My mother and grandmother both loved African Violets so I guess it was a given that I would love them too. They last for a long time with very little attention sitting in my kitchen.  Gidget is my African Violet Inspector. I guess my new plant passed inspection!   African Violets seem to be very popular with many. Many cities have African Violet Societies and it is fun to go and see the absolutely perfect ones. Sometimes they have them for sale too and then you know you are getting a truly healthy plant.   HISTORY of the African Violet. 1. The African violet was first discovered in East Africa in 1892 by Baron Walter von St. Paul. 2. Over 20 wild species and variants have been found to date. 3. All wild species have blossoms in the blue-violet range, but other characteristics vary. 4. A... 02/20/2012

  I'm an experienced Realtor but after years with another broker, I went to Keller Williams over a year ago.  Recently Keller Williams came out with a new month long training program so in January, I signed up for the 20 day class called IGNITE. I enjoyed the class and even taught the class two days. Last Tuesday we had a really nice graduation and it was a full house. Many new agents but many like me, just looking for an update. Our group had 13 offices from Riverside, San Bernardino, and LA County. It was a nice way to end the month long class. I learned a lot and had many ah-ha moments.     I am a “seminar junkie” so I loved it and Keller Williams gave us a certificate. I love certificates; so thank you!     Google-Call Kristin Hamilton at 909-557-6966 to list your home. Redlands, Hi... 02/17/2012

I guess spring is here as lately I have noticed a lot of couple hanging around the Redlands, San Bernardino, Highland, and Loma Linda area of California.   And here is my final picture....an odd couple for sure but really cute! HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY  Call Kristin Hamilton at 909-557-6966 to list your home.  Riverside/ San Bernardino residents, please call me for aComprehensive Market Analysis to assist you with marketing your home for sale and getting the best price possible. Buyers, if you are planning to purchase real estate, let me assist you in finding the right home.  Google me at Kristin Hamilton, Keller Williams Realty,Redlands, CA.    02/14/2012

Why Did the Squirrel Run Across the Road? I guess he was trying to get away from me? So I pulled over and took a picture. Then I see one up on the tree trunk in the middle of the field. Didn’t have my good camera but couldn’t miss a shot anyway. It came out pretty clear.  These squirrels’ coloring really camouflage into their enviroment so makes it hard to see them. Here is a close-up. He would not look at me as I am sure he was hoping I would just go away. I finally drove away and left him to play or hunt.  Call Kristin Hamilton at 909-557-6966 to list your home. Inland Empire Homeowners, please call me for a Comprehensive Market Analysis to assist you with marketing your home for sale and getting the best price possible. Buyers, if you are planning to purchase real estate, let me assi... 02/12/2012

My Mother, Sarah Marie, was a true Southern Belle and came from Tennessee. All my life, I have heard her use “Southern Expressions” to describe every situation under the sun. She always had a perfect one to fit anything that came up.   Yesterday, I was at her property and was taking some pictures of the trees. I felt such peace there even though she has been gone for 2 years now.   But some of her expressions ran through my head. These expressions made me laugh and I remember she had a zillion of them. Birds of a feather flock together! Don't get your feathers ruffled!  Call Kristin Hamilton at 909-557-6966 to list your home. Inland Empire Homeowners, please call me for a Comprehensive Market Analysis to assist you with marketing your home for sale and getting the best price possible. B... 02/10/2012

Punxsutawney Phil Isn’t Always Right This morning in Punxsutawney, PA., their prized groundhog Phil did emerge from his lair and see his shadow. He ran back inside which means we will have 6 more weeks of winter.     The National Climatic Data Center claims Phil is wrong more than he is right? The citizens of Punxsutawney do not agree as they claim there is always winter somewhere in the country. The NCDC claims he is wrong 51% of the time and 49% correct. Phil and his ancestors have predicted winter 99 times and no winter 16 times since the first time in 1887.       There were approximately 5000 visitors and locals who gathered at Gobbler’s Knob in Punxsutawney, PA before dawn and waited for Phil to emerge. Phil lives in a semi heated simulated tree and predicts if there will be an ear... 02/02/2012

I attended a webinar this week about Short Sale Fraud. As a real estate agent, I thought I knew all I needed to know on this subject but I was amazed. Here are some of the highlights.   Homeowners find themselves in a bad situation as their house is under-water and they need to sell. These homeowners need help from Real Estate agents but not fraudsters. If you as a Realtor are even involved in a fraud transaction, you are putting your license at risk.   Short Sale Flipping- As the listing agent, not disclosing to the bank that there is a better offer and then turning around in 2-3 hours to 2-3 days and simultaneously closing with the higher offer. Reverse Staging- Making the property look worse by flooding a room or house, staining or cutting carpeting, putting holes in drywall, killing... 01/29/2012

