2 Bedroom Detached Under $500,000!

Imagine coming home to an affordable 2 bedroom home in the prestigious Rancho Bernardo community of Bernardo Heights! This lovely home is situated on a gentle slope with no homes directly in front or rear. This single-story model is rarely available and sought after for its soaring vaulted ceilings, roomy eat-in kitchen, open floorplan, fireplace, attached 2-car garage, tile roof, and double sliding doors to the backyard. Enjoy a private BBQ on the covered wood deck or relax on the lush lawn. Or, escape to the Bernardo Heights Recreation and Community Center with swimming pools, tennis courts, exercise and meeting rooms. Not far is the acclaimed Poway Unified School District schools including Rancho Bernardo High School and Bernardo Heights Middle School. Located near a hi-tech area with major local companies such as Sony, HP, Northrup Grumman, Unisys, BAE, plus major shopping! Asking price is between $465,000 and 515,876. To hear more information, call my 24 HR recorded info line at 1-800-530-1481 extension 9764. I'm the listing agent for this home, so don't hesitate to call, 858-213-6058, or e-mail me directly to go see it!.




Click Photo to View Virtual Tour

You can also find out more about this home by entering the search code PRU5N5W6 in any Yahoo! search window.

Interest Rates Stable

Not much changed since last week!

Feng Shui and Your Home

I practice feng shui to help my home sellers sell their homes faster and for a better price. How is this possible and what is feng shui?

First of all, feng shui is an ancient Chinese discipline that provides a framework for telling us how to arrange our homes to maximize our life energy called "chi". It is believed that by maximizing chi, good things happen.

Does it work? Like most people I really didn't put much into the claims made about feng shui. Sure, it made sense that if the house looks and smells nice, you're bound to get it sold faster. But beyond that, I was skeptical. Fast forward to today, I feng shui all my listings and I've had some incredible luck using it. For example, another realtor had a million dollar home on the market for over a year. After I feng shui'ed her listing, an offer came in within 3 days. Amazing. Many of my own listings have sold faster than the average. Of course, I've had some homes that did not sell fast despite all the feng shui that I could muster. What I do see is an extra edge that does help. When you're trying to sell a home, it makes sense to take every advantage.

Lots of Space for a 2 Bedroom Home

Here's a home for sale in Rancho Bernardo, San Diego. If you are looking for a 1/4 acre lot with privacy in an upscale community at a great price take a look at this!



Click Photo to View Virtual Tour

12336 Fernando Drive MLS# 66055901
This sprawling ranch style home has 2 bedrooms, 2 baths, and about 2100 sqft. It includes a large enclosed lanai perfect for parties or as a third bedroom. All this on a quiet, low turnover street in the shadow of historic Battle Mountain! This is a wonderful house located in an ideal community within beautiful Rancho Bernardo. Very affordably price for this calibre home. Asking price is between $600,000 and 649,876. To hear more information, call my 24 HR recorded info line at 1-800-530-1481 extension 9754.

California ISO Declares Stage Two Emergency

Temperatures in San Diego continue to be high as well as the demand for power. The California ISO issued the following press release:

"The California Independent System Operator Corporation (California ISO) issued a Stage Two Emergency at 1:00 p.m. today, July 24, 2006 with operating reserves forecast to dip below five percent over today’s peak. Large commercial customers that have contracted with the utilities to curtail power during high demand days have been asked to do so. If an operating reserve of less than one-and-a-half percent is unavoidable, a Stage Three will be initiated. Involuntary curtailments of service to customers including “rotating blackouts” are possible during this stage of emergency declaration."


Conserve-O-Meter

Sunsets & Serenity in Santaluz

Santaluz is a new San Diego community adjacent to prestigious Rancho Santa Fe and just 20 minutes from downtown San Diego. This is an expansive 3,800 acre village with panoramic views, 44 miles of hiking and biking trails, rolling hillsides, and the home of the Santaluz Club 18-hole Rees Jones championship golf course.

There are several homes available for sale here ranging from $1,500,000 on up to $4,000,000.

I must tell you about one of my personal favorites, a brand new Tuscan masterpiece with breathtaking views of the golf course and a vista to the distant Pacific ocean. This is a 6,844sf, 6 bedroom, 7 bath home with an enchanting inner courtyard, outdoor fireplace, pool with waterfall, plus quality stone, granite, antique wood floors, and expensive fixtures throughout. Asking price is $3,699,000 to $3,985,000 and the beautiful furnishings are negotiable. Give me a call at 858-213-6058 for more information or if you would like to tour this or similar homes in Santaluz!

This Week's Interest Rates

Dropped nicely since last week!

Luxury Homes Selling Fast At 4S Ranch

4S Ranch is located in the North County area of San Diego just west of Rancho Bernardo. Its a beautiful new community emerging as one of the region's finer places to live and raise a family.

