Solar Decathlon Winners - 10/20/07 02:00 PM
The Solar Decathlon held on the National Mall pitted twenty teams against each other in ten separate competitions. These university teams spent two years in preparation for the contest which lasted for a week. Lines were long all week showing a great public interest in green building.
The winning German team had a major impact with wins in three of the ten categories. In particular, the jury for architecture said the team created the type of home they had hoped to see. According to the lighting jury, the glow of the house at night was a wonderful feature. From the technical and … (0 comments)

When is a fixer too far gone? - 10/15/07 09:31 PM
I wrote about a lovely 1893 fixer in Healdsburg a few days ago. There's no question in my mind that a solid restoration is the best choice for that house and the neighborhood. It's a classy three unit building on a large lot on a street with lots of homes from the same era. There are plenty of period details and the decent construction that has helped it survive for 110 years. A week of scrubbing and painting and some new appliances and window glass and it would be a serviceable rental by Halloween. For a price of $525,000 and close … (0 comments)

1893 Fixer in Healdsburg, CA - 10/12/07 05:15 PM
I've always liked the construction era before 1900. The country was rich with high quality lumber and many skilled builders. Combine that with automation and the wood working factories that had figured out how to create a wide variety of reasonably priced ornamentation. The result was an explosion in decoration that let builders go wild.
The detail on the left features the beautifully turned center post on the porch and the resulting cornucopia of braces and trim elements that adorn the post and the beam holding up the roof and porch ceiling. You can notice in the background that the porch … (4 comments)

Web site and blog 101 - Posting and Google - 10/11/07 01:56 AM
I have finished the first simple HTML page that we've spent the last five posts developing. I have updated all the references to Anywhere Subdivision to Wikiup Greens, the name of the 55+ neighborhood subdivision I will be covering as part of my farm territory. Over the next few days I will develop the second page to use as a newsletter and to contain news, new listings, and other information that needs to be timely.
In the old days, like last year, I would have gone to the Google site to announce my page. Within a few days they would send one … (8 comments)

Web site and blog 101 - Finishing the page - 10/08/07 08:42 PM
The last post was all about the head of the page and meta tags. Check out this page to see what the HTML from yesterday and today looks like in real life. I have intentionally designed a page that is simple and bland. You can add color, images, and your own content to make this personal for your neighborhood or subdivision website. Working with this as a template you will have a page that is already optimized for Google and other search engines. To get your template, after you visit the page link above, simply click on the View menu item … (9 comments)

Web site and blog 101 - HTML, Meta tags, and keyword density - 10/08/07 02:11 AM
Lots of people commenting on the last post in this Blog 101 series wanted to know about meta tags. In order to talk about web pages and meta tags, it's necessary to understand a small amount of HTML and the structure of a web page. Don't worry! I know how scary programming or code-looking stuff can be, so I will keep it basic. Some commenters may get on my case for not including CSS or teaching you do do a blog. They're right in theory, but I would rather have you learn a few key things about search engines than become … (11 comments)

Web site and blog 101 - As I Practice What I Preach - 10/07/07 01:27 AM
In the last post I mentioned getting started with a domain name for a subdivision, so I took my own advice. Five minutes ago I registered WikiupGreens.com. For Google search purposes, the small neighborhood names I discussed in the last post work very well. In this case, the official name of the subdivision was available so I registered it at dotster.com, the company where I register names. Godaddy or any of the other domain registrars would work just as well. (It doesn't matter how you punctuate anything in front of the ".com". WikiupGreens is the same as wikiupgreens is the same as WIKIupGrEenS. It … (17 comments)

Web site and blog 101 - choosing a domain name - 10/04/07 11:57 PM
Face it, you're not going to get chicago.com or dallas.com. The obvious domain names are already taken.
Fortunately, there are still plenty of great names for you to grab. I'm going to go over two options for you to establish an online identity. One will help your personal brand and the other will reinforce your farming activities and make you the owner of your own local area.
The personal brand route you can take is to associate your name with REALTOR®. I checked with the NAR and they have some strict rules about domain names. You can't call yourself thebestrealtor.com or use … (8 comments)

Web site and blog 101- choosing a host - 10/04/07 02:17 AM
I've had a few people ask me about hosting their own web sites and blogs. Like everything else in life, this can be as simple or complicated as you want it to be. We have all seen "stock" sites offered by hosting companies. If you search on google for "real estate web site builder" you'll see both paid and organic search results for many, many firms. These can be a very good starting point, particularly for agents who aren't technically savvy. They won't necessarily give you a personal touch, but most of them offer a wide variety of excellent services including … (14 comments)

Sonoma County - River view lot in Guerneville - 10/02/07 05:03 PM
Guerneville, California in west Sonoma County is one of the most beautiful locations on the planet. We have redwood forests covering our hills and valleys, vineyards and orchards on the plantable sites, and tourists that flock here in the summer for the beautiful weather and recreation. We're about ninety minutes north of San Francisco, so we're easy to reach.
In the forties and fifties, big bands packed in crowds from San Francisco and Oakland and dancers would roam up and down the strip to dance at each venue. Today the dancing is mainly gone, but we still have jazz and blues festivals … (1 comments)

 
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Dave Roberts

Healdsburg, CA

More about me…

Healdsburg Sotheby's International Realty

Address: 409 Healdsburg Avenue, Healdsburg, CA, 95448

Office Phone: (707) 433-4800

Cell Phone: (707) 869-1884

Email Me

Real estate and green building information for Sonoma County California with an emphasis on Healdsburg, Sebastopol, Forestville, Guerneville, Graton, and the Russian River Valley, Dry Creek Valley. and Alexander Valley.I write a lot about REO property, fixers, luxury estate homes, and vineyard property. I love to analyze sales trends.


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