Why Short Sale in Inland Empire CA? Inland Empire California Short Sale Specialists Call Us Now: 1 (888) 9-LIST-IT Have you been considering a real estate short sale, but don't fully understand the ramifications? The reason many under-water homeowners short sale their Inland Empire property is because a short sale's negative effects on your credit report and financial future are considerably less than foreclosure. In fact, a short sale can effect your credit score up to 300 points less than a foreclosure can! And, you may qualify for a loan to purchase another home soon after your Inland Empire CA short sale. A foreclosure can keep you from purchasing again for up to five to seven years! REAL ESTATE AGENTS INLAND EMPIRE CA Like many homeowners in Inland Empire, California you may be hav... 01/26/2012

Can Energy Efficient Windows Melt a Car? Is This a Violation Against Quiet Enjoyment?   I found an article on Yahoo this morning when I started up my web browser entitled Woman Claims Energy Efficient Windows are Melting Her Toyota Prius. It's an interesting story. A Southern California woman claims her neighbor's energy efficient window is reflecting a concentrated amount of sunlight onto her car, which is parked in her own carport. The mirrors and anything plastic on the car is melting as if they were in a slow cooking oven. REDLANDS CA REALTORS A closer look, armed with a thermometer, shows that the temperatures from the energy efficient windows and reflected sunlight shows temperatures in excess of 120 degrees Fahrenheit, in less than five minutes on a cloudy day! Apparently reports... 01/26/2012

The Beautiful City of Redlands - A Great Place to Live and Work!   The City of Redlands is a beautiful one. With it's Indian territory and trolley car history, orange groves, gorgeous suburban neighborhoods, restaurants and State Street including Redlands Market Night, Redlands is a great place to live and work. And if you must work out of the city, Redlands is an easy commute to all of the Inland areas, including Redlands Community Hospital and Loma Linda Hospital, or even Orange County, although that;s more of a drive. The Redlands City Council is consistently working towards keeping the town clean and safe, and of course a great place to plant your family roots.   If you'd like to explore the city of Redlands online, you've come to the right blog. I've compiled an extensive list of l... 01/25/2012

Redlands Real Estate Market Report 4th Quarter 2011       Please let me introduce myself for anyone who does not know me. I, Kristin Hamilton, experienced and local Realtor® who is also involved in community programs to better this area. I sit on the board of several organizations and I work 24X7 for my real estate clients. My office, Keller Williams Realty is located in Redlands, CA. Call me at 909-557-6966 to list your home!   I have prepared a chart showing 3 Categories: Active Listings, Pending Listings, and Sold Listings in the city of Redlands, CA from July 2011 – Dec.31, 2011. I have included condos in with the single family homes. Summary- This chart shows very good news for Redlands. The number of listings, pending sales and closed sales has improved over the last 6 months and ... 01/22/2012

Good Search Engine Optimization (SEO)….Sign Up for Google+. Yesterday, January 21, 2012, Google opened its website to all who want to sign up according to the Huffington Post. You do not have to have an invitation as you did for the past 6 months.   Google announced that it is launching nine new features, including open signups. Go to the Official Goggle Blog site for details.   Sign up for Google Plus, the newest social media site that is in competition with Facebook. This is an important area for you to generate some Google juice back to your email or website.   To start, you need to get a Gmail account. Then you must create a profile and add your picture there. Have your friends to sign up also. All these sites should be linked to each other; ActiveRain, Facebook, Linked In, Your Web... 01/22/2012

The Ants Have Invaded….No More PICNIK. Today, while writing my 2012 Jan Blog Challenge and uploading photos into the free site PICNIK, I saw the new message posted. I am going to show how easy it is to edit. Here is the picture.   Cropping it and enhancing the color and clarity. I am loading a picture into the site. Framing and adding text. I love this reflection image frame and it is now a free feature until site closes. Here is the finished photograph ready to be inserted into my blog.   This site is wonderful and has helped teach me a lot about editing photos. It does so much more than the editing software loaded into my computer. I had used the free service as it met my needs but would certainly be willing to pay the annual fee to keep it. There are two types of memberships so right... 01/21/2012

