Coastal Real Estate and Lifestyles

I managed to get in RE BarCamp for a few hours on Tuesday.  It was an informal gathering of social media/technology thought leaders… and those interested in learning about real estate technology trends.  A tremendous networking opportunity…and it was free!

I met a lot of people, here’s a couple to share with you now:

Alex Neth of cribQ.comcompiled a mashup of Craigslist rentals with Google mapping, neighborhood info, and Walk Scores for each rental.  He developed this site to manage his own rental search.

I’m fortunate to already know Kevin.  Kevin Boer of Domus Consulting Group and 3 Oceans Real Estate lead a discussion about whether there was business value in the use of Twitter.  That was one of the largest groups.  What does that tell you?  If you’re on Twitter also, you can follow me at @mariansbennett.

Theresa Boardman of St. Paul Real Estate lead a conversation about photos, Flikr and photo management for websites.  Because of the open and casual nature, discussions veered into cameras, lens choices, other online photo filing systems, how to get the best interior shots, and more.

Looking for home in New Zealand or north Lake Tahoe?…I met Alistair Helm of realestate.co.nz from Auckland, New Zealand.  His company provides one of the largest (or did he say the largest?) real estate web portals in his country.  Also Tracy Saunders, Sotheby’s came to SF from Incline Village, NV. 

Yesterday was the first day of Connect. More about that and last Sunday’s web-cam experiment in Healdsburg to come.  In addition to my clients and family…the priorities!… I’m fitting in these activities this week. 

A few days ago Pam Buda announced in our Homescopes meeting that her Healdsburg listing will be featured LIVE on Trulia’s Blog via webcam.  When our Sonoma County colleague and owner of wine country real estate blog, WineCountryandHorses.com, invited me to join her at her Open House this Sunday, July 20th, I jumped at the opportunity to witness this cutting edge listing tool in action.  As with any listing, most agents will plan a marketing strategy to maximize exposure to the most likely potential buyers.  When an opportunity like this . . . Trulia offering to do a live webcam of your open house . . . is added to the marketing of the home, it opens up even more possibilities to powerful online exposure.  WOW.

Pam has taken another terrific step by involving her Homescopes associates.  When I write a blog post about an Associate’s listing, my readers are exposed to new information they may not know about otherwise.  For example, my readers span San Mateo County, all of California, and beyond.  My Google Analytics report shows the top worldwide visitors to my site:  United States, United Kingdom, Norway, India and Canada.  Pam’s Analytics report may show her readers come from other places.  In any case, it’s additional exposure for her listing - more exposure means greater chances of the right buyer.

The perfect buyer for this adorable vintage craftsman bungalow in the heart of the wine country may come from anywhere.  If you have ever thought of exploring Sonoma County, or Healdsburg in particular, for either a second home, a vacation rental property, a legacy home, or a ’downsize’ home, what better way to attend an open house if you can’t physically be in Healdsburg?!  Check out this online open house tomorrow, Sunday, July 20 between 1-3;30 on Trulia’s Blog.  The home is located at 414 Piper Street, Healdsburg, CA and will be physically open from1-4 p.m.

The use of these 2.0 real estate technology and social media tools are at the heart of an exciting and transparent trend for our industry that will benefit buyers and sellers.

To view the invitation, either click HERE or go directly to the main page titled *Limo* on the header bar.

Highlights:

• See parts of the San Mateo County Coast that only a local would know.
• Complimentary tour in private, stocked limo (air-conditioning if needed, but, remember, this is SF!).
• Gifts from local businesses that you can use for yourself or as client gifts once you return home.  No extra paper to have to fit into the suitcase.
• Views, stops, fun, sights, comraderie, fully stocked limo, gifts, fun, pizza…hope to see you.
• Make the most of your trip to SF for RE Connect.

To my contacts on Homescopes, WCR Blogs, Twitter and Active Rain:  I would sure appreciate your help in passing this one-time offering on to those who you think may be interested.  There is room for 5 people, so if anyone is interested, don’t wait.

Thanks!

Marian

The Half Moon Bay Coastside Limo Tour, available on a first-come-first-served basis, is open to all Real Estate Connect participants.  The limo will depart Friday afternoon following the conference from the Palace Hotel.  The short, entertaining excursion into Half Moon Bay will include a scenic drive over Devil’s Slide to view the beautiful new bridges and the now famous tunnel work in progress, through local neighborhoods, a coffee and snack stop, and a return trip over Hwy 92 to view some local flower, tree, pumpkin, and horse farms.  Guests will be returned to the Palace Hotel by mid afternoon.

I thought of this idea because Half Moon Bay is about 30 minutes away from SF and this will give visitors a unique hyper-local look at my real estate market and community.  The official invitation will be posted in the next couple of days and linked to my Active Rainblog also.

