Michael's Blog

Wow,

Another fantastic day...more to come.  A home that I had watched on my very own street has been sitting on the market for a whopping 211 days.  I blogged about it earlier today while at the office. 

Read my earlier posting here

I came home and then walked down to mom's house (two houses away) and spent some time with her.

I walked out and a saw a nice couple looking at the home for sale.  I walked down, introduced myself and asked them if they needed a Realtor.

She lives in "Sheffield Village", a little enclave of ranch style homes in East Oakland and accessible only from San Leandro's "The Broadmoor" neighborhood.

He lives in North Berkeley.  They are looking for a home that they could live in together as their house.  They both love the house.

I have an appointment for Monday at 10:00am to look at the possibility of selling her home in Sheffield Village and getting them into this wonderful Storybook Tudor.

The secret is really paying off for me lately and boy am I grateful and getting more and more so each and every day.

I would like to share with all of you a picture of my gratitude rock.  It really seems to be working, It reminds me of everything that I have to be grateful for ... It's with me everywhere I go.

There is a wonderful home a few doors down from me that has been on the market for a staggering 211 days.  The listing agent representing the owners had done practically nothing to get this home in-front of the public.

No flyer's in the box at the sign.  No Virtual tour. No open houses.  It's very rare that any of the neighbors see any activity at the property at all.

The home is in wonderful condition, new roof, new windows, new landscape.  The pest reports were $500 dollars for section 1.

The price of the home is considered high for the city of San Leandro, but the same home in neighboring Alameda would be easily $200,000.oo higher.

This home was constructed by Derry, Weaver & Derry and is one of the nicer homes in one of the nicer neighborhoods in all of San Leandro. This home is a wonderful storybook style tudor with leaded glass windows and dramatic vaulted ceilings.

The home has one modern day flaw which can be corrected.  The home has amnesia as to where it's garage went to.  The home was built with an attached two car garage.  The homeowner would drive the car down the driveway and turn the car around on the large patio surface and park the cars under the rear section of the home.

During the 1970s it was a fad to turn such spaces into family rooms.  This home as well as two other homes on this block that have this type of garage all suffered the same fate.  One home with the same floor-plan (with completely different exterior elevation) had a detached 2 car garage built in the backyard.

Apparently the scuttlebutt around the neighborhood is that someone was looking at buying it and wanted to build a garage similar to the other one.  The city denied the permits because of modern day lot line setbacks.

If they only knew that the city inspector lived just down the street, they might be able to fudge it enough with the city to get the historical setbacks that the rest of the entire neighborhood enjoys.

Well, back to topic.  I would make sure that this home has flyer's in the box refreshed and refilled daily.

The home is located on a street that has become a I-580 access route during 7-8am and 4-6pm.  I certainly would hold a twilight open house with some light food and appetizers.  The theme for the evening, "If you lived here you'd be home right now".

The price needs to be lowered to reflect San Leandro's market pricing... Even though this home is a bargain to Alameda's pricing it's not being marketed to Alameda buyers.

The home needs to be taken off the market, the price lowered just a tad and re-listed with an office in Alameda (hint, hint) instead of Castro Valley.  For Castro Valley, this home is a price increase over the base price of homes.  For Alameda, this home is a steal.

No brainer.

GIVE ME A CALL---- I'D LOVE TO SELL IT TO THE BUYERS!

1) What's your first name? "Jack"

2) Which city do you live in? "Alameda"

3) Neighborhood or district within that city? "Point Alameda in the West End"

4) Do you own or rent? "I Rent"

5) What occupation are you in? "Retail Visual Merchandising, I create department store displays"

6) Favorite restaurant? "Croll's - The New Zealander" " Phnom Penh House, a great Burmese restaurant on 8th Street in Oakland"

7) Do you have a business you'd like to promote? "Retirement"

I've started a group here on Activerain for everyone to have yet another reason to BLOG.

I've created the group "MEET YOUR NEIGHBORS"

http://activerain.com/groups/Meetyourneighbors

The way I would like to see this to working is, when on floor time when we see someone looking at the homes displayed in the window.

Go out and greet them as usual, ask them questions about what they are looking for and how much etcetera.  When wrapping up that conversation ask them if they wouldn't mind participating in your blog.  It will be an ideal time to capture their contact information!!!

Tell them you have a new feature, "Meet the neighbors".  You'll take a nice quality Black and White portrait head shot of your new friend smiliing.  You ask them some basic non-intrusive questions (found in the group page).

