says don't worry trust us, that is political code speak for the exact opposite. david: number one thing to watch. april housing starts and building permits. they expect to rise 3.4% from a 2.8 last month. gerri: hello, everybody, i'm gerri willis, right now on "the willis report"? veterans affairs secretary on the hot seat over appalling treatment of vets. >> any adverse incident like this makes me mad as hell. gerri: he may be mad as hell but what is he going to do about it? also, wholesale prices for food are skyrocketing. big prices could soon hit supermarket shelves. the right way to invest and make money in real estate. we're watching out for you on "the willis report." gerri: gm customers were hit with no less than five safety recalls today, affecting nearly

three million vehicles. the new problems include both mechanical and electrical issues, some of them very serious that could lead to a crash. in fact gm says, hundreds of its customers have already complained about the problems. for more on this, lauren fix, the car coach. so let me break this down. five new recalls, 2.7 million vehicles recalled. we've had 17 crashes. some of the stuff, it is not just a rear view mirror, it is serious, serious stuff that can affect folks. here is my question for you tonight, lauren, is this gm trying to keep us safe or gm trying to cover its you know what? >> well you know, that can be looked at two different perspectives. i think if you own one of these cars you might be angry and you probably have every right to be angry that it has taken this long for this to happen. but, if you're thinking about buying these cars or maybe you're hoping gm will come around, jeff boyer is really saying, you know what? we had only 25 safety inspectors. we now have 50. they have doubled safety

inspectors and finding all these recalls. gerri: they didn't know about this before? they didn't know about this before? i mean, come on! i don't even own a gm car, okay? >> i don't own a gm car either. that doesn't mean anything. every manufacturer has recalls. we can't blame it 100% on gm. the fact that a lot of these have been sitting around from '09, 2011. and nhtsa comes up with a recall with a data blip -- this is old gm before mary barra because she can't be blamed for all of these problems. that is ridiculous. gerri: all right. okay. mary spent her entire career at company was also a safety engineer as well. >> true. gerri: look, it is true the government demands a lot and recalls are common but gm has 10 million recalls. 10 million cars recalled and it's may, okay? it's may. for 2014, 10 million recalls. it is only may. this is performance i don't know

that we've ever seen before. have we ever seen that many cars recalled in the space of five months? >> actually, probably not. if you look at total number, toyota has more recalls than gm es special with the unintended acceleration case which many of us covered in depth. this is right now has not affected their sales. they have huge sales in china. we don't know exactly how it will affect full year sales here for the u.s. marketplace. i'll tell you what. people that are -- considering buying a car and have a choice of gm car or another brand, whatever brand that might be it might cause them to purchase that other brand. it could also cause people that have that brand to never go back to gm cars. that is really a shame. they have some great product out now. if you have a car, even a corvette which is such a shock, you have brake problem, electrical problem, a wiper program, these are serious problems. this isn't just like a doorknob. gerri: break it down and show the cars being recalled today. we have a chevy malibu, 2004,

2012. series of full screens for you here. pardon me. and some of the stuff, serious. malibu has malfunctioning hydraulic brakes. the silverado, the sierra, a tie rod defect which i understand has to do with steering. crews control issues with some of these makes and models -- cruise control. if you own one of these cars, please get in touch with your dealership, get this fixed. get it behind you so you don't worry about this and don't face being in an accident because of something wrong with your car. i want to read you one comment from one of these gm officials. you mentioned him earlier, jeff boyar, the new gm vice president of global safety. he says this, customer safety is at the heart of how gm designs and produces vehicles. these announcements of examples of two ways we're putting that into practice. >> well i think that they waited way too long. part of that they didn't have

