I told the boys that on this Tuesday we were going to see Santa Clause early this year. Well my older two rolled their eyes and wanted to stay home, but my little boys were very excited. They know that dad is a friend of the big guys and it is important to talk with him.
The older boys got more in the spirit when I told them about where we were going to see Santa - The Bass Pro Shop in Manteca, Ca. Now I know a bunch of you are all ready saying, "You know your a Red Neck if . . ."
I had never been to a Bass Pro Shop before, but my sister told me they have a fantastic Christmas set up and as all my boys are home until Wednesday night I wanted to go as a family during the week when there would not be any crowds.
From the outside the store looks like a Giant Hunting Lodge - On the inside the Store looks like a Giant Hunting Lodge. The store is amazing. Lots of leather, rock, western furniture, mounted wild game all over,antlers hanging like hangers in my closet, a man made stream runs outside the front with bridges over it. The store is huge and I was told it is the smallest one in the country.
There store is decked out for Christmas and they actually call it Christmas and play religious Christmas music along with the secular stuff. I like both and do not like the attempts to make the holiday little more than secular spending spree.
I cannot possibly describe how elaborate the decor of the store is, you must go and see one. Inside there was another fake stream filled with trout (big ones that look like the ones that always get a way from me). There is a huge aquarium with a number of different types of fish and a man made water fall coming down from the second floor into the aquarium. If you walk up the stairs you go behind the waterfalls.
There is mucho inventory and if you come in for something I bet they have it. I have never seen so many fishing poles in one place. Prices vary, much of it is high end, but they have some lower end items too. I saw my dream BBQ and Smoker priced for under $2,000.00. There are food items, general store, camping gear and places to pick up a snack in the store.
Weston and Janson Christmas Dreaming. Don't worry they will not get them.
The boys got to play arcade type shooting games, try out the remote controlled cars and slot car sets. The only problem is Santa does not get down from the north pole until after 5 this early in the season on a week day. My kids were very disappointed, but I explained I had called the fat man and understood he was busy making them something special for Christmas. We will go see him again on another day.
As a Realtor what I could learn from this day is Web 2.0 is great, but there is nothing like a good retail store to build some business. I may order something on line from them, but it is because the store impressed me. The other thing is Staging and Decor are important.
Sherman (2) Corbin (11) Janson (5) Nelson (13) Weston (6)
Things I am Thankful for and the Holiday Weight Challenge.
With this Post I kill two proverbial Turkeys with one stone. Posting on thinks I am thankful for and weight loss tips. Many of you on Active Rain know I post my diet struggles on the member side and use this as a place for accountability.
In our instant information and fast food culture we often do not enjoy food as it was intended. Food and eating is a very intimate thing and that is being lost in our culture. We eat on the run, we rarely eat as a family, we grab fast food, and microwave snackes.
If like me you are struggling with your weight you might do several things this Thanksgiving: 1) Make special diet foods and abstain from the normal fair; 2) take a day off from the diet and go for it; or 3) straddle the two.
I am on a low carb diet. My wife and I are putting together a number of low carb foods for Thanksgiving. Some will be for me only and some will just be on the table for everyone. An everyone thing is a reduction gravy rather than something made with flour. For me is a special stuffing recipe. I will also do a pumpkin souffle with Splenda rather than the pumpkin pie.
What ever your strategy for Thanksgiving, even if not on a diet, take it as a chance to set down and have a slow thoughtful meal talking with friends and family. Bring the intimate nature of food and fellowship back into the holiday. Many of us struggling with weight issues need to do this with food in general. Food is often a substitute for relationship and a way to deal with stress. Let's start enjoying food the way it was meant to be enjoyed with friends and family.
Things have been hectic around here, but lately I have been trying to respond to the hectic with calm and be at peace in everything. I could panic over the recent collapse of business, my wife being exhausted with the baby coming, the kids tearing up the house. Well all of a sudden some things are starting to take care of themselves. We were not going to do much for Thanksgiving, but my wife has had a chance to work on the house some and the kids have actually been helping some.
