Michael's Blog

I was thinking of what to blog about today.  I thought that I would address another of my pet peeves.

Pet Peeve "Caltrans"

This Pet Peeve is named "Caltrans".   In San Leandro and Oakland Caltrans seems to be ignoring basic maintenance along interstate 580.

First off the entire length of 580 through Oakland and San Leandro are absolutely strewn with litter.  It looks really bad. Caltrans is not being a good neighbor and not maintaining their property.  Not only are the highways dirty, but so are the on-ramps and the exit ramps.

Next on Interstate Eastbound I-580 in the slow lane directly next to San Leandro's Grand Avenue On-Ramp's gore point is a very large sink hole developing.  You can see cars dip and bounce as they pass this location.  The lane needs to be closed, the roadway removed and the faulty underlying soil needs to be corrected.   It's only a matter of time before this lack of maintenance causes some accidents at this location.

It's your community, please let Caltrans know where the problems are and make them responsible for the highways and highway safety in general.

http://www.dot.ca.gov/contactus.htm Here is the link to the California Department of Transportation's maintenance department.  This link allows you to "submit a service request". 

Two homes in my neighborhood are for sale and I would like to be the selling agent.  These homes were built around 1927 by Derry, Weaver & Derry as part of the Cherry City Tract. 

These homes are part of "The Broadmoor Neighborhood Association" who's membership is voluntary, but highly encouraged.  At $40 a year, it's very affordable.

We are a very close knit neighborhood.  We will be having our 15th annual National Night Out Against Crime block party on August 5th. 

First off at 574 Superior is a very nice Tudor home located three houses from Dutton Avenue.  This beautiful home has great curb appeal.  A large picture window is perfectly framed by dramatic architectural detail on the front gable.  The front door to this home features an awsome random brick surround.  It is listed for $649,000.00

The garage may appear to be missing. When the home was built it had a rear facing garage.  The owners would drive down their driveway and make a u-turn into their two car attached garage. However in the 1970s it was coverted into a family room.  If you desire a garage, it wouldn't take too much work to convert it back.

It takes a Realtor, who knows the history of the tract to be able to tell you that little factoid.  The home across the street at 565 had the same rear facing attached garage configuration, also converted to a family room.  From what I heard a deal fell through because the city would not allow construction of a new detached garage. 

Once again a local Realtor would know that the city inspector (shout out to Mike J) lives at the corner of this block.  I am sure that he would have some pull with the city to see if a historical zero lot line garage could be grandfathered in.  However, in both of these cases, the original garages could be restored by adding a garage door back to the rear wall of these homes.

This home is listed by an agent located from Alameda

The next home just had it's sign show up today.  It's a Mission Revival home located on the corner of Dowling and Superior.  It's address is 495 Superior Avenue.  It has a fantastic rose garden in front.  I still have to do some homework on it as the MLS information comes online.

The photos of these houses in black and white are from a photo study I did for my staging company to have a collection of black and white architectural prints to display.   The top photo is of the Tudor at 574 Superior Avenue and the bottom picture is of the Mission Revival at 498 Superior Avenue.  The entire collection can be seen on my Prudential website: http://www.prurealty.com/Michael.Greenslade/photoGallery.aspx

I think that I want to post this in "The Secret" folder on Activerain.  I want it to be known to the universe and eveyone and everything that I would like to sell these homes.  I will visualize it as if it's already happend.

Give me a call and I'd be happy to sell you one of these beautiful Derry, Weaverr & Derry homes.....or both!!!   510 334-7800

1) What's your first name? "Jack London George"

2) Which city do you live in? Oakland, Ca.

3) Neighborhood or district within that city? East Lake District

4) Do you own or rent? Own

5) What occupation are you in?  Real Estate and other things.

6) Favorite restaurant?  Mimosa on Lake Park Avenue (Near the Grand Lake Theater)

7) Do you have a business you'd like to promote? George has an 1870's Bar where Jack London used to frequent.  It's restored back to it's original state.   George rents it out for television, movie, music video and commercial filming. 

The following is a list of properties sold between 6/28/2009 and 7/28/2008 that are in sold status on the local MLS reports.  I went through and searched each city to show you that properties are indeed selling.  So get your finances in order and purchase before all the good properties are gobbled up.  As you can see, there is some activity in the market.

I had a gentleman come in during my floor time on Saturday.  I mentioned to him the study I had done for my blog regarding the number of homes pending.  He reminded me that some may fall out of pending.  A better indicator would be that of homes sold.  I agreed.  So here is that information.