enough safety inspectors. i don't think bankruptcy could not support all the fines from federal government. all additional expenses. on dealer to do repairs. they bill the corporate manufacturer of general motors and get their money back. if they didn't have the money because they were in bankruptcy that is a serious problem. definitely as consumer i would be very concerned. not if you own the car, if you have a friend, family member, acquaintance, see someone with one of these cars, tell them, if you have this car, go to the dealers. if you have tie rod customer problems and call the dealer they will flatbed it to the dealership and get it prepared. gm is being very proactive on gm's part. if i had one of these cars i would be have reservation, what now, what next. there is lot more on the plate i know of behind the scenes people told me they got the problem. keep contacting nhtsa and reported problems and many still don't have recalls yet this day not on this list. gerri: flatbedding a tie rod is

nice. being proactive would not having a problem in the first place. >> agreed. gerri: i feel at this point, i'm shocked. things have to go better. i think it is, i think this is really more of a cover your rear end move than anything else. >> it probably is, when it comes to nhtsa coming after you and all the bills and all the pr moves. you really want to be preactive now. a little late though. gerri: thanks, lauren. >> thank you. >> we want to know what you think. here's our question tonight. are you steering clear of gm because of the recalls? log on to gerriwillis.com. vote on the right-hand side of the korean. i will show the results at the end of tonight's show. we will have the list of all gm makes and models that have been recalled on my website, gerriwillis.com. go there for that. meantime another outrageous story today. veterans affair secretary eric shinseki in the hot seat today. he was grilled on capitol hill on allegations that veterans died waiting for medical care

while officials masked long waying times for appointments. >> any adverse incident like this makes me as, makes me mad as hell. >> would you explain to me after knowing all this information why you should not resign? >> i came here to make things better for veterans. gerri: but things aren't better for veterans. here to weigh in pete hegseth, ceo of concerned veterans of america. when the head of va thinks he is mad as hell, makes him think he is victim of these problems, not the guy who is supposed to fix them. how did you react to his testimony today? >> i found his testimony extremely disappointing. it was deceptive. it was defensive. it was dispassionate. if you're mad as hell, you're mad as hell and you will do something about it and fire people and make some changes and fundamentally reform a department and, he went on to say, this is an isolated incident. it is clear through the reports and through what he should be

seeing with his own ice and ears this system at va is infected with pointment times and delays. if i'm the va secretary, the leader, i will stand up here is how i will change it, starting now. would have started months ago and years ago frankly. this is unacceptable. doesn't change status quo and should reinvigorate reformsers that he has got go and things need to change at va. gerri: we need to dig into what the problems at va is. wait times are long. only 41% of vets are seen in your article today. the va says it will secrets within, we've had, about 40 deaths as a result of incredibly long wait times. and actually had some of these va folks throwing away, some of the vets materials, their appointment confirmation, et cetera. how can things go so awry? >> things go so awry when you create a bureaucratic culture of

indifference. when it is more important to protect your own job or your own bonus than it toys serve a veteran in timely manner. it isn't about lack of resources. the va had plenty of resources. this is dysfunctional culture where managers are not health accountable and therefore performance is not improved. so what you've seen across this department is, systemic, it is endemic. when it comes to wait times, think about it, 14 days, is a long time to still wait for a first appointment. only 41% of veterans based on va's own data are seen within 14 days. based on way they fudge the books and cook the numbers it is definitely lower than that say only a quarter of veterans are actually seen within two weeks. that is a national disgrace. that our system that we spend $160 billions, thousands of facilities can't provide basic care in timely manner. that is what we should discuss how to fix it there. are easy, not easy but straightforward ways to address

it. everyone wants to throw more dollars at it. gerri: we can't take care of our heroes. more what is wrong, backlog of disability claims, over 2,000 since obama took office. these are accusations against the va. we heard a lot about phoenix and crazy stuff going on there with people having to wait and wait and wait for appointments. >> secret lists, yeah. gerri: secret lists. i'll ask you to explain that but while you're explaining that i want to show this map of the u.s. because now people are coming out all over the country saying the problems exist where they live. look at this. the map is littered, littered with va hospitals, va institutions supposed to be taking care of our heroes and are not. please explain the secret lists. >> not just phoenix that is the point, when he says it is offensive to hear the secretary say isolated incidents, anyone looking at this, sees whistle-blowers, courageous whistle-blowers saying this is happening at my facility as well. what is secret list is real wait

