With the now approved extension and enhancement of the Federal Tax Credit for Buyers of residential real estate, we will see a few bright signs through the expanding real estate market at least during the first half of 2010.

While I expect the Winter and the Spring markets to be at least as good as much of 2009 , the indicators will show some more improvement in 2010. Regretfully there will be mortgage resets, the possibility of increasing unemployment  and more  homeowners defaulting on their mortgages which will offset some of the more positive improvements of the market .

This is not to give a negative perspective of our markets but one of realistic expectations. I expect we are at or near the end of the downward price spiral and things are showing signs of a bit more stability. Interest rates are expected to remain historically low through the first half of the year and beyond that no one is certain about where rates will go. My guess is that they will remain low through the whole year.

Statistically we currently have between 1.5 and 2. 6 million households in the US that are at some stage of home foreclosure. And through a larger scope there are over many millions of households that are late on their mortgage. A good percentage of the late pays now being caused by unemployment.

I expect to see more short sales and Reo’s ( Bank Owned Foreclosed Property) in the market in 2010. The National Association of REALTORS predicts in the range of 4.7 million home sales around the US.  Here in San Diego a good percentage of our share of those sales will be distressed properties. Maybe as high as 30 to 35%. Equity Sales will increase in 2010 but currently the market has a declining inventory of properties for sale.

We have a ways to go to get a to a fully improved market, although there are new reports daily that the trends are becoming more favorable each quarter. We have had 7 straight quarters of the market moving in an upward direction. We have seen prices begin to stabilize and we have seen prices even increase in a couple areas. We have heard that the percentage of homeowners that are upside down is declining. All good news. We are not out of the woods as yet but we are beginning to see sunlight again through the trees.

REBarCamp San Diego was a Huge Success!

Well over 400 particpants converged at the  downtown San Diego location of the world famous Stingaree NightClub, hosted by Jim Marks, NAR, Zillow and countless others, the REBarCampSD kicked off yesterday morning at 8:30Am and ended with a party llike reception outside on the rooftop under the stars of the Stingareee Nightclub. This Venue I am told may be one of the most outstanding ever to host the BARCamp events.

What an extraordinary experience!

"Attendees don't just watch a set list of speakers. They give their own talks. Podcasting. Web standards. Microformats. Gum stick computers. Physical security. Robotics. Evolutionary algorithms. It can be anything. One of the best barcamp presentations ever given was about sandwiches. Barcamp is what you make of it." a quote taken from the REBar Camp site.

Topics today included the "Importance of and increasing SEO for your website" presented by Drew Meyers ( Zillow ) through topics on "Blogging" , by Jay Thompson and Kris Berg ( PhoenixRealEstateGuy.com and SanDiegoCastles.com)  "Marketing properties with Photos "," Syndication of the WordPress platform, Social Networks and guidelines for maximizing your experience," Introducing Posterous.com", presented by Eric Stegemann. All the social network gurus were there to help each us learn the many ways to interact and build and establish relationships. Social Networks are about Relationship Building. There were experienced "REO Specialists" conducting discussions on the "future and explosion of REO's", "ShortSale Specialist Experiences", and "How to convert Online Consumer Leads" by Bob Wilson. There are too many topics to name all of them but certainly all of the many remarkable topics had presenters giving of their time to help each of us participating to always have the best online experience.

There were 3 levels of areas at the venue ( 12 specific and named areas ) used throughout the venue creating 12 simultaneous classrooms, that changed topics every 30 minutes. The sessions involved a presenter that guided the full participation of each and every attendee. As they say, " This is not a spectator sport". To maximize your shared knowledge and experiences, everyone was encouraged not to just attend but to actively participate.

Some of us knew each other well on line and today many of us from ActiveRain, Facebook,Twitter, Linked In, met in person for the first time. I guess you can just imagine how incredible that was.

What an amazing event and I was overwhelmed with the outpouring for friendship and sharing at this most amazing experience. If you think life changing might be too strong a word for this experience , then you weren't there but you were missed!

I love this idea that Mike came up with and decided to repost his blog so that many more readers can take advantage of this very fun idea Mike had.

I really enjoyed going through Mike's coments and I recognised a few members and the photos or business card photos is such a cleaver idea. I can't speak for others but I  buried mine in the back yard hoping that insects would eat them but alas they didn't. I dug mine up so I am guessing more of you will do that as well.

ActiveRain Photo Blogging Group Presents The A B C's Of PhotoBlogging

For many members of ActiveRain, this post will be mostly redundant. But as a refresher, let's start from the beginning. In the beginning there was Adam and Eve, we will skip over that part and get to the good stuff.

