Blog contributions are provided exclusively from Luxury Real Estate members throughout the world.
Courtesy of Darryl Baskin of McGraw Realtors
Keeping your household organized is a challenge in the best of circumstances, let alone when you're in the midst of dealing with the disruption of moving.
As a member of the Top 5 in Real Estate Network®, I, along with my team, always take the extra steps necessary to help my clients experience a stress-free, successful move. Throughout my years in the real estate business, we've witnessed many common mistakes that people make during the course of a move.
Here are seven to avoid:
- Packing everything. Prior to moving, it's important to take a look around and decide what you don't want to keep. This will cut down on costs by not having to transfer unnecessary items.
- Sending it all to storage. Storage is usually expensive and just delays the inevitable. Eventually, what you store will need to be moved into your home, so try and bring it all the first time.
- Shopping on the Internet for move quotes without dealing with a live person. This is one instance where dealing with a live person is necessary. You need to be able to ask specific questions and have your estimate explained to you line by line so that you can see where costs can be cut.
- Not looking into what your homeowners' insurance covers. For a nominal cost, these types of insurance policies may cover your goods in transit.
- Not taking photographs of items before disassembling them for the move. You will be unable to process an insurance claim if you don't have proof of what the item looked like before you packed it.
- Overlooking the box count. If you are paying for boxes by the piece, keep track as things are being packed as each box has a different price attached to it. You don't want to end up with 300 boxes when you only needed 200. Also, if the moving company sees that you're keeping track, movers will be less inclined to hit you up for additional costs when the job is done.
- Forgetting to take inventory. If you don't create an inventory, there's no fool-proof way to know if you've left something behind or if it somehow got lost in transit.
Work closely with your real estate professional to help avoid these and other common pitfalls of moving. You can also e-mail our team for more information. Please share these moving mistakes with friends and family, too, so that the journey to their new home is a happy one!
Courtesy of Eric Billingsley of Rodeo Realty
Lauren Case and Stefani Porter of Rodeo Realty’s Woodland Hills office are co-listing the former home of country music icon Kenny Rogers.The 3,147 square foot Spanish Hacienda-style hideaway is on more than an acre of land in the Mulholland Scenic Corridor. Apparently Kenny Rogers was the home's first owner back in the late 1970s.
Designed for indoor/outdoor living, the home has numerous French doors opening to pergola covered patios. It features a built-in BBQ grill, a large swimmer's pool and spa, a putting green, flat lawns and mature landscaping.Close to hiking, bike trails and urban areas, the multi-level 4 bedroom, 3 bath residence has sweeping mountain views from bedroom verandas, custom plaster walls, carved wood and iron entry door, tall ceilings, wood beams, skylights, and imported French stone and tile accents.
The chef's kitchen has a large custom built eat-in granite table large enough to seat six with wood cabinetry and wine rack beneath, granite counters, Sub Zero fridge, and Viking range with grill. For more information contact Lauren Case at (818) 974-8722 or Stefani Porter at (818) 999-2030. You can also visit the listings section of http://www.laurencase.com/.
Rodeo Realty, Inc. was founded in 1986 by president and broker, Syd Leibovitch. Today it is one of the largest single-owner residential real estate companies in California. It has 12 branch offices throughout the greater Los Angeles area, and more than 1,000 agents. Affiliate companies include: Encore Escrow, L.A. Mortgage, Inc., and Progressive Title. 
05
October Market Thoughts
By Li Read of Sea to Sky Premier Properties (Salt Spring)
October, 2009.
A year ago, we were all in a confused state, with the underpinnings of the winning strategies from the 20th Century, still being clutched at in the 21st, melting under our feet.
Yes, there were many clairvoyant people out there, in 2006, in 2007, and in early 2008, all chanting their mantra of "this is a bubble, this won't hold", and, just like those tulip bulb hoarders in 16th Century Holland, we totally ignored the obvioius. Was it part of the old adage, if it ain't broke, don't fix it? Or is it really true that those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it? It seems that no one learned anything at all from the tech bubble at the close of 1999/2000, and that was a lot closer to our own time.
At some point, in the run up to the housing bubble collapse, someone decided to commoditize real estate. The concept of home evolved into housing.
Language shapes cultures. A simple change in vocabulary can change perception.
Home meant family, the dwelling that encased a personal lifestyle, a place that was often lived in for a substantial time...perhaps seven years or longer.
A house meant something different...with easy credit, creative mortgages, etc., it became possible to think of having several houses, to becoming landlords (even though at arms length, through property managers), and to leveraging increase in valuations to allow for more homes to be purchased...especially in sunbelt areas.
Builders were creating new developments, people were collecting spaces, and it was all on credit. Sound familiar to every other bubble that we read about, in history? What was that "south seas bubble" again?
It seems, though, that there are some differences in the timing of this one. The internet, which came to the fore around 1995/96, in the public domain, erased time, geography, gender, race, age. It is a medium that is about intellect to intellect. It's really a one to one experience.
It became the platform that would allow the true emergence of the 21st Century.
When one studies history, it seems that the very early years of a new century carry over whatever was occurring in the closing years of the previous one. Then, some cataclysmic event occurs, which throws the world pell mell into the new century, in reality.
No doubt, 9/11 was a wake up call. It reminded people of their fragility. It also made them think about all the things they did that were "time wasters".
