Archive for April, 2008
Special Feature at Santa Cruz County Housing Expo: Me
April 08, 2008
Last week or so I posted a blog entry about the Santa Cruz County Housing Expo 2008. I listed all the different tracks they were going to have, and one of those sessions was “Invest for Success.” One of the sessions in that track (I didn’t break out the sessions) is “Opportunities in the Foreclosure Market.”
So yesterday, I’m sitting at my computer sippin’ on a Rock Star (that sounded bad!) and the phone rings. On the other line is a Realtor who is organizing the housing expo. It seems that the guy who was supposed to do the “Opportunities in the Foreclosure Market” presentation backed out. He wanted to know, would I be available to do this presentation at the Housing Expo?
As luck would have it, I would be available. Also, I have the presentation I did for the Santa Cruz Real Estate Investment Club a few weeks back. Not only that, I have plenty of content I can add to that, by digging through my exclusive Santa Cruz Foreclosure Report.
It turns out, the gentleman I was speaking to had a copy of my Foreclosure Report. It seems that someone in his office requested a copy and I sent it to him, not knowing it was going out to another Realtor - i.e., the competition. But that’s OK, because the truth of the matter is, most Realtors are woefully uninformed about the local foreclosure scene. In a way, it’s kind of like my civic duty to get this report into many of my colleagues’ hands.
Not just my colleagues - also, the real-estate-buying public needs to get it as well. The current real estate market is presently being shaped to a large extent by the foreclosures that are going on. I can actually see the end of this market cycle - or I think I can - but it’s a ways yet off in the distance. This is going to be with us for a while, and there is a lot of opportunity out there, such as we haven’t had in a great many years. I do plan to hand out copies of my report at end of my presentation, but anyone can request a copy any time through my web site.
I’ll be presenting this coming Saturday, April 12th at 1:30 PM, at Twin Lakes Church. I hope to see you there!
Posted by SantaCruzBroker at 7:17am
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Signs of the Apocalypse in Santa Cruz
April 07, 2008
For many years, I’ve had the idea that one day I would write a book. My dad is a professional author - check out his latest book about psychic Annette Martin, Gift of the White Light. I plan to write a book that’s a cross between Catcher in the Rye and Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. The project is some ways away from getting off the ground (decades, maybe) but I already have the first sentence picked out. It’s catchy. Ready? Here goes.
It was looking grim.
Did it grab you? I know, you’re hooked. Speaking of looking grim, here are some signs of the apocalypse.
[From Record numbers won't pay property tax bill - Santa Cruz Sentinel]
A near record number of homeowners likely won’t pay property taxes by the April 10 deadline, another sign of just how tight things have become.
Yep yep. The chickens are making themselves right at home, roosting all over the darn place. It’s no sweat not to pay your property tax. Santa Cruz county won’t auction off your home for like five years, so what’s the rush? The interest rate is only 10%, and what are you paying to CapitalOne? Only thing is, I hear that you if you want to work out a deed in lieu of foreclosure with your lender, they won’t work with you if you have unpaid property tax. So there you go, keep them property taxes paid, people!
So that’s one sign. There are others. It seems that one of the greatest occupations ever is under attack here in the Golden State. Yes, of course, I’m talking about real estate agents. There has been a precipitous drop of new blood coming into a industry that is clearly hemorrhaging:
[From Number of real estate agents starts to shrink]
Just 1,324 people took the real estate salesperson exam in January, down from 8,765 a year earlier and 14,397 two years ago, according to the Department of Real Estate.
There are other signs, too. But now I see we are fast approaching 9 AM here on the Left Coast and really I need to get cracking. It’s Monday morning, and despite the fact that the writing is clearly on the wall and the apocalypse is nigh, life goes on.
Posted by SantaCruzBroker at 8:42am
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Researching Santa Cruz Neighborhoods On-Line
April 05, 2008
Many (most?) of the visitors to my web site are folks who don’t actually live in Santa Cruz. Some of them have been to the area once or twice, some of them vacation regularly here. Some of them have children who are going to attend UC Santa Cruz, and some are considering Santa Cruz as a place to spend their retirement years. Whatever draws them here, a common interest is to research the various cities and the neighborhoods that make up Santa Cruz County.
