Final Thoughts for 2008

As I sit at my desk reflecting on the past year....while drinking probably/hopefully my last glass of eggnog.....I wonder what 2009 has in store for me. For those of you that know me, my life has gone through many changes this past year.....including a divorce, selling my house, and then trying to make it in a tough real estate market. I should also mention it was my 20 year high school reunion, which always prompts reflection of the past 20 years. This was the first year that I chose to stay in California for Christmas and not go back to Minnesota. After watching the weather reports, I knew I made the right decision. Though, I felt it was very cold in Newport Beach. My sister was gracious to visit me for the holidays from Florida. My family will be meeting up in February for my grandma's 100th birthday, so I will see everyone soon. This Christmas was going to be very different also for the fact that it was my sister and me. I wasn't sure how fun this was going to be.....going to church for Christmas Eve service and then coming home just the two of us for a big dinner. I decided to have the family I mentor for over for a traditional MN Christmas Eve dinner. The grandmother of the family came over with 2 of her 3 grandchildren and her 16 year old son. It was fun to be able to give to a family in an unfortunate situation. Watching the children open presents reminded me of what it was like for me as a child to open presents. We had a great day. Mom even sent some Lefse from MN.....a Christmas tradition for my family. Earlier in the week my sister and I watched the boat parade from a friend's house on Lido Island. I have posted pictures above of the parade.

2009 is going to be a great year......I can feel it already. I have so much to be thankful for. Here is wishing you a great and properous 2009! I will get back to the real estate blogs after the first of the year.

www.PropertiesInTheOC.com

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Society in Corona del Mar

I have finally dried out from the storm yesterday. Prudential had their Christmas party at the Balboa Yacht Club. We were fortunate to have the party on one of the largest boats in the harbor. Unfortunately, the parade was rained out! I was glad some of the boats still chose to cruise around for the many of us that had plans regardless of the rain. Needless to say, the party was fun even with the rain. I am glad it has stopped for now. I need a little sunshine.

I was in Corona del Mar today and noticed a cute new shop on the corner of Poppy and PCH. This store is right across the street from the Five Crowns restaurant. As I walked in the door the cute pink doggie dishes caught my eye. Next time I visit I will bring Sam my Pug. The owners, a mother and daughter team greeted me immediately. They told me they had just moved to this location from their previous location in the Newport Coast strip mall. I think they made a great decision as PCH has so much more traffic. The clothing is European, contemporary street wear. There is something for everyone. Check it out....it is a really cute boutique.

http://www.propertiesintheoc.com/

http://www.covecanyonandcrest.com/

Past Month in Review

Sorry it has been a while since I blogged. This past month has been really busy. I am working with mostly buyers and they are keeping me busy looking at homes. I put a house in escrow last week in Corona del Mar. With the interest rates this low.....and some great deals out there.....there is quite a bit of activity. You just have to keep your eye on the homes that have been on the market a while.

Anyway, I am going to cover many topics as I did do so much this last month. First of all, I posted a picture of the Fashion Island Christmas Tree. It really is a neat thing to see if you haven't seen it before. In a previous post I explained how they put the tree together.

I also want to bring attention to my new website with my partner...... http://www.covecanyonandcrest.com/ . I took the last part of 3 different areas for the name.....Crystal Cove, Shady Canyon and Pelican Crest. There are more areas in Newport Coast, but we thought this name sounded the best. The website is still under construction. It is at a point that I can talk about it now. The marketing piece that I created looks very similiar to the website. In fact, if you receive the Daily Pilot, we had an ad in there last week with our marketing look. Tonight my website guy should be adding pictures of Shady Canyon.

Previewing new homes as been a little slow lately. I always look for the "wow factor" and I honestly haven't seen much of that lately. The pictures above of the pool is pretty cool. This picture was taken at a home in Newport Ridge. It is hard to tell what the other picture is....it is of a kid's playhouse. I would have loved to have had that growing up. I had a treehouse that my dad made. I can't complain.

I do want to add a blog about Bay Island...off of the peninsula. I did take some pictures a couple of weeks ago. I will try and blog about that in the next couple of days. If you are not familiar with Bay Island, it is small Island that does not allow cars. Imagine carrying your groceries from your parked car on the mainland. I am sure they have little golf carts or something to use to help carry items.