A Photo blog tells a story with a photo, augmented by words to position the story and expand on it. The first element of this is then adding a photo to a post. But not necessarily the first thing you do in setting up that post.

The first thing you encounter when you are adding a new post  is the title bar. This is where you decide if you want Google Juice for that post. Google Juice is that warm fussy stuff that people work so hard to obtain. In a nut shell, it is Page ranking for your post.

While we are on that subject, what do want in return for the photoblog presentation? Kudos from your subscribers or real page ranking. So let's assume it is the latter, otherwise I don't have a very good reason for writing this.

Selecting a title for a Photo blog is really no different than that for a regular blog post. Does the title capture interest? Wait a minute, the spiders and crawlers don't care about interest. They are interested in key words people use to search for things and that is what they are looking for.

For example. Here are two posts titled differently based on the same photo story. Pardon me while I add a bit of interest for myself and San Diego as I select those titles.

A. San Diego Real Estate PhotoBlog - Make this Beautiful Townhouse Your New Home.

B. San Diego Real Estate PhotoBlog - San Diego Housing Prices Drop, Make this Stunning San Diego Townhome Your New Affordable Home !

What have I accomplished here in the second title?  I incorporated search terms that are likely to be searched by those looking to buy property in San Diego. So lets add up the search words or tags that the spiders and crawlers will pick up on. [ housing prices, san diego, san diego townhouse, affordable home, new home, san diego real estate]. That is a lot of search terms for just the title, wouldn't you agree?

Assuming we have now selected that as the title , what's next? To optimize the title. How about using it as the first line in the post. Google also likes the key words to be used more than once and definitely wants to see them used in the post or photo story, sort of re-enforcing why you chose them in the first place.

Now I just know that you went back up to my title of this post and saw nothing of what I just said. The search terms for the title of this post are [activerain,photoblogging, abc'S] Not going to be a lot of people searching those terms other than ActiveRain. So you can see my title of this post will not get very good page positioning in Google. But if you can learn some basics here, it will be worth the effort anyway.

Should we write the story first or load the photo. We know that the first line of the story is going to be your title re-stated. So I would add that first. The next step is put  your cursor where the photo edge will be and then go to the picture icon. Adding a photo from your computer or where you store them online is is easy. But each of those locations will take a slightly different action to load the photo.

Here is a little tutorial on Adding Photos to your post that Jeremy Blanton of ActiveRain created to help you with that process.

 This first video will just show the 2 different ways to insert a picture onto your blog.

This second video shows you how to align the photo in your post, re-size it & also place some white-space around your picture so that the words of your post do not run into your picture

Now that you have your photo downloaded into the post, you are ready to embellish your photo story. You have seen the word PhotoBlog used in this post and I think I should better define it.

You may ask, " what's the difference between a PhotoBlog and a regular blog since both can and usually do have photos" ? It is a nuance of course but here is how I would explain the difference. When you write a blog you will naturally want to illustrate it and add a photo or a slideshow. The photo and slide shows add interest and support the blog or story you have written. In a photo blog, the photo or slide show is the story and you write words to further enhance and embellish the story.

Think of it as photo journalism. The photo becomes the story and the words support it. As I mentioned this is anuanced meaning that it is open to other interpretations. That is why we started the ActiveRain Photo Blogger Group. To share resources , to share experiences and to learn how better to enhance our own photo telling stories and presentations. We also share in photo enhancements,tutorials on photo taking, branding and copy writing your photos for public presentations, etc.

Your photos are your valuable property and you should determine how they are used and by whom. And our Photo Blogger posts are ALWAYS with our own photos. Some of our members posts even share how they originally took the photos. There is so much we can all learn about Photo Blogging but it is mostly about having fun and sharing what we do.

We welcome you to become a member of what we think will become one of the strongest and growing groups in the Rain. We will have contests, we will present you with awards that will appear right on your posts for all to see. We use guidelines that have been approved by ActiveRain and by doing so, our photo posts are also eligible for consideration for featuring just like the regular blog posts. We welcome you to the ActiveRain Photo Blogger Group.

San Diego Real Estate Photo Blog - And Then There Was Only One

I was outside early the other morning watering the plants on the back patio and a flock of black crows , our local birds of prey commonly found here in inland San Diego, came swooping in making a huge racket. 

Having experienced this before, I put down the watering hose and ran in the house to grab my camera. I knew from past experiences with crows swooping and hollering ,10-15 in this case, that they were chasing either an owl or a hawk and I wanted to see if I could get a photo. But in the past by the time I reacted, the interesting subject had flown off already.