Today, I visited an enclave of 66 homes in a development called Ivy Gate. Unlike most of the new homes being built in 4S Ranch, these homes are on estate size lots ranging from 1/3 to 3/4 acres. The homes are exquisitely detailed with incredible features such as high end kitchens, french doors, courtyards with outdoor fireplaces, and architectural styles ranging from Tuscan, Spanish and French. These homes are available with four to six bedrooms and three and one-half to six baths, and some include large guest suites with separate living and bedroom areas. The various plans also feature versatile areas such as a private office, tech center, teen and media rooms.

Only about 10 homes are left. With pricing ranging from $1,465,760 to $2,349,950 for the fully furnished model that will be released for sale. Specific prices are:
Plan 1, 3820 sf $1,465,670
Plan 2, 4205 sf $1,675,815
Plan 3, 5177 sf $1,769,975
Plan 4, 5359 sf $1,821,740

If you are considering a brand new high-end luxury home, you should look into these. Contact me immediately and I'll be able to provide more detailed info, virtual tours, and specific home availability. Out of town and moving to San Diego? No trouble since we can do eveything electronically.

This photo is the front entrance to Plan 4 taken with my Treo 700p today:

Great Price & Location on a San Diego Townhome

17075 West Bernardo Dr., San Diego CA MLS# 066050136

Here's a 2 bedroom, 2 bath, 955 sqft home in Rancho Bernardo's Waterbridge where you'll find lush gardens, a playground, clubhouse, pool, and rec room. Children can walk to the Westwood Elementary School or have the bus to nearby middle and high schools pick them up right outside their gate. You'll be just a couple of blocks to the I15 freeway entrance, and a couple more to shopping at the Mercado, Starbucks, the banks, restaurants, and stores. There are many award winning restaurants and soon, there will be a Chinese Buffet, all within a mile of your new home! This highly upgraded townhome offers the extra security that comes with a second story entrance. Your assigned carport is directly behing the home, and your assigned parking space near the end of the walkway. Asking price is $310,000 to $350,876.

See the virtual tour by clicking here.

Yahoo Getting Zillow.com's Home Price Estimator

Announced Today!

Yahoo's real estate section will have a new feature: home price estimates based on Zillow. You'll be able to type in an address in Yahoo and see Zillow's home value estimate along with a Yahoo map of the area.

Yahoo also has a marketing partnership with my broker, Prudential.

Another Hot Day in San Diego

The average July day time temperature for San Diego is supposed to be 76 degrees. For the past several weeks, the temperature in the Rancho Bernardo area of San Diego has been in the 90's!

The high temperatures have strained the power grid. As a result, Gov. Schwarzenegger today ordered state agencies, departments, boards and commissions to implement energy conservation plans and reduce the state's use of electricity at peak hours by 25 percent for the rest of the week. Residents have been asked to turn off all unnecessary lights, postpone using appliances until after 7pm, and turning the A/C thermostat up to 78 degrees F.

California's energy efficiency marketing and outreach campaign, "Flex Your Power" has much more information on what you can do to help. Click here.

Treo 700p as a modem with a Tablet PC!

I just got my new Treo 700p smartphone last week from Sprint. So far it has been working perfectly and its exactly what I need for my real estate business. I have both a desktop server and an HP Tablet PC and I sync my new Treo with both of them. For my desktop, I use the Treo's USB/power cable for a direct-connect. For my Tablet PC, I use wireless bluetooth. The syncing process with my outlook on both PC's is quick and painless. Needless to say, the bluetooth syncing is almost magical! I was expecting glitches but the thing actually works!

The best part is using my Treo as a modem. I signed up for Sprint's EVDO data plan which enables the Treo to use their hi-speed network. I can access any of my pop/smtp e-mail accounts (three so far) and download all my e-mail directly to the Treo at comfortable speeds. The modem feature is awesome and it is the perfect accessory to the Tablet PC. I can go anywhere, leave the Treo in my pocket, log into my Tablet PC and be on the internet in seconds-- all over the bluetooth connection and NO cables. I'm finding that the speeds are excellent but they seem to vary probably because of network strength and bluetooth.

I used DSLReports.com to give me an idea of the performance using bluetooth on the Tablet PC and I am somewhat relunctant to publish the numbers here. There are so many variables and I'm not performing a controlled test. Perhaps there is a better way to test connection speed and I welcome suggestions. But for now, I can say that I've ran dslreports 5 times tonight and each time I got widely different values ranging from 78kbps to 224kbps on download speeds and 57kbps to 64kbps on upload. I was a little surprised at the 224kbps since that seems too good to be true especially since my connection is over bluetooth. My signal strength was 2 bars. So, more tests are needed. In any case, my internet connection "feels" fast enough and I was able to browse the internet and do anything I normally would do if I were connected to my cable modem at home. By the way, as a comparison, I usually get around 4700kbps/360kbps on the cable modem.

I'll post more info about the Treo 700p later. If anyone is interested in getting one, I'll have to relate my 2 hour ordeal at the Sprint store trying to get the discounted price (about $400) and the family plan with modem. For some reason, the store people were not able to bundle the modem plan along with the family plan (2 phones sharing minutes- other phone was a standard samsung flipphone). A Sprint rep that we called on the phone from the store was also convinced that a combo was impossible. I left the store with the family plan and no modem plan. I waited a day, called Sprint and one of their Treo specialists was able to add the modem (but it was a struggle).