My sister comes in from Palm Beach a week from tomorrow. I am looking forward to having some down time with her. This will be our first Christmas away from our parents. My parents are going to South Bend, Indiana to see my grandma. We are going back in February for my grandma's 100th birthday. We figured one trip to South Bend during this time of year is about all we can handle!

http://www.propertiesintheoc.com/

http://www.covecanyonandcrest.com/

Broker Preview in Shady Canyon

Yesterdays preview was very interesting. Many of the homes for sale in Shady Canyon were on Broker Preview. I had a 12:30 lunch appointment so I couldn't see as many as I wanted to. I did see a home that was founded by a famous nail salon chain. There was also a home that was on two lots with its own pool house. The pictures above show a very unique kitchen. In all the homes I have been in, I have never seen these colors used in a kitchen. I thought it was actually very cool. The first picture is of a sink in a bathroom. I love the mosaic tile work in the sink. Also notice the picture of the bathtub and shower with a glass opening to the outdoors.....I thought this was a nice touch to a bathroom. I needed to end my tour relatively quick as I was running late to my appointment at Javiers. Javiers is in Crystal Cove.....and is actually one of my favorite restaurants. I don't like to go after 7 pm as it turns in to a "scene". My meeting was running a little late so the waiter approached the table to ask us how long we were going to be as they needed our table for another seating. My client asked if it was for someone famous, to which I thought was strange as I didn't think famous people dined there. The waiter responded that the new guests were kind of famous......so we got it out of him and he said the Anaheim/LA Angels were going to be dining at Javiers. After about 20 minutes we left. I was thinking it would be fun to see them in person....but work was calling and I needed to go back to the office.

http://www.propertiesintheoc.com/

Fashion Island Christmas Tree Lighting

After preview this past Friday, I went up to Fashion Island to see if they started putting the Christmas tree up yet. I wanted to see the process as it is such a big tree. If I remember correctly, it is one of the tallest in the nation. My instinct was right, they were in the middle of putting up the tree. I have been curious to see how they actually put this tree up. It was very interesting as you will see by the pictures, they shape the nub on the end of the limb and drill it in to the tree. My next question was, if this is how they do it, how do they keep the tree looking so good through the holidays. The answer is, they put a coating on the tree. I am guessing some kind of silicone coating. If you want to see the tree lighting, it is November 21 and 22 at 6:00. Maybe I will be in the holiday mood by then. :)

My past weekend was fairly busy as I was down at Balboa Island holding houses open. Saturday I was at an open house on Coral. Very interesting street. Most had some kind of college flag hanging from their house. I am still not sure who was playing yesterday, but you could hear the couple across the street yelling and cheering during the course of the game. At one point a neighbor across the street yelled over to the couple to find out what the score is. Of course they yelled it back. This was very entertaining.

Busy week ahead. I am hoping to wrap up the new marketing piece and hopefully have a significant start on the new website. The website has to be up before the marketing piece goes out. Hopefully the new business cards will be complete too. It will be nice to have this all done so I can concentrate on other things. It will be a busy week as I am also showing homes to a couple of clients in the Corona del Mar area....as well as Aliso Viejo, Westcliff and Newport Heights area.

http://www.propertiesintheoc.com/

Todays broker preview I was looking for the WOW factor. I hadn't seen anything spectacular in a while, so I was hoping today I would find something great. My partner and I started our tour on Linda Isle. There is a new listing there on the water for around $8.6 mil. This home was very well taken care of. The detail in the craftmanship of the home was impressive. I took a picture from the patio. We stopped by one on Bayside that was OK. I was expecting the home to be updated....it needs some love. I was surprised at the huge TV in the middle of the master bedroom. The next home we visited was on Ocean Blvd. This street overlooks the ocean on the cliff in Corona del Mar. The views from this house were amazing. Another well kept, updated home listed at $9.495 mil. The next stop was Crystal Cove......a new listing on Timor. This home has a great yard and overlooks the golf course. We didn't stay long as we were excited to view a $20,995,000 home in Pelican Crest. Pelican Crest is the community directly north of Newport Coast Drive......past Pelican Crest is Pelican Point. Both areas have generally large custom homes.......many with amazing views. This home did not disappoint. They were planning for a charity event tonight so there were many people running around trying to prepare for the event. this home has it all. It is late so I am going to sign off. Tomorrow I will talk about the Christmas tree lighting at Fashion Island.

