Avila Beach is one of my favorite towns on the Central Coast of California in San Luis Obispo County. Located just off the beaten path of Highway 101 between San Luis Obispo and Pismo Beach is a country beach town with sandy beaches, orchards, resorts, sulfur springs, and a charming little town you don't want to miss.

Avila Beach is right next to Port San Luis Obispo and the Avila Beach Pier. The area suffered an oil leak in 1998 but since the massive cleanup that removed tons of soil, sand and oil this beach front town has been totally renovated and become one of the most popular beach towns on the Central Coast. 

My family and I frequent this area to go to the Avila barn which provides apple, and peach picking in their seasons, animals for the kids to pet and look at, and then to go to the Avila beach. One of the newest discoveries for us was a great restaurant that somehow we had missed, "The Custom House".

The Custom House is a nice restaurant in Avila Beach for casual dining before, after, or during your experience at Avila Beach. Located right across the street from the sand you can enjoy the sound and views of the ocean as you enjoy good service and food at reasonable prices.

 

Below is a Little History of the Custom House and Avila Beach that was on their menu:

 

Oceanic shipping became common in the first half of the 19th Century using Port San Luis. There were stage lines and small gauge railroads created to run supplies to and from Port San Luis and San Luis Obispo. Oil companies built pipelines to the port to ship out to all points in the Pacific. In 1906, San Luis Bay was designated an official United States Port of Entry for California. A $500,000 breakwater was built using rock blasted from Morro Rock in Morro Bay, CA., still seen today out the front windows. Since then Morro Rock has become a protected national landmark and no more rock removal is permitted.

The port was originally under the jurisdiction of San Francisco. Deputy collectors required offices to work, so David Muzio of Avila Beach built what was The "Old" Custom House. The building was dedicated on March 19, 1927, creating the largest celebration the county had ever seen.

The Old Custom House opened as a restaurant in 1971. Over the next 25 years, The Old Custom House Restaurant served up many freshly made meals, famous Bloody Marys, and provided a good time for locals and tourists alike.

A large oil leak was discovered in 1998 under the beach front property of Avila Beach, CA.. The ensuing cleanup forced the closure of many shops, restaurants and other businesses in "downtown" Avila Beach. After two years, and the removal of 6,750 truckloads of soil, the cleanup was completed and construction of the "new" Old Custom House and Mr. Rick's was started. The Old Custom House and Mr. Rick's were completed in 2002 and were among the first businesses to reopen along the redesigned Front Street Promenade in Avila Beach.

 

View Avila Beach Real Estate 

Sometimes the best way to capture style and class is in simplicity. And when showcasing a luxury estate property on a web site this is what you should be displaying.

When we remove the clutter and noise around and just center the attention on what is important it creates a feeling of clarity and contentment. As bloggers, we tend to do be long winded and draw out our ideas for a more interesting read. However, when a topic is handled in the simplest way that gets right to the point there is nothing like it.

This post isn't about blogging though or the art of writing, this is about displaying a luxury estate on a property website. My example is a web site that show cases one of most spectacular high end properties on the Central Coast of California - cambriaestate.com 

Typically I like my web sites to be full of content but this is a great example of where to be clean, simple, focused and refined just like the property that it is show casing. Not only does it make you slow down and focus in on the property and not get lost in the clutter but it also sets the mood for the home itself.

A careful consideration when choosing a web design layout for your real estate web site or property web site is who are you attracting. Not all people like the same types of things, nor are they attracted to the same types of web sites.  One point of view says

• Use lots of words on all your pages
• Fill your pages with keywords
• At least 300 words on each page
• Create lots of links on your page

While this may be good in certain respects it is not good in all aspects of internet marketing. If you are doing this to enhance your website you are probably doing it to attract viewers from search engines or content readers and not the people who will get totally confused by all the content. I find that people might like your site for the information if it has a lot of content but also get very lost in the clutter. Now if your site is very clean and you only have a few links to navigate people understand what you are trying to tell them and the point the site is making, and honestly if your site never delivers the point of it being there all the content is useless. My advice when showcasing a property in its own website is do like - cambriaestate.com

• Use defined lines for your framework
• Use short crisp thoughts on your pages
• Reduce the clutter
• Reduce the navigation buttons to a minimum

Real Estate Agencies

An exciting new feature has been added to my real estate search service for San Luis Obispo County MLS: A list of every brokerage in the CCRMLS and a list of their active listing agents in the area with links to their listings for sale.

