There Ought to be a Law

After 5 years as Broker/Owner of Pine Ridge Properties, I’m closing the doors.  I’ve been given a great opportunity to go work with some long-time friends at Pacific Crest Properties, here in Truckee.  We get to share some things, and help each other get to the “other side”.  I don’t think it’s a surprise that the last 3 years have been a real challenge for most of us in the real estate field, so a change like this will be good for all of us involved.

Which brings me to the point of this little post.  I’ve been in my current locale for exactly 5 years this month.  As my wife and kids helped me pack up some of my affairs today, it was a little daunting at just how much nonsense I had compiled here over this short time.  When we last moved our home, we had been in that house for exactly 5 years.  Again…the amount of stuff was overwhelming.  Maybe I’m kind of a pack-rat, but I don’t think so.  I come from the “disposable” generation.  I’ve honestly been more of a, “use it until something better comes along, and then throw the old one way type.” Where did all this crap come from?

My folks…they kept everything.  There’s a fiberglass boat on a trailer in my Dad’s yard that hasn’t ran in 25 years.  That’s not me.  I throw stuff away!  So how did I accumulate all this junk I forgot I had? 

Now  I’m not super keen on government spending our money to tell us what we can and can’t do.  But here’s an idea.  What if there was a law that made every cell phone use the same battery and the same car charger.  I wouldn’t have had to throw three sets of them away, or look for a place to recycle them.  My industry is very wasteful.  I think it would be a great we didn’t have to generate literal mountains of paperwork for every transaction, just so we could try to mitigate our exposure by disclosing the obvious because somebody sued somebody else for something ridiculous.  If we ever meet in a transaction, I’ll have to make sure that you sign a ten page disclosure in where paragraph 16 advises that if the trees grow, you might lose your view.  Paragraph 18 informs that if you live near a golf course, there is a possibility that golf balls may damage your home, you or your pets.  LOOKOUT RUFUS!

Anyway, there at least ought to be a law the Bret Churchman has to act like he’s moving every two years.  That way I could throw away stuff that I forgot I had, and hopefully be a tad more cognisant about the nonsense I seem to collect.  For me, awareness is the first step.

Thanks for reading.  I’m sorry if you or your pets have been hit by an errant golf ball.  That probably hurt.

Dust For Breakfast

My daughter “Kaite” and I have started mountain biking together of late.  It’s not our first time, but we’ve gotten a bit more serious, and are trying to ride regularly.  She’s training for high school sports as she’ll be a freshman at Truckee High this year, and I’m riding because I still eat like I play high school football.

So this morning she throws down that she’s tired of, “eating dust for breakfast.”  We try to ride early in the mornings, before the rest of the day gets its chance to steal our opportunity.  She got to lead for a while today, and it was a great thrill for me to teach her about letting her front shock “be her friend”, and how to point her knee in to a turn.  I’m no free-ride guru, but I have logged some miles over the last few years, and I normally manage to keep the rubber pointing down.  She said it helped…but maybe she’s just humoring me the way teenagers like to do with their parents.

If you’re wondering what my point is, it’s this. My little girl was a newborn about two eye blinks ago.  She’s a freshman in high school now!  Soon she’ll be dating a guy named “Axe” who has multiple piercings and who wears his pants half way down his exposed boxer shorts.  (I love that look).  I’m coming to terms with the fact that we don’t get too long with our kids before they’re all grown up.

So again, what’s my point?  Summer is a getting away.  Get up here, and get out and about and enjoy what we all love Tahoe for.  By many accounts, there’s never been a better time to buy.  By my account, there hasn’t been a better time to buy in at least the last eleven years I’ve been doing this.  I’ll even show you a couple of zoomy, easy to ride single tracks.  But because I’ll be guiding…you’ll have to eat dust for breakfast. 

Don’t Jump…

It’s hard to turn anywhere or to any media outlet without seeing or hearing bad news about the economy. Yesterday T. Boone Pickens (he’s a go-bo zillionaire) testified before Congress that if drastic steps were not taken soon, oil would reach $300 a barrel within 10 years. Today, CNBC reported that we may only be half way through this housing slump. Fannie May and Freddie Mac will likely need a government bailout package to remain solvent…The hits just keep on coming.

