It’s a sad fact of life, but unscrupulous vultures are always ready to pick at the flesh of the most financially distressed–which more frequently these days includes the owners of luxury real estate.

Over on our San Diego real estate blog we report that San Diego County District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis is asking San Diego Realtors to help her track down and prosecute real estate fraudsters operating in our county.

We have written before about the foreclosure and loan modification scams that prey upon distressed San Diego home owners who are struggling to stay in their homes. The DA’s office is aggressively trying to warn homeowners to stay away from these San Diego real estate crooks and their fraudulent offers of mortgage and loan modification assistance–and is asking us, as San Diego Realtors, to report any suspicious activity.

All too often, unwitting and desperate home owners will pay an upfront fee to a person or company who promises to prevent foreclosure–or to modify existing mortgage loan terms. And all too often, people are paying for services they never receive–and might be better off with a do-it-yourself loan modification.

Click to continue reading….

The post Even Luxury Home Owners can be Victims of Fraud appeared first on Luxury Home Digest.

I am convinced California wines are a no-brainer.

Recently, another wine blogger recommended we try a fantastic $8 French wine. This was in response to an earlier article where I recommended TBD Zinfandel, available at

Trader Joe’s.

My thoughts about this recommended French red?
Pee pee water! I wouldn’t cook with it, let alone serve it to guests. In fact, the experience only reaffirms my belief in California wines.

A recent discovery of mine is Gnarly Head Zinfandel. This is an old-vine California Zinfandel lives up to the dark and lush description on the bottle–is absolutely fantastic! It delivers all the punch
you want from a Zinfandel, without the punch of a price over $20.

This luscious Zin can be found for as little as $7.99. After giving it a try, I rushed back to Major Market and bought several more bottles for our wine cellar. Gnarly Head Zinfandel is also available at other market for around $10 to $12 per bottle–and is well worth the price.

Truthfully, I was a little put off when I first saw the name. Gnarly doesn’t exactly describe my favorite wines,
but this old vine Zin has become one of my hands down and glass-up favorites–at least for the price.

Remember, my search focuses on outstanding wines under $20 per bottle–and Gnarly Head comes in well under that mark.

An important note about Zinfandels: Make sure your Zin is an Old Vine–and remember that any Zin under 14%
alcohol is not worth the price. Most outstanding Zins start at 14% and go up from there.

You may also wish to read:

Luxury on a Gold Plated Shoestring

The post The Luxury of Gnarly Head Zinfandel appeared first on Luxury Home Digest.

Call this a geeky rant. Call it a blonde tirade. Call it what you want, but I just don’t know what to do about diverse databases.

I think I have them coming out the Wazoo.

If you came here seeking luxury news, you may want to click away and come back tomorrow. Right now, I am trying to sort out a database problem that honestly keeps me awake at night.

You see, I have been collecting names, addresses, email addresses and property preferences from people for centuries. And if there were a way my databases of information could talk to each other, I could be the supreme Yentl of real estate in Southern California–or the whole world.

My problem? SOAR Solutions, which for years reliably sent property information to hundreds of clients, was sold to HouseValues, who ostensibly does the same thing but charges a king’s ransom to do so. At the same time, clients who signed into SearchPoint with my ancient Realigent site, are listed there and are also receiving property updates from me.

Then there was Top Producer, which held all the contact information for existing clients–along with their birthdays and wine preferences. And now I have an account with 1ParkPlace, which also sends out listing information to clients and maintains another database.

The real problem?

None of these databases talk to one another–and I think it’s a deliberate conspiracy, HouseValues will release only the client’s name, address, telephone and email address. Forget about search parameters. They hold that information hostage and continue to charge me out the yingyang for the privilege of doing so. I would like to migrate this information to 1ParkPlace, but no can do.

Guess those tasks will have to be done one by one, keystroke by keystroke.

Then there’s the database sitting over at Realigent that is fully 8 years old. Many of these searchers have been with me since the last century. Those, too, will have to be migrated one by one, keystroke by keystroke.

The problem could probably be solved if I were an enterprise level business doing gazillions of transactions per day. If that were the case, I would just call the database gurus at ANTs Software and they could use their cool plugin and make databases like Oracle, IBM, Sybase and Microsoft relate, talk and migrate to one or the other. The Ants Compatibility Server (ACS), fortunately and unfortunately, is whiz bang technology for the big guys and ANTs will probably rule the world of databases some day, but are of little help to me now.

In the meantime, I think someone could make a modest royal ransom if they could solve the Realtor’s dilemma with databases and set us free from those vendors who hold us hostage. If software could be written that would encompass not only basic information, but also our real estate client’s search parameters and wine preferences, the world’s real estate crisis might be solved.

And just for grins, remember this classic Super Bowl 2000 Commercial?

The post Databases Coming Out the Wazoo? appeared first on Luxury Home Digest.

Many of the ealy elationships, though, have not only survived–but thrived.

by Roberta Murphy

Its fun to peer into the crystal ball and try to divine what fortunes lie ahead. It also helps when you have a visionary providing some tips and guidance.

Pat Kitano and Kevin Boer are two visionaries worth following, and they are convinced that 2008 will be the Year of the (Authoritative) Blog Network. Kitanos article is a great read that provides good information and understanding of what blogging networks are and how they can benefit both the consumer and the blogger.

An authoritative real estate blog is what the California Chapter of the Womens Council of Realtors plans to launch at the end of January. They are tapping their membership seeking capable and knowledgeable real estate bloggers whose personal real estate blogs will feed into the California WCR Blog Network.