times veterans are experiencing versus what is reported to washington. what happens. veteran asks for appointment. put in a file as opposed to system. two weeks before the appointment it is input into the system so washington thinks only taken two weeks, when actuality veterans wait three, four, five, six months. what does this lead to? they are not getting basic reventiv care if they got it at the beginning, that's why veterans are dying waiting on list. gerri: people have cancer. >> goes from stage one to stage four waiting on a list. it is an outrage. gerri: pete, thank you. >> thank you, gerri. gerri: well, here in new york city, it was an emotional day at ground zero where president obama recounted the love, the compassion and sacrifices made back on 9/11. now long-awaited museum they're building down there has been 13 years in the making t was dedicated today in front of survivors, first-responders and victim families.

fox business's very own adam shapiro joins me live from lower manhattan. tell us what the scene is like. >> well right now it is people going home from work. most of the dedication ceremony was finished very quickly actually around 11:00 a.m. this morning. the museum i should point out will be open to the family members of the souls who died here, the almost 3,000 who died here as well as at the pentagon and in shanksville, pennsylvania. but museum represents much more than a memorial and an honoring of the people who died here. it is also a celebration of the people who risked their lives to save so many others and those who survive, people like florence jones, who told her very passionate tale of how she escaped that day. >> i had taken my shoes off on the 60th floor and i walked in my stockings the rest of the way. after that, i still walked in my stocking feet 50 more blocks to

get to a friend's office, barely in one piece. when i heard that the museum was looking for artifacts, i thought about my shoes. i had put them in a plastic container, and when i took them out, they still had the smell on them from that awful day. >> and those shoes are among the 10,000 art i it at this facts at display at the museum. -- artifacts. a handwritten note thrown from the 84th floor from one the towers pleading for help. there are of course very large items on display, tridents people would recognize from the ex-sew skeleton of the original two towers. there is twisted steel from the flowers. there is antenna used to be on top of one of the towers. one of the fire trucks which came to symbolize dedication, dee dee investigation and sacrifice that. one of the things that i wrap up, gerri, that will certainly

bring great pause for many people, are the pictures of the men and women who died here and there's an interactive portion to that where you can hear their family members talk about them. you can also listen to some of the phone calls that people made from the towers to their loved once which were left on answering machines. that is all part of the exhibit. it will open to the public next wednesday. tough make a reservation online as you do if you want to go to the memorial, reflecting pools. and ticket to enter is $24. they spent $700 million preparing this memorial and museum for the public and will be open to all of us in the united states next week. gerri? gerri: adam, sound very emotional indeed. i want to point out, you covered a lot of this story for us. you were on hand when they placed the first girder down for the new world trade center. do you feel a sense of completion now? not completion but i have to tell you, i'm going to step out of the way. you don't get a great shot of it. but when you look at one

world trade center rising, a lot of people ask when will they finish? hopefully it opens in january or february of next year. but it is something you can see throughout manhattan and whenever i'm crossing sixth avenue i look down this way, i think of different experiences i had down this year. i was in shanksville the not flight 93 crashed in pennsylvania. i think old of us available to remember those events have one thing draw them back to those moments. one thing to bring up, a whole generation of children who are teenagers who may not truly remember what happened on september 11th, 2001. this museum will be a way as we go forward as a nation to remember what happened but also look toward the future. gerri: adam, thank you. well, sense of coming full circle now. we've got more on the show tonight, still a lot more to come including our voice. we want to hear what you think.

why during the show we want you to facebook me or tweet me @gerriwillisfbn or gerriwillis.com, the website. at the bottom of the hour i will read your tweets and your emails. are you emptying out your wallet whenever in the checkout line? you're not alone. look at the food prices soaring. we'll give you all the details. we asked people a question, how much money do you think you'll need when you retire? then we gave each person a ribbon to show how many years that amount might last. i was trying to, like, pull it a little further. [ woman ] got me to 70 years old. i'm going have to rethink this thing. it's hard to imagin how much we'll need for a retirement that could last 3years or mor so maybe we need to approa things dferently,