This will be very helpful for those people looking for a specific agency's or listing agent's listings. As I track my statistics using Google Analytics I see many people coming in to my website searching for a specific brokerage. I know when they get there they must be a little frustrated to only find maybe one or two listings and in different places of my site. So I consolidated an area just for people who are searching that way.

Hopefully now when people are searching for Re/Max in Arroyo Grande, Re/Max Park Side in Paso Robles or Century 21 in Cambria they will find an updated list of all their current properties as all the listings on the site are updated on a daily bases with the most recent photos.

View the real estate agencies.

There are some great companies out there and I support them by adding their brokerage name and listing agent name next to every property detail and hopefully as a team we can achieve the sellers goal of selling their property.

The most exposure one can give a listing the better you are serving your client. With the majority of home buyers looking online that means presenting it as many place online as you possibly can. I'm not sure why some agents and agencies exclude their listings from IDX display except maybe they think their listing is to good to be sold by any other Realtor. Agency pocket listings are to me a disservice to the seller. If you think you have a buyer for the property, great, but you want to increase demand on that property and that means increase exposure. 

Cambria water is still the most valuable resource is Cambria California as this season’s rain fall is lower than any previously recorded since 1973. Surcharges are planned on being implemented to penalize hefty Cambria water users. Water and sewer bills for all Cambria Community Services District customers are expected to rise soon, as the board begins a series of hikes over the next five years. 

20 units of water used in two months will cost $235.26, up from $156.84

61 units will cost $1,932.98, up from $351.45 

These dramatic increases are reflecting the Cambria district’s well levels are as low as they’ve been since 1988-1990 which was the final years of Cambria’s six-year drought.

Cambria real estate is currently in a building moratorium causing the value of most lots to drop in value, some being sold for under $10,000 while others on the ocean going for $2M+. The building moratorium is planned on being relieved somewhere near 2011 with the building of a desalinization plant that will distribute water hookups to 800 Cambria parcels. The parcels receiving hookups are all reserved on the Cambria water wait list comprised of about 650 positions, some of these positions are being sold separately from the lots themselves.

There are currently 78 water positions being sold in Cambria from $87,000 for position 606 to $299,000 for position 12 and $389,000 for a water hook-up to build now.

Though the water situation in Cambria is complicated it hasn’t detracted the desirability of this charming small town on the Central Coast of California called Cambria Pines by the Sea. The local community thrives on tourism and the public events like the 4^th of July fireworks, the annual Pinedorado, the many car shows throughout the year, and the ever famous Hearst Castle in San Simeon.

Find out more about Cambria Real Estate 

I get asked all the time for vacation rental properties for sale whenever people walk into the Sand Shell Realty office and never before have I had a resource of the complete list of vacation rental homes for sale until today.

Cambria California is a charming little community in San Luis Obispo California. People come here from all over the world for it's quiet charm and sunny weather with a perfect temperature year round. Summer especially gets a lot of tourist to visit the nice beaches and Heart Castle just up the coast.

Vacationers who visit Cambria many times choose to enjoy the comfort of a vacation rental home. With all the amenities and privacy of a home these are very attractive in many coastal towns up and down the Central Coast of California.

Vacation rental homes are great real estate investments to supplement the mortgage payments of a second home purchased in Cambria for future retirement. Many people choose to purchase a second home in Cambria and plan on retiring here later. In this town there are many activities and clubs for retirees. Until the retire they use their real estate investment as a vacation rental home.

Vacation rental homes for sale can now be found quickly and easily and are updated frequently with the current vacation rental properties on the real estate market in Cambria California. Below is a list of links to many pages of vacation rental properties for sale on the Central Coast.

To be a licensed vacation rental you must meet certain criteria that not every home can qualify for. Below is a list of qualified homes for sale that are licensed vacation rental properties for sale.

• Cambria Vacation Rentals
• Morro Bay Vacation Rentals
• Cayucos Vacation Rentals
• Pismo Beach Vacation Rentals

A recent IDX system I built was a Nevada County Real Estate IDX search for AlanSavage.Com.

Displaying a few thousand properties and dozens of cities in Nevada County to real estate buyers in Nevada County this system is what buyers are looking for. These properties and cities now have a web presence for real estate searchers to find all the MLS listings in Nevada County.