http://www.propertiesintheoc.com/

Change is Good...Christmas Music in Early November.....NOT

I have learned in life there are two topics you shouldn't discuss with a client or in a new dating relationship....religion and politics. I am actually feeling a little relieved with Obama being elected last night. I think many people were feeling the stress I have been feeling the last couple of weeks. I am a Republican......but when McCain chose Palin to be VP...I was a little nervous about what other decisions he was going to make. There were so many other strong candidates that he could have picked. During the whole campaign all I wanted to hear about was how the candidate was going to fix the housing crisis. This topic didn't really come up until the end of the campaign. The housing crisis affects many other industries.......cars, malls, travel....the list goes on. If no one is buying or selling homes......they are also not spending money in other places. I say this about people in OC. In MN generally speaking, you would stay in your home for 20 plus years. I feel we as a country really needed a change....some hope that things would be different. I was reading on the OCRegister.com that FINALLY Schwarzenegger has come with some plans for the housing industry. I have said for the last year that the common sense thing to do would be to keep the interest rate low for those ARMs that are about to reset at higher rates. Offer 40 year loans....another easy thing to do. The banks would still make money. I think they should also require loan originators to be licensed. It seems any person could be a loan originator. I know in time this will all work out. I look forward to the many changes that are being talked about. Hopefully some of them will become a reality. Enough about politics........I am so glad the signs are gone from yards and street corners! They have been replaced by Christmas decorations.......in early November. I went in to a Hallmark yesterday and they were playing Christmas music. I had to walk out. I am not ready for the holidays yet.

www.PropertiesInTheOC.com

Want a Kid Friendly Neighborhood? Look for Halloween Decorations

Hello,

I am going to make this short tonight. I have a fairly bad headache....too much going on. Knowing myself....it will end up being long. I am working on a new website for my new partner and me and I am also working on his website.....along with our new marketing piece.....it is a lot of work! I also wanted to add the funny picture of my dog Sam. This is from last year at the pumpkin patch.

I was showing homes this weekend to a new client from the East Coast. He is looking for a neighborhood that is kid friendly.....one that you would see children playing, etc. I don't have children, but have a good idea of where the child friendly neighborhoods are.....and I live in one. The children on my street are always playing on the sidewalks.....coming up to my house to say hi......doing kid things. As we started to look I thought of a quick way to figure out where the kid friendly neighborhoods are........where the Halloween decorations are! My partner and I were in Shady Canyon last week and he noticed the lack of decorations in some areas so he wondered if any kids lived there. It must have been the street as we found many homes decorated after he had made the comment. As I was showing homes to my new client.....it was true.....the kid friendly streets had plenty of Halloween decorations.

Yesterday I went on broker preview to a home in Shady Canyon. This home is on Goldfinch. It was a very interesting home as it had an inside courtyard that opened up to just about each room in the home. It also sits just above the putting green. See pictures above. Well priced at $3.199. Also yesterday I was in search for the perfect back house in Corona del Mar. I have two buyers that are looking....and we have looked at close to over 70 homes for each client. I viewed new construction on 2521 1rst Avenue. See picture above. The back house is very nice. It has an ocean and park view. Notice on the picture the front house and the back house look like 2 different homes. The builder said the city requested that the two homes....really one big attached home....have different exterior textures. I thought this was very interesting. You really have to look at the home to see they are not attached.....very cool. I almost forgot to add this in.......if you read my blog....you know I look for the "WOW" factor in homes. I went on preview today and did see one house with the "WOW" factor. I saw a home today that had carpet in the kitchen! I have never scene this before......in a multi-million dollar home. I am not trying to be negative.....but I certainly was thinking WOW when I saw the carpet in the kitchen. I don't like carpet in bathrooms.....probably because I have so much hair to pick up after.....but I can't imagine carpet in a kitchen......unbelievable. They must never cook there. :)

I can't take it any longer. The aspirin is starting to kick in so I don't feel as bad....but I am really tired. I need to get to bed so I can get up early and go to the gym. Tomorrow is a big day. I am dressing up for Halloween for the first time since.....I think I was 22! That is a long time ago! I won't give my age away....but it was way over 10 years ago. A friend of mine invited me to a private party on the Balboa Peninsula. It is a $15 million house.....so of course I can't wait to see the inside of the home. I am not one for dressing up or going to parties where I think there will be a lot of skimpy dressed young 20 somethings.....but, what the heck. If I can bring a camera......I will post pictures this weekend. I was worried about what I was going to wear......actually, very stressed about it. My hairdresser said she went to Condom Revolution.....over by Triangle Square. I have never been in that shop. I tried your traditional Halloween shop and quickly left. The hard core metal music was disturbing. I gave in and went to Condom Revolution. They actually had some cute costumes. I was told to go upstairs to the Wicked Chamber. I was really nervous about going in there.....partly because of the name. I sucked it up.....went up there and was pleasantly surprised at all the cute costumes. They didn't have the trashy costumes I was expecting to see. As I am trying to keep my cover I hear a lady call out my name. I was a little nervous to see who it was. It was one of my realtor buddies from Surterre. We actually work on American Cancer Society fundraisers together. I felt better knowing she was in there for the same reason I was. We laughed and quickly bought what we needed and headed out. Anyway, have a great Halloween and I will catch up with you this weekend.

