Marin Real Estate Blog

Just received the Rotarian's Magazine for 01/2009.  As usual, a lot of great articles, but a few caught my attention, 

One of those is 'How to Get Things Done' with just a few clear pointers. as this is time to set business goals, I thought they can be borrowed to help us succeed in 2009 at our Real Estate career.  They are all based on common sense, but oh, so much sense!

1).  Prepare before you begin a project - Make an effort to organize your physical environment.  Take a few moments to write a list a the start of each day.  Set realistic goals.

2). Tacklee the biggest challenge of your day as soon as possible.  Avoid getting bogged down in less important chores.  There can eat up your time without giving you any sense of accomplishment

3). Think, don't worry; focus, don't hurry.  Try to remain calm and stay positive.  Allowing yourself to get stressed out will only make you less productive.  If you feel your concentration slipping, close your eyes and take a brief rest.

4).  Live in the moment; concentrate on the task at hand.  Check your list daily.  Allow yourself to feel good about what you have done, and see what awaits you tomorrow.

I also love the closing statement from a fictitious philosopher named Alfred E. Neuman -

Live Every Day like it is  your last, because one of these days you are going to be right!

With all the challenges we are going to face and all the things we try to accomplish in 2009 - prepare and plan ahead, stay focused, face difficulties head on, no delaying, no weaving, work purposely and smartly, concentrate and work hard:

Live for the moment as there is no tomorrow - There is only one way to go - Success!!!  

 

Sylvia Barry, Realtor, ePRO
Marin Realtor for Marin Real Estate 
Marin, San Francisco North Bay
Frankk Howard Allen Realtors 
website: www.SylviaSellsMarin.com
Blog: www.AllAboutMarinHomes.com

MARIN, SONOMA, S.F. BAY AREA REAL ESTATE - Beveldere, Corte Madera, Greenbrae, Kentfield, Larkspur, Marinwood, Mill Valley, Novato, San Anselmo, San Rafael, Sausalito, Tiburon; Cotati, Penngrove, Petaluma, Rohnert Park, Santa Rosa.   Starter Home to Luxury Property.  REO (Bank Owned), Short Sale, View Homes, Architecural Distictive Homes. Investment, 1031 Exchange. 

 Make Dreams Real - Rotary Club of Novato Sunrise Youth Services

Fabulous Creekside Retreat in coveted Vineyard area. Remodeled and expanded by architect owner with modern touches.

Single story home, versitle split floor plan with brand new mater suite on one side for privacy. Ample floor-to-ceiling windows and french doors open to beautiful backyard with shady walnut tree. Guest bedroom with french doors open to sunny free form swimming pool and hot tub.

Designed for entertainment, the outdoor area consists of U shaped patio overlooking large woody creekside yard.

The property is located in Pleasant Valley neighborhood. Pleasant Vally elementary school, Sinaloa middle school and San Marin High school. Close to hiking, biking trail, O'Hare park, Stafford lake and plenty of open space.

REMINDER for Marin County property owners who have illegal second units should consider taking advantage of the 'Marin County Second Unit Amnesty' Program before it expires on 12/31/2008.  The goal of the Amnesty program is to ensure the safe and habitable dwelling conditions for the 2^nd units with incentive of reduction of up to 50% all permit fees for units that fit the requirements.    

The following are required along with the application:

• Completed ‘Zoning/Development Application'
• The 2nd unit was in existence prior to June 2003
• Owner needs to complete a Uniform Housing Code Inspection
• Five sets of plans, including
  • Site plan showing property lines, location of main residence and 2^nd unit and location of parking space
  • Accurately scaled floor plan for main and 2^nd unit.  
  • Second unit size must be between 220 and 750 sf - limited exceptions can be made for units that are between 750 and 1,000 sf.
• Proof that owner resides in either the main unit or the 2^nd unit

Following are required before permits can be issued.

• Complete property inspection by fire department to identify minimum fire safe requirements and fees
• Confirm water and sewer service requirements, including septic sewer disposal system requirements if applicable

Check on the link for details for the program.

