Agreement Issues

As I continue to proofread that ad brochure I received, I see several agreement issue sentences in Brad Watson's column. Here is one example:



Primary eligibility for borrowing are that you must be 62 years of age or older, own the property, and occupy the property as principal residence.



In this instance, the error might be simply a typo/word omission error, but ELIGIBILITY is singular and takes the singular verb IS. The simplest way to fix this one is to add the word REQUIREMENTS, as follows:



Primary eligibility requirements for borrowing are that you must be at least 62 years of age, own the property, and occupy the property as principal residence.



BONUS POINT: I also simplified the wording to "at least 62 years of age..."



Here is another example from the same article:



State and federal funding has received enormous hits....



This appears to be correct because FUNDING is singular, but state funding is one thing and federal funding is another (as any Southerner would be quick to point out). The sentence should read this way:



Both state funding and federal funding have received enormous hits....



Here is one more agreement problem from the same article, this one involving two related sentences:



Many think that reverse mortgages are a debt builder, but that's not the case when used effectively. It can actually settle debts and can keep seniors in their own home where they want and deserve to be.



The word MORTGAGES is plural, so THEY are debt builders (plural). The second sentence refers to MORTGAGES, so the pronoun should be THEY, not IT. The sentence should read this way:



Many think that reverse mortgages build debt, but that's not the case when they are used effectively. They can actually settle debts and keep seniors in their own homes where they want and deserve to be.



Notice the other changes I made to make this sentence flow more smoothly.