Last saturday, I took my wife out, a little break from G - 2 years and on top of it can wear on ya... y'know.
We are all good, head down to Carlsbad, figuring there has got to be some good food (I shall say, that I have a hard time qualifying food online, reviews just don't do it for me). So we drive around a bit and I keep passing this one place - Fresco -...
Can I just say that I fairly picky, and I spent a long time behind the scenes in some nice Skandinavian eateries (yes, Danish is a nationality and we are famous for our pastries).
So - back to Fresco... This place was Phe-No-Me-Nal!!! Start it off with the service, impeccable, on time, but not hovering, I am not a bad tipper, but that night, I left it out there.
The food - I had the special, a stuffed chop on the bone, it looked fantastic when it came in and the flavors we are just amazing. What about my wife? Ah, she LOVES her Chiopino soup, so when she saw that on the menu, she was sold... Then she was a bit surprised to see that they replaced all the fish with a lobster... Shall we say that was a pleasant surprise to say the least, and the flavors again was fantastic.
Finally, we tried out the homemade Tiramisu (remember - I am picky - and I KNOW what this tastes like in the old world - not many get this one right), They got it.
All I can say, is that if you are going to Carlsbad, this place has to be on your list.
To me this is a day to Remember and Honor those who served and those who fell in the service to give us the freedom to think and do anything we want
I was thinking about putting music to this, but in my heart, I hear the last post played on a single horn, the tones ringing into a cold night, I for one can not think of any other music to set to this - so play it in your mind, and please take a moment and join me in remebering and honoring our brothers and sisters in arms.
Thank You!
and yes, my words got cut out when I posted this, so you will have them now
Welcome to the new week. Ya, I'll admit it, slow going this am, G is waking up in a few and I just want to make sure you hear from me.
I thought I didn't have anything to write about, but, what do you know... Remeber where the pumpkin patch is (was) on Murrieta Hotsprings and Winchester Rd? I drove by there, and my son said "pumpkin patch gone"... Keep in mind that he is 28 months, so if he is not formulated like an international correspondent of the NYT - it's ok.
It did however make me look twice - the pumpkins are gone - but the structure, tents and a lot of the business seems to remain in place. I think I know where the x-mas trees are coming from.
This morning I just finished my new utilities sheet, it has a LOT of local information you need if you are moving. I got tired of those handwritten notes with this and that number, this looks great and is useful.
Looking back at the weekend, the harvest festival in wine country looks like it was a huge success, this is the third annual and from what I can tell, every one who participated (hey, someone has to stomp those grapes - so all of them), was packed to roof beams.
That's it for today, have a great week, hit me up if you need anything.
Did you know, this weekend is the 3rd Annual Harvest Festival & Grape Stomp in Temecula, CA.
To get into wine country, simply get off the 15 at Rancho California, turn your headlights East and start driving, after a few miles you will pass Vintage hill on your right and Chardonnay hill on your left (if that gives you any clues as to where you are going), when you pass Butterfield Stage Rd, you will see the entrance to Wine Country - Keep going and the Wineries literally start popping up all over.
Most all the wineries that I know of are participating. Expect to make reservations as they tend to be packed for this opportunity to get your feet dirty (or to walk in wine if you so desire), grape stomping is a big part of the festival and this can be quite entertaining.
So, you may have heard about the credit, here is a bit more information, and remember: this also applies in Riverside County, in Murrieta, Temecula, Lake elsinore, French Valley and where ever you are.
The much-anticipated extension to the home buyer tax credit has finally been approved. The Senate's vote yesterday resulted in a 98-0 win and today it was passed in the house. The bill now moves to the President's desk for a final signature.
First-time home buyers have been eligible for tax credits of up to $8,000 since last January as part of this year's economic stimulus package. The newly backed program will expand the credit to include existing home owners.
Under the revised program, those who have owned a home for at least five years will be able to apply for tax credits of up to $6,500 when they purchase their next home. To qualify, buyers will have to sign a purchase agreement by April 30, 2010 and close by June 30.
The maximum purchase price on a home will be $800,000 with vacation homes not eligible. Income limitations are $125,000 for single tax payers and $225,000 for joint filers.
The National Association of Realtors (NAR) and the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) have been lobbying hard for the extension and expansion of the tax credit. NAR claims that so far, about 1.4 million first-time homebuyers have qualified for the program and they estimated that 350,000 of these buyers would not have otherwise purchased.
The tax credit is also set to be extended for another year for military personnel serving outside of the United States until June 30, 2011.
Senator Johnny Isakson, who heavily pushed for the extension, along with his own version that would have increased the credit to $15,000 stated, "This is probably the last extension."
But, is this really true? When April 2011 comes around and the housing market is still not in full recovery mode, will the politicians be able to let this go and actually come to an end, or could it possibly become a more permanent subsidy?