You can add this into your main blog, city groups and neighborhood groups.  Being sure to add them into the "meet your neighbors" group also.

WOW what a rush this is.

I got the call today that the flaky offer ahead of us had fallen out.  Our offer (All Cash) is now the offer accepted.

It's my first offer and now escrow.  The other agents around the office are happy for me.  All the parties involved are looking for a quick close.

The property that my client is purchasing is a foreclosed home in Oakland California.  The bank is looking for a quick close, my client is looking for a quick close.

So, lots of work ahead for me.  New things to learn.  I am like a sponge, I want to soak it all in. 

Next up inspections.  I already called to set up an appointment.   The Pest Control Company was closed for the day and I left a message.  I will call first thing in the morning.

excited

Just in case you haven't heard the news, the Alameda office of Prudential California Realty will be shutting down and agents are being merged into the Grand Lake Oakland office.

I am looking forward to working around Oakland's Lake Merritt and in the hills around Oakland.  There are some very amazing properties in these areas and it will be an exciting place to set up base camp.

Just up Grand and Lakeshore Avenues is the POSH community of Piedmont.  Piedmont is like the Beverly hills of the East Bay.  There are some incredible mansions up on Glen Alpine Road that will amaze and bewilder just about anyone. (I'd love to sell you one or two)

The Grand Lake office does come with some down sides.  Parking is pay at the meters only.  I understand that from people in the office already parking tickets are going to be a fact of life.

Grand Avenue is full of fancy schmancy dinning establishments.  I am more of a burrito and a coke type of lunch guy.  A good deli sandwich would do me just fine. I am affraid I am not going to be eating anywhere near the office or just plain brown bagging it.

If I have to take clients out I think that I will take them to Becketts, The Englander, Harry's Hof Brau, or Paradiso

If you're looking for me at the Grand Lake office, my desk is at the very far back side of the building in the 1 1/2 floor level tucked in between floors 1 and 2 (have you ever seen the movie being john malcovich).  I chose that location just because it's quirky and I could say I work on the first and half floor.

Wow,  2 in a row.  I was sitting there at the front desk of the office doing floortime and I got a call from Mac  the broker of the Grand Lake Office  (my office will soon be merged with that office) telling me that there was this lady standing out in front of a home in Alameda.  Mac asked me if I would like to go and help her....Would I?

I hopped onto the MLS and got the information about the house.  A huge victorian in Alameda that is a major fixer upper.  The price is an amazing $550,000.00 which is a bargain for any small bungalow in Alameda let alone a huge victorian.

I arrived and did not see her.  So I got on my phone (newly bluetooth, thanks to my brother Raymond and his wife Emily's Christmas present) and was in the process of calling the lady.  Then around from the corner of the house comes two ladies.  I asked if one was Donna.  The lady responded that she was indeed Donna.

The other lady was the homeowner who had seen her outside and showed her the house for me already.

She loves it and has ready an all cash offer....That's two great clients in two days.  If you recall I just submitted an offer for an all cash deal for a foreclosed home in Oakland.

Donna wants to see the house again and will be bringing a friend along.  I am in like Flint

I would like to recommend Chris Kinser of Kinser Restoration & Construction for your construction and restoration.  Kinser Construction is located in San Leandro's "The Broadmoor" and can service the entire East Bay area.

The residents of Superior Avenue in San Leandro have hired Chris and love his work. 

As soon as I get some money in (and I will) I will be having Chris remodel my laundry room to tile the walls, and remove the old tank water heater and to install a brand new tankless water heater.

By installing a tankless heater, I will finally have room in the laundry room for a washer & a dryer.

Tim, one of my other neighbors has offered to give Chris some glowing references!!!   We stick together on Superior Avenue....

That's why we are Superior..... Just kidding, Superior Avenue was named after the Great Lake and not an attitude.

KINSER RESTORATION & CONSTRUCTION

CA Lic 912863

538 Superior Avenue

San Leandro, Ca. 94577

510-862-1202

Each day as I commute into Alameda from San Leandro, I travel along Doolittle drive past the Oakland Airport on a stretch of roadway I like to call the Watermelon Coast.

See Blog posting http://activerain.com/blogsview/394965/Commuting-along-the-Watermelon

I often get to thinking that this would be an easy way to get the BART system over to the city of Alameda.  Here's how you do it.

The Oakland Airport has long been trying to get a hard link from the Oakland Coliseum station.  There was at one point in time a proposal for a monorail that would do the trick. 

There has even been mention of a complet BART line also doing the same thing.