I got the camera set to on and with me leaning over the fence whistling at them, the crows started to fly off. One by one they left and I spotted what I was looking for. And then there was only one. The hawk. A young hawk sitting in a tree quite a ways out from me but with the telephoto lens I spotted him and took his photo. I guess he saw me as I was clicking away and decided I was no safer to be around than the crows. I have no idea what kind of hawk this is but he looks very attractive in his beautiful spotted tan feather coat.

Sadly he flew off before I could assure him he was safe now. I linked this photo to the list of Birds of Prey from the San Diego Natural History Museum list of the local Birds of Prey in San Diego County. Regretfully no photo to match up but I will discover what kind of bird he is and change the post. But he was beautiful no matter his species ( variety).

If you are Buying, Selling or Relocating to San Diego and need help from a professional REALTOR®, give me a call or visit my San Diego Real Estate website and  sign up for Listing alerts for your favorite San Diego Home and Condominium Property Searches.

I specialize in Single Family Homes and Condominiums throughout the coast and inland areas of San Diego. Some of those communities are  La Jolla, University Town Center, Bay Park, Mission Valley, Pacific Beach, Scripts Ranch, Poway, Carmel Mountain Ranch, Rancho Bernardo, Rancho
Penasquitos,Carmel Valley and Solona Beach.  If I didn't mention a city or community that you are interested in, just let me know  and i will find you an expert for that community as well.

San Diego Real Estate Photo Blog - Book Your Free Ride in My New Hearse Mobile on All Hallows Eve.

All Hallows Eve is just  a day away and my new Hearse Mobile is all festooned and ready to entertain the life out of you on this very special evening. I still have plenty of room so make your reservations early ( like last week if you get my meaning ) and prepare for a great ride into the darkest reaches of our great city ,San Diego. We will first visit all the famous movie star's homes here in San Diego. Come to think there aren't any movie stars here, dead or alive, so we will skip that.

We were going to swing by our real Haunted House in Old Town but I hear those spirits were booked already into another venue for the evening. Seems that there is this very rich old guy ( I mean really really rich and really really old) who used to live in the Whaley House and he is getting married again. He says  that all those haunts are his ex-wives and since he has no living friends, he invited all of his ex-wives  to witness his new marriage for "Old Times " sake . Guess we might as well skip that one too.

Seems all the fun places are already booked and everyone not living is busy that night. So we might just as well go to a bar and park this thing and hang one on for the all the dearly departed. I am figuring if we get drunk enough, I am sure I'll have some new bookings within a few days. hehehehe

San Diego Real Estate Photo Blogger - Temecula Wine Country in Southern California

I had the pleasure to visit Temecula this past Sunday and I saw something so breathtaking and totally unexpected. I live less than hour from Temecula and passed through Temecula on my way over to Palm Desert a couple times a year. But I always take the short route through the new section of town. Living in San Diego and having never been to the Temecula Wine Country and not realizing what a strikingly beautiful area was certainly an eye opener. The size of the numerous Wine Estates and the acres of vineyards are mind boggling. I have never seen anything more beautiful or deluxe and you can be sure I am heading back very soon. You can be sure I will be writing more on the Temecula Wine Country and sharing some of the many photos. This photo was taken at the Wilson Creek Winery.

I am delighted to announce the formal launch of the ActiveRainPhotoBlogger group today here on ActiveRain. This is an exciting opportunity for all us here in the Rain to learn better ways of presenting our photo blogs, sharing resources for those presentations and having the BEST photo blogging available on the Internet. We will have tutorials on developing rich SEO for your blog posts , branding and copyright features to protect your valuable photo property, contests for developing the best community posts and most importantly a place where we photo bloggers can call home here in the Rain.

Photo Blogging is for everyone. We all use photos to enhance our blogs post. The difference may be as subtle as recognizing that the Photo doesn't just have to enhance the story, it can be the story. Another key difference is that the photo is yours. We will have members that will write tutorials on enhancing your photos to present the best story. From color enhancement to cropping the subject, it is all important in the presentation.

We will share the resources for applications, software and slide show programs that can work best. Photo Journalism has come to the Rain. In fact it has always been here but perhaps not highlighted to the extent that it will be.

We Welcome You to join this group and to help build it to exciting new levels. Below our wonderful new Logo designed and created by our group administer, Debi Boucher, are the guidelines and goals for this group. Please read them over. We welcome your ideas and membership in the ActiveRain Photo Blogger Group.

