Pasadena Schools are horrible?

Things have changed. The neighborhood public elementary school for my area is Longfellow. In only 8 years Longfellow's API scores have increased from 600 (in 2000) to 807 (in 2009). Also, as of this year the Pasadena Unified School District has a Blue Ribbon School (no longer are these awards reserved for La Canada and South Pasadena anymore). Only 25 were awarded in the entire state of California this year.

Put it all together

Why won't the media put this together? We've all heard about the shadow inventory of foreclosed homes the banks are holding, maybe as many as a million homes. We've all heard about the massive profits the banks are earning this year. Unemployment is rising, housing prices are going up. Doesn't make sense. It does if you realize the banks are not selling these houses, therefore they are not realizing their losses. Eventually the piper needs to be paid, and I guess they want to do it slowly. More bailout money please.

new listing

I'm getting better and better with these websites. They generate, on average, 3,000 hits the first month. Here's the new one: www.1159NorthChester.com . I think I should have this under contract pretty quickly, I just sent out a 700 piece mailer to almost everyone in Bungalow Heaven, and am doing tons of marketing. I can't help but think of last year when a man in London found my craftsman for sale, flew out here, and bought it. All because of the website. That's powerful.

Smallest house in Bungalow Heaven coming in a few weeks

At least I think it's the smallest. Over at 895 N. Mar Vista. Going to be a great investment. $325,000. Call me for details. Don't disturb occupant!

New listing coming up

So I get a call last week from a guy in Pennsylvania. He says he likes how I do my marketing, and doesn't like the results of his current agent. Thought a home should sell within 6 months! (if properly priced and aggressively marketed it should have 10 offers in the first 30 days). Well, after about 20 minute conversation he said he'd call back. He did. Said he called a bunch of agents to list it, said I was the only one that "seemed" organized, aggressive, and successful (how awesome is that?), and I explained that most agents are very traditional, they do the 3 P's: pop a sign in, put it in the mls, and pray it sells. He said that I clearly provided so much more, and gave me the listing. So right now I'm building the website, doing historical research on this Mediterranean Revival, yesterday was the professional photoshoot, a few days ago was the layout, and Monday I have 120 phone calls to push it. Goes on the market next Tuesday. This is a Mediterranean Revival in Historic Bungalow Heaven with 3+2 and almost 1900 sqft for $649,000. I think I'll have at least a few offers in the first 2 weeks. At least I'm going to push really hard. Really hard.

Funny and partially true Foreclosure video

Pretty funny video on how to buy a foreclosure