My Brother and I have a long history of watching asteroid showers from our roof top as children. Today, they still excite us as we enjoy the "fireworks" that the heavens offer us so many time a year. This particular show appears to be a good one–though they have promised such before and we’ve been disappointed,. Yet unlike the Fourth of July fireworks which have been less than spectacular in years past, these folks really have no control over the outcome. Here’s to hoping the sky is clear.

Click here for the full story… http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2007/03dec_asteroidshower.htm?list192695

Happy watching,

Drew

What’s Eating Your Home’s Equity?

This time of year after a heavy rain-followed by a sunny day-we see these long-winged creatures flittering about. If you aren’t familiar with a damp-wood termite, you might think it’s just another fly-by-night pest. But in fact these little buggers are responsible for BILLIONS of dollars in damage to property each year.

These are a few of the unlucky damp wood termites who were caught by a little spider friend of mine at sundown. Damp-Wood termites typically venture out toward artificial light in the early evening hours. CLICK ON THE PICTURE TO SEE A CLOSE-UP.

The process of termite "swarming" is in an effort to establish a new colony. Frequently, they will do so after a heavy rain followed by a sunny day. In the Bay Area peninsula where we live this is not relegated to any one time of the year as in other parts of the country. Our Indian summers make both the typical spring swarm as well as a fall swarm likely. What do you do if you also hate spiders too? Why call an exterminator of course.

The sign of a swam does not mean your home has termites. These critters will often fly from a neighbor’s yard, dead brush or tree. After they land, they will drop their wings and look for a place to nest. Once a male and female mate and a colony is established, they look nothing like their flying alter ego. They are a translucent-almost albino color-as compared to their flight suit of black, yellow or orange. Finding termites in or near a structure does not mean you have an immediate emergency since the rate at which damage occurs is relatively slow.

There are three common types of termites: Dry Wood, Damp-Wood and Subterranean. Subterranean termites follow much of the same swarming pattern as their larger cousins the Damp-Wood termite, though they are much smaller and more readily confused with ants. They too will drop their wings but fly much shorter distances in more of a glider style flight and are often simply carried with whichever way the wind is blowing.

If you’ve ever seen your car covered with little black wings you are more than likely seeing the result of a subterranean swarm-good thing they no longer makes cars of wood. Subterranean termites live in the ground, as opposed to damp-wood termites which typically live outdoors in dead trees, fences and wood retaining walls; while dry wood termites prefer to live in your walls, floor, ceilings and attic. In order to reach edible wood in your home, subterranean wood termites will build what is referred to as a "mud tube"

from the ground up until they reach their food supply-often, your home. Mud tubes are an easy indicator you may have subterranean termites eating away at your home’s equity. We’ve seen colonies of subterranean termites in the ground under trees where an ample supply of dead foliage keeps them well fed.

The most immediate home remedy and effective treatment for these cellulous devouring bugs is good old fashioned Windex. If you see a swarm landing near your home, this quick clean-up solution does the trick. Of course Windex is no long term solution to use. If you see any indication of termite activity, often noted by what appears to be "sand" (mixture of soil, feces, and saliva) on your floors, windowsills, walls of near vents, it’s a good idea to get a professional home exterminator to come out and treat your home with more effective chemicals.

In an effort to cut down on paper generated by our industry, as well as lower our overhead to continue to offer price matching of our services, and hopefully someday reach more customers, we have discontinued the mailing of our monthly sales updates for Belmont, and are posting the information on-line. This will enable us to provide more information than before and we hope this move towards virtual based services will positively impact our environment while allowing more people to contact us.

Please feel free to comment about the new forum we have implemented.

Click on the picture to see the full-size report on Belmont Sales.

New Rules!

The following was inspired by Bill Maher’s hilarious "New Rules" on his show Real Time on HBO.

When everyone takes things too seriously, we can all use a little humor…

New Real Estate Rules:

• Buyers–when working with discount or on-line brokers who don’t show property, stop complaining when the actual listing agent doesn’t accommodate your every whim-you’re getting a discount remember? Grow up-call your agent.
• Sellers-stop thinking your home is better than everyone else’s-they can’t all be the best.
• Agents-stop calling for access to listings that say "Vacant, GO DIRECT"-you’re wasting our time.
• Title companies-start calling us when the deed records, not hours later. We’d much rather work with a professional organization than get free cookies at a sign off.
• Lenders-you’re supposed to be forging lasting relationships, not devastating ones. Stop being short sided and do the right thing for your clients or Congress will do it for you.
• America-stop repeating things so they’ll eventually become accepted fact–anyone remember "Weapons of Mass Destruction"?
• That brings us back to on-line brokers-stop calling everyone but yourself "Traditional Agents"-most agents today are anything but traditional. From now on you’ll be called "Virtual Agents" and every one else a "Professional Agent".

