Happy Birthday Mac!

The original Apple Macintosh is 25 years old. Wow, now I’m feeling REAL old. One of my first high-tech jobs was working in Tech Support for one of the first computer networking companies called Corvus Systems. This was pre-ethernet days. At that time, computers didn’t have hard drives yet and Corvus offered hard disks that were connected to a twisted-pair network (Omninet) so users could access a 10 MB or 20 MB disk and copy stuff to it! When the Mac first came out, I was the one in tech support that was assigned to support the Mac so I got to be one of the first to use one. At that time Corvus also had a ground breaking product come out…a 45 MB disk! Funny to think that a 3 minute video wouldn’t even fit on one of those today. I think it cost something like $7,000 too.

Seems like just yesterday….

Where’s the Address?

From time to time someone emails me to ask why some homes in the MLS search have a street address while others don’t. I display the street address of any listing unless the Listing Agent has chosen to SUPPRESS the street address from displaying on any Internet site. I have no clue why Listing Agents do this but I think some believe that if they don’t display the address then a Buyer will call them and then they have a chance of double-ending the deal (representing both the Seller and Buyer). I think that not displaying the address is bad marketing and a disservice to the Seller.

You may have seen other sites with MLS searches that don’t display ANY street addresses. In this case, the agent who owns the Internet site has chosen this option themselves in order to get people to contact them so they can get a “sales lead”. Other agents will force people to fill out a form BEFORE they can use their MLS search (and some don’t even have a MLS search, they just want your contact info).

If you’ve used my site for awhile, you know that I provide LOTS of information to help you with your home search, most of it doesn’t require you providing your contact info. For the things that you do need to fill out a form for (like the Market Snapshot reports), I don’t do anything with your contact info like put you on some “canned” email newsletter or have a “pushy” sales person call you twice a week. I realize that you are using my site to gather information which is the service I intended and hope that when you do need the assistance of a professional and knowledgeable Realtor you will give the Keith Byrd Team a call. I have assembled a team of hand-picked Realtors from offices throughout the Central Coast that are a great complement to my web site service. These are Realtors that know their local areas and ones I would use if I was Buying or Selling a home in the area.

Inventory is growing

For the first 22 days of the month, we’ve had 318 new listings in SLO County and 197 Pending Sales. There is also 188 “Back on Markets”.

We’ll see at the end of the month when I do the individual city inventories where the inventory growth is at.

We were real busy earlier in the month but activity has slowed down over the last week. Maybe Buyers are waiting for Obama to get into office and the dust to settle.

Ryan Baker’s Mortgage Blog

Good bye sunshine, hello rain! We sure had a great run of weather in January here on the central coast didn’t we? Well, just like the weather (what a lead in huh?) rates have gotten worse this week. Earlier in the month the 30 year fixed was as low as 4.75%, which is pretty much unheard of. The rate has snuck back up to 5%, which is still beyond fantastic. The 30 year fixed still has a better rate than the 5 year ARM which is about 5.25%. If you have question whether or not you would be approved for a loan, it doesn’t hurt to ask. I’d gladly help you out.

I like to try and blog on Keith’s site on Wednesdays, but last night was the 2 hour season premier of LOST, so with the 1 hour recap before hand, I spent 3 hours in front of the TV and loved every minute. I was skeptical of the show at first, but after powering through the first season, I am hooked! Sorry for the off topic diversion, but I figured the LOST fans out there would appreciate it.

I can be reached at RBaker@PeregrineLending.com or 805-540-0866.

Avila Beach Grocery Closes

I was bummed to hear that the Avila Beach Grocery closed. Then I thought about how many times I’ve been there since it reopened which wasn’t that many. I don’t know the new place didn’t appeal to me that much. I went to the old Avila Grocery store much more. Hmmmmm…..

Great Star Spangled Banner

Check out these 8-13 year old girls singing our National Anthem!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKCVS57j284

Inauguration Day Pizza Special

Woodstocks has a Large Sausage Pizza for $9.99 for today only. If you haven’t tried a Woodstocks, maybe this is a good time. Get the wheat crust.

New Downtown SLO Restaurant

My wife and I went to a new restaurant in downtown SLO called Creekside Brewing. It’s located at 1040 Broad Street right above the creek. There have been a few other restaurants at this location over the years. James Brolin (the actor) owned it at one time and he was the one that added the area that sits over the creek.

The new restaurant also brews its own beer. Since we went there a few days after they opened their first batch wasn’t done yet but they had plenty of other beer and wine to choose from. My wife and I aren’t drinkers but they recommended a Belgium Ale, Framboise Lambic, which had raspberries. My wife HATES beer and most every other type of alcoholic drink, but she actually really liked this one.

We were also pleasantly surprised with the dinner. I had Mahi Mahi and my wife had shrimp on sugar cane skewers (which she let me try!). I’m not a seafood fan and will only eat fish that doesn’t taste like fish and both of these were real good. You can choose 2 sides with dinner and they had a lot of different choices. I had their Mojo Tomatoes which was tomatoes with mozzarella cheese. My other side was garlic mashed potatoes which were the best I’ve had in a long time. Just enough garlic to add flavor but not overpower. They also have a bunch of small plates on the menu for $5 each which you can choose as an alternative to a dinner.

The restaurant is at street level and they also have a bar downstairs. I don’t think they take reservations and there are only 4 (of 5) tables that sit outside overlooking the creek. With the weather this past week, I bet those tables are popular.

John is one of the owners and was very helpful with beer and food recommendations. If you go and the opportunity comes up, mention that you read about their restaurant on Keith Byrd’s blog.

I’m amazed

I was looking through Million Dollar Plus listings and I just don’t get it. Do Seller’s not look at the photos and marketing descriptions that the Listing Agents have for their homes? There’s one photo that shows a very cluttered bookcase and a $15 lawn chair. I think the photo was purposely taken to show the bookcase which makes no sense to me. What jumps out when I see something like this is “not enough storage in home”, “owners don’t have the money for furniture, so home maintenance may not have been kept up”.

But, what wasn’t surprising to me was that this particular home has been sitting on the market for awhile and already had been repriced 30%+ lower than the original price.

The presentation of Million Dollar Plus homes is SO critical these days. There are over 400 listings currently over a Million and not that much activity. You can’t afford to have someone look at a photo of a cluttered bookcase and cross the listing off their list! And it’s not just a cluttered bookcase that might turn someone off.

But more importantly, if you have a feature that a Buyer might fall in love with, that’s what you want to present really really well.