Please Visit the Marin County Community Development Agency's public information counter at the Civic Center - Room 308, San Rafael, California, Monday through Friday (closed holidays), 8:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m., or call (415) 499-6269. 

For additional information contact the following staff and state that you are interested in the Second Unit Amnesty Program Division Liaisons:

• Planning - Kristina Tierney 473-4333
• Building - Larry Grace 499-6550
• Environmental Health - Janet Mullin 499-6273
• Department of Public - Works Berenice Davidson 499-3770
• General Amnesty information - Stacey Laumann 507-2698
• Fire - Scott Alber 499-6566

Sylvia Barry, Realtor, ePRO
Marin Realtor for Marin Luxury Real Estate 
Marin, San Francisco North Bay
Frankk Howard Allen Realtors 
website: www.SylviaSellsMarin.com
Blog: www.AllAboutMarinHomes.com

MARIN, SONOMA, S.F. BAY AREA REAL ESTATE - Beveldere, Corte Madera, Greenbrae, Kentfield, Larkspur, Marinwood, Mill Valley, Novato, San Anselmo, San Rafael, Sausalito, Tiburon; Cotati, Penngrove, Petaluma, Rohnert Park, Santa Rosa.   Starter Home to Luxury Property.  REO (Bank Owned), Short Sale, View Homes, Architecural Distictive Homes. Investment, 1031 Exchange. 

 

Dogbone Meadows Dog Park in Novato, Marin County, located en route to Stafford Lake and West Marin, is probably the best dog park in Marin County, or maybe even California.  Dogs often bring their people when they are on the way to the beaches.

Built by dog loving people (or shall we say, slaves of dogs), the property is around 1 acre, with tracks for dogs and human alike, and toys for dogs only.  The backdrop is Open Space, part of O'Hare Park, great hiking, horseback riding trails.

This is a morning with unusual heavy fog from West Marin, a beautiful background for the dog park. 

Duke (black, rescued from 2nd Chance Rescue) and Hunter (Golden) love to come here in the morning - Duke, after dropping his brother off at local high school, and Hunter, after dragging his mom for his daily 2 hour walk and play (can't say Hunter does not have a GREAT life, even Duke is envious of him!) - Hunter will chase the tennis ball and Duke will run along Hunter

Makes Happy Dogs and Happy people when their dogs are tired the rest of the day!   

It's a foggy morning, but I thought it's interesting, so I snapped the pictures.  

Duke and Hunter waiting for Hunter's mom to throw the ball.

Time to chase the ball!

Duke's best friend, Hunter, whose only passion is chasing the tennis ball!

Sylvia Barry, Realtor, ePRO
Marin Realtor for Marin Luxury Real Estate 
Marin, San Francisco North Bay
Frankk Howard Allen Realtors 
website: www.SylviaSellsMarin.com
Blog: www.AllAboutMarinHomes.com

SERVING MARIN, SONOMA, S.F. BAY AREA - FOR ALL YOUR REAL ESTATE NEEDS Beveldere, Corte Madera, Greenbrae, Kentfield, Larkspur, Marinwood, Mill Valley, Novato, San Anselmo, San Rafael, Sausalito, Tiburon; Cotati, Penngrove, Petaluma, Rohnert Park, Santa Rosa.

Don't know if you remember (or, really, CARE), but I had a virus attack a few weeks back where very annoying and highly questionable Ads were Popping Under every few minutes.  It was extremely disruptive and some are very embarrassing (some XXX ADs and may Anti Virus 290), not to mention it sssslllloooowwwwed down my laptop considerably.

I had an extremely difficult time trying to get rid of it, and could not. 

I tried Spy Sweeper, McAfee, and SpyBot, to name a few; I turned on the pop blocker, put all suspicious sites to the Restricted sites, and one and on.  I got rid of quite a few virus, but the Pop Unders kept on coming back.  All my defense mechanism is now slowing down my computer and I have now accomplished extremely sluggish computing.  Error messages popping up left and right and the ADs continues to smirk at me. 