Disclaimer: This information is for entertainment purposes only and includes no legal, accounting or real estate advice nor is this response in tended to be specific to your situation-consult a specialist for your specific situation.

Belmont Bragging Rights–Just for fun of course…

There’s just got to be a reason why people choose to pay more to live in one city over another..help me figure it out! (Tongue in cheek folks…)

We live in a little town called Belmont. We bought a home there because back then no one else was. That meant it was a lot less expensive than other towns. San Carlos is a nearby town that a lot of people like to live in; though the cost of owning a home is a lot more there. And the affordability seems disproportionate to their differences. People always said they wanted to live there for the schools; though recent school data suggests that either schools do not have as much impact on where people live as years ago or buyers aren’t reading about it. Is that because literacy in America is down? The schools in San Carlos have always been known for their superior academic excellence; recently however, Belmont has school test scores which have surpassed her neighboring town.

Perhaps it’s lower crime rate that buyers are using to justify paying more for a similar home? No one likes to have their house broken into or their car stolen-not in the suburbs-that’s why we moved there in the first place. But Belmont’s violent crime rate is lower than most of the country and lower than any city she borders-San Carlos included.

Is it perhaps that Belmont just isn’t good at promoting itself? What else could affect the allure of San Carlos over Belmont? According to the latest census results the folks in San Carlos on average make more money than the residents of Belmont–$9,000 a year more to be exact. That’s good too since the median home costs $122,000 more according to August 2007 reports.

Maybe it’s all those sidewalks. I’ve always loved sidewalks; they remind me of being a kid. It’s good to feel like a kid again, though I wouldn’t want to pay $122,000 more to do so. I think I’d rather save all that money and take more vacations to feel like a kid.

I like to eat too. San Carlos has a lot of good restaurants and a lot more to choose from than Belmont. Could it be that other people enjoy eating as much as I do and are willing to pay dearly for it? Though-last time I ate in a San Carlos restaurant I don’t remember them asking for my residency card when they offered me a table.

What could it be that draws people to San Carlos over Belmont? They do have a lot of nice flags-you know-the ones with flowers and a lot of colors that they fly everyday-as if to show the world that their town is more colorful than others.

It could be the streets. The streets in San Carlos are much more laid out like a grid pattern-straight and predictable. Belmont’s streets are just the opposite-unpredictable and like a small mountain town ought to be. Maybe that’s why there’s less crime? Everyone knows criminals aren’t that smart or they wouldn’t be doing what they do for a living. Maybe they just get lost going to Belmont.

It makes my wonder where they’d all live if there weren’t city boundaries? But which name would we use-Belmont or San Carlos? I guess San Carlos since it’s got a Spanish name like most people think bay area towns ought to have.

Whatever the reason I like our little town-as unpredictable as it is.

You can read more about our little town here in our blog BeautifulMountainBlog.org

Disclaimer: This information is for entertainment purposes only and includes no legal, accounting or real estate advice nor is this response in tended to be specific to your situation-consult a specialist for your specific situation.

Feel free to post your YouTube videos so we can see what your family vacations or reunions were like.

Don’t have a YouTube account? It’s simple log into YoutTube.com and sign yourself up then upload a video or montage and you’re up and running.

Here’s an example of one we did after our Labor Day visit to Johnson Island Lake Erie Ohio.

We stayed on Johnson Island for the Labor Day weekend with Christine’s best friend, Kim, her boyfriend and her two sisters.

Johnson Island is a small spot on Lake Erie where Kim owns a small vacation home on the shore. During the Civil war this island was used as a Confederate encampment to house the prisoner’s during the war. There’s a small historical graveyard which is home to the 206 confederate soldiers which died during their internment—either by wounds, natural causes or execution.

The amusement park is world renowned Cedar Point.

I edited the video using the Microsoft Movie Maker included with all Windows products.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anXt3QyJG8A

Here’s a place to discuss the best book you’ve read all year—or ever.

My brother is a veracious reader who always has at least five books he’s reading simultaneously. Thanks to him I am never at a loss for a recommendation. Myself, I’m only good for perhaps two at a time but it takes me forever to get through them. I tend to stay away from fiction simply because there’s so much to learn so I reserve fiction for vacations.

One of the more recent books I’ve read was by Simon Winchester, “A Crack in the Edge of the World”. Mr. Winchester is a geologist and he amazingly manages to write with interesting prose. The book centers on the 1906 earthquake but the author begins at the far eastern end of the world and works his way across the North American and Pacific plates until he reaches San Francisco. I never knew for example that one of the most active places in our country for earthquakes is the city of New Madrid in Missouri and reading about that event is worth the price of the book alone; or that the beautiful National Park of Yellowstone will be the end of the west as we know it.

The book is a fascinating read and especially recommended for those of you living in Belmont—so close to the San Andreas Fault.

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