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i trade like me. i'm with scottrade. (announcer) scottrade. voted "best investment services company." gerri: price hikes on aisle one. rising costs are forcing americans to shell out even more for their favorite foods in an already tight economy. is there any relief in sight? phil lampert, editor supermarket guru.com is here with details. phil, the government keeps tell me there is no inflation. that is all i see when i go to the grocery store. cpi out today, consumer price index posted biggest gain in 10 months. there is the producers price index, it's up. wholesale prices that's up too. take a look at that. biggest gain in two years. do you see these price hikes too? >> absolutely. gerri, we have to remember a couple things. number one you mentioned aisle one. no, it is every aisle, every product in the supermarket is

going to be affected. every consumer is being affected by this. gerri: right. >> there are a lot of reasons for it. frankly i don't care what the government says. all consumers we talk to, consumer panel of over 100,000 consumers, are telling us it is getting tougher and tougher to afford their everyday groceries. gerri: let me give you some examples here. beef prices up 11%. pork up 9%. chicken up 2%. the list goes on. cheese up 4%. this is everything and these are huge hikes. how are americans coping with this increased demand on their wallets? >> well, what we're doing, probably the one thaw left out that, most concerned about is milk. the wholesale price of milk is up 38%, number one. retailers are be a socialing a lot of that. retail price on average only gone up a little bit more than 6%. something has got to give. the retailers can't keep on absorbing it. what we're hearing from milk folks that consumption has dropped over 2%.

people can't even afford milk. so what happens, by the way the price of soda has declined, coincidentally at same time. what we're seeing people drinking less milk, which is full of great nutrients and switching to other beverages. gerri: wow. that is just so, frightening thing. let me give you numbers from today light we just got -- deloitte which i find astonishing. they're saying from their own surveys, 94% of the food shoppers will not increase spending even if economy improves. i'm paying too much. i'm trying to cut back. not spend more. is that what you're seeing? >> exactly. and also, keep in mind that not only that 94% saying that they're not going to spend more, but to your point, they're cutting back. you go into the meat department of a supermarket, you know, probably six months ago you would see a package of ground beef, 16 ounces. look, today it is 12 or 13 ounces. same size package but don't want to have sticker shock happening

where you just stop buying it. frankly most of us don't look at net weight. we don't look at number of ounces so on until we get it home. and then we say, oh. gerri: so you're saying that they're changing packaging which is what we've seen for some time. there is only so long that those producers and packagers can keep on with that until something has to give and prices actually go up. phil, before you go, how long does this go on for and what makes these prices fall? >> well, it is our lifetime, gerri. we better get used to it and a lot has to do with the environment. you look at the california drought, number one, which has affected everything. you look at citrus disease, from the insect in california. 80%%of our fresh market produce comes from california. this is the insect that actually wiped out all of the florida citrus back in 1998. it is also in brazil. it is also in mexico, which is the why the price of limes gone

from $10 a bushel to $100 a bushel. we getter-- better get used to it. good news, they're using protein from peace to give us pretty taken or people going back to eating eggs. gerri: not same thing as big fat steak, phil, pease? thank you, phil. >> thank you, gerri. gerri: how do you get out of a annuity contract? you might want to hear this if you're investing for the long term. later in buyers are cashing in on homes, going all-cash. how do you compete if you can't play. we'll break it down. up. a short word that's a tall order. up your game. up the ante.

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♪ ♪ we're jer annuities are popular for many folks thinking about retirement, in fact, it's a more than $200 billion a year business for life insurance companies and the financial institutions that sell them. but what do you do if you invest in one and you have buyer's remorse? here to discuss, the author of the annuity manifesto, stan haidtcock. >> great to be here to talk about annuity, one of the most controversial products on the planet. gerri: you've got it right there, stan. let me start with a question. so, lots of questions from journalists and people who buy annuities as well because they're often sold with high