My older boys go back to their mom Wednesday night or Thursday morning. We decided last week to have Thanksgiving Dinner on Wednesday evening. It will be a little smaller than usual (we will not cook as much) but there will be plenty and a couple family members will be over.
The boys take real pleasure in having the table set nice and the fancy dinner. My wife has new dishes, nothing very expensive, but nice and we will debut them instead of the good china. I am thankful I can have all my kids present and gathered around the table. We will hold hands and thank God for all that he has given us. I am working only part time this week so I can do more things with the kids and I am thankful for this time.
What are you thankful for? How will you celebrate?
Sommerset in Brentwood - November 2009 Market Report
Sommerset is a dynamic community in Brentwood California for people 55 plus. This Sommerset Market Report focuses on Sommerset, Summerset, and other 55 plus communities in Brentwood.
Sommerset Communities feature single family homes and duplexes. This report focuses on the Current Sommerset Market and the homes sold in the Sommerset Communities in October and September.
Currently there are 21 homes for sale in the Sommerset Community. The average asking price of those homes is $459,406.00 and the median asking price is $439,950.00. The currently active homes have spent and average of 68 days on the market and have an average asking price of $227.00 per SF.
In September there were 6 homes sold in SommersetCommunities. The average selling price was $290,650.00 and the median selling price was $262,500.00. The average days on market was 57 and the average selling price per SF was $194.00.
In October there were only 3 homes sold in Sommerset Communities. The average price was $316,166.00 and the median price was $292,500.00. These homes spent an average of 36 days on the market and sold for $192.00 per SF.
The cost of a home in Sommerset is more expensive than a home in Brentwood proper based on last months Brentwood Housing Market Report. However, this is a gated and specialized community.
The small number of homes makes it hard to count on the numbers to show real trends. One trend that is apparent is that the smaller well priced homes are going quick. The larger and grander of the homes are setting.
This week I am going to write about somethings I am thankful for. At the top of my list is my family and my kids, but there is one of my five (and soon to be six) boys I want to tell you about.
My second son Corbin. Corbin is from my first marriage (we had two together). Corbin is a family name on my mothers said and my son always laughs when he sees a picture of Great Great Grandpa Corbin at prairie sod house with beard like ZZ Top.
My oldest son lives with me (his mother had trouble getting him to do well with school - I don't). Corbin is an excellent student and strives for perfection. I almost which he would fail some so he could learn my love for him does not depend on him always being right and not making mistakes. I have been through the many hops with custody and I will not detail them all here. If it were up to me he would be here full time. His mom keeps him busy with sports (which I want but I also think is a way to keep him too busy for me). He is involved in Royal Rangers with me and the other boys which I have gotten his mom to support.
Corbin is my baseball star. He loved playing short stop and made the All Stars as short stop a few years ago. But being left handed he got moved to center field and then first base. I thought First Base would be a waste of his speed, but he is the best defensive first basemen in the league. He runs the bases like crazy. He runs them smart too. I do not think he has every been caught stealing. I taught him that more important than stealing is to have them think he is going to steal, how to act and play head games (Corbin likes to play head games in many ways). He has a great swing and often bats high in the order, but some how has been slumping, I hope he works his way out of it. His team won the TOC championship in AA Little League two years ago. He stole home to keep his team in a crucial playoff game. When he got to first base one of the team mates was heard to say, "Corbin's gonna do his thing." That thing was drive the pitcher crazy enough to get wild and let him score. Last year his AAA team made the TOC's and went down in the first game.
Corbin earned the Gold Eagle in Royal Rangers Last year and is now working on his Bronze metal of Achievement; the first of 3 steps towards the Gold Medal of Achievement. He loves to camp and fish.
I miss him horribly when he is not here. Often I will be playing or doing something with the other 4 boys and be sad in my heart as I know something is missing. I know his mom loves him and he is really all she has left on a day to day basis of what used to be a family.