http://www.propertiesintheoc.com/

Wallace Neff Home.....AMAZING

What a weekend. I am exhausted. I showed homes yesterday, wrapped up a contract, and prepared for a brunch today. The kids I mentor through Mariners Church were baptised today. I am very proud of them as they chose to do this on their own. My ex also mentors them so it was a uncomfortable day of hanging out together. I am glad he is still involved....that is the most important.
I need to catch up with Fridays broker preview in Newport Beach....the peninsula area. I only viewed two homes.....but the one was very much worth it. The home I was very impressed with is one on 1707 East Bay Avenue. This construction is by Wallace Neff in 1928...and then restored with modern systems in 2005. This was the most Spanish feeling house I have ever been in. Beautiful spanish tiles throughout the home. The main level was an entertainment room.......with a pool table. There is also a really neat shower....that I have pictured.....that has two frogs at the bottom that spout water toward you. My favorite part was on the rooftop. There is a ledge.....bar height....with chairs that over look the ocean. I guess this is one of the tallest homes on the peninsula. The views were 360 degrees from the roof. This house has charm and character unlike any other home I have ever viewed. Pay close attention to the picture with the rug....that is actually a tile rug! Tomorrow I will talk about another one of Rob Glass's homes in Shady Canyon.

http://www.propertiesintheoc.com/

OK, I am still a day late. Depending on how long this takes.....I may make a second entry for todays happenings. Yesterday was a very busy day for broker preview. I started out on Linda Isle. There are two homes that I viewed. If you not familiar with Linda Isle.....it is a guard gated community right off of Bayside and PCH. The first home I went to was very modern, 4 bedrooms, 4 baths. You would really have to like the modern look to appreciate this home. It is priced at $7.499. I would have been very happy drinking a glass of wine on the patio.....very relaxing. The next home I saw on Linda Isle was priced at $4.995. This home had 3 bedrooms and 4 baths. This home is very unique as it has a swimming pool inside. The stairs actually sit over the pool.....see picture. After leaving the Island area, we headed up to Crystal Cove to a home on Shore Walk. I had viewed the two homes next door to it recently in the last couple of months. This new listing is amazing. It is 4 bedrooms, 6 baths, listed at $11,995. Everywhere you looked there was a unique detail. As you walk in to the home there is a pathway over water....the chandeliers were amazing......the outdoor area is what got my attention. I love a good barbeque/pool area. It would be hard to top this yard. The silver balls in the pool were very eye catching.....see picture......you can actually see Catalina in the background. The pool was in a blue mosaic pattern.....unbelievable! My partner and I wanted to stay longer to soak in the view. I don't think I would ever leave that patio if I lived there. The barbeque area also had a great view for the chef. I don't think you would have a hard time trying to find someone to grill for you. After Crystal Cove we went over to Pelican Hill. There is a new listing on Horizon. This is a very large house......6 bedrooms and 8 bathrooms....priced at $8.45. I think of Pelican Hill as an established area with large custom homes. Many have golf course and or ocean views. We didn't stay long as we wanted to go to a couple more homes on preview. We also visited a listing in Cameo Shores. This area is on the ocean side of PCH, south of Corona del Mar. Most of these homes are one level with a great ocean view. This home is fairly modern, it is priced at $3.45......recently reduced by $1.2 mil It has 3 bedrooms and 3 baths. To end the tour we went to a new listing on Jasmine. It is a cute little back unit listed at $1.049. It is an updated 2 bedroom/2 bath home. I enjoyed the rooftop deck. I am going to sign off on this entry and prepare for tomorrow. I will be showing homes in Aliso Viejo and Newport Beach. I did see a great house today that I will post on tomorrows blog.

