The Real View

Investors are moving back into the coastal San Diego real estate market with impatient wallets.

They are seeking well-priced foreclosures, pre-negotiated short sales and real estate investments with income streams.

So-called bargains in sub-marginal areas may not be the wisest San Diego real estate investment move. Perceived bargains in outlying markets may be nothing of the sort, and we persistently advise our clients to stay with blue chip real estate investments--especially in these volatile economic times.

We recently received a whisper from La Costa Resort and Spa that buyers of their Villas will receive up to $125,000 at closing for leasing their properties back to them for two years. And of course, there is always the option of using the condos as well.

This is a very limited offer, as only a few of the La Costa Resort Villas whole-ownership, luxury condominiums remain. Each is fully furnished (just pack a toothbrush) with designer decor and high-end amenities throughout, and is located on the grounds of the world-class La Costa Resort and Spa.

The bonuses included with this offer are remarkable. Click to continue reading 

More and more, San Diego real estate bargain hunters are making specific requests:

Show me foreclosures, show me great deals, but forget short sales.

Why?

They have learned that about the cost of lost opportunity while they wait an interminably long time for banks to respond. Banks and loan servicers are absolutely overwhelmed with paperwork and pleading phone calls and it can literally take months for a short sale to close.

During that time, vacant homes may be subjected to vandalism, neglect and the elements. Increasingly, real estate agents also avoid showing short sales because of uncertain pricing, uncertain compensation, and the increasing reality that they will be left holding the bag for costs lenders refuse to cover.

Many San Diego Realtors have been burned by lenders and refuse to go down that road again.

The solution?

Prenegotiate all short sales.

The argument continues here.... 

It was group hug time Friday afternoon when we received confirmation that our 10-month short sale ordeal in Encinitas Ranch had successfully recorded and closed.

Kudos to the patient buyers of this Encinitas home, because they truly got a terrific deal ($890,000).

Welcome relief is also due the out of area young seller, who had been unwittingly pulled into a raunchy real estate transaction by a couple of sleazy mortgage brokers (one of whom was the seller) , a credit “packager” –and escrow, title and appraisal personnel who surely knew better than to facilitate such a sham.

Our first time home buyer-turned-seller from Los Angeles, with excellent FICO score (and no savings), was lured by the promise of buying an “undervalued” $1.2 million home (100 percent financing) in San Diego that he could profitably sell 6 months later–while someone else made the payments. It was to be his stepping stone to riches.  Or so he thought.

Instead, it turned into 16-month nightmare:

Continued.... 

If I can tear myself away from Oceanside Terraces real estate this weekend, you will probably find me wandering around in comfortable shoes, eating fun food and shopping for funky jewelry at one of the 450 vendor booths on Highway 101( between D and J Streets) in wonderful downtown Encinitas.

Hopefully, though, I will be an early visitor (they open at 9 am) because over 100,000 shoppers are expected at the 25th Annual Encinitas Street Fair and parking will be tight. If I didn’t need to have a car for the Oceanside trip, I would consider taking the NCTD Coaster to this fun Southern California beach town event. For the Coaster schedule, go to: http://www.gonctd.com/coaster_schedules.htm

Entertainment will be available on both Saturday and Sunday, and will be staged at both the Karl Strauss Beer Garden Stage and the Beer Garden Stage in the Lumberyard parking lot on the corner of Hwy 101 and I Street.

The Encinitas Street Fair entertainment schedule?

Click here to read more. 

Who are these young and ultra-affluent buyers of homes in Rancho Santa Fe. Coronado and La Jolla, CA or residences in Aspen, Palm Beach and Manhattan?

The Wall Street Journal's Robert Frank, in his best-seller Richistan, calls them instapreneurs (didn’t he coin the term?).

These are the new titans in technologies, who have benefited from a rise in financial speculation and governments that support free trade and wealth.

Instapreneurs are not plodders when it comes to accumulating wealth. They don’t develop companies to last for family generation; rather, they may launch several companies over their career life spans. And the goal for each venture is a lucrative “exit strategy” that will create the fattest windfall possible.

What are these luxury buyers seeking when searching for their trophy home?

Click to continue reading about what these ultra-luxury buyers are seeking.

As a North County San Diego real estate broker, I often carry a laptop when when showing San Diego homes to clients. And so do many of our real estate clients.

These days, we avoid Starbucks because they charge for their wifi service–and instead head to the closest Panera Bread, almost any public library, or other resting points where we can easily hop online.

I believe that someday this will be a useless list, because wifi will be ubiquitous.

But until that day, here’s a starter list of free San Diego hot spots. Some may require that you ask for a password, but won’t require a swipe of your credit card. (Don’t forget, though, that wireless networks are not secure, and be careful of the information you transmit.)

Some local wifi spots in North San Diego County would include:

E Street Cafe, 128 West E Street, Encinitas, (760) 230-2038

Encinitas Chevron - 350 Encinitas Blvd, Encinitas (760)942-6802
Grappa, 328 S. Twin Oaks Valley Road, San Marcos (760) 744-0024
Keith’s Automotive Electric - 215 West G Street, Encinitas (760) 436-5400
La Costa Coffee Roasting, 6965 El Camino Real, Carlsbad (760) 230-2038
Moonlight Motors - 215 Melrose Avenue, Encinitas (760) 635-0637

Panera Bread, Carlsbad Forum, 1935 Calle Barcelona, Carlsbad (760) 635-0026
The Blue Mug, 122 S. Kalmia, Escondido (760) 796-7540
Vinaka Cafe, 300 Carlsbad Village Drive, Carlsbad (760) 720-7890
Von’s Market - 262 N El Camino Real, Carlsbad (760) 942-4044

(There are surely more than these. Please let me know so we can add other San Diego North County hot spots to the list!)

Click to retrieve a much longer list of wifi hot spots in Greater San Diego.

Read the rest of this entry »

Many of you may be aware of the recent destructive hacking attacks on several AR Bloggers that totally destroyed their blogs and sites.

The now-infamous Sunday Night Massacre took out the blogs and blogsites of about 20 Tomato bloggers--all for no apparent reason.

We all spent the week and and a long weekend trying to repair the damage and get our sites functional once again.

It has been a painful and arduous process, but we managed to learn a few things in the process--things that may help other bloggers better manage their sites--at least from the back-end perspective (no ribbing of proctologists intended:-)

Hope you find these useful: 

Need to check your site for broken links?

http://www.dead-links.com

Keyword Ranking?

http://www.widexl.com/seo/keyword-ranking.html

Link Popularity?

http://www.widexl.com/seo/link-popularity.html

Meta Tag Analyzer?

http://www.widexl.com/seo/metatag-analyzer.html

Search Engine Saturation? 

http://www.widexl.com/seo/search-engine-saturation.html

Future Page Rank? 

http://www.iwebtool.com/pagerank_prediction

Keyword Tool? 

https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal?defaultView=2

Keyword Discovery?

http://www.keyworddiscovery.com/keywords.html

Good wishes--and a pox on the House of Hackers!