I say that the line would be more productive if it would have three stations, Oakland Coliseum -- Oakland International Airport -- Alameda.

How would you get BART to the island of Alameda?  You don't that's the kicker here.  The route for the line would be the same as what had been planned for many times before to the airport from the coliseum. The difference is from the return line from the airport the train would take a detour down Ron Cowan Parkway and making a right turn on Harbor Bay Parkway.  The trains could run down Harbor Bay Parkway and the staion could be located on that landfill mound across from the golf course near the Bay Farm Island bridge.

After picking up passangers the trains would return to the Oakland International Airport and then back to the Oakland Coliseum station.

I personally like the idea of using a monorail.  Monorail vehicles are fairly standardized (alweg-bombardier) and the concrete beamway construction is quicker and faster to build.  The existing BART system is a one-of-a-kind gauge, which make's it much more expensive and time consuming to build. To learn more about monorails please go to the monorail society at www.monorails.org

Over in my other blog on myspace, I was catching up with my cousin Julie Schaul (Moniz).  Julie had been a real estate agent 20 years ago back in Santa Cruz California.

She said that she wishes that she had stayed on the "real estate rollercoaster".

I replied that I am on the rollercoaster, but the part that I am on is right after the station and it's a long, dark and twisted tunnel.

She replied that she got a great chuckle out of that.

I just wrote my first offer last night and faxed it off.  It is an all cash offer for a foreclosed property here in the Oakland California area.

I responded back to Jules (as she likes to be called) and told her that I may be still in my long dark and twisted tunnel, but I can hear the Klanking and Klunking of the good old chain lift to take me up that lift  hill.

I can't see the lift yet but I can hear it.  Maybe a few more turns.

I drove around San Leandro with a mission take pictures of the neighborhood signs that the city added to identify each of the neighborhoods.

I wanted to get these signs photographed so I could post them onto Localism.

The Estudillo Estates sign was hit by a car and it hasn't been fixed yet.  The majority of these signs are in the North Area.

The Bay-O-Vista sign is the oldest of the signs dating back to the 1970s.

***** UPDATE 5/15/2008 *********

The Estudillo Estates sign has bee repaired again.

I just sent of an email to Mark at Omega Salvage's upscale lighting and fixture store Omega Too.  I stopped into their Berkeley storefront the other day and talked to him about the possibility of restoring the lighting fixtures in my parent's San Leandro home.  I started to describe to him that the Chandeliers were made of cast metal, twisted steel and bent steel.  I tried to describe how the ends of some of the pieces had dragons at one end and Flor De Les at the other end.

He told me that he had some people in his staff at Omega Too that do restoration of fixtures like these.

I sent him some detailed up close photos.  His reaction was WOW, he had never seen anything like them before, but his restorationist had some knowledge of them.  I am still waiting to hear back from him and now her.

A while back Rejuvenation Lighting did some sconces that are a close match. These are reproductions.  Ours are ofcourse originals dating back to the 1920s.  If you haven't checked out Rejuventaion or Omega Too do so, you'll end up book marking the pages for future reference.

The Glenwood Sconces would be a good match to the ones we had on either side of the fireplace at one time.  http://www.rejuvenation.com/fixshowW724/templates/selection.phtml

The Kensington light fixture appears to be a part of the same family http://www.rejuvenation.com/fixshowC894/templates/selection.phtml

The Welborn also seems to be of the same family http://www.rejuvenation.com/fixshowC565/templates/selection.phtml

I have been looking long for this photo of the original Theta Chi Chapter House at U.C. Berkeley.  This was the one designed by William Raymond Yelland. Yelland was the designer for Normandy Village and Beckett's Irish Pub. 

It was located on LeConte just North of the campus near Normandy Village.  It was torn down in order to make room for an medical office building I believe. The blueprints for this frat house are still available in the design archives collection at U.C. Berkeley.

It is the perfect text book building by Yelland. He has many of his classic features in this one building.  This frat house features dutch gables or Jerkinhead gables. A very prominent cat-slide roof at the right side.  The fireplace with the tapered top is very much his style. The bay window with the railing above also classic Yelland.  This frat house is closest in style to the Derry Residence, there has been. very rarely is a residence by yelland so stucco'd all over.  Yelland usually went crazy with the brick work.

This could very well fit into Superior Avenue in San Leandro or Alma Place in Oakland.  This building just makes me happy.  I'd like to rebuild a copy of this when I retire on some nice acreage.

The Derry House San Leandro with it's cat-slide roof.