Charise and Michele of the Half Moon Bay Chamber of Commerce greeted me a few days ago in in their new digs at 235 Main St, HMB.  It’s one of the older Main Street bungalows transformed into a welcoming business space.  The two friendly golden retrievers and colorful backyard completed the charming effect for which Half Moon Bay is so loved!  Charise and Michele’s input was very valuable as I outlined my tour for them.  They quickly gave me names and contacts of local businesses that I could include in my “gift bag” for each tour guest.  Since I expect out-of-area agents who may have relocation clients interested in my community, we thought of gifts that the agents could use once they got back home; i.e. referencing businesses with a good online presence who already service clients all over the country.  If you know of a local business who would like to be included, simply comment or email and let me know - soon.

 These are just a few of the businesses I will be contacting for gift pack gift ideas. . .to pique your curiosity!

Harley Farms

Elegant Cheesecakes

Savvy Skirts

Dayle Dunn Gallery

* * * Look for the Connect participants Limo invitation shortly!  * * *

This is the pre-invitation heads up…and a special thanks to the HMB Chamber for their assistance!  Also, please forward this to anyone who you think may be interested and send a comment so I can add interested parties to the first-come-first-served list or send a private email.  Since I’ve never done this before, and am sponsoring this myself, I really don’t know if there will be lots of interest or none at all.  So let me know what you think!  What I do know is this will be a one-of-a-kind trip for a lucky few.

Just learned about this very handy tool yesterday from our Advertising Coordinator, Gene Wilkins.  She was the first to broadcast that Highway 92 had been closed yesterday afternoon within seconds of its happening.  She had gotten a notice from SMCAlert, a system that broadcasts road, earthquake, weather, and other emergency situations.  Here’s a snippet from the FAQ…

Emergency Situations:

• Notify employees, and/or citizens of the location of the nearest emergency shelter, available bed space, hours of operation during a crisis;
• Notify employees/citizens of available evacuation routes during an emergency;
• Activate special teams within the community, based upon an event

Precautionary Warnings:

• Severe weather warnings;
• Change in the Homeland Security Advisory System terror alert level
• Pre-cautionary evacuation order if on high alert  

So I signed up too.  You can activate your notices on up to two cell phones and two email addresses.  It’s free, however, standard text messaging rates apply here.

This can be a huge time saver for those of us who travel Highways 92 & 1 on a regular basis - especially in our line of work!  Up until now I would turn on KCBS AM radio to wait for the traffic report “on the eights”.  You can configure how you receive these notices, but I set it up so that I received them on my Treo since I’m in the car so much.

Meeting someone for dinner or a property showing?  Picking up kids from school?  Medical or other appointment over the hill?  Now you can get the quick “heads up” to take another route if necessary.  For client meetings that may be delayed, this is a very useful, professional tool.

Note:  Just added this link to my website under “Emergency Preparedness”.

Just in from Susan O’Driscoll, our Half Moon Bay office in-house lender, Princeton Capital…

**Rates for our agency jumbos are down! Loan amounts > $417,000 – $729,750 today on a 30 year fixed are 6% - 0 points or 5.75% with 1 point.**

Shortly before Susan’s email, I got a call from HMB Branch of Bank of America’s Bob Zimmer with his update.  I hadn’t gotten to my newsfeed in the last few days to see for myself the Fannie Mae announcement.  Thanks guys for keeping the telephone tree alive and well so that we and our buyer clients can be the first to know about changes that may affect their rates! 

Their news to me coincides with Wednesday’s announcement by Fannie Mae, summarized here by an NAR press release that Fannie is…

“…working to reduce the cost to consumers of jumbo conforming loans (loans above $417,000, up to $729,750 in some areas) and make it easier for individuals and families to qualify for these loans. We expect this step will lower mortgage costs for many families living in high-cost areas. Additionally, Fannie Mae will allow many borrowers to refinance Fannie Mae-owned mortgages even where a home’s current value is significantly less than the existing mortgage.”

“Agency jumbo” is the another term for “jumbo conforming”, the recently approved loan limit increase for high cost areas.  I know, we really don’t need more industry lingo, do we?

Related reading:

Fannie Mae Quarter 1 News Release

…embellishing the facts further along the spectrum does.  To say that the real estate media landscape is biased is no revelation by any stretch of the imagination.  There are the respective agendas and it’s just the way it is.  It will always be up to us as consumers to decide how we want to react to it and consider its validity.  It’s up to us as real estate professionals to stay on top of public perception AND help our clients understand how such news affects their personal situation and goals.  We all have a job to do. 

I was amused by last Sunday 5/4 SF Chron Insight’s little back page column titled: The Bottom Line.  The headings Good Week and Bad Week drew me in to see how my own week compared to what made it into the column.  (check, check, more good than bad, doing ok!)  I scanned until I drilled into the words “Fair and balanced”.  I thought - wow, we could use some of that in our industry.  So I searched “Fair and balanced” and found it to be one of the news network’s terms.  A search for “fair and balanced real estate” led me to a post written 4/8/08 on News Hounds blog highlighting a rather unbalanced approach to the current state of affairs in real estate.  That is, one day it appears we may be finally rebounding, and the next a new report shows that we’re not.  I must admit part of me was expecting to find a fair and balanced real estate story, but instead I found the writer’s opinion that the news show they were writing about was not fair and balanced.  That’s fine, but I wanted to read something that I thought would be really unique.