All of the members contributed blogs will be indexed and offered as an encyclopedic resource for home buyers and sellers. As with most blogs, consumers will be able to enter into casual and anonymous, if they choose conversation with the blogging authors. Consumers and agents will be able to ask questions ranging from open houses, to market insights, to home selling strategies. The goal, says Kitano, is to promote the free exchange of real estate knowledge without any sales pitch.

Kitano and Boer, with Domus Consulting Group, are working feverishly to have the California WCR Blogs online by the end of this month. The site will feature mapping tools so viewers can check not only houses for sale, but can also find participating and local WCR bloggers to learn more about neighborhoods, market trends, home features and other real estate related topics.

The WCR Blog Network is revolutionary, says Kitano and will provide solid benefits for both the real estate consumer and the blog authors. œThe WCR Blog Network home page in effect acts as the ˜main newspaper to aggregate and distribute the published content of their agent œeditors. As a content repository, the blog network is positioned as a search engine magnet, and the resulting traffic flows through directly to the participating agents blogs. Each blog, he says, is a separate website that reflects the personality and special expertise of its author.

The WCR Blog will be non-denominational, in that the blog authors will represent many different real estate companies, and their blogs may come from any number of frameworks including WordPress, TypePad or other available sources.

As a member of the Womens Council of Realtors, I am tickled to share that I will be a representative blogger for North County San Diego when the WCR Blog debuts. For additional information, email roberta@sandiegopreviews.com

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It is difficult to avoid the subject of  short sales and foreclosures when discussing real estate these days.

We receive ongoing emails and calls from people wanting to buy short sales and foreclosures because they want the best deal possible. They believe that the best buys can only come from bloodied sellers and lenders and that somehow real estate agents are the best bloodhounds of all (which is often true).

Theres this misconception floating around that if a lender is willing to shave off some of the debt owed on the property and sell it for less than what is owed, it must be a good buy. The same logic is also applied to foreclosures.

But reality sometimes paints a different picture.

Many of our San Diego clients have been able to get outstanding buys on real estate not through short sales or foreclosures, but from the best kept secret of all:

Motivated sellers.

And it makes a lot of sense. If, as a savvy real estate agent, I decided to sell my own home in todays market at the best price and within the shortest time frame possible, I would:

1. Stage the home.

2. Price it 3 to 5 percent under the competition. (Hear that, Freakonomics?)

In short, I would compete with any short sale or foreclosure competitors in pricing because I can, and thats because I have enough equity in my home to do so. There are also more sellers in my position than those who are in over their heads.

Hence, it makes good sense to work with a Realtor who is in tune with seller motivations and local market conditions and who keeps an ear to the ground to hear market rumblings as well as occasional agent gossip that doesn’t appear in MLS descriptions.

In times like these, working with a knowledgeable and wise real estate professional may be one of the best investment decisions you could make. And when looking for the best buys in real estate, pay attention to short sales and foreclosures and look even more closely at seller motivation.

Read also:

Short Sales in the Luxury Home Market

Short Sale Trauma Drama

Home Pricing Dangers

Real Value in Real Estate Gossip

San Diego Home Home Losses Hit New High

Search San Diego Real Estate

The post What Could be Better than Short Sales and Foreclosures? appeared first on Luxury Home Digest.

Upgrades anyone?

Last night, I spent a fun evening with an interesting Carlsbad Realtor who probably set a world record in San Diego luxury home upgrade sales in the late 1990s into 2003. Shara’s experiences in new luxury home sales will be an article for another time, but I thought it might be important to peer into the current hot items being demanded for new luxury homes.

The list isn’t hot off the press, but is certainly worth repeating. Last fall, Forbes reported on the features that were topping the lists for new, high-end luxury homes. An important thread running through this list is the importance of green in home features. Those eco-friendly items are all big energy savers, as well as being non-toxic building materials, earth-friendly woods, and energy efficient technologies that integrate lighting, heating, security and communications controls in the home.

The Forbes short list?

• Spa-like bathrooms with saunas, towel warming drawers, amd heated floors. Serenity is the guiding mood.
• Extensive computer-controlled systems to sensor control panels throughout the home. Light the pool, turn on the tub the spa or outdoor lighting, view surveillance camers scanning the outdoors or check to see if the garage door is closed. The possibilities are limitless.
• Space flexibility. How about floor-to-ceiling bookshelves that slide aside to open up a room? Or a wall of glass doors that move aside to bring the outdoors in? Or the indoors out?
• Outdoor kitchens are still on the must-have list. The compleat outdoor kitchen and entertaining area can cost anywhere from $50,000 to $200,000 or more. In addition to WOW-end outdoor cooking eqipment, the luxe owner might want a cabana, granite surfaces, wine cooler, ice maker , warming drawer, dishwasher and more. And swimming pools are also going over the deep and. Another story in the making.
• Oenophiles rejoice! Custom wine storage made the list. Make it a wine cave, make it a small room, just make it for wine and keep the temperature and humidity under control.

For additional luxury home gadgets and reading, see:

The Snoring Room
The Self Service Spa (Do it at home?)
Long-Lasting Roses
Induction-Cooktop for the Luxury Kitchen
Ultimate Phone for the Luxury Bath
How to Hide the Bedroom TV
Switchable Mirror Glass Windows
SONOS: The Ultimate Sound System
Haute Refrigerators for Cool Kitchens?
The Overflowing Infinity Tub
Wine Storage for Oenophiles
The Illuminated Bathtub

The post Gotta-Haves and Upgrades for Luxury Homes appeared first on Luxury Home Digest.