less my request to go to a level I nursing care was also declined.

  4. Once they finalized that my bill did not need adjusted in anyway they sent the final bill.

    1. Upon receiving the final bill I'll be honest I kind of forgot about it in all the hub-bub of having a baby and filed it in my to do later pile.

    2. Then I got another bill saying our account is past due and I freaked out a little inside because I knew I was going to try to get a discount once I got it. Just hadn't had the time to do it. I wanted to negotiate with the hospital not collections so internally I was freaking out!

  5. Upon receiving the past due notice I called the customer service line to see if I could negotiate a better price.

    1. Queue ChatGPT who helped me with some wording when asking for a discount. It encouraged me to ask for a lump-sum pay off amount or self-pay discount.

    2. I got on the phone with the call center first and they declined to offer anything. So I asked to be sent to a supervisor.

    3. Once on the phone with the supervisor I was very polite and asked if I could get a self-pay discount. She then put in a request and told me to call back in a week or two.

    4. I called back in 1 week and 6 days to follow up on the self-pay discount. Initially they said because it was run through insurance there is no self-pay discount. I politely told him we had a sum of money saved up to pay the bill but it wasn't quite the $5,500 we owed and asked for a lump-sum pay off amount. He suggested a financial assistance plan but I let him know we would not qualify and that I would like to get it done today. He put me on hold for a few minutes and came back saying he could do a 20% discount!!!

    5. I tried to counter so I could get the bill closer to $3,500 but his response was we could set you up on a 3 month payment plan at the 20% off price. I put him on hold and then came back saying we would take the 20% off and pay today.

  6. I paid the discounted bill.

    1. Please note if the credit card is not in your name the persons you are using has to be there to verify (Eliezer has better credit card points so we were going to use his for this payment). However I just wanted to get it done and not deal with call centers anymore so we put it on mine (paying off the cc right away of course!)


Moral of the story: Don't Give Up! You could save over $1,000 or more too!


I also tried this on a different much much smaller sum of $300 with a different provider (Children's Hospital). I called and asked for a discount. I didn't try very hard and ended up paying it right on the phone. Which i'm kicking myself for, because later that day they called me back sounding like they were ready to negotiate but then said, "Oh I see that you paid in full, nevermind."


Aka they were going to play ball! Lesson learned wait a week (or a day) to see if they will work with you!


General Tips:

  • Always review the itemized receipt. If you aren't sure what it means google it.

  • Politeness will get you much further than anger.

  • The people on the phone are just employees treat them nicely and they may know of a loophole or way to work with you.

  • Give it time. Put follow up calls in your calendar so you don't forget.

  • Always ask for a discount!

  • Make sure they are looking at all of the bills when negotiating a price. Since it was a birth myself and my daughter were billed so they were able to combine them to over $5,000 giving the 20% discount.

  • You may be offered a pay it now price when you leave the hospital for a discount. Ours was 10% and we considered it but we declined because it was an estimated bill not the actual bill, plus it was going to be run through insurance. Also we ended up getting 20% off.

  • They don't send you straight to collections, I asked because I was worried about waiting two weeks to get an update. It normally takes a little over 3 months of statements being sent before they will send you to collections (This is not something to mess around with though. Collections will affect your credit score).


How do you save money with big bills?




🌟 Featured Listing - Coming Soon


I have a listing that is COMING SOON that might look a little familiar!!!


You are right you lucky ducks - 2241 W Laguna Rd - is going to be for sale!


$275,000

3 bed | 2 bath | 2 car garage | HOA with Lake Access!!!


We are planning to go live on Thursday so mark your calendar and enjoy the past video - I was pregnant with Ezrael when this was filmed... Crazy how time flies


Put the Open house on your calendar:

Friday 4-6pm

Saturday 2-4pm


Who do you know that is looking for an awesome house with some great neighbors?!




💁🏼‍♀️ Stacy's Pick - Scholarship Opportunity


The Realtor's Association of Nebraska gives out a $1,000 Scholarships each year so if you or someone you know meets the following criteria be sure to apply!!!


Applicant Qualification Criteria

- A college junior or senior in good standing for the academic year scholarship is received, OR a post-graduate student in good standing seeking an advanced degree. 

- If a college junior or senior undergraduate: Enrolled as a full-time student at one of the University of Nebraska campuses. 

- Working toward a degree in Business Administration or Construction Management. 

- Additionally, all finalists are required to attend a personal interview as part of selection process. 


Deadline June 16th!!!





💸 Free Resources

Realtor Matchmaking Guide
Realtor Matchmaking Guide

Secrets of a Successful Transaction
Secrets of a Successful Transaction











All of these Free Resources can also be found on our Realtor Matchmaking Site:


You can also find Lincoln Nebraska Local Resources here:



Wanting something else specific? Let me know, i'd love to offer more value!



🎯 Goal Tracking


Accountability 101 - Goal tracking update.

We had another closing this month and though our goal tracker is looking a little skimpy I am still feeling good about this year! We have quite a bit in the hopper it's just that not a whole lot of people are in the "have to move this moment" category. Which in reality is a good thing - that means they get to take their time and not feel like they have to do something (aka make decisions under pressure).


I was hoping to have a featured listing and a coming soon but the one I wanted to feature already went under contract with multiple offers so that is a great problem to have!


Any referrals you have to help us achieve our goal are greatly appreciated and we would love to celebrate with you if we can fill our tracker 💗


🥂 Cheers


Let's have a fantastic June!


-The Fernandez Family




 
 
 
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