Alameda = 40 properties sold

Alamo = 15 properties sold

Albany = 14 properties sold

Antioch = 131 properties sold

Bay Point = 19 properties sold

Berkeley = 59 properties sold

Blackhawk = 9 properties sold

Brentwood = 77 properties sold

Castro Valley = 30 properties sold

Concord = 88 properties sold

Crockett & Port Costa = 1 property sold

Danville = 32 properties sold

Discovery Bay = 25 properties sold

Dublin = 38 properties sold

El Cerrito = 11 properties sold

El Sobrante = 9 properties sold

Fremont = 108 properties sold

Hayward = 73 properties sold

Hercules = 19 properties sold

Kensington = 11 properties sold

Lafayette = 15 properties sold

Livermore = 49 properties sold

Martinez = 21 properties sold

Moraga = 11 properties sold

Newark = 25 properties sold

Oakland = 184 properties sold

Oakley = 45 properties sold

Orinda = 16 properties sold

Pacheco = 0 properties sold

Piedmont = 7 properties sold

Pinole = 11 properties sold

Pittsburg = 59 properties sold

Pleasant Hill = 29 properties sold

Pleasanton = 44 propertied sold

Richmond = 90 properties sold

Rodeo = 3 propertiess sold

San Leandro = 58 properties sold

San Lorenzo = 13 properties sold

San Pablo = 29 properties sold

San Ramon = 58 properties sold

Union City = 33 properties sold

Walnut Creek = 65 properties sold

The following is a list of properties as of 7/26/2008 that are in pending status on the local MLS reports.  I went through and searched each city to show you that properties are indeed selling.  So get your finances in order and purchase before all the good properties are gobbled up.  As you can see, there is some activitiy  in the market.

These properties are in the following status groups PEND - Pending, PPR - Pending Court Confirmation, PSB - Pending Show for Backups, PSLA - Pending Subject to Lender Approval.

Alameda = 58 properties pending

Alamo = 18 properties pending

Albany = 16 properties pending

Berkeley = 75 properties pending

Blackhawk = 5 properties pending

Castro Valley = 88 properties pending

Concord = 297 properties pending

Danville = 71 properties pending

Dublin = 94 properties pending

El Cerrito = 25 properties pending

El Sobrante = 27 properties pending

Fremont = 232 properties pending

Hayward = 362 properties are pending

Kensington = 2 properties pending

Lafayette = 34 properties pending

Livermore = 173 properties pending

Moraga = 20 properties pending

Newark = 80 properties pending

Oakland = 543 properties pending

Orinda = 17 properties pending

Piedmont = 10 properties pending

Pleasanton = 85 propertied pending

Richmond = 291 properties pending

San Leandro = 198 properties pending

San Lorenzo = 62 properties pending

San Ramon = 140 properties pending

Walnut Creek = 104 properties pending

Well,  I received a phone call from one of my ex-coworkers Rich the other day.  Rich was also a fellow computer hardware engineer in Silicon Valley.  We both worked together at Redback Networks designing on the SMS10000 as the SMS1800 products.

Rich is now at a company called Data Robotics working on their new products.  Mark who was the director of hardware at Redback Networks is now also at Data Robotics as Vice President of Engineering.

Rich called me and asked if I could help out with the new products.   Well considering that I am in need of some currancy in my bank account to pay my bills, the choice was easy. 

Yes, I will be helping Rich out down in Sunnyvale for a few months.  I will be working floor time and open houses on weekends.

If any business does come in to my cell phone while I am working I have already made an arrangement to refer business to some associates at the Grand Lake Oakland Prudential Office.

Here is a breakdown of homes available in our local towns. The data reflects today July 3rd, 2008.  The data is broken down to the number of homes broken down into pricing catagories and the number of homes in each catagory. 

This number reflects condos, townhouses and detached single family homes.  This does not include the listing for duplexes and multiple family residences.

