The Avila Beach Fish and Farmers market will begin again on April 8th. 4-8 pm every Friday on the promenade between San Francisco and San Miguel streets (by the pier).

If you are thinking of selling your home within the next 9 months, it may be beneficial to take some exterior photos now while the flowers are blooming and the trees are green. Also, if you have a view of the hills, take a photo now.

Same with views of the ocean. If there is a clear sky day, take a photo of your view. There's plenty of homes I've shown on foggy or cloudy days that have good view but not on the day I've shown the home.

Also, if you want to see how good an agent is in marketing a home, just pick up one of the monthly real estate magazines. Note the photos of homes that were taken on a rainy day, have cars in the driveway, or don't show a blue sky. Is this the first impression of your home you want??

Photos are a critical piece in the marketing of your home. The most asked question I receive from people looking for homes is "do you have any more photos?".

Well, the reports are starting to come out stating obvious info (at least to me). If you're reading my blog, then you're probably not one of the ones that is going to spend an hour or two going through the Saturday newspaper looking at a fraction of available real estate when you can search for what you're looking on my site in minutes. What's interesting is that the local newspapers are still promoting their 2000 circulation numbers and raising the prices for advertising every year. To put one of those small "spotlight" ads in the Saturday and Sunday paper would cost over $700 a month!

Real Estate Classified Ads Lose Ground to Web

(March 23, 2005) -- Consumers are abandoning newspaper classified ads for real-estate Web sites, where they can access pictures, virtual tours, and search tools to narrow their options properties by price, location, and schools, says Forrester Research analyst Charlene Li.

You've got to love living on the Central Coast! Reading the Police Blotter in the community paper is a hoot. Here's my favorite from this weeks blotter:

"Police received a call from a resident...stating that an "aggressive" female wanted to clean their carpet"

Here's an article about the potential of mortgage rates increasing...

http://money.cnn.com/2005/03/21/real_estate/financing/ratehikes/index.htm

In the Friday issue of the Telegram-Tribune, they listed the top 20 private companies in the area. Here's the list with # of local employees in ( ).
1. PGE (1800 locally)
2. Tenet Healthcare (1,220 locally) - Sierra Vista, Twin Cities Hospital
3. Catholic Healthcare West (862) - AG and French Hospital
4. Boutique Hotel Collectin (814) - Cliffs, Inn at Morro Bay, Apple Farm, Sycamore Mineral Springs
5. Albertsons (630)
6. Vons (572)
7. Compass Health (550) - 5 nursing homes
8. Wal-Mart (549)
9. Mid-State Bank (483)
10. F. McLintocks (450)
11. Home Depot (325)
12. JIT Manufacturing (300)
13. EOC (294)
14. Food 4 Less (275)
15. The Telegram Tribune (237)
16. Joslyn Sunbank (230)
17. Gottschalks (220)
18. Kennedy Club Fitness (211)
19. Madonna Inn (200)
20. San Luis Personnel Services (200)

Thx to Stephen, one of my Blog readers up in the SF Bay Area, for sending this link about a possible housing crash in the Bay Area.

http://patrick.net/housing/crash.html

Cal Poly will soon be starting construction of 59 homes at the corner of Highland and Highway One. They will be for professors and administrators and will be priced below current home market prices.

Wow, prices just keep going up. Of the new listings on the hot sheet today, 20% of them are over a million dollars. The highest is $4.5M and is a 5 acre lot in Nipomo that can possibly have 59 units built on it.

On the flip side, the lowest priced new listing is a lot in Los Osos priced at $175,000. Too bad you can't build on it yet...

A commercial building on Pomeroy in downtown Pismo Beach is on the market. Currently has 3 businesses in a 10,400 sq foot building with 7 parking places. Asking price is $1.799 Million.

A 40' x 139' foot lot is on the market in San Luis Obispo, above Foothill Blvd in an existing neighborhood. It's listed at $330K.

A lot came on the market today in the new Avila Beach oceanfront commecial complex called "The Landing". The land is listed for $1,250,000 and buyer must cooperate in the planned build out which is 2 commecial units, 2 upstairs residential units, and 2 car garage. In this complex, there will be a total of 14 commercial spaces and 14 residential.