I don’t profess to be a “bright” fellow, but one could assume that T. Boone Pickens is in-fact, a bright fellow, as we’ve already established that he’s a go-bo zillionaire (I think that’s from Forrest Gump). But he’s got a horse in the race. He’s now trying to develop a monstrous wind farm in Texas, after he became a billionaire in the oil business. Nobel? Likely. Worth billions when completed? Also likely. Of course he’s going to say that it’s bad and getting worse.

I think the doomsday mainstream media has a horse in the race too. Whatever side of the political fence you fall on, it has to be painfully obvious to you that Barack Obama is the media’s darling. They love the guy. Both he and his Republican opponent claim that they can “fix it” for us, no matter what “it” is. I submit that as long as the media continues to try and convince us that everything needs fixing, especially the economy, the better chance that their guy Barack has. I happen to subscribe to the theory that government is not likely to fix anything, other than their sights on more of your tax dollars to create more government. I’m not pointing the finger at Democrats here, lest you get uptight, as the Republicans have grown in to bigger spenders than Democrats could have hoped to have been before them. That’s just my take. “We need change, new, fresh” they say. Big government, save me!

So in my effort to talk you down off the ledge, remember that real estate has always been a long-term thing. Until the early part of this decade, real estate promised years and years of modest appreciation, and a sure fire way to accumulate wealth as a long-term strategy. There will be ups and downs, sure, but California real estate, over the long-term has always performed well. It will again, and a heck of a lot sooner if WE pick our selves up by the boot-straps and get on with the rest of our lives. Whoever gets elected (does it really matter anymore) will not save us, nor will they fix anything, nor will the Congress allow them to get anything real done, nor will they do anything that the people actually want or demand.

It’s up to us. Don’t jump…it’s a cycle, and this one too will pass.

Where there’s smoke…

In a previous post, I talked about how blessed I was to be writing about the pristine Tahoe summer time weather. I’m still awfully blessed, but that post also talked about the chance of thunder showers. Those thunder clouds sparked the lightning caused fires that have plagued California since. The Yuba-Complex fires as I believe they’re being called are just to the west of the Pacific Crest from us, and each afternoon they have ushered in a thick, smokey haze that has really been stepping on my buzz. Just a couple of hours west of here thousands upon thousands are currently evacuated from their homes in the Town of Paradise. They get to deal with the smoke while sleeping on a cot in a high school gymnasium. So with that, I’ll quit complaining and deal with my little air pollution problem. That’s the thing about our problems, isn’t it? Our problems usually pale in comparison to someone else’s. Such is the case with real estate here. The market is slow. People in some instances are having to “short-sale” their homes, and others have lost them in foreclosure. But generally, our market has held strong. Sure, we’ve lost some of the great gains that we saw over the last 5 years, but compared to some other places, we’re doing okay. If you’re a buyer, and you’ve been waiting for the bottom, a bump in interest rates could erase a further decrease in prices. You may have already missed the bottom. Really. If you’d like to talk about what you could get in Truckee or Tahoe, give me a call or send me an email. I’ll be honest about real estate, and then we can co-miserate about the weather somewhere. Until then, God Bless those who stand in harms way on the fire lines and those who have lost their homes and everything they owned in these fires.

Tahoma, West Lake Tahoe, CA Real Estate

Recently Sold - El Dorado Street $449,900
Tahoma, West Lake Tahoe, CA Real Estate Sold by Bret Churchman, Pine Ridge Properties, Inc.

“New Lower Price” Jewel of the neighborhood. The Best Buy in Westlake Village/Kailua Park West Lake Tahoe - Cozy Tahoe Charm on Huge Level Lot! Walk to he Lake, Chambers Landing Beach, PDQ Market and Sugar Pine Park. Upgrades include remodeled kitchen, baths, new roof 2004, new furance 2003, new water heater 2006, new windows, sliding doors, large wrap around deck with a beautiful private forested park-like setting back yard. 8 x 12 Storage shed for firewood or shop has power. Parking for 3 cars in addition to Boat/RV parking.

Sold Date: 12/5/2007
Sold Price: $443,000