I wanted to bring it to local computer shops for a professional virus sweep, costing $90/hour.  I was willing to pay for that service, as long as I get my computer back - we all know how our life depend on our computers now a days!

But each time I tried to bring the computer over, they said I had to leave the computer a minimum of two days to clean the virus and they will only guarantee a day or two of no virus - because I just might get another one.... So, I'd bring it back again and told myself that I'd bring it back the next day when they are less busy....

The final draw is today when I could not get the email button to work on my MLS ... OKAY!  Now let me know how we can work if we can't email listings to our clients, so that's it! 

I thought, nothing else works, so why not, let me give Microsoft a call. 

Expecting pushing many buttons and a long wait on the phone and some horrible outsourced company in India (like the one for Earthlink where the wait is hours and I could not understand the accent at all!); I was pleasant surprised that the customer service guy just wanted to log my complaint and assign me a case number. 

He transferred me to the technical support and there was NO (and I mean ZERO, O) wait time for the tecnical support, yes, in India!   

I gave the nice young technician my name and case number.  She listened to my problems and told me that she needed to take control of my computer.   She sounded nice and knowledgeable and I had nothing to lose with THAT virus ridden computer, so I gladly said, FINE, GO AHEAD!

She looked at my registers, my control panels and told me that all the tools I installed were causing conflicts within my computer and we need to clean up those.  I said, GO AHEAD!  The next hour was spent on deleting programs, cleaning up files by using some magical program from Microsoft. 

And, when she was finally done and my problem fixed, I asked her to recommend a good virus blocker.  She said there is no need, because she GOT RID OF THE VIRUS!   

My laptop is now working great, fast, efficient, no error, no unwanted pop ups, almost like new.  

Husband kept on asking how long the wait was, I said NONE, and he kept on asking how much they charged me, and I said NONE.  He could not believe!

So, I will be saying Great Things about Microsoft now.  It is easy to see why it's so successful. 

They have great products, wonderful and high qualified, experienced, knowledable and polite technical people and the customer service is superb! 

A MODEL WE SHOUDL ALL FOLLOW WHEN CONDUCTING OUR BUSINESS - SURE WAY TO BE THE LEADER OF THE INDUSTRY!

  

As part of Barry family, we always look forward to, and yet, at the same time, dreaded Christmas season.  

We love to see our families and we treasure the get-togethers, but the thought of Christmas presents for our kids and the extended Barry family can be intimidating and always put a damper on our cheerful spirit.

We dread the thought of piles of presents every Christmas - we used to fly to see grandparents every Christmas and you should see  the luggage we had to haul on the Christmas trips (a lot more after Christmas) - luckily, airlines were not charging arms and legs to ship them at the time.  

The house will be littered with toys afterward.  We are not even talking about the  huge budget for presents and we really hate to just receive and not give!

To be fair, not that we are not grateful that our in-laws just LOVE to give Christmas presents to everybody and would have been totally lost if we don't 'let' him.  However, we cringe on the thoughts of the kids becoming too materialistic and expect presents rather appreciate the spirit of giving. 

As it must be for a lot of families. this Christmas Giving has become a big problem with the family; and I believe we are not the only ones who feel that way.

After many years of agony, I finally announced to my Barry side of family (yes, the American side) that we will adopt the Chinese (my side) way of giving presents. 

Our parents, relatives and/or friends will give us RED ENVELOPS for New Year's present.  They will put brand new, crisp cash in the Red Envelop with some Lucky words (good luck, Long Life, Happiness, Wealth) on the envelop and that will be our present.  We loved those. 

Since we adopted this new concept, the kids still receive a couple small presents while we give them the red envelop with cash/check for the year. 

Luckily, our kids are not big on shopping nor are they big on brand name items; they save their money for important things which they actually use a lot, such as music instruments, iPOD, upgrade of cell phones; and save the rest in their account for future.

