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