The Goals and Guidelines for the group are as follows:

The major goal for this group is to provide a type of photo journalism for ActiveRain members that would present our photos in better presentation form. By presentation form, I mean in a more complete way than just adding a picture to a post. It could be a single photo of course or it might be a slide show that could have more to it than just photos. It might be a series of photos that creates a story. For the more complex presentations, there are various tools on the Internet that will facilitate this and we can share those resources that will help each of us learn better how to present our photo stories in exciting formats that will be enjoyed by our members as well as consumers.

ActiveRain has a requirement for it's posts that receive points toward a members standing, that it contain no less than 50 words along with any photo, video or slide show. Respecting that requirement, the ActiveRain Photo Blogger Group will also require at least the minimum number of words (50) in the description or story. Photos, videos, or slide show presentations with no minimum word description will regretfully be deleted from the group posts.

The type of photos that are not suitable would include, obscene, offensive, or photos that would depict personages in any manner deemed derogatory. We have full decision powers over what is obscene, offensive or deemed derogatory and our decision as it pertains to this group shall prevail. Those posts will be deleted from this group. As a member, you are encouraged to invite others to seek membership that would contribute to the overall goals of this group.

The goals for our group would include: to present your own unique photos that inspire, images that inform, images that excite ,images that would enhance our cities and communities by telling a story and in positive ways contribute to the enjoyment and enlightenment of our respective readers. The only real caveat to this group is that the photos and materials you present here are your own. You will be encouraged to use the resources we share to add your name or your own copyright marking to all of your photos.

This is a photo blogging group that use their own photos and the photo (s), videos and slide shows become the inspiration for and an integral part of the post.

One of the first administrators to be announced is the multi talented Debi Boucher who knows a great deal about taking photos and making presentations with them. She also designed and created the wonderful ActiveRainPhotoBlogger logo that you see above. I am looking forward to working with Debi and our group members will have a real professional that knows photography as well as photo presentations for guidance.

Brad Andersohn, one of the amazing talented staff of ActiveRain had agreed to be our counselor and adviser to help us each have the very best experience with our photoblogging efforts. We are all looking forward to welcoming our experienced ActiveRain members and new members alike. We actively invite your participation in the ActiveRain Photo Blogger Group.

While I was trekking through the Sierra Nevada (Yosemite) on my vacation last month, I came across this very cool monopod that was instrumental in getting some very good photos at Yosemite. When I was getting my new camera, the salesman suggested strongly that if I was planning on using the telephoto lens, I needed something stable like a tripod to be sure that the camera was still and not moving. Naturally I postponed that decision until I could see the need for it. I discovered the need rather quickly. Bringing things in to close up range can be difficult if you don't have the steadiest of hands. The slightest movement is magnified and while ok for some things but if the picture is important, why chance it.

I found the perfect solution for being able to take actions shots and bringing in the best on longer distance shots. I wanted to share this remarkable easy and fun to use monopod with my ActiveRain readers . As you will see in the video, it quickly converts to a sturdy tripod. And it is inexpensive and works for all sorts of cameras, from point and shoot to the larger SLR's. It is so light weight and stores easily. I keep mine in the trunk of the car.

I recently took this photo of an October Moon over San Diego using this monpod (opened to tripod). It would be impossible without some sort of stability for the camera to get a photo like this.

San Diego Real Estate PhotoBlog- The Webs We Weave

I found this on a walk early Sunday morning. Of course I wasn't carrying my camera but I wasn't that far from home so I practically ran back , got the camera out of the bag, changed the lens and I was back out the door and off to capture this. I knew the sun was warning and that from what I have seen is that the fine early morning mist starts clumping together from the sun warming the watery mist so I was taking pictures fast from every possible angle. I stood back on the street and wanted to take a look to see if  I got anything that was savable.

I turned the camera on to show what I had taken and I got the error message that no data storage card was found. I looked and realized that I left the  data card in the reader while downloading all the  pictures I had taken the day before. So I ran back to my house and grabbed the card and was able to still get this much of web before the sun changed it to dry threads that would be virtually invisible.

If you are Buying, Selling or Relocating to San Diego and need help from a professional REALTOR®, give me a call or visit my San Diego Real Estate website and  sign up for Listing alerts for your favorite San Diego Home and Condominium Property Searches.

I specialize in Single Family Homes and Condominiums throughout the coast and inland areas of San Diego. Some of those communities are  La Jolla, University Town Center, Bay Park, Mission Valley, Pacific Beach, Scripts Ranch, Poway, Carmel Mountain Ranch, Rancho Bernardo, Rancho
Penasquitos,Carmel Valley and Solona Beach.  If I didn't mention a city or community that you are interested in, just let me know  and i will find you an expert for that community as well.