Corbin likes to play board games with me and his brothers. Lately he likes to shoot airsoft. He is a joker and prankster. Sometimes he squabbles with his brother as brothers are prone to do. He likes to irritate his older brother and they have issues at times, but love each other and miss each other. At one point he would fight a lot with his younger brother (# 3) Weston. He complained to me that Weston was being irritating on purpose and would not leave him alone. I asked him to imagine he had an older brother (which he does) and if he found something that irritated that older brother would he continue to do it (he does). That shut him up quick. He found a way to get a long with his brothers better after that on both ends.
He reminds me a lot of his mother and I do not say that to be mean (as she divorced me), but I see the personality quirks. I embrace this as a chance to shape is character and learn to relate to him (as I ultimately failed to relate to his mother.)
I am thankful that over this holiday he is in my home for 5 uninterrupted days. He gets spoiled as when he is here we tend to do things he likes and cook food we know he likes.
My two oldest boys, Nelson and Corbin, and I just completed a first aid and CPR course through Royal Rangers provided by the National Safety Counsel.
First Aid has not changed much sense I took my Scouting First Aid badge, but it has changed some and the refresher course is always good. My sons took this course to Earn their Gold Merit for First Aid (and becsue when I have my heart attack I want them to know what to do).
This is just one of the great things they learn in Rangers. Not only does it provide the basic skill but it gives them confidence and teaches leadership.
If you are around here and want to know more about Outpost 5 of the local Royal Rangers or about Royal Rangers in general let me know.
Thanks to Xerox sending out a Thank You card to our soldiers is simple, fast and free.
At this time of the year we can take some time out to teach our children about giving thanks and living in gratitude. The best way of course to teach gratitude is by being a good example of being in a thankful state of mind.
You can gather your children around your computer right now and go to this site:
All you do is click on the card you want to send and then click on what you want the words on the text side of the card to say. You don't even have to think to do this because it is all done for you. You just have to choose the card and the text out of the ones on the site. Then you just click send.
Xerox prints out the postcards and then these cards go into the care packages that Givetothetroops® sends to our soldiers. What a gift Xerox is giving to the troops. I really appreciate a company setting a great example like this. The cards have all been designed by children and are patriotic. There are many patriotic symbols and messages to choose from.
Here are some of the comments sent back by different servicemen and women:
To all who have supported us,
I would like to take this opportunity to say thank you from myself and my fellow Marines. Your packages and well wishes have lifted our spirits at a time when we are so far away from our friends and family. I wish you could have seen the bright eyed looks and utter excitement from the Marines when opening the boxes. It was a true blessing that you made happen. It makes us proud to know that our fellow Americans care as much as we do. It makes the sacrifices we and our families make worth every minute we spend here. We Americans can stand shoulder to shoulder in unison on one thing - we're all proud of our country and we're all proud of each other. The effort you make on behalf of the troops is just as important as the work we are doing here and around the world.
- A Gunnery Sergeant
As I was leaving an un-eventful Valentine's Day today, one of the mail clerks yelled "Adams!! You have a package!!" A package, I thought to myself. I'm not expecting anything. What could this be? I took the box into my office and closed the door. As I opened the box, a flood of joy came over me as I looked over the cards from you and the young ones, one of my co-workers walked in to see tears rolling down my eyes. I had never received a gift with this much love, packed into one little place from someone that I've never known.
As I thought about what the cards talked about with soldiers giving their lives and privileges up to ensure the freedom of Americans, it was nice to know that someone out there does not take it for granted. I don't know who you are, but you are truly a gift from God. The gift that gives me the drive to serve my country proudly. As you pray that the Lord keeps the soldiers here safe and brings us home, I pray to the Lord that people like you do not die off from this world. Your contributions are nowhere near inadequate. Please never forget what this means to a soldier. Thank you for your love and thoughts.
Please be kind- take a moment out of your day to send a card for free to a soldier today. Please Reblog!
One of the finest homes for the price is back on the market! The owner took the home off the market for a short time to upgrade some of the fixtures and do some painting. This home is excellent. It offers:
Pool
Two Decks
Game Room
Media Room
Five bedrooms with a Jack & Jill Suite
Hot Tub
Gourmet Kitchen
Large Park like grounds
Flowing Creek
Horses OK
Large Lawns
Could hold RV Parking
Classic Hard Wood Floors
Grand Fire Place
Excellent Schools
Attic Fan
and so much more!