This real estate MLS search is setup in a simple environment which sets it apart from many other searches that tend to confuse the user. Simplicity of use allows real estate property seekers to find what they are looking for without a ton of confusing search criteria that many times returns no results. For each search you should be able to find exactly what you are looking for in less than three clicks.

Featuring full screen MLS maps for each city. Take a look at the Grass Valley real estate map, or the Nevada City real estate map including 100's of properties updated daily.

Nevada County is North East of Sacramento and West of Lake Tahoe. Towns include Grass Valley and Nevada City in the Sierra Nevada mountains. This area is known as Gold Country and was founded by the pioneers who converted the rugged terrain into homesteads in the California Gold Rush. Towns in Nevada County still depict this rugged feel that took the west. This area has been settled by the modern day pioneers of the internet and Silicon Valley who have come from San Jose and San Francisco to live a slower pace life and telecommute.

One of the handiest tools as a web developer or any person who is interested in web site ranking is the Google toolbar. 

Though the Google toolbar, like any other toolbar or plug-in for your browser and computer, slows down your computer and web surfing speed if for nothing else it has the Google PageRank meter which tells you how important Google thinks a particular page is.

Why is the Google PageRank meter important?
Simply put it is like how important the page you are looking at is to Google...

Okay... but what does that mean?
Google PageRank is like a multiplier by which Google evaluates where each page should come up in search results. For instance, if your page is about real estate and you have the words real estate throughout your site and a lot of links coming in telling Google your site is about real estate then where you come up for a Google search when someone searches for real estate is based on your Google PageRank. Two identical pages will come up different places searching Google because one has a higher PageRanking than the other.

How do you get PageRank?
Page rank is obtained from incoming links to the page. The more links that are sent to a page the more value it has in the eyes of Google. Additionally if a page with a high Google ranking is sending a link to a page, the page receiving the link receives more PageRank than a incoming link from a lower ranking page. A web page linking to many other pages is distributing it's value to those other page but the more links that are going out the less PageRank each individual page will receive from the distributing page. Incoming links can come from the same website in addition to other websites.

Okay what's the point?
The point is knowledge! The PageRank on the Google toolbar allows you to evaluate your website, your blog, and other peoples' sites and pages. If you are looking to build yourself incoming links you should target sites or pages that have higher PageRank. And if your personal website has low PageRank you might need to do some work to get your sites value up in the eyes of Google.

Why is this page ranked zero?
This could be a factor of many things. Mainly it's from not enough incoming links, but it could also be because the Google toolbar PageRank has not updated for that page.

When does Google PageRank update?
Google is constantly updating the ranking of each page but Google does not update the toolbar PageRank meter but about once every 4 months. Google does this probably to keep us all a little in the dark so search engine optimizers, such as myself don't play with our sites daily and watch the PageRank change to "game the system".

What's a Good PageRank?
To determine what a good page ranking in you should compare what your competitors PageRank is. If you are competing in a local market you probably don't need a super high PageRank and a 3/10 might be all you need to come up number 1 in searches. Other more completive markets might require a 5/10 or 6/10. Google and Yahoo! are the only 10/10s. msn.com is 8/10.

Additional Tips
Many websites such as forums or wiki sites use the rel='nofollow' tag to halt page rank from transferring and reduce spammers from creating links on public sites. If you are participating in link exchange right click on your link to make sure it doesn't have a rel"nofollow" tag on it or you may be getting a raw deal.

Get the Toolbar 

My newest project has been the construction of an IDX system for Manor Realty in Chester California. I have been working for the broker / owner Alan Savage for several years now and constructed a few websites and IDX systems for him.

About two years ago I built the first version of the Plumas County IDX search system for Manor Realty and somehow between then and now it got disconnected from the IDX system. Since then I have refined some techniques and SEO for IDX projects to include higher level Google Map API functionality to give a feeling like most of the high end real estate search companies use (Trulia, Zillow).

Plumas County is north east of Sacramento and West of Reno NV. In the Sierra Nevada mountains it is a great location for skiing, biking and other recreational activities in their season. At the center of Plumas County is Lake Almanor a beautiful lake with great fishing, boating, and water sports.