San Leandro

• under 200k = 9
• 201k - 300k = 76
• 301k - 400k = 146
• 401k - 500k = 95
• 501k - 600k = 51
• 601k - 700k = 27
• 701k - 800k = 12
• 801k - 900k = 3
• 901k - 1.M = 3
• over 1M = 4

Oakland

• under 200k = 511
• 201k - 300k = 436
• 301k - 400k = 313
• 401k - 500k = 230
• 501k - 600k = 123
• 601k - 700k =  57
• 701k - 800k = 50
• 801k - 900k = 40
• 901k - 1.M = 30
• over 1M = 71

Hayward

• under 200k = 59
• 201k - 300k = 278
• 301k - 400k = 320
• 401k - 500k = 117
• 501k - 600k = 64
• 601k - 700k = 45
• 701k - 800k = 34
• 801k - 900k = 9
• 901k - 1.M = 9
• over 1M = 17

Alameda

• under 200k = 2
• 201k - 300k = 10
• 301k - 400k = 13
• 401k - 500k = 19
• 501k - 600k = 29
• 601k - 700k = 26
• 701k - 800k = 16
• 801k - 900k = 15
• 901k - 1.M = 11
• over 1M = 16

Berkeley

• under 200k = 0
• 201k - 300k = 4
• 301k - 400k = 14
• 401k - 500k = 16
• 501k - 600k = 14
• 601k - 700k = 12
• 701k - 800k = 10
• 801k - 900k = 15
• 901k - 1.M = 11
• over 1M = 21

Okay blog readers.

I have been away for awhile.  I have been checking my email regularly.  I had Eric Lim at the office as my appointed alternate back up.

I am back from a whirlwind three week tour of the Mississippi River area.  You see it was my Mother and Father's 50th wedding anniversary.  My Mother had planned this trip for the entire family as her anniversary celebration.  Attendance was mandatory, however my youngest brother was given a pass.

Mom had planned for us for us to sail up the Mississippi River about the paddle wheel river boat the "AMERICAN QUEEN".  The actual departure date of June 7th was to be mom and dad's anniversary date.  The cruise would go from New Orleans to Memphis and take a grand total of seven days to travel that distance.

Dad passed away on January 27th of this year.  Mom still wanted for us to take the cruise.  Mother asked her cousin Carolann to come along and be her cabinmate for this trip.   My older brother Bill and his wife Donna came along.  Donna invited her mother Gail along for some mother daughter bonding of their own.

I arranged for use my timeshare in New Orleans (Avenue Plaza Resort. on St. Charles Avenue)  I arranged for two 1 bedroom condo units.  Each unit had a bedroom and then a sofa sleeper in the living room for a max sleeping capacity of four per unit.

We arrived in New Orleans on May 31st and stayed until the 7th of June.  We had a great time exploring the city.  We took an excellent guided city tour seeing the highlights of the city.  The Garden District is where I would want to live if I ever moved to New Orleans.  Bourbon Street and the French Quarter was certainly one of the most incredible places.  I am a huge fan of architecture, and to see all the wonderful New Orleans architecture was just awesome.  At night, Bourbon Street takes on a whole new atmosphere of partying, dining and music.

We made a couple of side trips up near Baton Rouge to tour some plantation houses. The first one was Houmas House, which was restored to perfection.  The second was Nottaway Plantation, which is a magnificent building and over 50,000 square feet in size.

***** REAL ESTATE TIE IN ******

While I was in New Orleans I walked over to Prudential Gardner Realty on St. Charles avenue and made contact with the floor agent at the time.  If I ever need to refer to anyone in New Orleans, I now have a name and a face associated of a person I could work with.  Mosella Sanders-Newman.   Hopefully, Mosella will remember me when she comes across anyone looking to relocate to Oakland or the San Francisco Bay Area.

***** REAL ESTATE TIE IN ******

We boarded the AMERICAN QUEEN on the 7th of June and off we went chugging up the Mississippi.  Gail and I (469/471) each had the small 1 person inside cabins.   Bill and Donna, Mother and Carolann had the larger 2 person stateroom cabins (309 Arizona/311 North Carolina).

Oh the food served aboard was so very good.  I enjoyed every single meal served.  I think that I enjoyed the raspberry iced tea on the "front porch of America" each evening the most.

We had stops in Baton Rouge we toured the Myrtles Plantion and it's neighboring planation Rosewood.  In Vicksburg we toured the National Battlefield memorial toured in the "Battlefield and Seige Tour". 

In Natchez we toured three historic homes.  Calling the homes in Natchez would be in error since these homes were the city homes for the plantation owners.  The heights of the bluffs of Natchez was not where the plantations would have been. The flat land of Louisiana across the river was where all the cotton plantations were located. 