Fortunately, there are a lot of tools these days for checking out Santa Cruz on-line. Although the only way to truly get to know a neighborhood is to come and spend some time in it, if that’s not very practical for you, there are alternatives.
Yelp.com: this is a very cool site. This is a site full of user-generated content about the various things to see and do in any area, including Santa Cruz. It has categories like Arts & Entertainment, Health and Medical, Nightlife, etc. I suggest you type in an address in an area you’re interested in and start here.
Flickr Map: You know about Flickr.com, right? They also have a handy map tool, so you can search for photos tagged as being taken from a certain area, like for example Santa Cruz. If you want to see what an area looks like, this is a great way to do it.
Yahoo Neighborhoods: Yahoo has a pretty interesting neighborhoods tool, which is closely coupled to their real estate section. It gives an overview of a city: population, demographics, weather, jobs, education, etc. It also gives you information on schools, restaurants, and shopping. It doesn’t actually break down various neighborhoods, alas.
Ask City: Venerable ask.com keeps trying to stay relevant, and has a bit of success with it’s Ask City tool. The Ask City tool is pretty cool - you can draw a shape on a map of a given area and ask to find businesses, events, movies, etc. that fall just in that area - good for researching neighborhoods.
Trulia.com: Trulia is far from venerable - they’re one of the new kids on the block. However, they put together a pretty impressive offering. They do focus mostly on real estate, but they have information on schools, for example. They also have an interesting housing price heat map for Santa Cruz county.
Google Maps: Google Maps is a fantastic tool, and they have now built into it a system for reviewing the businesses and other points of interest that you can find on the map. Also worth checking out, perhaps, is the Google Directory. Also, searching Google Images for Santa Cruz can yield some interesting information.
YouTube: This doesn’t really tell you much about neighborhoods, but you might find some interesting nuggets here, as always!
Posted by SantaCruzBroker at 7:33am
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The Santa Cruz Rail Trail Gets Rolling?
April 03, 2008
I saw this on the front page of the Santa Cruz Sentinel the other day, and I wanted to jump on my blog right away and make some pithy comments. Fate conspired against me, though, until the quiet moments of Thursday morning.
[From Purchase of 32-mile rail line slated for fall - Santa Cruz Sentinel]
Long-stalled plans to bring the Union Pacific rail line under public ownership are back on track, local planners say, and the 32 miles of railroad that run from Watsonville to Davenport could be turned over to the county’s transportation agency as soon as October.
To me, this is a no-brainer. We are talking about relatively small amounts of money, especially for a transportation project. Yet, turning this rail line over to public control opens up so many possibilities, in particular the creation of a “rail trail.”
Imagine opening up this entire corridor to foot and bicycle traffic. As a UCSC Student, I used to bicycle from Seacliff (in Aptos) to UC Santa Cruz and back several times per week. It was pretty hectic, because I had to go on major roads, with lots of traffic, and go up and down hills all the time. What a boon it would have been to just hop on the nearby train track and follow a flat path all the way to downtown Santa Cruz.
Or, imagine this: a family wants to go down to Capitola for the afternoon. Rather than hop in the car, they could all hop on their bicycles and pedal a few easy, flat miles down the rail path to get to Capitola Village. Less cars on the road, less pollution, less need for more parking in the Village, and more exercise for the family.
But wait, there’s more! Think about what this could mean for the tourism business. How many B&Bs could easily flourish along the rail trail? Such a trail would open up the county to visitors. Just come to the B&B, park your car, and grab a beach cruiser and explore Santa Cruz, Capitola and miles of Coastline, with all the various beaches - Natural Bridges, New Brighton, Seacliff, Rio del Mar, La Selva, Sunset, Manresa. Wow.
Yep. Buying the rail line and creating the rail trail would be a watershed event, and I’m all for it. For more information, check out the the Santa Cruz Rail Trail Project web site.
Posted by SantaCruzBroker at 8:00am
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