Those of you that have been reading my blog for awhile know I've complained a bit in the past about the MLS system us Realtors have on the Central Coast. Well, the new system that I was part of the evaluation team for is going live at the end of the month. It's got a lot of cool stuff that I will be able to use to enhance the services I provide. For example, I will be implementing another MLS Search from my home page. This one will be current to the second. The MLS Search that I currently have on my site gets its database of listings updated once a day. For most of you, it won't matter but I know when you are actively looking for a home, it may be beneficial to be able to get up-to-the-minute search results.

I also will be offering an enhanced "instant notification" service for new listings. I will be able to define a more precise search for you. For example, if you only wanted to receive new listings for a particular neighborhood, I will be able to set that up for you and have emails sent to you when a new listing appears in that neighborhood. Also, the system will check for new listings for you every 3 to 4 hours so you'll know about a new listing faster than most realtors will! (the current instant notifcation checks once a day)

Other information I will be able to provide you is plat maps, aerial photos, and for you homeowners that are looking to sell, I will be able to put in a description of your home and immediately see if any other Realtors have buyers that are looking for a home like yours. Something nice to know before you put your home on the market!

Stay tuned!!!!!

Of the 58 properties on the hot sheet today, a whopping 32 of them don't even have one photo on the listing. When you sell your house, don't make this mistake. Have the agent guarantee that there will be *multiple* photos of your house available THE DAY it goes on the market. Homes only get one chance to be on the daily hotsheet and you don't want to miss this opportunity to get other agents excited about your home!

A 50x80 lot with a tear down 2 bedroom on it went on the market in Cayucos for $800K. They say the county says the lot can be split.

(Note: You should always go to the SLO County planning department in downtown SLO with these type of questions to hear it directly from the horses mouth.)

A lot located right behind Morro Bay is on the market. Four units have already been approved to be built. Nice ocean, bay, and rock views. Listed at $2.2M.

A Cambria home had a big price reduction today. From $1.35 Million to $965,000. A block from the ocean and has surrounding lots for sale too. Looks like a good deal! (and motivated sellers)

CalTrans is looking to help the traffic jam on 101 coming into Pismo Beach. If you go by the area around 5 pm on weekdays, you've probably had to slow down or even stop as you head over the hill from Avila. Part of the problem is that there is more traffic, the other is that people slow down to take a look at the beautiful ocean. CalTrans plans to expand 101 to 3 lanes *if* they find the funding. They are also planning to add auxilary lanes between a couple onramps and offramps through Arroyo Grande/Grover/Pismo. Work is to begin in 2006 if funded.

The San Luis Obispo Costco broke ground today. Scheduled to open August 24th. It will be next to Home Depot on Los Osos Valley Road.

I'm back from Northern California. While my roots are there and I enjoy visiting, I can say that I'm used to the Central Coast life now and happy to be back.

Congratulations to the Arroyo Grande High Eagle Robotics team that took home the second highest award from the Regional competition! There were 37 teams competiting from as far away as Canada. The award gives the Eagle Robotics team an invitation to the national competition at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta next month.

I read an interesting "Letter to the Editor" in an East Bay newspaper. It told the story of a home being listed for sale at one price and then the Realtor found out what school district they were part of and relisted the property 10% higher. There is an election upcoming with a school tax initiative for this school district so not sure if the letter was just good timing. But, it does make sense that a good school district makes property values higher. On the Central Coast, the same holds true to a point but it's more of a school boundary, rather than a district. My wife and I are extremely happy with the schools our daughters attend (have attended) and feel they are much better than the ones they attended in the Bay Area.

Ok, I'm back. Different motel but with wireless Internet too!

Here's the rest of the MLS stats for February:

170 Price Changes
317 Pendings
21 Withdrawn

Greetings from a wet Northern California. I'm up here to watch my daughter's robotics team compete (www.eaglerobotics.com). Sitting here in the motel with a nasty cold on a Wi-fi connection (which is way cool!).

Here's the mls data from the month of February 2005:

297 New listings
74 Back on Market
(sigh...the MLS system went "unavailable" when I was running reports to get the rest of the info. I'll try again later. The good news is that our new MLS system is just weeks away. I'm one of the "testers" on it and it's working real good.)