These massive scissors can be found in downtown Santa Rosa at Courthouse Square. 01/17/2010

Internet Lead Conversion: It's Just Like Dancing! No, I'm not going to be doing a dance for you today! Although, if you give me a good song, I'll make up a great dance move just for you! I view my internet leads like dancers who just stepped on my dance floor. Some of them are experienced and some of them are so new, they don't even know where to face. I'm the lead dancer and my client is the follower. (Not sure if those are the proper terms! Any dancers in the audience? Can you help me out with the terminology? Thanks!) Start the Music! Before I start this dance, let me start by saying I get my internet leads almost the same way a real estate agent does, but my leads have a slightly different agenda. Most of my leads are shopping for a rates, not homes. That's usually the first thing t... 01/15/2010

Last night my wife and I practically ran into this little guy as he finished his making his web in front of our house.  He's a beautiful specimen that's about 5 inches long and quite healthy. One step to the right and my head would have been covered by our friend's web. Since I've been practicing my photography and editing skills, I thought I would try the macro setting on my canon to see what kind of effect I could get. I was pleasantly surprised by the details I captured in this shot. I'm sure the pest guys have their sprays loaded and ready to shoot our friend to oblivion! LOL! Enjoy! So... would you call this a garden spider? 01/15/2010

FHA Home Loans - Santa Rosa, CA - New Short Sale Rules 2010 I don't know if this has been mentioned, but it's well worth noting. FHA has loosened up the guidelines for home owners who had to go through a short sale of their owner occupied home. This new change will allow home owners who went through a short sale to re-enter the real estate market as home buyers again. If you think about the number of previous home owners who were locked out of the real estate market, you'll understand the significance of this change in the FHA short sale rules for 2010. Millions of home owners will be able to buy a home again with a home loan! That means more transactions for the real estate industry! I can see the wave of buyers building in the horizon already. It's just a matter of time for this news ... 01/14/2010

Median home prices in the Wine Country hit $389,000.   For those who do not know the difference between average, and median, that means half the homes sold were under $389,000, and the other half over.  The price increase is a great sign especially for a month when sales tend to be very low.  There's a real lack on inventory out there.  If you want a home, your going to be fighting a lot of first time home buyers, and a lot of investors for very few homes.  I experienced this in November when I helped a client buy a home in Windsor.  In the 300,000 - 400,000 range, there were on 12 homes for sales, and of those, only about 4 were really move in ready.  Low prices, low interest rates, and home buying incentives coupled with low inventory has created a buying frenzy. Here are this weeks a... 01/14/2010

This week I found out someone in my world committed suicide over the holiday. I wasn't close to this person, but I was truly saddened by their actions. This person left behind loved ones who will have to deal with many unanswered questions and years of mixed feelings from sadness to anger. I've been fortunate not to lose someone close to me to this action, but I know how it feels to lose someone you love. At the risk of being too transparent, I will share with the world that I've been suicidal in my past when I was much younger. Thank god for my supportive family and friends who helped me crawl out the pit of darkness. Ever since, I heard this news, I've been bothered by it. Probably because I've gone through the process and know you can come out of it with help. So, here's my attempt a... 01/14/2010

Well, I'm starting the year with a bang! As most of you know, the new GFE rules have taken effect. Well, it turns out they can be costly as we trip over all the new proceedures involved with these rules. My first bump in the road is going to cost me some money. Here's the situation: The purchase contract shows the selling lender paying the transfer taxes but the short sale addendum that's 20 pages long states the selling lender will not pay the transfer taxes in two sentences and 8 point type. We received the purchase contract from the realtor with the addendum to follow. Client converted preapproval to real deal, locked rates which started the GFE clock for disclosures. We disclosed everything under the sun to borrower within 48 hours of application per new rules. Realtor gives us shor... 01/14/2010

01/13/2010

I was doing some research this morning about real estate and came across this site I thought you might like to know about. It's a consumer oriented website created by the National Association or Realtors. I don't have time to explore the site today,but will check it out soon. If anyone has tried the site out, feel free to leave some feedback. Thanks! http://www.houselogic.com/ 01/12/2010

This morning, I couldn't find words to post anything on my blog, so I decided to read instead. Well, as usual, I will go from one article to another to the next and back to something else that interests me. Today was not exception, I started on AR, went to CNN, over to facebook, turned right on blogger and jumped over to twitter absorbing articles and opinions until I ran into this video on youtube. It's about having more fun in life which is exactly my motto for 2010 and beyond. So, I thought I would share it in hopes the video will inspire others like it inspired me today. Enjoy! If you can't see the video, the link is here.   01/12/2010

This is a beautiful mural painted in a breezeway between two building in downtown Santa Rosa.  The breezeway was too narrow to take a full frontal photo.  So this was the best I could do.  01/10/2010