  Find a Short Sale Listing Agent in Redlands CA / Redlands Short Sale Real Estate Agent / Short Sale REALTOR Redlands CA   It is easy for Redlands CA home sellers to find many listing real estate agents to list their Redlands CA home, but if you need to find a Redlands short sale listing agent, the task will be more difficult. A short sale real estate agent does much more than take pictures and put your Redlands home in the MLS (Multiple Listing Service) and put a sign in the yard.   The Redlands CA short sale agent also handles negotiations with your bank or banks. If your Redlands real estate agent has no experience dealing with short sales, loss mitigation and bank negotiators, you, the seller, may suffer. Most of our real estate home listings and sales in Riverside and San Bernardi... 01/19/2012

“Meet My Assistant Tootie” It is a new year and I have a new assistant that I would like to introduce to you. She just sits around smiling at me. She drinks my coffee all the time.  She does not seem to be doing much work so I think I am going to have let her go. Isn't my Tootie darling? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~    Call Kristin Hamilton at 909-557-6966 to list your home.   Inland Empire Homeowners, please call me for a Comprehensive Market Analysis to assist you with marketing your home for sale and getting the best price possible. Buyers, if you are planning to purchase real estate, let me assist you in finding the right home.  Google me at Kristin Hamilton, Keller Williams Realty, Redlands, CA. 01/18/2012

♪♪♪ ActiveRain University…A Wealth of Knowledge for All Members ♪♪♪ After I joined ActiveRain, I was sent a welcoming email and told to go to this link, ActiveRain University Blog, and there I would find many links to help me get started.     I did my own thing for a couple of weeks and then decided I was spending way too much time trying to figure out how to format posts with my pictures. So I went to AR University and was amazed at all the help I found. This is a great resource center to answer most if not all of your questions. I was amazed!   The area, Video Tutorials  has a full page of subjects to help you get started or if you just run into a problem and need to look something up. This was very helpful but then I decided I needed more. So I went back to AR University and signed u... 01/15/2012

What in the world is Weltanschauung? Frankly I had never heard of this word or theory before. Weltanschauung pronounced “welt·an·schau·ung”. Webster dictionary defines this term as “World view; philosophy of life; a framework through which to interpret the world”. Additionally, it refers to the framework of ideas and beliefs through which an individual, group or culture interprets the world and interacts with it. After reading this I thought to myself ”Oh yes, this is what ActiveRain is all about”. ActiveRain believes that it is in the best interests of real estate professionals to build a community that is focused on educating one another. This is what they have done. But the world wide community has been expanded to include other professionals as we all have something to teach each ot... 01/11/2012

DON'T PUT YOUR HEAD IN THE SAND!!! If You're Having Trouble Paying Your Redlands, California Mortgage... SHORT SELL IT!!!! Is your Redlands CA house "upside-down"? Do you owe more than it’s worth? Are you having trouble paying your Redlands CA mortgage, or are you already behind? Are you wondering if a Redlands Short Sale is right for you? Losing control of your mortgage can be devastating and embarrassing, but don't let your emotions keep you from exploring your options!! One of those options is a Redlands Short Sale. Short Sales have become the viable option to foreclosure. It can help you ease the massive credit damage a Foreclosure can cause. Foreclosure can keep you from buying another home for five years or longer. Short Selling can reduce this time to a couple of years. A Redlan... 01/03/2012

  ©I Saw A Yellow Bird© Yesterday, I took a few hours off to go look for interesting birds in Redlands, CA. I found this bird hiding in the trees and it was very much camouflaged. I got a couple of photos before he flew away. He was making all kinds of noise; not sure if he was on alert or singing. I determined that it is probably a “Yellow-rumped Warbler”. I had never seen this bird species before. It is very pretty but blended into the trees nicely so it made it hard to get a clean photo.  While researching the Cornell Lab of Ornithology-All About Birds site, it mentioned that these birds are much prettier and more yellow in the spring after they molt their winter feathers. *P.S. The bird site mentioned above is great for determining species. Call Kristin Hamilton at 909-557-6966 to l... 12/30/2011

  Finally all the trees are decorated and I am finishing up my Christmas wrapping. Later today after lunch with two of my best friends, I will start my baking. The menu for today is Pumpkin and Orange mini breads. Tomorrow, Jackie will be home and we will make roll-out cookies and decorate them and perhaps chocolate-chip cookies too.    This is my Living Room Tree. This is my Kitchen Cookie Tree.   Here is Jackie’s Nutcracker Tree.   Here are two “Angel” ornament I bouoght as gifts. Aren't they beautiful? I am giving them to two of my dearest friends. They are both angels!   Call Kristin Hamilton at 909-557-6966 to list your home. Inland Empire Homeowners, please call me for a Comprehensive Market Analysis to assist you with marketing your home for sale and getting the best price possib... 12/22/2011