There are almost 2000 listings in the Plumas County MLS today, mostly single family homes and lots but a few ranches and commercial property scattered in different cities. Some believe Lake Almanor to be the next Lake Tahoe as developers find the area and begin to build ski resorts and other attractions. Only time will tell but already many investors have found this area to be exploding with new real estate growth.

Almost all the local brokerages contribute their listings to this system, so unlike other web sites that only show you a portion of the listings, or perhaps only their listings alone, this brings you the entire multiple listing service. Franchise brokerages such as Coldwell Banker, Re/Max, Century 21, London Properties Lake Almanor, United Country, Plumas Properties, and Prudential. Other local agencies who contribute to this service include Almanor Busy Bee Realty, Baumann Realty, Bailey Creek Properties, Mountain properties and others.

Manor Realty is located on the north west side of Lake Almanor in Chester CA at 289 Main Street and was the brokerage for Foxwood at Lake Almanor for a during its early stages of development. 

For anyone interested in computers and the direction things are going at Apple the WWDC keynote address shed some great light on where Apple is heading with the new OS X Leopard, Safari for Windows and the iPhone. View the Apple Keynote Address.

Below is a breakdown of some of the topics discussed in the keynote address from Steve Jobs and others.

Exclusive Intel Processors: Intel processors will continue to be the exclusive processor used in Mac computers on into the future.

Game Developers Returning to Apple: EA Games will be releasing titles on the Mac:

• Command and Conquer 3
• Battle Field
• Harry Potter
• Madden Football
• Tiger Woods Golf

John Carmack from Id speaks on developments in his limitless texturing of entire worlds within Id’s games with no drawback on performance.

The main topic of discussion was 10 of the 200 new and enhanced features in Mac OS X Leopard to be shipping October 21st, the 6th release of Mac OS X.

1. The New Desktop: 
   
   • Grass background instead of the common blue
   • New 3D Dock
   • Cleanup desktop tools
   • Stacks which allow quick views of folder contents from the dock
   • Downloads folder on the dock with stacked functionality
   • A consistent new look
   • More prominent active window
    
2. New Finder:
   
   • New sidebar search of other Macs & servers, shared computers
   • Back to my Mac allows you to grab or search for files on computers in other locations that are connected to .mac, even Windows machines.
   • Cover flow first seen in iTunes is a more visual way of cycling through documents, or files and interact with them more dynamically right in the finder.
   
   
3. Quick Look:
   Extension of Cover flow allows live file previews of text, images, pdfs, file, documents, movies to full screen in preview mode.
   
   
4. Leopard will be the first mainstream PC 64 Bit OS from top to bottom with the ability to run 32-bit and 64-bit applications side by side. 64 bit applications will speed up processing of larger documents, files, graphics, and video about 4 times by not having to access the hard drive as often. High end animators and graphic artists will find this very exciting.
   
   
5. Core Animation will allow for tremendous functionality for applications automatically streaming video in simpler, more dynamic, and faster methods; text, images, video, OpenGL, GPU acceleration.
   
   
6. Boot Camp - Built-in to Mac OS X Leopard allowing Windows XP and Vista to run natively with complete compatibility.
   
   
7. Spaces organizes your windows for grouping applications in window spaces allowing for faster multi tasking and switch to different active application groups.
   
   
8. Enhanced Dashboard Widget organizer with Web Clip widget so you can scissor any feed on the net and make it a widget on your computer. These widgets updates instantly from the web feed. Movie Widget added to allow you to search for movies, preview, and buy tickets from the widget.
   
   
9. The new iChat video conferencing looks very cool. New enhancements with better audio, tabbed chats, photo booth effects that allows you to show photos, video, pdfs, keynote presentations, applications or anything else you want someone you are conferencing with to see through iChat theater. Use special effects and backdrops to spice up the video chat with photo booth – very cool and fun tool!
   
   
10. Time Machine digital backup library allows you to automatically back up with one click. Back up to an external drive and then search back in time for lost files and preview them with quick look and quickly restore the file or your entire Mac with a couple clicks.

Mac OS Leopard will ship October 21^st for $129. Only one version available with everything in it. Take a look at the presentation and I’m sure you will be as impressed I was.

 
Apple is releasing Safari 3 onto Windows XP and Vista. “The fastest, most innovative browser” according to Steve Jobs. Releasing free beta at apple.com/safari

I’ve never been impressed with Safari but maybe they will come out with something soon that will make it worthwhile – who knows. I already run multiple browsers for different functionality and each one has its shortcomings. I guess we’ll see where this one goes.
 

