1055 Chippewa Court

A Great Opportunity...

Life is always full of surprises. A family acquired this home, and grew up in it. Children were born and raised... jobs and promotions... hobbies and interests... However, time and space changes everything-including the best laid plans. After rooms were remodeled, and everything arranged just so... the family must move on.



One mans ceiling is another mans floor...

             One mans sushi is another mans bait...
                                            &
                                    One familys misfortune is another familys opportunity.


This beautiful, exquisite home is now available for a new owner. It offers 5 spacious bedrooms, with 3 full baths totaling a little over 2500 square feet of living space. This gorgous house is set on a 15,000 square foot lot, nestled in the Northgate Community of Walnut Creek.
Tree lined streets in a neighborhood where the people across the street wave hello. A community where people watch out for each other but still respect each others privacy. A perfect neighborhood to be a part of...
The backyard is perfect... perfect for entertaining, or perfect for getting away from it all and just communing with nature.
The schools that are offered are award winning... Walnut Acres Grammer School; Foothill Middle School; and Northgate High School.

If this has captured your immagination, here is a VISUAL TOUR of the property. And if thiscaptures your eye, call me for a personal viewing.

REO's (real estate owned) and Short Sales are creating opportunities for HOME BUYER"S.

The Bank does not want to own real estate... Banks make money by loaning money.

When a bank owns a forclosure, it ties up their money... and when their money is tied up they can't loan it... and when they can't loan it - they can't make it.

Now is the time and this is the place.

Click here to begin your search for a home.           CONTRA COSTA & ALAMEDA counties

I know what you're thinking... "Can I afford to buy a house??? "

You are asking the wrong question...           the question is "Can you afford not to !!!! "


YOU ARE ALREADY MAKING A HOUSE PAYMENT !

You are either making your house payment... ... or you're making your landlord's house payment. ... if you dare, click here... and play with a "rent vs. own" and see what your money can do for you....

The staying or going pertains to Homeownership. If you're a first time home owner or you're thinking about becoming a first time home owner... this might be a scary time for you... every other news report deals with either the foreclosure rate going up... or the housing value coming down.

                 WHAT IS ONE TO DO???                                             

One thought to keep in mind is that you will make a house payment ... you will make either your house payment or you will make your landlord's house payment... but YOU WILL MAKE A HOUSE PAYMENT.

Realizing this, what can I get for what I pay?

To answer this question, the New York Times created a great interactive graph. Just insert  the values and viola...  Simply enter the amount of rent you pay... then enter the price of the home you are considering... How much down...  figure the mortgage rate (%)... the annual property taxes... there is even a place to insert the annual home appreciation and the annual rent increase/decrease... press the calculate button and like I said...VIOLA

To play with the chart click HERE

Kudos to Tom Jackson & Archie Tse for creating the graph.

One mans ceiling is another mans floor... one mans sushi is another mans bait... one mans misfortune is another mans opportunity.

The events that are going on now in the market place... SHORT SALES... FORECLOSURES ... REO's... are truly unfortunate. However, these events are also allowing people to enter the Real Estate market, people who in the past couldn't afford to make the leap from renter to home owner.

Yes, the market is correcting itself... and yes, we must learn from our past mistakes... but right now, if one is gainfully employed and can prove it... and if one has a decent credit score... there are opportunities available today to purchase properties in the central Contra Costa county and surrounding areas.

THINK ABOUT IT...   If someone told you 2 or 3 years ago that you could OWN a 2 or 3 bedroom home in Concord or Martinez or the neighboring areas for under 400K - you would have scoffed at them... If they said that it was possible to OWN a home for well under 400K (say 315 to 340) if you didn't mind doing a little cosmetic fix up - they would have been put away.   WELL I'm here to say- it is a reality today.

The window of opportunity is open... for how long no one knows, but it is open and it's open now. Seek the advise of a trusted professional.   A few years from now you'll be saying  "I'm glad I did." or "I wish I had."

I received a call from a client about a possible short sale of his home in Walnut Creek. We discussed his various options specifically the pitfalls of a Deed in Lieu. It's surprising to me how many people are presently in foreclosure, even in central Contra Costa county.

While he is still current, due to the declining values in his area, he thinks he is currently upside down in his mortgage. I plan to meet with him this weekend and determine the best course of action and minimize the negative impact this could have on his financial situation.  

 While listening to the radio, I heard an advertisement for a security alarm system. It was well done. As the intruder attempted to enter the premises a shrill alarm went off and you could hear the foot steps of the intruder retreating. My next random thought found myself evaluating my abode and its' contents, and the amount of time that I'm away. "Wow", I thought, "maybe I should look into this for myself." I filed the data in my left brain, the analytical part of my brain... (I also know that because I am right-handed I am never in my right mind)

        Interesting and unexplainable things happen when I use my mental filing cabinet. (... why is it, that the  brain is often the last organ of resort?) The sub-conscience always works over time. It pulled up a file on  motivation and selling. The file stated that there are just two (2) basic emotions that motivate just about  everything we do:

• DESIRE of GAIN
• FEAR of LOSS

       After a careful analysis, I realized the radio commercial had pushed my buttons. It created fear... fear that  I could be burglarized, and fear that I could lose the things that I have acquired due to my desire to gain. My  initial reaction was unconscious... void of original thought - I need to get an alarm system!