The tour ended with the Longwood Plantation home. Longwood built for the family of Haller Nutt was still under construction when the Civil War broke out.  The Northern craftsmen being used to build the mansion, dropped their tools where they were when the news of the war broke out and abandoned the job site.  The home's exterior was completed and sealed off from the environment, allowing it to survive to this day.  The home's basement was finished off by local builders.  The Nutts were never able to finish the remaining five floors above, they remain unfinished to this day.  (That's correct a six story plantaion mansion)

Longwood

After the cruise we spent two days in Memphis Tn.  We just had to visit Graceland, Elvis Presley's estate.  We also enjoyed some BBQ on Beale Street.  Beale Street was very much like Bourbon Street in New Orleans.  Mother, Carolann and Gail were able to experience Beale street.  They were affraid of Bourbon Street. They enjoyed the whole experience very much.

In Memphis we also stopped off at the PEABODY HOTEL and saw the show of the ducks leaving the fountian promptly at 5pm.  I had to stop off at that gift shop and get something duck related.  I ended up with the boxer shorts with the works "BUTT QUACK" across the back side.  My sick sense of humor.

**** REAL ESTATE TIE IN AGAIN *****

After that we went to Las Vegas Nevada for a few days to visit my uncle Richard and aunt Debbie.  I got to see all the construction that is going on in that town.   I was blown away by the construction of the City Center.  Uncle Richard is looking at possiblty purchasing one of the units there as an investment.

**** REAL ESTATE TIE IN AGAIN *****

I gambled a whopping twenty one dollars while I was there.  It was a Megabucks machine at Santa Fe Station.  I wasn't too lucky.

well so long for now.

Even whilst on vacation I found time to wonder into a Prudential office.  I met a local Realtor Mosella Sanders-Newman.  I enjoyed meeting this very nice lady.

She was on floortime working out of the St Charles Avenue office location.  I introduced myself as being a Prudential agent from Oakland California's Grand Lake office.

Mosella printed out a copy of the Louisiana 7 page purchase/listing agreement.  The simplicity of the form is refreshing compared to the complicated mess of C.A.R.  forms.  I just quess that California is just that much more lawsuit happy.

Now I have met someone in the city of New Orleans that I can refer business to within Prudential.  I told Mosella about activerain.com and the power of blogging.  I hope that we see her and some of her associates  here on activerain.

On the Western edge of the city of San Leandro is the San Leandro Marina, Oyster Bay Regional Park and the Monarch Bay Golf Course.

The Marina was concieved in the early 1950s and built in the late 1950s to early 1960s. 

Along the shoreline are restaurants:

• Pelusso's Blue Dolphin Restaurant.  A fine dining establishment with banquet facilities. This building was built on pier pilings and was closed and torn down in recent years.
• El Torito, this building was originally the Casa Maria Restaurant. The restaurant later became Tia Maria Restaurant.  Similar restaurants were built at other Marinas including Berkeley.  The Chain restaurant company El Torito now operates in this location.
• Horatio's a fine dining establishment offering excellent food was the last to be built.

 http://www.ci.san-leandro.ca.us/PWMarina.asp

There is some recent debate as to whether or not to dredge the marina's channel that runs out into the middle of the bay. 

It is my personal opinion that the channel should be dredged!   There may come a time after an earthquake when the Marina may have to be used as an East Bay ferry terminal.

There is a hotel at the Marina, it is called smartly enough "The San Leandro Marina Inn". http://www.sanleandromarinainn.com/  The Marina Inn is a great place for business travelers due to it's picturesque waterfront location and location to the Oakland International Airport.

There is a ParCourse exersize circuit out on the berms that create the Marina Park and lagoon.

The golf course started out as the Tony Lema Golf Course (Named after a local golfing champion). It was later renamed Monarch Bay Golf Club. http://monarchbay.americangolf.com/  and http://www.golflink.com/golf-courses/course.asp?course=102345

Well, another week has gone by.  Wednesday, I took my mother to another one of her chemotherapy appointments.

As I had done in the past, while she was getting her infusion, I took the walk down to Starbucks.  I had my usual, a Vente Mocha not-too-hot with whip (whip me).  I also picked up another gift card to give to the other caregivers back at Doctor Darosa's office.  While I am indulging in my mocha I sit in one of the upholstered chairs and write a quick little note on the little envelope that comes with the gift card.

"I too am a caregiver and I know what you are going through.  I am taking care of my mother who is going through chemotherapy currently.  I know how important it is for the caregiver to just sit back, relax and take a break sometimes.  Here is a gift card for a drink at a Starbucks"

I then enclose one of my Prudential cards with the gift card.