Hi there,  I had the opportunity to visit Bayfair Center again yesterday. 

I had to replace my old cell phone because it wouldn't hold a charge anymore.  I had to go to the AT&T store at the mall. The store at East 14th and Juana didn't have the model I needed.  So I had to make the trek across town.

When I got to the Mall I was thinking how much it has changed since I was a child.  I remember having lunch at the Woolworth's lunch counter.  The grilled cheese sandwich at the lunchcounter was always just great comfort food.

Back then Woolworth's was near the location of the current mall entrance to Kohl's Department Store. Woolworth's opened up to the open air walkway.

During the 1970s the open air walkway and center court escalators were enclosed in to the mall.

I remember the Rollerrina Roller Rink that was located in the parking lot near the Century theaters along East 14th Street.  It was fun to roll around the rink to the music.  The Rink was old back then and not nearly as nice as the newer Golden Skate out in Dublin.

Out near the Roller Rink was also a Golf Driving Range.

Near the 159th avenue entrance to the Bayfair Bart Station was the Go-Kart track.  That was fun to do,  It was neat to rev up the little lawn mower engines and race your buddies.  It was nothing fancy like the Malibu Grand Prix.

Anyway back to the mall memories.  The were lots of stores that were there that aren't now.  Knott's Berry Farm had a store in the mall selling jams and jellies.  The Knott's store looked like one of the buildings at the ghost town section of Knott's Berry Farm amusement park.  Dryer's Grand Ice Cream had an Ice Cream Parlour on the outside of the mall near the current Target store.  The Dryer's Grand Ice Cream Parlour was much like a Farrell's Ice Cream Parlour but it served Dryer's Ice Cream.  When Dryer's closed down, the Kasper's Hot Dogs that was near the Bart and Hesperian Boulveard move into a portion of the Dryer's location.

Out where Kasper's, Bayfair Bowling Alley and the Montgomery Ward's Automotive Center was is now located the 24 Hour Fitness and Pets Smart.

Out where the Fashion Center is now (Pier 1) was the Drive-In Movie theater.

Target replaced the two story Montgomery Ward's store that occupied the same location.  It was a great store that had just about everything that you were looking for.

The top photograph is of the Wm. M Greenslade family home in Livonia Indiana. The photo dates to approximately the 1890s.

Pictured left to right are as described on the back of the photo are: Will McCord (Stepson), Herbert Edgar Greenslade (Son), Nannie Florence Greenslade (Daughter) William Moore Greenslade (Father) and Josie Greenslade (Maiden name Hamilton - Step Grandmother).

I did not recall my father telling me about Theodore Henry Greenslade having a step brother named Will McCord.  If there are any McCord or Hamilton family members around the Southern Indiana region give me a call.

This home was located on Church Street at the corner of Campbellsburg - Livonia Road.

William Moore Greenslade served in the 81st Indiana Infantry during the Civil War as a Quartermaster Seargant. A Civil War Journal we have from the year 1864 has him in the campaign marching down from Louisville Ky, to Atlanta Ga. He was a first hand witness to the burning of Atlanta by General Sherman's Army.

My family lived in the area from the 1840s up to the late 1890s.

I will eventually retire to the region.  Hopefully settling in either French Lick or West Baden Springs, Indiana.

If you have been following my blog, I am a caregiver so much of my time is devoted to taking care of my mother.  I have become aware of "The Secret" and have been very grateful.  I have been looking for something along the lines of a miracle.

It's a cancer treatment developed by a cancer patient, John Kanzius.  This gentleman was a retired radio broadcast executive and knew radio wave technology really well.  He invented a machine that heats up metal within a body, and can kill tumors in lab rats, without any side effects.  But how do you get the metal to the random cells in the body?

He was just lucky enough to be at the same hospital and doctor group as a noble prize winning Nano technology expert.  Nano technology using gold particles that target only the cancer cells. In comes Mr. Kanzius' radio wave machine to heat up and destroy the cancer cells. It looks very very promising.

I saw this video on CBS Early Show. It had a Share/Embed button allowing for it's distribution.

Watch the video

http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/i_video/main500251.shtml?id=4011961n

Online article

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/04/10/60minutes/main4006951.shtml

As a C.S.P. Certified Staging Professional, I created this group on Yahoogroups for bay area stagers to get together and discuss local staging issues.

Stagers: I would like to invite other staging professionals from the San Francisco Bay Area to join. To join in please send an email to: bayhomestaging-subscribe@yahoogroups.com This would also be a great place to make contact with realtors for future business leads.