For recorded information and/or an exclusive showing call:
Don't get stuck in Fantasyland! Real Estate always follows a few basic economic truths. Honor these realities, and you'll win what you want. Here's a 7-step quick tour through real estate economics. Pass, and you can have a fighting chance to get the house you want.
1. Supply and Demand: When there are more buyers out there than desirable homes available-- you get A) multiple offers, B) offers over asking price. This is what's happening now.
2. Location, location, location: Real estate is always local in nature, and #1 above is what's occurring in most of San Diego. If you read USA Today, you might hear that prices are plummeting; you can also buy a home in Detroit for $10K. Not true here.
3. Human Nature: Most everyone wants the same thing; the best house in the nicest neighborhood for the the lowest price. You have competition!
4. Lottery Mentality: Don't fall for it! When a home is priced artificially low (which is done to inspire multiple offers) and every other house in that neighborhood has consistently sold for tens of thousands more, ignore the "suggested retail price" and go for fair market value. This is what it's most likely going to sell for. Do you really think you're the only one who saw that low price and decided to jump on it? Sure, there are isolated cases of someone getting an amazing deal,so you should ask yourself: do you want to wait for this scenario to possibly occur, or do you want to move forward and really buy a house?
5. Acknowledge the competition: If nobody else offers on a house, you CAN get a better price. Just make sure they don't know something you don't and that there isn't something drastically wrong with it. People always ask me what they should offer. It depends on a lot of factors-- primarily what it's worth to you, but also if you are the only person writing an offer, or if you're competing with a dozen others. The higher the interest, the higher the price. You may be the only offer at first, then after a long weekend of showings, you will one of many.
6. Forget what the seller paid for it. Some buyers get really hung on the price of the last sale, and some get upset that another person is making money. Maybe that person bought it 20 years ago and is looking to retire on that profit. Maybe they are supporting a family member who is terminally ill. Or maybe they like to buy fixers and make them nice again. You, too, can buy distressed homes, take the risk, fix them up and make money. Or you can have someone else do it for you, for a price. See #7.
7. Time is money so.... You either buyer low with work needed, or buy high with it all dolled up and ready to move into. The choice is yours.
This is what your government is doing to "Help" you. This is one of the big problems in buying and selling a home today.
The HVCC is supposed to make the process better. The reality is someone is making some money somewhere at the cost of the consumers and the public in general.
This is a Repost of a Blog Post by an agent at the NAR convention.
One of the seminars I
attended today at NAR was entitled 'Managing the Risks
and Opportunities of the New Home Valuation Code of Conduct (HVCC)."
Let me say at the
outset, I sat through the whole friggin thing and didn't note any
opportunities - unless you count aggravation as an opportunity.
No shortage of risks, however.
NAR did a great job
staging this - they had a panel in place that included spokesholes from
FHFA, FHA, Fannie Mae, Freddie
Mac and an AMC. Oh, and they had two Realtors sitting in
for balance. In my humble opinion, if I had a load of the bullshit they
were peddling today, I would have the healthiest, greenest lawn in
Southern California.
Alfred Pollard, General
Counsel for the Federal Housing Finance Agency; Jacqueline Doty,
Directory of Collateral Policy for Freddie Mac; and Mark Johnson,
COO for LSI (and Appraisal Management Co), started the
process with brief statements on why the program was started (to combat
fraud) and how well it's working. As Mr. Pollard stated - 'we
have experience a systemic event for the financial markets, primary and
secondary lenders, Realtors, institutional lenders and appraisers - all
of those industries are on the table as we determine what comes
next.'
It was interesting to
note that the one entity that he left out, the one he happens to work
for, wasn't included as being on the table - THE GOVERNMENT.
The one institution central to the whole fiasco is
the only one not up for evaluation and found wanting. In fact, these
sanctimonious bastards are now sitting in judgement of the rest of us
and determining how they can keep us from running amok again. Ain't
that special.
