Today begins a new section of the blog called Neighborhood Corner. Put simply, it's a quick snapshot of what is happening with single family homes in a neighborhood today compared to one year ago. The first corner I will profile is University City, a neighborhood of San Diego. The ZIP code is 92122. FACTS: Presently for sale: 23 homes, average asking price $684,817 In escrow at this time: 21 homes, average asking price $630,686 Sold since January 1, 2012: 45 homes, average sales price $633,896 In 2011: Sold 1/1/2011 - 12/31/2011: 105 homes, average sold price $591,737 ANALYSIS: University City is on par to sell about 108 - 115 homes this year, a small increase over last year. University City pricing has inched up significant from 2011 to 2012, due mainly to some "junk" bank-owned inventory that was listed and sold in 2011. My estimate is that by year end, the average sold price in UC will be about where it is today: $633,896 ~ up to about $650,000. Despite this good news that bank owned junk is almost completely out of UC and prices are a slight bit higher, there is downward pressure on pricing for homes not yet sold. The average asking price is...

There is something very special to me about small anonymous photos from someone's life or their photo albums or little envelopes that were forgotten but ended up at an estate sale. As a photo collector of "regular" contemporary photography, and as a former photo art gallery owner, I love and know quite a bit about photography. But it's the historical curious person in me that absolutely loves anonymous photos more than anything, and I buy them fairly often. Usually I don't do too much with them, but sometimes I will have them matted and framed and then they spring to life, sweetness on display and a moment in time now set up under lights and on my walls. The photo leading this blog post is a snapshot of an area of staging from a recent listing. That dog was an anonymous photo I had matted and framed. I have many like this! But altogether I have a couple hundred, so they're mostly unframed. To me they're just fun to look at and can be very calming, or sometimes sort of sad. This weekend on a Mother's Day outing on Saturday with my mom, I bought nine new (to me) anonymous photos from a small boutique store in Solana Beach. I have used this store before to purchase staging...

As an E*Trade customer forever, I see the IPOs out there but never before today have I been asked if I wish to place an order for shares prior to the first public offering of them. Also known as the Initial Public Offering, also known as the IPO. That happened today with Facebook when I logged into my E*Trade account. Not being of Warren Buffet status, I am confident my order will NOT be filled, but I placed one anyway. When I had to pick a price for my future shares somewhere in the projected sell range of $28 - $35 a share, I went with $35 -- will it help? I will let you know next week when they start trading on May 14. E*Trade recommends highly that we not "flip" the shares but they can't prevent us from doing so. I will hold to $60. And with this process was the offering of the Facebook prospectus and the completion of a client profile questionnaire. The prospectus is normal by most standards, but with a higher degree of playfulness. See for yourself (it should open in a new window). Facebook prospectus Of most importance and why I am submitting this to you is Mark Zuckerberg's letter to investors which begins on Page 84. I found it to be very genuine and almost...

This is a real estate blog that stays pretty close to the middle and gets no where close to politics. Not that I am not deeply, actively involved in politics as a donor and volunteer: I am. But today with this breaking news, this all time great day when the first sitting president in American history has announced he supports marriage equality, I am going political for a few moments. It's out of sheer joy. What a historic event in American history. President Obama affirms today that people who love each other regardless of gender should be able to marry and carry on their lives. Not civil unions, not "partnership" agreements but good, old fashioned marriage. Of course I am not alone in my support of this idea -- and I won't be the last. We supporters are gaining strength despite the crushing weight of opposition and hold outs. What a great day for same sex couples! This doesn't mean that they CAN marry mind you, as the conservative who protest among us, mostly driven by religion, push to have measures placed on state ballots to squash civil rights on a heated and regular basis. But we fight on.  Note to North Carolina, California, and other states: it’s never a good idea to...

Sometimes a client sits down to write a note and put a stamp on it and mail it. That just happened to me. Because I know receiving a note is so special, I try to send them weekly and it's basically "my calling card" to clients current, past and potential, but I don't receive them as often as I send them. But I got a great one today.  The client's name is hidden to protect identity, but here's what my mailman delivered today! Click on it to open in a new window and make it bigger. Happy Friday, everyone! (P.S. have you tried custom stamps at Zazzle?)

Having discovered Shoeboxed in 2011 to manage the tax receipts for myself and my business (two separate things), I am very happy with the service and how it works for me. My business generates a ton of paper receipts and I keep every single one of them. They all have to be categorized into the appropriate tax category if they are deductible or partially deductible. These categories are then totalled and printed in Excel and given to my CPA. Shoeboxed allows me to literally dump all my receipts and even statements and extra paper/business things that I want to keep into blue envelopes and drop them in a mailbox for free, addressed to Shoeboxed. When the envelope arrives, elves there sort through them, scan them, upload them and put them in categories. Then the elves mail the originals back to me. But I actually don't just dump my receipts all loose and messy into an envelope, which isn't a shock if you know me. In fact doing so would probably cause me more work in the end. I categorize them with paperclips and send them all organized and separately bundled. Each bundle has a Post-It note on it, saying which category I want that bundle to be uploaded into -- and...