Great Deal in Corona del Mar

Happy New Year!

It has been a crazy couple of weeks. I closed on a house for a client on New Years Eve.....great way to start the new year. I have also been busy working on the marketing for our new site http://www.covecanyonandcrest.com/. We will be sending out our first flyer next week.

Anyway, there is a property I want to tell everyone about. This is a home on Hazel....located in the south area of Corona del Mar. It is a 3 story home.....full ocean and canyon view from all 3 levels. The upper level has a master suite. The main level has your living room, dining room and kitchen. The lower level has the other 3 bedrooms and family room. This home is priced at $1.849......listed last year for $3 mil. It is an incredible deal.

There are some incredible deals out there for you buyers.....you just have to look for them. Sellers, now is not the time to sell if you want top dollar. If you have to sell now, look at your competition......recently sold homes and currently sold homes. Are there many in your area for sale? Are they upgraded? Are the priced right? You need the upgrades and correct pricing to sell in this market. If you don't have the upgrades, go below the current comps to sell quicker. My next entry I will talk about one of my favorite listings on Larkspur......I call it the Montage house.

http://www.propertiesintheoc.com/

http://www.covecanyonandcrest.com/

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/