Our Realtor panelists,
Steve White, owner of two large Keller-Williams offices in LA; and
Penny Triplet, a Realtor and appraiser from Ohio, stated the litany of
complaints that you are all familiar with. Delays, incompetence, bad
appraisers, out of area appraisers, higher costs to customers, lost
transactions, lack of portability - you name it, they brought it
up.
The government people
claimed to be listening but they were just dancing. Time and again they
quoted passages from the 6 page HVCC document - well this is how it's
supposed to work; well, this is what it says; well that's another of
those myths; well this is how you're supposed to work through that.
Basically they acknowledged that 'there might be a few bad actors in
the group but this HVCC has solved a lot of problems and is a wonderful
thing.'
Oh, and if you thought
it was scheduled to expire in June of 2010 - think again, It's in place until next November and
there ain't nothing you or (NAR President) Charles MacMillan or anybody
else can do about it. Your opportunity is to learn how to work with it
because it's here to stay. Even after the current HVCC
expires, some form of the bureaucracy that has been set up to
administer it will continue because, like any government program, once
born it never dies.
As if the moderator knew
the Q & A might get testy, she decided that rather than
take questions from the floor, she would just take questions
submitted in writing. That lasted about 15 minutes until she could no
longer ignore the line of Realtors standing quietly at the microphones
waiting to ask questions.
Still no straight
answers were forthcoming. Realtors were advised to report bad appraisers -
that is if you can figure out who they work for or if the AMC or the
lender cares enough to return your call (after 18 months, the office
for reporting bad appraisers still hasn't quite been set up but it's
coming soon). Realtors are
allowed to talk to appraisers and even give them comps, of
course provided the appraiser even bothers to call you or come out to
your city or doesn't report you for applying undue influence by giving
them accurate comps. If you get a bad appraiser you can request a do-over,
of course it will be done by the same guy whom is now pissed off and
never mind that the delay might cost you the deal. If it's so bad your
buyer switches to another lender of course the
appraisal should be portable (like you'd want to port that
crap) unless the new lender doesn't want to accept it or it's from an
appraiser that's not accredited by their AMC, in which case your client
will get to buy a new one and hope it's better than the old one. You've
got an appraiser from 200 miles away? Or even from another state? Jeez,
that's not supposed to happen because the HVCC says it's not so it
can't be. That's just anecdotal information. The Freddie Mac
rep said complaints to her office are waaaay down since HVCC.
Complaints from appraisers that is. Turns out they don't take
complaints from Realtors unfortunately.
One Realtor summed it up
perfectly - 'The
government appears to think the problem in under control. Realtors
think the problem is out of control. How do we get the two
sides together?
If todays panel is any
indication, we don't. Hang on kiddies - it's gonna get worse before it
gets better. We're from the government and we're here to help you.
This morning Outpost 5 of the Royal Rangers went on a Fishing Trip to Lafeyette Resevior in Lafeyette CA. About 12 kids came along and an equal number of parents. It was primarily the younger kids. They got their feet wet (some literally) fishing, BBQ'd some Hot Dogs, enjoyed some other snacks and had an all around good time.
I took my two middle boys Weston (6) and Janson (5).
NO FISH WERE ACTUALLY HARMED IN THE PREPERATION OF THIS BLOG POST. Maybe next time.
If you want to know more about Royal Rangers in this area or in your area contact me and I will let you know how to get involved and what the program is about.
Disclaimer: ActiveRain Corp. does not necessarily endorse the real estate agents, loan officers and brokers listed on this site. These real estate profiles, blogs and blog entries are provided here as a courtesy to our visitors to help them make an informed decision when buying or selling a house. ActiveRain Corp. takes no responsibility for the content in these profiles, that are written by the members of this community.
Hunting Lodge. The store is amazing. Lots of leather, rock, western furniture, mounted wild game all over,antlers hanging like hangers in my closet, a man made stream runs outside the front with bridges over it. The store is huge and I was told it is the smallest one in the country. 
;)
;)