Realtors:  Ideally, I would like to see if you have a listing that needs staging and you would like to send out bids to several stagers at once, I would like this to be the place to do that.  You can freely post your information here just by sending an email to the address below.  The group is moderated so we will not be swamped with spam email.

Just send an email to: bayhomestaging@yahoogroups.com

In your email include:

your name:

your contact phone number:

City of proposed staged home:

Some neat things are starting to happen in San Leandro's North Area.

1. "The Broadmoor" neighborhood association's email list server is all a buzz with the idea of becoming a solar community.  Today is April 11th 2008.  If this message is timely for you, and if you want more information please let me know and I will forward you the information. <update to go here about the planned community meeting>
2. "The Broadmoor" and Estudillo Estates are looking into the possibility of community vegetable gardens in the parking strips between the sidewalks and the curbs.
3. "The Broadmoor" will also be starting garden sharing.  This would be if your garden needs to have plants split, or you have too many bulbs. You share the clippings, cuttings, bulbs with your neighbors in an open exchange.

It's just so very appropriate that a garden program would take root in San Leandro.  As you can see from this old sales brochure for Glen, Oakes, Begier and Superior, San Leandro was "The Garden Section of the East Bay Communitues".  I'll have to post the companion images of this 1930s (1937-1941) brochure in a future blog.  I just thought that this one was so right for the current topic of the community gargens.

The photo I use for the home page icon for the San Leandro California group here on active rain is the following photo.

I received the photo from Bill Sales of La Quinta California.  Bill is the stepson of Harold "Tom" Derry.  He sent me this photo showing the sales office for the Cherry City Tract.  This is the 400 and 500 blocks of Superior Avenue.

This is the street of Storybook style homes between Dutton and MacArthur Boulevard.  The homes were built by the company Derry, Weaver & Derry.

The photo shows the map of the street. The horizontal bar on the map is Superior Avenue.  The angled street on the right side is Dutton Avenue.  The curving Street on the left side is MacArthur Boulevard (which at the time was named Hollywood Boulevard) A much smaller curving street at the far left of the map (just above "grandpa derry's shoulder") is Foothill Boulevard.  The darker portion in the upper left portion of the map is the Dunsmuir-Hellman Historic Estate. (www.Dunsmuir.org)

The area photographed behind the men is Superior Avenue looking back to the San Leandro Creek.  This view is looking South down Superior from MacArthur to Dutton in the very far distance.

It's the age old question about your outlook on life - Is the glass half empty or is it half full?

Assuming that the glass contains the liquid water, I look at it as being full of hope, peace and possibilities.

Water as we all know is h20, two parts hydrogen to one part oxygen.  Sp breaking down that glass question again.

assuming that the glass is six parts to be full.  The halfway mark that is so debated in the question would be three sixth's full, or empty.  That's 3/6ths.  That bottom portion of the glass containing the much debated water contain one sixth or 1/6th oxygen and two sixths or 2/6ths hydrogen.

Hydrogen and oxygen are both highly flammable and explosive gases.  The little glass is actually full of energy.  An energy that surrounds us everywhere we are.  The clouds in the sky, the rivers, the lakes, the streams, the creeks, the ponds, the seas, the oceans and even the polar ice-caps.

The world is full of energy all around us and it's plentiful, very plentiful.  So why are we still so dependant on foreign crude oil for power?   It's pretty clear to me that people aren't answering that glass question correctly. The glass is full of energy.

It's in everything we drink, your Coca Cola, your Starbuck's Latte and your iced tea, two parts hydrogen and one part oxygen.

There are parts of this world where oil income is the only income for trade with other nations.  Oil, is a public welfare program for the middle east.  Thanks, but I don't need sand, dates or pistachios, so we'll buy your oil. Imagine we do not need to have wars over oil.  There is plenty of energy for everyone, it's just a welfare program for a less fortunate part of the world.

Sure, all of this energy is down at the atomic level and separating the elements would take a lot of effort.  Imagine if we put the money and effort that we put into oil into new technologies that will extract all of that energy that if AL GORE is correct will be flooding all of the low lying coastlines when the ice caps melt due to global warming.  Yeah okay, so let's capture all that water and turn it into lots of unlimited power.

There are other sources of energy out there such as newer safer nuclear energy.

So next time someone asks you whether you look at the glass 1/2 empty or 1/2 full,  look them in the eye and tell them very firmly that it's 1/2 full with two very flammable explosive gases.