I came back from the Starbucks and handed the card off to Tina one of the chemo nurses and asked her to give the card to one of the caregivers.  Unlike last week, Tina waited until I was gone to give the card out to one of the caregivers.  I actually like it that way it's more anonymous and random that way.

I'll find out from Tina next time I see her how the caregiver liked getting a "little break".

If you're ever at the Castro Valley Starbucks located at Lake Chabot Road and Castro Valley Boulevard on any given Wednesday around 10am, be sure to say hello.  I'll be the one filling out the gift card envelope.

I think this would be nice if every Realtor would bring along a gift card to their doctor's appointments too and give the caregivers they run across a little break in their lives!

At the East end of Dutton Avenue is the Oakland enclave of homes known as Sheffield Village.  Sheltered from Oakland by the Dunsmuir - Hellman Historic Estate and the rolling hills to the East of the area.

Back in 1928, the site of Sheffield Village was to be Saint Mary's College.  It was during an 11th hour bid that Moraga won out and took the bid from what was then San Leandro.

Developer E.B. Fields and Architect Irwin Johnson created a wonderful "Leave it to Beaver" suburban community.

Sheffield Village was one of the first planned communitues after World War II.

The streets in the area are all named after British sounding places such as Covington, Roxbury, Danbury and Middleton.

The Oakland Cultural Heritage Alliance gives walking tours during the summer months and Sheffield Village is often on of the tours each year.  The neighborhood has been given the status of "Historic District".

For the most parts the homes are 1940's ranchers and Cape Cods.  Homes most always have wood burning fireplaces, large lots and hardwood floors.  The homes are well kept and the tree lined streets make for a great neighborhood. 

Close to shopping just thru the Marlow Drive under pass, MacArthur Boulevard offers shops and restaurants.

Come by, drive around and give this area of Oakland a look or a second look.

I have a client who may be interested in this.

(Another Agency has this Listing and it is not my Listing). 

 The Common Area Courtyard.

 From The Front Door Looking In

 From The Outside

 Exposed Ceiling Rafters and Arched Attic Window

So anyway, I posted this pictures here for my family and friends in Myspace.com could take a look at this unit.

If you know me and my love for historical older buildings, you'll know how cool I think this building is.  I hope that I can get my client into this one.  What a Rush that would be.....  I'm putting it out there to the universe to make it happen (the secret) 

Yesterday after mother's chemo appointment, she wanted to get something to eat.  If she wants to eat, we eat.  I don't question her chemo non-reactions or actions, so we went out for lunch.

We went out to the China AA Buffet on Mission Boulevard in Hayward.  First time there and it was very good.  I was totally surprised by the choices offered.  I know mother enjoyed her meal.  That is always a very good thing.

While dining my cell phone rang.  It was Chris from Nouveau Riche University wanting to know "If I would like to make more money, more often".  Well, sure I would like to do that.  They were having a seminar that evening at the Hilton Garden Inn in Emeryville that evening at 7pm.  I would be able to go if interested.

I said sure I could free up some time to see their presentation.  It was interesting to note that you had to dress in business casual to attend.

I also needed to call Chris when I reached the lobby to let him know that I had arrived and signed in.  Well, I called Chris when I showed up and he met me in the lobby.  He was like glue on me for the first five minutes.  He and the other sales people associated with this Nouveau Riche University were all slick model/actor looking people.  You know the type, if they were actually salespeople they would make a ton of money legitimately.

I was sort of dissappointed with the presentation, no soft drinks, no appetizers, I had foregone dinner for this presentation.  They had pictures of ice water and a bowl of cheap hard candy at the back of the room.

The presentation started and this one guy was telling us how he had worked in education and industry but was selling his time for money.  He was giving up all his time with his family for working for an employer.

The next presenter was a nice and entertaining person named Clifton.  He was telling us how he had signed up with NRU and within a month he had purchased a property with positive cash flow of 600 per month.  He went on to tell us about the property concierge and how you can purchase properties with just one click of a mouse button.  But you needed to be at a higher level to be able to access this information.

www.propertyconcierge.com and then login as quest.

Oh yeah, he bought the property sight unseen. The company NRU was so respectable that we should never question the offerings either.  They (NRU) finds the property, rehabs the property, rents the property, manages the property and then offers it to you all as a positive cash flow offering.  Just one click and it's yours.  You're gonna be buying a property with nothing down and using that "OPM" other people's money.