pressure tactics. retirees are put into a conference room and sold hard on these products. many folks then have a second thought. they decide they don't want it. what can they do if they want to cancel the annuity product? >> one of the great things about annuities, they are regular lated at the state level, so every state has what's called a free look period. what that means is you buy the annuity, the policy is delivered to you, and you have a period of time when you can just get out. that period of time ranges from 10 to 30 days, but you do not even have to give a reason. you don't have to talk to the agent, you just have to call the insurance company and say, hey, get me out of this, send me my money back in full which is great because a lot of times people make decisions under duress, they go to a seminar and hear a too good to be true pitch -- gerri: well, and i think a lot of people question about how -- >> is this really true? gerri: i think people have big questions about how they're sold because there's often big fees

for people who are able to move these products. they're very lucrative for the advisers and others who sell them. what kind of money do people make selling annuities? >> well, it depends. there's 15 different types of annuities. the two annuities that are sold primarily in the united states, 70% of all sales are variable annuities and indexed annuities, and those do carry the highest commissions. however, i really like the contractual guaranteed annuities, deferred immediate annuities which are called longevity annuities and fixed rate annuities. those very pro-consumer, and my theory is you buy an annuity for what it will do. buy it for the contractual guarantees only. don't buy the dream. gerri: one final question here, i think what's critical for people who buy these products is to know and understand the company behind them. how do you do that, how do you analyze a company that's offering the annuity?

because at the end of the day, they have to be around as long as you are. >> that's correct. annuities are only as good as the company backing up the guarantee. even though they're backed up at the state level and there are state guarantee funds, i always say choose the company, choose quality. there's four major ratings services that look at annuities, and i also look at something called the com-dex rankings which applies a 1-100 score, 100 being perfect that you can judge the safety of the company. i give that away for free on my site, but the rankings is a compilation of all ratings services that gives you a 1-100 score. a lot of us don't know what aa, aaa and all that stuff means, but we do know what 1-100 means and 100 being perfect. gerri: stan, thanks so much. >> thank you. gerri: and still to come, it's your turn to have your voice heard. at the bottom of the hour, you sound off on what matters to you, and there's still time to join the conversation. tweet me @gerri willis fbn.

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gerri: well, all this week we're lookit the spring real estate market. tonight we head out west in arizona. when it gets hot, they say it's a dry heat, but are things cooling down this the state's largest city? -- in the state's a largest city? the city of phoenix is named after the mythical bird that crashes and burns and then reemerges from the ashes. the story of that arizona city's real estate market is similar. >> some people are saying, you know, is the phoenix business crashing? -- bird crashing? no. the reason why sales are down is we had about 250,000 single-family properties between

209 and 213 that we either foreclosed on or short sold. that's over, and we're pretty much through all of our distressed property. gerri: fletcher wilcox is the vice president of grand canyon title agency. wilcox says all cash purchases of single-family homes in phoenix plunged 38% from last year, but that is not necessarily a bad thing. >> we really just see the market kind of normalizing. we don't see prices no longer skyrocketing, we see cash pulling back, and we see people saving up for their down payment and buying with a mortgage. gerri: wilcox believes the phoenix real estate market recovered faster than markets in other parts of the country because of their different foreclosure laws. >> phoenix has a faster, nonjudicial foreclosure process. we got through our foreclosures because there's a much shorter timetable to foreclose. and not drag the process on which we're seeing a lot in the east coast. gerri: the median price for a

home in the phoenix area? $195,000 according to arizona state university. wilcox says the good thing about home purchases that involve mortgages is that the sales are made to people who are going to occupy the house, so that's a good thing. well, even after the housing market crash of 2007, americans still love real estate. listen to this, a recent gallup poll shows a third of americans say real estate is the best long-term investment, not stocks, not bonds, not gold. so what do you need to know if you want to get in the game? joining me now is the real deal founder, amir. thanks for coming on the show. >> thank you for having me. gerri: here's your publication, we wanted to show the cover of it so people could see it. it's the real deal, it's in new york and miami. let's start with that poll, 30% of americans say they rank it number one. why do you think people still feel that way even though we had such a bust-up in the market? >> cash is not what it used to be. you put $100,000 in the bank, and you're getting 1.5%, 2%, and