  My wife and I were walking through a neighborhood, when I spotted this from 4 blocks away! This Agave Plant was about four 6 feet tall and one of three on the property. It was a beautiful sight that I wanted to share. Dave Roberts, an Activerainer in Healdsburg, would know more about this plant. I'm going to drop him a line to see if he can help out. 01/10/2010

Was walking around Santa Rosa yesterday and came across these to signs:       I guess it beats more No Parking signs! 01/10/2010

I was walking around Santa Rosa today and saw this... 01/09/2010

LoCoco's Cucina Rustica - Santa Rosa Ca - Italian Restaurants - Sonoma County Wine Country Lifestyle My wife and I don't go out to dinner often so we tend to be very picky with the places we like to go to eat. If we find a new restaurant that's not very good the first time we go there, we usually don't come back. Through the years, we've narrowed down the list of our favorite restaurants to a handfull of places that we love going back to depending on the type of food we're both in the mood for. One of our top notch most favorite restaurants in the Sonoma County Wine Country is LoCoco's Cucina Rustica. Most people just call it LoCoco's. We call it delicious Italian! My wife grew up in Florence Italy, so she's always looking for a great Italian Restaurant whenever we visit a new town. Wel... 01/08/2010

That's right, I did feel like Tinker Bell! That's because my stomach was fluttering and I was looking at the Walt Disney Concert Hall from the 18th floor of the Omni Hotel across the street. Ok, let me start from the beginning so I can share my wonderful experience with you more clearly. I've been pegged as a Relator! I just finished a personallity profile in my sales training class that had me pegged. It turns out I'm a relator. As a relator, my positive attributes are described as dependable, supportive and respectful. My Negative attributes are Awkward, unsure, and conforming. I can tell you, the awkwardness is like the Hulk trapped in my body. All it takes is an uncomfortable situation to turn me into Mr. Awkward Extradinaire! In order to supress this beast, I've spent the last 30 y... 01/07/2010

I'm proud to announce Wells Fargo was Awarded"Best of the Best" by Olive Tree Publishing! It's always nice to work for a company that makes an effort to ensure there's a diverce group of employees within their organization. Last year, I participated in a training event sponsored by Wells Fargo that really emphasized diversity in management. As an Asian American, I was very happy to meet other multi-ethnic leaders in the organization that were being groomed to move further up the corporate ladder. Today, I found out Wells Fargo was given an award by Olive Tree Publishing for "Best of the Best" in career oppurtunities for minorities! I'm so proud to be a part of this organization and wanted to spread the word about this part of Wells Fargo that's not talked about very often. Here's an exc... 01/06/2010

US Navy Blue Angels - San Francisco Fleet Week - A Must See Air Show! I'm posting this in honor of my father who served in the US Navy during the Vietnam War and to send some PR to the Blue Angels. I also wrote about my father's military stint in the US Navy and how it affected me on my profile page. This last fall, my wife and I drove down to San Francisco to see the US Navy Blue Angels during Fleet Week. We were fortunate to see the amazing show that afternoon after the early morning fog lifted from the San Francisco Bay. Unfortunately, for the early birds, the US Navy Blue Angels had to cancel their first Fleet Week show because of the heavy fog. My wife and I were participating in a San Francisco Fleet Week wine event on Angel Island which didn't start until 1pm that day, so we thou... 01/04/2010

Flavor Bistro - Santa Rosa Ca - Restaurants - Sonoma County Wine Country Lifestyle For 2010 I decided to expand on my original posting in 2009 called, "California's Sonoma Country Wine Country Top 10 Secrets Exposed!" I had listed my top ten favorite things in Sonoma CountyWine Country and added an eleventh item as a bonus because I could not leave this item off the list. It was the Gourmet California Fusion Cuisine. I'm proud to say, we have many wonderful restaurants in Sonoma County Wine Country that have successfully placed themselves amongst the best in the country. One of my favorite places to eat is Flavor Bistro (Flavor as the locals call it) which was voted "Best New Restaurant" for Sonoma County in the Readers' Choice Awards of the Bohemian Newspaper's Best of North Bay for 20... 01/04/2010

My kids are wrapping up 2 weeks off for Christmas vacation.  We're heading back to school and work tomorrow (Monday) and thought we'd do something fun on our last day off together.  We went over to the Redwood Ice Arena, and Charles Schulz Museum.  Most locals know that Charles Schulz had made Santa Rosa his home since 1969.  His office and studio were in Santa Rosa until his death in 2000.  He is very dearly missed.  His studio has been changed into a gift shop, and a new museum was opened in December 2009.  It's a must see for visitors to the Wine Country. Charles grew up in Minnesota and was an avid ice skater and hockey player.  He found there was no real enthusiasm for hockey in Northern California, so he built the Redwood Ice arena.  For a very reasonable price families can skate,... 01/03/2010