Now for the multi-level marketing part of this program.  You can make extra money by spreading the word about NRU.

The tuition for the Nouveau Riche University 20 day Real Estate education "regents" program is $16,000.00 with $3,500 worth of books and media known as the collection.  Once you get four other people to join in you can now earn 50% commission on each new person.  That would be $9,750.00 for each person you sign up at that "regents" level.  You can get all down loaded to a debit visa card twice a week!

http://nouveauscam.blogspot.com/

• The presentation departed from being an education opportunity about 1/2 way through and became all about signing people up.
• The people sitting around in the audience were plants.  I thought the guy next to me would wet his pants each time the speaker said something like "wouldn't you like to make more money too?"
• If the property concierge was such a great deal, why aren't the principals in this endeavor taking advantage of these proprieties?

My shout out to Chris, who read my activerain blog to recruit me for this presentation.  Chris, you can make more money without going to jail in this pyramid scheme.  If you want to find some positive cash flow properties, consult a real REALTOR.  It takes access to the MLS, county tax records and an Excel spread sheet to determine and find positive cash flow properties.

Well, today was another day taking care of mother and taking her to her doctor's appointment for her weekly chemotherapy appointment.

As I had blogged before

http://activerain.com/blogsview/298734/Caring-for-Caregivers on 12/06/2007

http://activerain.com/blogsview/419709/Here-we-go-again on 3/12/2008

I wanted to take care of some of the other caregivers I came across while taking care of my mother at the oncologist doctors while she was getting her chemotherapy.

Well, having had my first transaction close through escrow and with a little cash in my pocket.  Today, while mother was getting her infusion, I walked about a mile down the  road the the Starbucks at the corner of Lake Chabot Road and Castro Valley Boulevard.

I ordered myself a vente mocha with whip and not too hot.  I also purchased a gift card for a caregiver back at Dr. Darosa's office.  It didn't matter who the care giver was, I just wanted the card to go out to a caregiver.

When I got back to the office, I jotted down a little note about taking care of caregivers and how they could use a break every so often.  I explained that I am also taking care of my mother and that they should enjoy a break on me.

Well, I handed the card to nurse Susan and she took the task of giving it to a caregiver.  She wasted no time and gave it to a young lady who was taking care of her father in the other infusion room at the other end of  the office.

Well, a few minutes later this young lady popped her head into the doorway of our infusion room to thank me.  We (mom and I) invited her in for a nice conversation.  She is going through the same thing that I am.  She too is a middle child taking care of the parents.  She too also has two brother, neither of which is actively involved in taking care of their ailing parents.   She was very greatful in getting the gift card and she said that she sure could use a break.  I explained my sitiuation and that I totally understood where she was at in this point of her life.  I told her every so often to just take a deep breathe and count slowly to 10 and let the stress out.

I feel that I did good and got some good kharma out into the universe.  I will do the same again next week when we go back to the oncologist for that weeks infusion.  I will try to make other people's life better.

Hopefully, it will all come back to me later when these people need to sell or buy they will remember that nice realtor in the chemo doctors office that gave them a nice break from the stress of daily caregiving for a loved one.

I have followed the secret and this has got to come back as some good in the future for me.  Everyone if you can pray for my mother that would be cool too.

Have a great day

Well, I made the move.  I am now working out of the Grand Lake Oakland office. The office is located at 3320 Grand Avenue in Oakland's Lake Merritt area.

We are located down the street from the old 1930s movie palace, the GrandLake Theater.  The theater has seen much better days.  Once adorned with columns topped with statuary and lots of architectural ornamentation.  Today only about half of it's original detail remains. I see old photographs of the theater and the area around it on the walls of this office.  I get saddened to think of how far it has fallen.

The current owners of this movie palace are avid anti-war and anti President Bush activists.  Each week on it's grand marquee is some sort of political whoo-ha babble.  I wish they would spend some of their energy into fixing this wonderful landmark building.

I am on floortime duty as I write this today.  This office has good foot traffic and potentially a really great client base. Piedmont an elite posh community within Oakland is just up the road from this office.  The existing agents at this office tell me that the floortime here is "OFF DA HOOK"

I had my very first close......(pause of applause).......... It was a deal here in Oakland and it was for a foreclosed property, I represented the buyer and it was an all cash offer which propelled us past the other 13 offers that came in on the property.   Now I am waiting for the commission check to show up.......(pause of applause)..........

