A tree in Pismo Beach was poisoned recently

One of the big trees in the city park as you go up to the Pismo Heights neighborhood has been poisoned and is dying. I guess the tree was blocking someone's ocean view so they decided to kill a tree that's been around longer than they have. How sad.

A 84,000 sq foot senior housing complex making progress in Arroyo Grande

I drove by the construction of the Cortina d" Arroyo Grande complex near Grand and Oak Park and it's starting to look good. There are 107 one- and two-bedroom apartments that will ready for tenants in March.

You need to be 62 or older and have low to moderate income.

This is the website of the company.

Contruction begins on largest on-campus housing village in the country

Cal Poly is about to start clearing and grading 30 acres of land in Poly Canyon for its 2,700 bed student village. The first phase is targted to be completed in fall of 2008.

The complex includes two parking structures totaling 1,900 parking spaces, commercial ‘village' areas with retail and food service space, and a recreation center with a swimming pool.

With about 3,500 students currently living on campus, the project will almost double that number, bringing the total number of students living on campus to 6,200.

This website is the official site for the project.

Read the Terms and Conditions before creating an account on a real estate website

I was looking at a website in the SF Bay Area tonite and it required a registration to sign up for the new listing notification and other services. I read the rather long Terms and Conditions and found this towards the end:

"Real Estate Services
Real Estate Clients. You represent that you have not entered into any agreement, such as a listing agreement or buyer broker agreement, with a real estate agent or agency other than an (brokerage name omitted) employee, agent or contractor."

I have a different philosophy for SloCountyHomes.com. If you are currently working with another Realtor and you are getting information from SloCountyHomes.com, I figure it's because you're not getting the information you want from your current agent. My hope is that if you ever are in need of getting another Realtor to represent you, you'll give a SloCountyHomes.com Realtor a chance to assist you!

More updates to SloCountyHomes.com!

I added the 4th quarter 2005 MLS statistics for cities. You can see the statistics by going to the home page and going to the real estate statistics section (the one with bubblegum alley as the background).

I also added more quick links for the MLS Map search on the home page. You can now click on the city to make it easier (and quicker) to display available properties.

What a gorgeous day on the Central Coast!

I went to downtown San Luis Obispo today for lunch and it must have been in the mid-70's. Unbelieveable weather. How can you not have a great day when you live on the Central Coast?!

This photo was taken from the SLO Mission looking at Misson Plaza.

It boggles my mind when I see some of the stuff that goes on in the "Real Estate World".

It was suggested to me yesterday by an another agent to "forge" a signature on a contract form to expedite a transaction. I would never think of forging a name, espectially when you're talking about million dollar transactions.

I remember seeing this when I purchased one of my homes (and before I got into real estate). We were doing the final walkthrough and there was a form that needed to be signed by the Seller. The two agents huddled together and the Listing Agent turned around and signed the document for the Seller. While these weren't loan documents or the main contract papers, I just can't believe someone would do that and take the legal risk.

What's also interesting is that it's the agents that have been selling real estate for a long time that are the ones that I see trying to "cut corners", rather than the newer agents.

The SLO County Airport Land Use Commission is preparing a disclosure that home Buyers must sign for the planned Tumbling Waters project on the corner of Orcutt and Broad St. that informs them of the potential airport noise.

Most real estate agents will disclose if you are buying a home near the airport but not really say what noise it can bring. There was a letter to the editor to the Trib a few months back from a resident of the San Luis Country Club complaining about the helicopter noise. Replies back to that letter had the theme "You knew you were buying close to an airport, so what did you expect? If you don't like it, move to a place not near an airport".

It is a good idea for potential home buyers to have disclosures on EVERYTHING known that can affect the property. There shouldn't be any surprises!

Real Estate Directory gives SloCountyHomes.com an Excellent rating!

The International Real Estate Digest yesterday rated SloCountyHomes.com as Excellent (4 rating). We are the only SLO/Santa Barbara real estate web site that received this rating!

http://www.ired.com/usa/ca/ca-coast.htm

The California Association of Realtors announced the Nov 2005 data for regions across California.