http://www.propertiesintheoc.com/

Shady Canyon Tour Broker Preview

Sorry I am a day late on this. Yesterday I was at Broker Preview at Shady Canyon. Broker Preview is when the agent holds the house open so brokers can go in an view the home.....since most of us work on the weekends....it is difficult to view homes unless they are on preview. Anyway, there were 8 homes open. It was another hot day......95 degrees. If I would have seen a water sprinkler.....I think I would have run through it. Anyway, if you are a follower of this blog, you know I am always looking for the WOW factor. Homes in Shady Canyon range from $2.8 to $18.9 mil. I didn't see much of the WOW factor until I reached the last two homes on the list. There were some pretty awesome homes.....but my favorite were the last two.....one on Canyon Creek and the other one was on Echo Glen. The fireplaces in the Canyon Creek home were really neat. I think the highlight of the tour for me was at Echo Glen.....remember....it was hot....and felt like Palm Springs on a really hot day.........was the swim up bar in the swimming pool. Back in my 20's I would go to Cancun, Mexico for spring vacations. Generally where ever you stayed there was a swim up bar. To see that at a house was pretty cool. I really wanted to be sitting in the pool drinking a margarita. There was one house that my partner and I viewed that was not on the tour. It is a house on Cactus, built by a friend of mine, Rob Glass. This house is $8.695 mil. It has to be one of the most amazing homes I have ever been in. I would describe it as artwork. Every room had such unique detail that you would never find in any other house. My partner and I were blown away by this house. I am posting a couple of pictures.......if you want more.....I will send them to you. There are so many details in this house that you couldn't possibly see them all in one viewing. Absolutely amazing......it has more than the WOW factor. Ok, I can't take much more work tonight. I will post todays activities tomorrow. I can only post 5 pictures per post. I did see an amazing house in Crystal Cove today that I will talk about tomorrow.

http://www.propertiesintheoc.com/

Sunday

Sunday was a little slow for me as I had plans to show homes in Corona del Mar, and we decided to look at homes today. This is off the subject of real estate, but I have to say I was very impressed with some new construction......at Mariners Church yesterday. If you read my profile on my website.....www.PropertiesInTheOC.com.....you will know I mentor foster children. I don't have any of my own so I find this fills the void of children in my life. I was very honored this past week to have both kids request to be baptized. I was very honored that they wanted to do this on their own. I talked about it at bible school....but didn't realize I was making an impact. I met the kids at church this past weekend for the class for baptism. Their grandma brought them to church with their 16 year old uncle.....who also wants to be baptized. If you are familiar with Mariners, you know it is like a compound. There is a new student center for Jr and Sr High students. I hadn't been over since it just opened a couple of weeks ago. Usually the kids sit with me in church or the cafe to watch the sermon. We went to the student center and I was very impressed. There was a basketball court......foosball tables....and various other sports kids that age like. What was really neat is that they have sermons that mirror the "adult" sermons. We sat in on the Jr high sermon upstairs and then went downstairs to listed to the Sr high sermon. I wish they would have had something like that when I was growing up. There is also a new chapel being built. Mariners church has service in a big auditorium.....so it makes it hard to host a wedding or a funeral there and to have that intimate feeling. The new chapel will be perfect for both occasions, or if you feel like you want to sit in on an "old school" kind of sermon. They are building a little pond around the chapel to give it a serene feeling. I am pretty excited to see the whole campus complete. It was a busy day. I am ready to watch something mindless on TV. Tomorrow is a big day......showing homes again in Quail Hill and Oak Creek.....and still trying to work on my new marketing piece and website.

www.PropertiesInTheOC.com

What does a $12 million house look like?

It was another beautiful day in Newport Beach today. I started off my day by showing home in Quail Hill. This is an area over by the Irvine Spectrum.....off of the 405 and Sand Canyon. This area is very similiar to Turtle Ridge. Turtle Ridge is over by Newport Coast....on the East side of Newport Coast Drive. There is a mix of detached homes and condos. Both areas started building I believe around 2003.

After showing homes, I was excited to see what a $12 million house looks like on Kings Road. If you are not familiar with the area, Kings Road runs parallel with PCH.....right before you cross Newport Blvd as you drive North. This area is up the hill from PCH. Most of these homes have great ocean views with Balboa Island and Balboa Peninsula. This home definitely has the WOW factor. It is almost 11,000 square feet, sits on two lots....one is behind the other. There are 5 bedrooms, 7 baths, 12 seat theatre, gym, spa, pool, wine room, 6 car garage.....what else do you need? They thought of everything. I really liked the crystal door knobs. They remind me of my grandmas home in South Bend, Indiana.

I then went to Dover Shores. This area is just north on PCH as you cross the bridge to the back bay. Many of these homes are on the water on the back bay. The home I went to needed a little love. The patio on the water was really nice. It reminded me of being back home in Minnesota sitting on the deck overlooking the water. Very calming. This home is priced at $3.649.....5 bedrooms, 5 baths.

I went to a couple of places over off of 16th Street. They were both relatively newly remodeled or built. If you are looking that area....let me know, I will let you know more about them. I am rushing on this blog as I need to head over to Turtle Ridge for another showing around 6. I also need to do some additional paperwork so I will sign off for today.