As you know, I do a lot of video, and so does other people... Yesterday I had the pleasure of having lunch with Barbara Amstadter and her daugter Susi Scholl, they are a luxury agent team in Newport Beach CA.
We were talking a bit about short sales, and Barbara whipped out her little video camera, so here I am on interview.
As you know I am a proponent of short sales, I believe the sellers win by not giving it all up and just tanking their credit, and this little interview tells you a few things about how the short sale can help us accomplish that.
Enjoy, and if you need additional information, please find me.
This is very exciting, in response to many requests I am preparing to offer my Elite buyer program to clients who are seriously interested in buying a property and taking advantage of the good market.
Keep in mind that this program is limited to 10 buyers at any given time, so don't wait if you want to buy now - on the other hand, if you like writing offers... Feel free to carry on.
Essentially, the elite program is reserved for very serious buyers who meet certain criteria, as part of the program, I will show you how to make an offer that will get accepted. I recently put a client into contract in his first offer, and it was not that hard, you can get your next offer accepted too. I have written winning bids on bank owned properties in French Valley Murrieta, in West Murrieta, Temecula and many other parts of the greater Temecula Valley.
To see if you qualify, call me today for more information at (951) 805-0773
You can also sign up on the web site at http://www.terkelsorensen.com, make sure you put a note in that you want to be in the Elite Buyer Group and I will get right back to you. As you may be aware, video is down at the moment, but once it is back, I will explain in more detail.
Ok, so I am not the greatest writer in the world - surely - that is why I am in real estate and not trying to write my first novel...
It might also be one of the reasons I have picked up so much on the use of video... So much simpler for me to record a short clip, review it - and if I don't like it, I can redo it right away (yes, there have been 20+ cuts to pick from on occasion).
So, this whole Flip camera thing got me going - so fast that I never bought one - I realized that my point & shoot had HD video built in - the quality is arguably the same or better than Flip. Not to mention that the thing already went everywhere with me.
My choice in this category ended up being the Samsung tl220, you know, the one with the extra screen in front - I love it. My son goes bonkers when you turn the clown on too.
So far so good, now, what about when someone takes the cam away from you? Yeah... That's a bummer. In my case, the touch screen broke, nice little crack. Camera is new enough that Samsung offered to repair under warranty, great, my cost - the $6 something to ship it to them - they ship it back for free. All this is great and dandy - even when they called me to tell me to ship it to QC instead, they are swapping me a new one "Hey - I got service here", screen is not supposed to break... The problem... Is that I have now been without a video camera for a week, talk about withdrawals, this is horrible... I am writing a blog with no video to go with it - how can you do that?
So - I just found out the hard way what my most favorite tool is, I am curious as to what tools you use that are so essential to your daily routine that having it missing really makes you bounce off walls. As I look at houses in Temecula and Murrieta, I stop at places I would want to show my clients, and now I can't.
For now, I am just going to slump here in the office and wait for my cam to show up again - that knock on the door from UPS... Is that them now? Hey - this is kinda like x-mas - except I know what I am getting and I can't wait.
Ok, so there are these days when I just wake up early - I know - who does that on a Sunday???
Well, the long story short is - I have been meaning to get a nice shot for my headers, both for the blogs and web sites and any other thing where I might want it. Now, I didn't want just any old image, I kinda wanted something special - and something that shows off Temecula and Murrieta in a good light.
If you are a photographer, you know that we sometimes favor the early morning light (hence - getting up early). A while back I found this great location that overlooks my town, and thought about a nice panorama from up there.
Alas, this morning, I did the 20 minute hike up there, camera bag and tripod in tow and set up to shoot some nice images.
My thought is that I will run the images I got this morning through the HDR process (High Dynamic Range), you know, the kind with rich colors and piles of details...
So, I got the images, next up I have to work on them... Good luck with time for that one - but for one, I am happy that I got up at o'dark thirty and hiked. I think this falls into the category of what I will do to make myself look good... Hmm - that just sounds wrong.
Have you done anything like this? Is it crazy? Oh, yeah, as soon as I process it, I will show the results to you.
I receive a lot of requests for market evaluations and there is a bit more information I would like to get from you.
Especially, here in CA we have Prop 8 which allows us to ask for reassessment of our property value, this only uses comps from the first 3 months of the year, so if that is what you are looking for, please let me know.
Also, if you are upside down and distressed, perhaps a short sale or a loan modification is something you should consider, again, specific comps for that.
In addition, there are times when we really want to look at what the market it doing today, how the buyers are behaving and how that will affect your bottom line, in addition, how does the buyers ability to perform affect the price?
Please watch the video to get some more insight and feel free to ask questions!
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.
The much-anticipated extension to the home buyer tax credit has finally been approved. The Senate's vote yesterday resulted in a 98-0 win and today it was passed in the house. The bill now moves to the President's desk for a final signature. 
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