The highest median home price :Santa Barbara $1,115,000
The lowest median home price :High Desert $320,860

Click here for the region report.

MLS Map Search enhancement

My new MLS Map search just got better. If you click on "More info" when you're looking at a home you find on the map, it will now display a page of the property details, including any additional photos! I also added the map search to the MLS Search page.

A new listing without a photo = a missed opportunity

I've said this before but after looking at the Realtor "hotsheet" of new listings, I thought I'd mention it again.

When you put your home on the market, make sure your Realtor uploads photos of your home THE DAY it goes on the MLS. A new listing stays on the hotsheet for 24 hours. This is the time to get Realtors excited about your home. Not having a photo doesn't help get your home noticed. Worse yet, it's displayed with the biggest type on the screen as "No Photo Available".

A 5,000 sq foot estate in Perfumo Canyon came on the market. It's on 85 acres and listed at $2,995,000.

Check out the latest issue of New Times where they write about my new Map Based IDX Search. Thanks New Times!

2 New Listings came on the market in Pismo Heights this week.

Both have an ocean view and they are both listed at $1.5 Million.

MLS Activity this week - Residential

Since Monday (1/09) until a minute ago, there have been:
150 New Listings
129 Price Changes
67 Pending Sales

The inventory is increasing....

New SLO Pizza place coming in Spring

It looks like California Pizza Kitchen will be opening where Fresh Choice in SLO was. This will give Woodstock's some competition and probably push out the other smaller speciality pizza place close by, Pizza Solo.

Postal rates go up today

New postal rates today are 39 cents (from 37 cents) and 24 cents for postcard (up from 23 cents). Rates from US Postal Service web site.

Central Coast MLS Statistics for December 2005
(Residential)

New Listings - 472
Back on Market - 193
Price Changes - 333
Pending- 398
Contingent - 52
Expired - 345
Sold - 400

New Golf Course at the Woodlands

The Monarch Dunes golf course is now open at the Woodlands development in Nipomo. You can visit their website for more information.

Dolphin Bay residences

Fourteen condos in the new Dolphin Bay complex will be auctioned off on January 29th. Dolphin Bay is next to the Cliffs resort in Shell Beach which you've probably seen being built if you've driven on 101 sometime in the past few years. Four of the condos will be sold no matter what the bid prices are. Floor plans are from 1,100 to 2,100 sq feet and opening bids are $500,000 for the one-bedroom, $700,000 for the two-bedroom, and $900,000 for the two-bedroom penthouses. Further information can be found here.

New Map-based MLS Search

My new Map-based MLS Search has arrived! I haven't added it to MLS Search section of SloCountyHomes.com yet but you can start using it by clicking here.

To select an area, you can choose a city from the drop down or enter a street address and the map will center on the address. Make sure to zoom in too. Once you have a map, choose what you want to see displayed (Property type, price ranges, etc.). Everytime you make a change in your criteria, just hit "Search" and it will redraw the map with only the icons of the properties you want to see. When you first come into the map, all property types are displayed (residential, commercial, land, etc.).

You can also change the type of map you want to see the home icons on. Click on the tabs (Aerial map, topology map,...).

I'd be interested in hearing your comments about this new search capability. You can drop me a note using the "Contact Us" available from the home page.

Have fun searching!

Yet another article about the changing real estate market - Read Here.

I'll be running the monthly MLS statistics for the Central Coast shortly. I will also be adding the 4th quarter statistics on home and condo sales that's available when clicking on the city names from the home page. I'm planning to keep doing these stats on a quarterly basis to allow you to follow the changes in the Central Coast real estate market. Our market here may or may not follow the changes in the larger markets like Los Angeles and San Francisco. I hope this info will help you track the changes (up or down) in our market.

I added a mortgage rate chart at the bottom of my home page so you can easily track where rates are going.