With the way the economy is, I have a feeling that most of us will be a lot more cautions while shopping for Christmas presents.  The best thing to teach our kids now is how to be mindful while spending money, and at the same time, only buy essentials and save the rest.    

And the RED ENVELOP is a great, festive way to do just so - Celebrating true Christmas spirit of sharing, love, apprecication, learning how to be grateful for what we have while at the same time, save for the future!

Convienent but quite, Treelined street in Pleasant Valley, very close to all award winning schools, O'Hair Park, Stafford Lake, Rolling Hills Club, Hiking, Biking, Horseback Riding facility, Rolling Hills Club,...,etc

Lovely single story home has 3 bedrooms, 2 baths situated in an excellent location in Pleasant Valley.  The home has been compleletely remodeled by owner contractor  starting from the driveway, front yard, all the way to the backyard. 

Remodeled kitchen with granite slab counters and backsplash, custom cabinets, newer appliancess, tile floors, recessed and decorative lights; double pane windows, sliders; all newer lightings; living room with garden window/seating, decorative fireplace with granite facing and wood mantle; Updated Guest and Master Bathrooms.

Newer concret patio on the sideyard. Rose bushes and grape vine in the backyard.

Immaculate, move-in condition, with a great backyard for BBQ and lots of playtime. Custom Stamped Double Wide Driveway for RV Parking!

A steal, priced at $525,000.

GO TO WWW.32STASIA.COM FOR MORE PICTURES

SEARCH AND SAVE HOMES FOR FUTURE REVIEW? CLICK SEARCH FOR MARIN/SONOMA HOMES

Sylvia Barry
Frank Howard Allen
Cell (415)717-0293
Search and Save Homes for Future Review? Click http://www.sylviasellsmarin.com/SearchMarin/SonomaHomes
website www.SylviaSellsMarin.com #1 Marin, Sonoma Real Estate Resource

Come Home to The Fabulous Retreat

Listed at $949,000

For more details and pictures, please go to www.2197Vineyard.com

Upscale, lovely expanded and remodeled architect's home sits on over 1/3 level acre lot.  Creekside setting with freeform swimming pool and hot tub, deck, patio and gazebo under giant shady trees.  A wonderful home for year round relaxing retreat and entertainment! 

The seemily humble ranch style home is designed to take full advantage of the premium creekside lot and is packed with surprises!

Walk through the beautiful front door, you are immediately greeted by an inviting, open living / dining room with gorgeous view of greenery from the floor to ceiling windows and sliders.  Decorative woodburing fireplace provides focal point in the living room.  Gleaming hardwood floor provides warmth thoughout the housee.   

The completely remodeled kitchen has beautiful granit slab counters, spanish style floor tiles and center island for breakfast and party gathering.  The kitchen also has skylight, ceiling fan and is equipped with beautiful stainless steel appliances and plenty of custom cabinets.  Graden windows surrounds the breakfast area overlooking private front yard.  

Dramatic brand new master suite has cathedral ceilling, wall of windows and french doors looking into the amazing backyard.  The adjacent master bath has tumble marble counters, tiles with ultra modern, sleak lined sinks.  There is a separate shower and deep tub with jets for a soothing bath.  

The fabulous creekside backyard is accessible through french doors in the living / dining room, guest room and master suite.  Tall trees provides plenty of shades in the hot summer.  Jump into the solar heated pool for an afternoon swim or just relax in the hot tub while gazing at the stars.  The patio off living room provides a cozy gathering spot with the creek in the backdrop providing privacy for the secluded backyard. 

Great schools, close to horse riding facilities, O'Hair Park, Stafford Lake, Mt. Burdell, Rolling Hills Club and more!                   
 

 

This is Duke (adopted from Second Chance Rescue six years ago) running around in the Open Space (Marin County term - meaning land reserved by local government, groups, individuals, etc where nobody can build on) on Mount Burdell behind Partidge Knolls neighborhood in Novato, CA

He goes nuts when he is out there having the time of his life everytime :-)