It may always be up to us to bring the fair and balanced; however, unless there is trust, our writing probably won’t be viewed that way.  It will be viewed as another biased opinion about the real estate market.  Real estate agents who blog have an opportunity to get the real stories in their local market out there.  If we can discuss the good and the bad in a consistent manner, we have an opportunity to gain trust.  And our readers will continue to…react and consider its validity.   Thanks for reading.

Many Realtors, Mortgage professionals, Title and escrow representatives, and others in our industry know Carol.  I’m writing this post to give you a way to send your well wishes and keep up to date on her progress.  In case you don’t know Carol Icard, she is the Manager of the North American Title office in Half Moon Bay.  She brings years of knowledge and experience to her clients, offers classes on various topics to her colleagues – such as a class I attended last year that she prepared for us on short sales, and does this all with humor and grace. 

Carol needs us now as she fights for her life with a recent extremely serious diagnosis.  Her daughter Arwyn, who works at North American Title in San Mateo, also needs our support and encouragement.  A website has just been launched to provide updates and give us all a way to share encouragement, stories, well wishes, etc. to Carol and her family.  Here it is:  http://friendsofcarol.org/

There will soon be a major shift in local advertising dollars.  The huge spread that Coldwell Banker Northern California spends tons of $$$$$$ to advertise its listings each Sunday in the Peninsula Edition of the SF Chronicle will be no more as of this weekend, April 20, 2008.  This new development is another step up into the future that local (Peninsula) ”Real Estate Section” readers of the Chronicle will notice starting this week.

In the Peninsula Edition, the Half Moon Bay & Montara offices are limited to 10 spaces - 1 featured listing across the top of the page and 9 “liners” listed in columns by city.  That’s because we share the entire 2-page spread with the other Peninsula CB offices.  Our Peninsula Edition listings are not advertised in the San Francisco or other Bay Area editions.  Listings in South SF or Pacifica that may be best suited for a San Francisco buyer will not be seen in the SF Edition of CB’s big ad.  Of course, agents can pay to have their listings included in the Open Home Guide by County. 

More and more people are using the web to search for their dream home.  We’ve all been watching this shift occur for years now.  Any why not when you can see multiple pictures, maps, detailed descriptions, neighborhood video, property blogs, and more.  It is comforting to pick up a newspaper and peruse the real estate ads, but the number of people that pick up the phone from newspaper ads has got to be pretty small.  We, the agents, have to get our copy & photos to the advertising reps several days before it goes to print.  So some information can be out of date by the time the paper lands on your front step.

I suspect those company advertising dollars will be going toward new online pursuits.  CB has already spent millions developing its online presence in places such as CaliforniaMoves, Trulia, Google, and Yahoo Real Estate, but as we all know, real estate marketing, real estate technology, online advertising, and new media industries can be interwoven and are changing rapidly.  A great place to watch this unfold in on Transparent Real Estate.

At some point this had to happen, it was just a matter of when.  I’ll still be reading the Real Estate Section as long as the paper still has one.

It’s such a nice perk to have friends in other areas of the Bay who keep us in the loop about fun events that may not get a lot of mainstream publicity.  So, for you, my blog readers, here’s something for wine and architecture enthusiasts:

Pam Buda of Sonoma County informs us that this is the 30th Anniversary of the Russian River Wine Barrel Tasting Tour.  According to Pam’s post, WineCountryandHorses, this popular event has had to stretch to two weekends.  This coming weekend of March 8-9 is the second and final weekend of this year’s event.

If you’re a fan of California modern and mid-century modern architecture, colleague Sam Benson in Contra Costa County co-hosts the annual East Bay Eichler Faire in Walnut Creek this Saturday only, March 8th from 10 - 2.  Sam seems pretty knowledgeable about these types of homes which you will see if you visit his blog at RealEstate680, and has found many tradespeople who specialize in this home style and construction.  If you know someone who wants to know more about this type of architecture, enjoy a day in the East Bay for this free event.

Of course, if you’re going to stay or visit the Half Moon Bay Coastside, this is Opening Weekend for Half Moon Bay High School’s Spring Musical, Grease, as reported here by Coastsider. First show is this Friday, March 7th at 8 p.m.  Visit the above link to the Coastsider report for some great pictures and the full list of dates, times and locations to purchase tickets.

If none of these get you out of the house, you can also stop by my Open House at 620 Ruisseau Francais in Frenchman’s Creek this Sunday, March 8th from 1:30-4:30!  Thanks to CB colleagues the Bell/Fisher/Fowler team for inviting me to hold open this great home. (I took photo on 2/9/08.) p.s.  currently the lowest price 5br.3ba. on the market.  Contact me if you would like a showing or further information about it.

3/6/08 update:  I will also be holding Valerie Trenter’s co-listing at 286 3rd St., Montara, this Saturday 3/8/08 from 2-4.  This is the FIRST open house.  I toured this Tuesday…a darling home on huge lot, ocean views, single story.  Picture to come.  It will also be open Sunday 1:30-4:30 hosted by Listing Agent, Valerie Trenter.