The new iPhone release is June 29th with Web 2.0, AJAX applications, and the Safari browser built into the phone.
 

Apple once again has set some great standards that I’m sure Microsoft and other competitors will have to catch up to. The total 64-bit OS is very exciting for users who tend to bring their computers to its knees. The 64-bit core will speed up everything done on the Mac and increase work flow.

After watching this video and seeing the built Windows OS, the ease of use in the OS and knowing the increasing cross compatibility of applications I am thinking of getting a new Mac with this OS.

Windows Vista, from what I have seen runs slow, is very ponderous and I don’t plan on getting a Windows Vista machine in the near or distant future. I am happy right now with XP but the features of OS X Leopard look very cool.

Watch the Video 

In beginning this topic on the Chumash Indians I take great care and appreciation for what I am about to write. I have great respect and honor for the native Americans and native peoples of a lot of different cultures such as the Aztecs, Incas, Mayans, native Hawaiian’s and other great civilizations that have been infringed upon by our European idealistic superiority. I begin to embark on this blog for Celeste and the challenge she returned to me after I desired her to expand on the Hawaiian culture in its rawest form which she did, entitling the Localism Featured blog “The History of Hawaiian Homes” which I invite you all to read.

This subject will predate the Spanish exploration of Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo in 1542, the first recorded European explorer of this area. The Chumash Indians in their native state is the subject of this blog, their history, their culture, and their lives.

The Chumash Indians are the natives of the area we now call the Central Coast of California, stretching South of Malibu CA, North of Cambria CA, into Big Sur, out to the Channel Islands, and inland to the San Joaquin Valley. Their culture, homes, and territories were well established with over 150 independent villages, 7,000 square miles and a population estimated at over 18,000. Science dates the first settlements in this area back to 11,000 B.C.

Chumash means “bead maker”, “Seashell people” or “the ones who make shell bead money” and were hunters, gatherers and fishermen. Like many cultures they recognized the life of nature and how the lives of their people depended on its providence. Ceremonies were set based on the times and seasons of the moon, and sun. Their father, the sun, was celebrated in his respective seasons and transition points we call the summer and winter solstices.

As one of the most advanced boat builders, the Chumash Indians used tar found naturally to strengthen the seagoing plank canoe boats (tomol) they built from native redwoods, and driftwood. Invented about 2,000 years ago and able to withstand the waves of our Pacific Ocean, these boats gave them travel up and down the coast line connecting culture and trade amongst the Chumash Indian villages. Each village had adapted cultures and resources in their distinct locations and sea shells were used as money to trade amongst the Chumash tribes.

Fine twined baskets, necklaces, jewelry, arrowheads, stone cookware, and seashell money are prevalent artifacts left by this culture. There are spots around where I live that you can be sure to find arrowheads and other artifacts after looking only a short while. A mound on a hill in Cambria is a known ceremonial ground of the Chumash. Burial grounds are scattered throughout the area, these locations are the sites of established villages. Food storage and the harvesting of crops allowed for these stationary societies to hunt, fish, and live in. Another site at a farm where I grew up was littered with old abalone shells, arrowheads, mortar and pestle remains and other treasures my family collected. 

The Chumash were led by chiefs / priests (wots) of both men and women. The shamen / astrologers were knowledgeable in the changing of seasons and mapped the stars to guide the people into the future. The chief’s offspring was the inheritor of position, wealth, and ultimately supreme control of the tribe.

Chumash ceremonies were held at mounds, hills, caves or other special sites. Cave paintings can still be found depicting the events, animals and people that were part of their beliefs and rituals for generations. Most of these paintings are under 1,000 years old and are protected by the state. Their locations are even withheld to the public for the most part. One location can be visited in Santa Barbara call Painted Cave. More information about this and other Chumash facts can be found on a Santa Barbara based website: Chumash Indian Life.

Today the Chumash families and museums are found with collections of pictures and artifacts depicting culture before the Spanish Missions lined California and wiped the Chumash nearly into non existence. Some Santa Ynez Chumash have capitalized like other Native Americans on their ability to build gaming casinos; theirs is the Chumash Casino in Santa Ynez. Find out more about the Santa Ynez Chumash.