that's just not the kind of money you want. $100,000 in cash is exactly that. but $100,000 in the real estate, you know, it could mean $500,000 for a hard asset of $500,000 or up to a million dollars in some areas. so all of a sudden your $100,000 means a million dollar hard asset -- gerri: it's the average of your money, you're saying. you put down a certain amount, but you're buying an asset that's worth far more. >> absolutely. and you're getting your money back in a year. gerri: all right, now you're going to have to explain capitalization rates. this is a number that the pros like you use, and you've turned over a lot of real estate in your time. the pros use it to compare properties. how would how viewers figure that out? >> i write about real estate. i do some real estate too because i really believe in it, and i think it's the best investment, but we see a lot of people do it, so that's what i can talk on. basically, you take $100,000, and the cap rate is your net operating income for that $100,000. so if you are making, you put

down $100,000, you're making $1,000, that's a 10% -- $10,000, you're making a 10% cap rate. gerri: you have to be able to calculate the income, right? >> yeah. gerri: you have to understand how much money you're going to make on your -- >> know your market. that's the best way to do it. go out there, know your market. real estate is a moving target, it's not something consistent. you go out there, it's never too late to get into it. you go out there, you spend a month in any market you're familiar with, you see everything that's out there on the market, and you understand the market you're buying into and try not to overleverage yourself. gerri: so it's all about doing your research, understanding cap rates so that you can compare properties. now, when you look at the country, where do you see real opportunity right now? >> well, i think south florida is great. it's still coming out. gerri: really? they had a huge runoff though. >> they did, and there's sill some good opportunities there -- still some good opportunities there, i believe. in new york, boston, places where there's great education,

great transportation, low crime. those are places that you can always count on. gerri: and tell me, are you talking multi-family, cop does, what kind of -- condos, what kind of investments are you describing? >> in a place like arizona, i don't think a lot of people are buying multi-family. they're buying single-family -- gerri: true enough. >> but it works the same way. you could buy several single-family homes, and it could serve as a multi-family that you would buy in new york or detroit or boston. gerri: you know, a lot of people ask me when we talk about investments on this show, any kind of investment, they're like, well, how much could i make? how much do you think individual investors in these real estate markets make? >> well, the great thing about real estate is that once the market changes in your favor, the sky's the limit. i've seen people here in new york not too far away from where we are right now, people buying a building for five million, and within a year and a half selling it for 80 million. gerri: what? >> that's sort of, you know -- gerri: that's crazy. >> that is crazy. and that happens all the time.

gerri: but it doesn't happen all the time. it happens sometimes. >> but, you know, all of a sudden if you see a school go up near your building or any sort of change, any sort of industry coming into your market, all of a sudden you see tremendous change and tremendous growth in your real estate. and it's, again, do your research, make sure there's industry there, make sure the crime is low, there's good education. those are all key items. gerri: i like what you say about the research and understanding the dynamics in a neighborhood and what's really going on. thanks for coming on the show. >> absolutely. i'm glad i could help. you too. gerri: and now we want to hear from you. here is what some of you are greet tweeting me tonight, are you steering clear of gm because of the recalls? mike tweets me: i've steered clear of gm for decades. jim tweets this: i work for a chrysler brand dealership where we're booming. 90% of the trades are gm, no lie. and charles posting on my facebook page: i remain a big fan of gm going back a long way. in fact, in questions i bought a

used srx that was built in 2009, and all indications? it's an excellent car. their value has been holding up well too. but gina, she disagrees: i swore never to buy another gm product after the bailout, and they moved all of those jobs, plants to brazil. i have no clue why anyone would buy gm. they are far inferior products and do not promote american jobs no matter what they say. people are on fire about gm, that's for sure. and here are some of your e-mails. tom from california writes in about the federal highway trust fund running on empty. we reported about it earlier this week. he says the highway trust fund is easy to remedy, just close or reduce the small agencies. there's 20 existing useless agencies, however, it's obvious that there's no leadership in the u.s. to accomplish this. raising taxes is a fool's game, and it's so regressive it should be criminal. yea, tom. ed from texas agrees: instead of raising taxes for infrastructure repairs, how about we cut first