So far, I am very happy with the Treo. Now, where is my bluetooth headset...

This Week's Interest Rates

Not much change in the rates compared to last week.





Thanks to Rebecca Philpott for providing this information!

Major Blood Shortage in the Region!

There have been calls out to donate blood from both the local chapter of the Red Cross and the San Diego Blood Bank. Its hard to believe, but type O blood supply is down to only a couple of hours. Type O blood is considered a universal blood type because it can be transfused into anyone regardless of their blood type. Other blood types are also low.

So if you are reading this and are willing to help, visit the websites for the San Diego Blood Bank or the American Red Cross. Oh, yours truly did it and it only takes a couple of minutes to save a life!

How Your Lawn Helps the Environment

Healthy grass provides feeding ground for birds, who find it a rich source of insects, worms, and other food. Thick grass prevents soil erosion, filters contaminants from rainwater and absorbs many types of airborne pollutants, like dust and soot. Grass is also highly efficient at converting carbon dioxide to oxygen, a process that helps clean the air.

Caring for your lawn properly can both enhance its appearance and contribute to its environmental benefits. This means creating conditions for grass to thrive and resist damage from weeds, disease, and insect pests. If you choose to use pesticides or fertilizers, it means using them with extreme care so as to get the most benefit and reduce any risks.

Caring for your lawn in an environmentally sensible way can have a bigger impact than you might think. Your lawn may only be a small piece of land, but all the lawns across the country cover a lot of ground. That means you and your lawn-care activities, along with everyone else's, can make a difference to the environment. And that's why taking care of the environment begins in our own backyards.

How To Dispose of Unwanted Electronic Items

Not in the regular trash! Effective Feb 9, 2006, the city of San Diego will not allow what they call "Universal Waste" in the regular trash. This includes just about everything electronic, batteries, and fluorescent lights. Get the details at http://www.sandiego.gov/environmental-services. What to do? Visit earth911.org for disposal options.

Xeriscapes: Water-Saving Landscaping

All across America, communities have been faced with increased demands on existing water supplies. Consequently, there is a greater focus on water conservation, not just in times of drought, but in anticipation of future population growth. Water can no longer be considered a limitless resource. A philosophy of conservation of water through creative landscaping has created the new term, xeriscape.

The term xeriscape is derived from the Greek word xeros meaning dry, combined with landscaping, thus xeriscaping. The term was coined by the Front Range Xeriscape Task Force of the Denver Water Department in 1981. The goal of a xeriscape is to create a visually attractive landscape that uses plants selected for their water efficiency.

Properly maintained, a xeriscape can easily use less than one-half the water of a traditional landscape. Once established, a xeriscape should require less maintenance than turf landscape.

The eight fundamentals of water-wise landscaping illustrate the concepts and principles of Xeriscape landscaping and other water-efficient approaches.

• Group plants according to their water needs.


• Use native and low-water-use plants.


• Limit turf areas to those needed for practical uses.


• Use efficient irrigation systems.


• Schedule irrigation wisely.


• Make sure soil is healthy.


• Remember to mulch.


• Provide regular maintenance.

Proper landscaping techniques not only create beautiful landscapes, but also benefit the environment and save water. In addition, attractive, water-efficient, low-maintenance landscapes can increase home values.

Selling it or Smelling It?

Pet odors can be a problem when you're in the process of selling your home. If your house has an odor problem, you should remove any offending furniture or carpets or hire a professional to clean them. Be sure to check the cat box frequently and keep the litter fresh.

Since some people have allergies or fears of certain animals, it's a good idea to put dogs or cats outside or confine your pets to one area when your house is being shown. It's hard for buyers to fully appreciate your home through itchy, watery eyes or in between sneezes! Even if the house is exactly what they want, your chances of selling it are less if the scent of Spot lingers in their memory.

30 Year Interest Rates Rise Over Last Week

Here's this week's summary of interest rates on your new home loan:





Thanks to Rebecca Philpott for providing this information!

On Vacation? You Could Live Here!

Home prices have finally become somewhat stable in San Diego. As I mentioned in a previous post, the median price of an existing home went up only 3.5% from April to May of this year.

There are many homes on the market and buyers can have their pick of the best. Here's a new listing in Rancho Bernardo, an upscale community north of San Diego:



Click Photo to View Virtual Tour

12336 Fernando Drive MLS# 66055901
This sprawling ranch style home has 2 bedrooms, 2 baths, and about 2100 sqft. It includes a large enclosed lanai perfect for parties or as a third bedroom. All this on a quiet, low turnover street in the shadow of historic Battle Mountain! This is a wonderful house located in an ideal community within beautiful Rancho Bernardo. Very affordably price for this calibre home. Asking price is between $600,000 and 649,876. To hear more information, call my 24 HR recorded info line at 1-800-530-1481 extension 9754.