Month: October 2020

Remember to set your clocks BACK an hour before you go to bed after halloween! Enjoy the extra hour of sleep!!

California Dreaming is a movie released in 1979 and was filmed mostly in Avila Beach. Not sure if the movie was shot in 1978 or 77. During the opening credits, there’s a pan of the town including the oil tanks on the hill. You can also see Avila Grocery and the pre-rebuild location of the Custom House. There’s also a scene at the Fremont theater with both exterior and interior shots.

The movie is currently streaming for free on Amazon Prime. Check it out!

I just got this from one of my vendors and thought I’d pass it along…

Be aware of this pattern, typically with residential homes priced from $2 million to $3 million. Here’s how the scam works . . . There’s a request from the buyer for the seller to carry back a loan on a residential property. The deal seems straightforward: Full price cash offer Quick close However, there are Red Flags that indicate a potential SCAM: – Minimal deposit relative to sales price, e.g. $10,000 deposit on a $2.5 million purchase price – Buyer asks for seller to carry back a substantial portion of the sales price (usually half) – Buyer is an LLC Sometimes the buyer transfers their position to another “buyer” LLC Prior to closing, the buyers advise they need a hard money loan instead of using cash   In this scenario, the seller has been moved to second position, with the hard money lender in first position.  Note: this is not always obvious. The buyers make it complicated – and may disguise the switch. In some of these cases, the closing statements are missing information about the seller being in second position – and don’t mention the additional financing where the hard money loan was in first position. – In other cases, the seller advised he didn’t get all of the financing documents. – Sometimes, the buyer gets the hard money loan with upfront cash back – so all loans combined (hard money first plus the seller carryback) exceed the purchase price. – Sometimes the buyer asks the seller for cash and adds it to the seller carry back loan. The transaction closes, and then the problems start: The buyer LLC makes one payment and stops.  The hard money lender is in first position and forecloses on the home. The seller in second position is left to either cure the loan or lose everything   This situation is disastrous for the seller, and can be a very expensive oversight for agents who miss the switch with the hard money loan. Beware of any buyers that suddenly need a hard money loan near the closing date. This could be part of their plan to send all parties involved into a frenzied rush to still make the deal happen. When a transaction is rushed, it’s easier to overlook critical elements. So always do your due diligence with all closing documents to protect your seller, your business, and your reputation.

I was reading an article on a Realtor news site about real estate commissions and how they are going to go lower. It included the following…

How do you explain, to a consumer, why it costs them three times as much to sell a $900,000 home versus a $300,000 home? How do you justify that $54,000 bill for selling said $900,000 home? Why are typical commissions in Australia, Denmark and Finland 2 percent, and 1.5 percent in the U.K., yet 5.5 percent in the U.S.? (according to The Wall Street Journal)

And why hasn’t the internet — and all the newfangled technology that has made real estate transactions more efficient — lowered commission rates? I don’t know; it’s quite the mystery, especially given that efficiency improvements drive prices down in virtually every other industry.”

I was thinking about the (now closed in SLO) California Pizza Kitchen last week and their Kung Pao Chicken Spaghetti. I wanted some!! So I went searching on the web and found a copycat recipe I thought I’d try. Mmmmmmmmmm! It came out tasting really good. I didn’t add any of the peppers or chili paste as I’m a wimp for spicy hot foods and it was perfect. Appropriate for the grand kids too. I’m going to serve this as one of the dinners when the family is all here for Xmas this year.

Here’s the recipe – https://dinnerthendessert.com/wprm_print/34330

The Oceano dunes recreation area will reopen this Friday (Oct 30th) to street legal vehicles.

I decided to add a bit more color to the already colorful cow sitting on Higuera St (by the old Spikes).

You can see all the different mooooo paintings on my photos site – http://slocountyphotos.com/?portfolio=light-painting-the-creamery-cow

Don’t move your clocks back an hour tonite! Daylight Savings Time is next Sunday, November 1st!!!!

If you haven’t been to downtown Pismo recently, you may have missed their new plaza by the pier. There are 2 long slides from the boardwalk down to the sand and a new Pismo Beach sign.

In this social media/instagram world, the sign was a smart idea for a tourist town. A constant stream of people are taking photos at the sign. I took the photo below before they opened the plaza. The colors on the letters change every 10 seconds or so. Pretty cool.

When I was driving to SLO this evening, they were changing the billboard on North 101 heading over the hill to Avila Valley. It features this new sign.

Last night was the first time I walked the pier since it reopened. It was a nice walk, not too many people (around 9 pm). It’s a good time to pay downtown Pismo a visit (midweek that is).

I went to downtown SLO to do some more light painting. I did the Puck statue, the ticket booth at the Fremont theater, and bubblegum alley. I was wanting to do the bear fountain at the mission but there was a group of people sitting around it so that will have to wait for another night.
Here is the Puck painting. The first image is without any external light. All these photos are straight out of the camera (no editing). The last two photos (using all 3 light colors (red, green, blue), one is with vertical strokes and other horizontal (as Mr. Miyagi would say “paint the fence!”).

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