class air fair for congress? -- airfare for congress, their expense accounts, their medical care and retirement system? if they are to represent the people, they should live like the folks they represent. that sounds like a good idea. we love hearing from you. send me an e-mail, gerri willis.com. and coming up, homes are getting scooped up by all-cash buyers. how do you compete if you don't have piles of cash sitting around? we're going to have the answers. and here is a look at your consumer gauge. take a look at that, those are the numbers important to you. we'll be right back.

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gerri: we've heard the phrase "cash is king," but what if you want to buy a house and you're not exactly walking around with a few hundred extra grand, can you compete? joining me now, vera gibbons.

we're seeing lots of people in the marketplace with lots of money, who are those people? >> well, the institutional guys have left the game, they're accounting for -- gerri: these are the professional investors. >> they're only accounting for less than 6% of residential sales, so it's not them. it's the empty nesters, the baby boomers who are looking to downsize, people looking for second homes, so you've got people like me and you and some other people with a little money, wealthy families, whatever else going for the all-cash route. it's easier, you don't have to go through all the hoopla with getting a mortgage. none of that. gerri: all right, let's talk about the flip side of that. what if i'm getting into the market now and i want a mortgage, how can i possibly compete with people who are putting all cash down? that is just such allure. >> it's pretty, pretty competitive in a lot of these hot markets like new york city, some of the california markets. but your best defense, gerri, would be to be a qualified buyer. good credit, 20% plus, you have

cash, very little debt. you're, essentially, ready to go. some sellers don't necessarily fixate on the fact that you are going to finance. they don't really care. at the end of the day, they just want a transaction that is going to go through. gerri: during the last boom, it was all about the preapproval letter, right? you had to have a letter for a certain amount of money, and that was like cash. is that still true? >> you should still be preapproved, get your ducks in a row, make sure your credit is good. gerri: do we need a letter from the bank saying, well, gerri willis can spend xyz? >> have it all ready to go. the more you convince the seller you are a qualified buyer, the better off you're going to be, and making a good, solid offer helps as well. some of these cash buyers are going in, they're coming out with lowball cash offers, 13% discount. so if you come in and say i'll buy this house that's 1, 2, 3% higher than the cash offer, why would they not go for that if you are that qualified buyer?

gerri: on your list was write a personal letter, and in san francisco during the boom, people would do this all the time. i can see my daughter in the girls' bedroom on the second -- >> sometimes that works in some of those markets where it is competitive. if the seller is looking for that right buyer for their very special home and you send a personal letter, it certainly can't hurt. i would also suggest that you try to keep contingencies to a minimum or, you know, no contingencies at all. again, a nice, clean competitive offer that is going to go head to head with the cash offer. gerri: don't give up your opportunity to have the property inspected. i hate it when people do that, because you never know what you're going to find. >> right. that's just basic common sense, but people probably wouldn't in markets such as crazy as this. this is just nuts. again, like new york, you know, eight out of ten transactions in the first three months of the year, cash offers, cash deals. eight out of ten. gerri: that's -- fortunately, that's not every market in the country. >> that's just new york city which is very competitive. and, again, that's a lot of the foreign money and they're buying

second, third, fourth homes, and because inventory so tight, they're thinking this is going to put them at the top of the line, and it does in many cases. gerri: thank you. still to come, my two cents more. anger erupts in washington, d.c. over the internet. the fcc is calling for equal treatment of all internet traffic, so why are these people protesting? the answer, coming up. ♪ ♪ up. a short word that's a tall order.

up your game. up the ante. and if you stumble, you get back up. up isn't easy, and we ought to know. we're in the business of up. everyday delta flies a quarter of million people while investing billions improving everything from booking to baggage claim. we're raising the bar on flying and tomorrow we will up it yet again. gerri: have the feds just ruined the internet? that was the cry today in washington, d.c. after the fcc proposed a new rule. details on what it means.