So I am still learning my way around this office and the area.  There is 4 hour free parking under Interstate 580, which is only a very short walk from the office.  I can use the exercise, so it doesn't bother me.  Now I need to get used to the "system" here in the office.

Next stop Grand Lake Office

well, as i sit and type this they are packing up all the computers and printers in the office here in alameda and moving them all to the Grand Lake office in Oakland.

The client I am working with to close has gone home to get some papers.  I am affraid that there will not be a computer to work on when he gets back.

I will be able to use Dani's computer (the OA) across the office as her's will be the last one to go out the door.

So I can say that during my first deal, the office was literally shutting down around me.  I am sure that will scare some rookie later on when we all tell our war stories.

next stop 3320 Grand Avenue.

I've spent alot of my life commuting.  Before getting into real estate I worked many years in Silicon Valley.  I've given it much thought.  The 20 mile trip would some times take up to two hours to get from point A to point B in bumper to bumper rush hour traffic.

There has to be a better way of doing this entire highway experience.

It got me to thinking that restricting trucks to the two right hand lanes is just silly.  These professional drivers should be all the way over in the center lanes.  Let the professional drivers have the most dangerous lanes when it comes to the possibility of head on collisions.  Then also allow in to the lane the folks who are going long distrance travelling.  Let's just say you need to be travelling more than 25 mile to be in this lane.

The next lane in should be for the folks who are travelling slightly less of a distance, Let's also say you change lenes right if you are exiting the center lane.  Let's restrict this to people with 10 - 24 miles to their destinations.

Then each lane to the right you get closer to your destination.

Until you are in the furthest right lane for the people going 1 or 2 miles and exiting... Let's just call them the locals.  Let these folks stay in the right lane for easy on and easy off hops!

By doing this, this will increase the likelyhood that the truckers and the long distance drivers keep moving.  The right lanes dedicated to the quick on and off without having to dodge all the semi-trailers.

Sacramento and Caltrans, are you paying attention?

What does all this have to do with real estate, it's all about quality of life...... and where you live.

Here is a breakdown of homes available in our local towns. The data reflects today April 28th, 2008.  The data is broken down to the number of homes broken down into pricing catagories and the number of homes in each catagory. 

This number reflects condos, townhouses and detached single family homes.  This does not include the listing for duplexes and multiple family residences.

San Leandro

• under 200k = 6
• 201k - 300k = 59
• 301k - 400k = 153
• 401k - 500k = 128
• 501k - 600k = 62
• 601k - 700k = 36
• 701k - 800k = 12
• 801k - 900k = 3
• 901k - 1.M = 0
• over 1M = 4

Oakland

• under 200k = 270
• 201k - 300k = 473
• 301k - 400k = 402
• 401k - 500k = 277
• 501k - 600k = 149
• 601k - 700k = 66
• 701k - 800k = 46
• 801k - 900k = 34
• 901k - 1.M = 18
• over 1M = 84

Hayward

• under 200k = 34
• 201k - 300k = 201
• 301k - 400k = 326
• 401k - 500k = 172
• 501k - 600k = 98
• 601k - 700k = 44
• 701k - 800k = 37
• 801k - 900k = 22
• 901k - 1.M = 7
• over 1M = 22

Alameda

• under 200k = 1
• 201k - 300k = 6
• 301k - 400k = 26
• 401k - 500k = 18
• 501k - 600k = 30
• 601k - 700k = 23 
• 701k - 800k = 20
• 801k - 900k = 8
• 901k - 1.M = 7
• over 1M = 12

Berkeley

• under 200k = 0
• 201k - 300k = 4
• 301k - 400k = 17
• 401k - 500k = 20
• 501k - 600k = 18
• 601k - 700k = 14
• 701k - 800k = 4
• 801k - 900k = 8
• 901k - 1.M = 4
• over 1M = 31

I saw this the other day while I was out with a client.  We didn't go to this location, we drove right past it.  My client was looking for single family foreclosures and not new construction. I couldn't believe it.  I had to come back and take a photograph.

This development is in East Oakland, not too far from the Oakland Coliseum.  It's called "Arcadia" and it's being developed by a very large and reputable builder. There will be different areas with in this tract, some units will be called "Villages", some will be called "Enclave" and some called "Towns"

I just question it's location

Next to a shipping container storage yard

The sales staff for this tract will certainly have a job on their hands.