      Once I logically understood where this fear was coming from, I asked myself, how did we (as a society)  handle this situation before security alarms were invented? The only answer I could come up with was "a sense  of Neighborhood"

      When one knows the people that live around them, a connection is created. That connection we know as  "neighbor". We share a common ground with our neighbors. Sometimes that ground is deep... similar life  experiences, common goals, and so forth; and sometimes the common ground is just the same block.  Regardless of how the connection is made it ties us together and gives us a common identity we call a  neighborhood.

      There was a time we knew all our neighbors. We knew that the people across the street both worked so we  kept an eye open, not to be nosy, but to be watchful. We would knock on the door of the old man who lived  alone if we hadn't seen him for a few days, just to make sure things were alright. And we bandage a childs' boo-boo and dried their tears with a treat from the kitchen. This is what made neighborhood.

      Today, for a myriad of reasons, we have lost sight of this connection. We are just to busy doing what we  do. So advertisers scare us. And security alarm systems make sense. 

      I have an idea. Today, smile at a neighbor... (preferable one you don't know) wave hello to the  people across the street... say Hi, to someone as you walk past each other. I have found it makes me feel  good, and sometimes I get an answer. I'm all for feeling good. And I think those who respond feel good too.  Maybe we can start an epidemic.

       Last Saturday morning I found myself in downtown Walnut Creek looking for a place to have breakfast. Hub Caps Diner located on Locust and Bonanza caters the Contra Costa Realtors in Motion (CCRIM), which on Tuesdays is the home of the Broker's Caravan Tour (http://www.ccrim.info.com/) for the central Co.Co. county. I thought to myself; their food is always top notch on Tuesday, I can't imagine it being any different on a weekend, so with this in mind I went to satisfy my hunger.

             I arrived at my destination about 10 minutes after 9 in the morning and I parked on Locust. As I cross the street I notice a parking meter enforcer (I feel funny saying a male meter maid) patrolling in an official meter enforcement cart. He stopped and jumped out of his cart with his ticket writing machine in tow. He glanced at the meter, which had no time, and proceeded to the rear of the vehicle to write a ticket.

             As if it were a dream sequence, I recalled past episodes of my life where a parking ticket waving upon my windshield would ruin the best laid plans of any weekend; so without any thought at all I said "hold it, please", whipped out a shinny quarter and fed the famished meter. As I turned the knob on the meter which aided the digestion of the coin currency I inserted, the officer asked in a formal tone ..." is this your car?"... Thank you I responded, to which he querried again, "is this your car?"

             I vaguely remember an episode of "Cops" where a suspect was taken into custody for lying to an officer of the law; so I repeated my response... Thank you. And again the officer asked, "IS THIS YOUR CAR?" Realizing that my answer was not working I asked why? He then informed me that paying a meter for someone else is against the law. 

           I am a "child of the 60's" and it was all I could do to keep the ‘question authority' part of my psyche squelched. I smiled, bid the officer a good day, and entered the diner. This entire scene took somewhere between 60 and 90 seconds but it has stayed with me for two days now. In a time where there is far too little compassion for our fellow man... where selfish motives are used to justify any and all gains... where everyone is far too busy thinking only of themselves...

 ...the thought of a law that would prevent an act of kindness scares me.

        Today's Inman News had Robert Bruss offering a book review on "The Fearless Home Seller" and it just brought to mind the fact that everybody is an expert... and that can be a problem if you don't know what you're doing. Bruss has always brought clear decisive insight to his articles and this article is no different.

         It seems that Elizabeth Razzi, the author of the aforementioned book, has written some very "hard-hitting" articles for Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine; however this time she forgot to wear her thinking cap. It is difficult to offer advice on how to sell your home when #1 you've never been an agent and #2 you don't seek the insight of a professional.

          The Market is fluid... what worked last month does not necessarily have to work this month. ( look at the stats). Based on the title the average person will purchase this book and take its' opinion as gospel.  And when things don't turn out the way they are suppose to... guess who's to blame.

            It is pointed out that there is no mention of CMA's, she also forgets to point out the advantages to interviewing at least three agents before choosing "the one". To her credit she does point out the folly of using web based home market value web sites (ie. Zillow).

           "Everything that happens is neutral... it's only positive or negative by how we choose to re-act to it" Although her book doesn't reach the mark, we can complain or we can use this as a way to build our value. It's a tool how we use it is up to us.

A Secret Regarding Resolutions and The New Year

    I found myself re-watching some of the Holiday classics this past week:

"It's a Wonderful Life", "Miracle on 34^th Street", and a handful of other movies - movies that make me feel happy to be alive... movies that make me appreciate opportunities born from the adversities that are faced... movies that initiate the question, "...are you crying?"  ( I'm a little sentimental )

   These "feel good" movies give rise to the thought... "I want to make a difference..." - a difference in my life... a difference in the lives I touch... and in my wildest dreams, a difference in the lives I touch indirectly.

   At this time of year, these thoughts give birth to New Year resolutions... an opportunity to set (or re-set) goals. Goals are important because they give me something to aim for... they provide direction for my actions... they cause me to plan my work and work my plan.

     There are some who discount the success of others as mere luck. The way I spell LUCK in this case is...

                                  Labor

                                            Under

                                                       Correct

                                                                     Knowledge

John Knowles, a British statesman and philosopher, was quoted as saying that "...knowledge is of two types: either we know a subject ourselves or we know where to get information on that subject..."  Yes, knowledge is power.

        So, if you find yourself setting goals for this year of 2 double 0 seven (2007) and you need some data relating to real estate to convert into knowledge; feel free to ask me... I would be happy to share what I know, and research that which I do not know so that you can have the knowledge to be LUCKy