The binary world of computers leaves no room to pretend there's a grey area. It's on/off, on/off, act/react, act/react. With technology evolving to match the huge promise of the internet, which is about individual empowerment, it means that there is an erasure of regionalism. In real estate, it used to be said that it was a regional matter. That was pre-internet and pre-web 2.0. The stats are the same everywhere, now, and the entire world was the recipient of the Fall, 2008 economic meltdowns.
So, the intenet and web 2.0 and the ever evolving technological innovations that allow us this global presence -- they all conspired to be present at the same time as Oliver Stone's "Wall Street" film warning, from the 1980s, about greed, that finally shredded our economic structures in late 2008.
It appears that there is now a movement towards the idea of social responsibility. A saving ethic. A sustainability lifestyle script. Those activists from the 1960s would be proud of us! (Remember Alicia Bay Laurel, and "Living on the Earth"? Discover it at a second hand bookstore).
Marshall McLuhan's theory was that the medium is the message. I see that as his way of explaining that we would become different people, reflecting our method of communication.
In this on/off, act/react time, we are all somehow equal. We can take photos/videos off our phones, text on Twitter and be heard around the world, with the same value as a seasoned reporter on an old style t.v. news show. CNN calls such contributors ireporters or citizen reporters. We can blog, we can put up video on youtube, we can connect with a larger circle via Facebook, we can link in a business component via Linkedin, we can have podcasts, we can Twitter...it's about being a part of the local community and the larger world community, and all at the same time.
This instant world is making us speedier people. We need to remember, though, the importance of filters, and our human filter is our brain's editing function. It's up to us to decide, in the great pool of raw data, what is actually information, and therefore useful to us. If we don't do this, we will suffer from information overload/data fatigue.
We are all so lucky to be around right now, while things are being invented beside us, so we can be a part of the new. When those who are around in 2080 look back, it will be like people in 1985 laughing at crystal radio sets, in the 30s!
Such opportunity, everywhere.
Yes, there was loss last Fall. Yes, the commoditization of housing caused a bubble, and pain and suffering happened to those who were overstretched, who did not see that they were inside a fragile bubble. Yes, the new can be a scary place to reside.
I like to remind people, though, that we need to stop looking down the narrow channel at a targeted partial byte of data/information. If we do that, we will just worry and dilute our creative juices. We will be locked into tunnel vision.
Periphery vision is what we need right now. Let's all step back, so we can get that 180 viewpoint, and see outside the edges of our vision...that's where the "real" new is forming.
We are humans, and that means we are creative. If someone can invent a heavy child's size steam shovel, and send it to Mars, to dig around in that planet's sandbox, to find out if there's water....well, what can't we do? No excuse, then, not to dig in and to look for solutions.
Yes. there was collapse and the pain of shift. That was last year. On/off, act/react remember, in this binary digital world. So, it's now "this year", and we're poised to remember our creative selves and to get on with the "real solutions".
And, your ideas are....????
Let's share! Looking for wise real estate advice, in this transition moment, for Salt Spring Island and the Southern Gulf Islands?
I welcome your call.
20
The Rye House
By Peter Klemm of Klemm Real Estate
Designed by noted architect Wilson Eyre, and constructed in 1908, the Rye House is an authentic Country Estate, nested in the Hills of Litchfield, CT
Litchfield Estate on 210 +/- Acres
This one of a kind English Country Estate sits on a private 210 acre site with magnificent views to the south. Built in 1908 and designed by noted architect Wilson Eyre, the Rye House features many unique architectural treasures including; extensive hand carved chestnut wood paneling, hand carved limestone fireplaces, a hand carved marble stairway and 14 ft. ceilings with exquisite plaster details.
Step back in time as you pass thru the gated entrance. A luxurious, romantic setting, perfect for entertaining. The main house includes 18 rooms, and offers 10,000 sq.ft. of living space. The house exterior is completely stone, with a classic stucco finish. The graduated slate roof and hand-made copper gutters communicate the grandeur of the house and are amplified by the antique, hand carved elements of the house, such as the original window and door hardware and carved wooden shutters.
The Rye House offers six main bedrooms, six full baths and three half-baths. The third floor includes an additional bedroom and bath. In addition, there is a private four bedroom room guest wing with a full bath. Four fireplaces on the first floor and five fireplaces on the second floor. Stunning oak and fir floors are throughout the home. A security system and gated entrance service the residence.
The estate also includes a new 75’ x 35’ pool with adjoining hot tub, tennis court, garden house, detached four car garage, and custom built play structure. The tennis court features the original stone pillars and stone walls surrounding it. The architect, Wilson Eyre, was also a noted landscape architect. He designed a walkway of stone pillars, covered with a grape arbor, under which one could walk from the Main House to the Garden House. Along that walkway there are three garden rooms that open to a stone walled grass pasture with original carved wooden gates. The grounds include priceless specimen trees such as a Japanese Pagoda Tree, magnificent Copper Beeches, Magnolias and a flowering Wisteria.
A large one of a kind castle play structure was designed and built by Barbara Butler. A few of the play castles special features are: a hidden castle chamber with a secret door, a play jail with an escape hatch, a 30 foot slide, a water canon, a zip line, a climbing tower and hand carved gargoyles.
The 210 +/- acre private estate offers breathtaking views and some fantastic trails for hiking, biking, riding, ATV's, etc. Bantam Lake and Lake Waramaug are within close proximity, offering world class scenery for biking and boating.
The Rye House
Submit Your Blog
To submit a blog entry for consideration on this web page for FREE, please send your materials to our PR Department: pr@luxuryrealestate.com