gerri: the fcc today called for equal treatment of all internet traffic, but with one tiny caveat, it's leaving room for content providers, netflix and

the like, to pay for quicker access for consumers. and guess who has to pay for that extra speed? you do. for more on this, judge andrew napolitano, fox news senior judicial analyst. judge, welcome. you know, i was kind of blown away by all the protests. it seems like people are taking this super seriously. do you agree? you're in washington. >> well, i'm in washington for a different reason, so i didn't personally view the protests, gerri, but people should take it very seriously. the key thing that the fcc, the federal communications commission, announced it's going to attempt to do today is to give itself the authority to regulate and to monitor the internet. now, i chose my words carefully. there is no statutory authority for this. the congress hasn't done so. this is three bureaucrats sitting in a room in an office building in this town have decided they're going to co-opt a chunk of the first amendment, and they and they alone are going to regulate and monitor

the internet. that's what these people are upset about. forget about this phrase "net neutrality." there's nothing neutral about this. this is a government takeover of the internet under the guise of enforcing neutrality. gerri: and so what do you think is the upshot of that? what is the potential downside if the fcc runs the internet? >> the first amendment presumes that individuals are competent to decide what to see, what to hear and what to write, and the government shouldn't interfere with it. this is not television where the government has licensed the airwaves. this is a private means of communicating not developed by government, not involving government funds. the government has no legitimate moral or constitutional ability to bully its way in there, and yet it's attempting to do something. gerri, if the congress debated this for months and decided that somehow under the first amendment it could give the fcc the authority to regulate the

internet, that would be one thing. but this is one small administrative agency whose statutory authority was written in 1934 trying to interpret that 1934 law to let it regulate the internet. it's not going to wash. gerri: i have to tell you, those people who are protesting want to see these big broadband players regulated. they want them to be treated as utilities. what do you make of that? >> i don't think it's going to work, gerri. you know, this is not the first time the fcc tried this. here's how it works. today they announced they're going to propose regulations. once they propose them, the public can comment, they hold hearings, and then they vote on them. once they vote on them, somebody will challenge them. the fcc did the very same thing two years ago, and the court before which it was challenged invalidated it for the reasons that i'm stating now. you don't have the authority to do this. they're just going to try it again and hope they get a

different panel of judges and those judges will rule differently. i don't think this will work. the protesters there are not protesting the finishing cc takeover of the -- the fcc takeover of the internet, they're protesting the fact that the fcc has not yet taken over the internet. gerri: i just want to share some numbers with our viewers here. do you know that when it comes to fastest internet speeds on the planet, the u.s., number ten behind latvia, south korea, japan, the netherlands, hong kong, switzerland, the czech republic, sweden, ireland? number ten. we're not number one. >> your superb, exceptional producer, kevin burke, just told me that before we went on air, and i was astounded to hear that number. gerri: it's amazing. >> that is not because the government was involved. i don't know why we're number ten. we should be very close to the top. but let me tell you, if the government gets involved, the number will go down. [laughter] gerri: judge, i'm not surprised

you said that. thanks for coming on, sir. great to have you on the show. >> all the best, gerri. gerri: thank you. and we'll be right back. i'm m-a-r-y and i have copd. i'm j-e-f-f and i have copd. i'm l-i-s-a and i have copd, but i don't want my breathing problems to get in the way of hosting my book club. that's why i asked my doctor about b-r-e-o. once-daily breo ellipta helps increase airflow from the lungs for a full 24 hours.

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well, knowing gives you confidence. start building your confident retirement today. gerri: we're flat-out of time. neil cavuto is next. ♪ oh say can you see, by the dawn's early light ♪ what so proudly we hailed, at the twilight's last gleaming ♪. >> the 9/11 memorial is open. and to the public, within hours. but the fact of the matter is, 13 years now, after the horror of 9/11, think about it. terror alive and well. al qaeda rocking and rolling. bad guys the world over dominating the headlines the world over. have we forgotten what happened