Michael's Blog

On KPIX 5 CBS television's "Around the House with Jan Yanihero", a glorified infomercial paid programming, they run a segment on Renewal by Anderson Windows.

Renewal by Anderson and their local contractor Homeworks offer high quality custom sized modern, energy efficient dual paned windows.

 Did you know that Homeworks has an excellent NO money down, NO payment, NO interest for one year plan (with approved credit)

Make your home more marketable before you put your home on the market.  Have the updated windows that your buyers are looking for.

Give your home that well maintained look and feel.  Imagine how sweet will it be when the homebuyer at the open house opens a window with ease.  (they do and will)

Home insectors and appraisers will also love your updated fully functional windows.

Check out their websites for further information.  They'll have windows for just about any style of home.  Check out their gallery.

http://www.renewalbyandersen.com/

http://www.homeworks.com/financing.html

Once you've got your home looking great give me a call and I will be more than happy to help you with your next steps in selling your home.  My information should appear somewhere on this blog page.

At today's sales meeting at the Montclair golf course we had a presentation from the guys at Metrocities Mortgage.

The topic of today's scheduled speakers was the new program from Fannie Mae, HomePath REO loans.  This promises to be an exciting program

Metrocities Mortgage our in house lender is one of the few lenders approved to offer Fannie Mae HomePath REO Loans. 

The HomePath REO Loan Program offers lower down payments and relaxed requirements.  What this means to the consumer is more homeshoppers can become homebuyers!

The key is the home must be a home owned by Fannie Mae.  To check the homes available please visit the website www.homepath.com  or www.reosearch.fanniemae.com/reosearch

You'll need a FICO score of 660 or above to qualify

• Only 3% down required on a primary residence property
• No mortgage insurance required
• No property appraisal required
• Only 10% down on 1-2 unit investment properties
• Get up to 6% in seller concessions on primary residence properties

Get pre-approved with my contact at Metrocities Mortgage;

Shane Wihlidal

3320 Grand Avenue. Oakland, Ca. 94610

Office: 510 834-2010 x 229

Cell: 925 395-3488

Fax: 866 597-0125

Swihlidal@metrocitiesmtg.com

Be sure to tell him that I told you about this program.  When you're ready to purchase that home give me a call.  My contact information should be somewhere handy on this blog page your viewing.

I am sorry to all my blog readers.  I have been busy working with clients.  When I am working with clients I want to give them my full attention.

I will be getting back into the blog swing of things soon.  I will be having closes on my escrows soon and I will be full of new Real Estate stories to share with you.

I also have to say that I made a great contact just recently from my blog (Thank you Christian for reading my blog).

I'll get back to my "Flip Files" feature, I have seen some fixer upper homes that would be great features for that blog topic.

My searches and historical research in to "Storybook style homes" will also resume.

I will be doing one of my historytours coming up soon also.  I will have lots of photos of our journey to share with you also.

Also.....Don't forget to enter the HGTV Dream House 2009 Contest.   www.hgtv.com

Stay tuned for great things to come.

Also. If you are looking for a home of character in the East Bay I would be more than happy to help you out.  Give me a call.  My contact information should be somewhere on the page where you found this blog posting.

Have a great day!

Just like the Governor of California says "I'll Be Back"

One of the advantages of being in an area for a long time. You get to remember buildings and businesses that are no longer in our towns.  Having grown up in the East Bay I remember the area sometimes the way it was.

I for some reason I was having a moment of nostalgia.  I was thinking about the chain of fast food burgers and chicken called RED BARN.

Castro Valley had one such outlet.  One of the other RED BARNs I remember was near my uncle's house in Newark.

It got me onto a google and wikipedia search to find out what happened to RED BARN.  I came across the following site.  The site below tells the story of the rise and fall of the company. (did you know that it was once part of the Motel6 company)

http://barnbuster.net

Apparently there were many RED BARNs all over the United States and parts of Canada.

Their buildings were very destinctive large barn shaped buildings.  The location in somecases downtown areas or in suburban strip malls added a bit of irony in architecture.

I have made a trip out to Castro Valley and photographed the RED BARN building.  The Castro Valley outlet has been since turned into the Hof Brau restaurant.

<Castro Valley RED BARN>

I will add photos of the Newark RED BARN in a few days.

<photo coming soon>

Be sure that you enter everyday to increase your chances at winning.  This year's contest grand prize is a 2,000,000.00 Dream Home in Sonoma wine growing region.

Go to

 http://www.hgtv.com/hgtv-dream-home-2009-giveaway-enter/package/index.html

and bookmark the page!

Tell all your friends to enter too.

"If your looking for a home in the East Bay of the San Francisco Bay Area, give me a call!  I would love to help you find your Dream Home"

Mike