killer fan palms

I thought the Mexican and California fan palms were quite pictoresque, but coming from Hawaii, I was baffled by their thorns. Native Hawaiian plants are generally quite friendly and thorn-free, so I was and am nervous on windy days when these tremendously spiked fronds come flying off these palms.

The Mexican fan palms lose their fronds more easily, which makes them cheaper to maintain but consequently more dangerous for anyone below them. The California fan palms are the thicker ones that tend to keep their dead fronds hanging almost to the ground, but the drawback is that critters, such as rats and snakes, like to live in there. (We use rat poison stations in our yard to keep their population down, so our tree trimmers haven't had the usual hordes of vermin come pouring out when they visit--an amazing sight to see if you ever get a chance. One guy, however, did let out a scream once, his chain saw having hit a live one. What a mess--blood everywhere.)

Apparently, these palms have been planted in parts of Hawaii, where they're becoming rather invasive. It's not surprising considering how they drop an endless supply of small, hard dates that quickly mushroom into more trees. Lots of lawns in Riverside are actually full of tiny palms trees that just keep getting mown with the grass. They're easier to spot in the borders where they quickly become real trees.

If you have fan palms, you'll need to have them trimmed regularly due to the fire hazard, to keep the critters at bay, and also to reduce the chance of death by palm frond for you and your neighbors. Pick up fronds that drop (once the winds die down) and get them out of the street to prevent punctured tires and to keep your pets and children from getting hurt. Walk around them, don't step on them, as the spikes can go through shoes, and remember to drive around them.

Recently, the City of Los Angeles has been trying to decide what to plant now that the older Mexican fan palms throughout the city are nearing their life expectancy. They're now looking for trees that will actually provide some shade during the summer (thus reducing cooling bills for a lot of residents!). But there's no mention of the trees' hazards.


LA Times article
California versus Mexican fan palm
Report on Fan Palms as Pest in Hawaii

They paved paradise and put up a parking lot...

Yes, Tom Perring's Christmas tree farm on Chicago Ave. is now a thing of the past. A couple of years ago, Prof. Perring (Entomology at UCR) told us that he was putting the farm on the market. It took a while to sell as the lot mostly can't be developed. Then a church bought it, and they're planning to put a parking lot there eventually. In the meantime, someone else is leasing the land and selling off the remaining trees on the weekends leading up to Christmas.

It was a wonderful place to pick up a local pine and have some hot cider while the kids hung out in the playhouse (better built than some of the houses I've been seeing on the market lately). Perring's grad students would help out, his dogs would loll near the tire swing, and it was a great time.

I'm hesitant, actually, to take our little girl to pick out a tree there this year as she won't understand the changes. I'm debating trying some of the other Christmas tree fars that are further out. There's one in Perris on Wood Rd. that I've driven past, and there's supposed to be one in Reche Canyon in Colton. We'll see...

To find a Christmas tree farm near you and other "pick your own" types of farms, a nice site is:
http://www.pickyourown.org/index.htm
Their page on Riverside is:
http://www.pickyourownchristmastree.org/CAxmasriver.php

A Virtual Tour Doesn't Always Help

A client of mine asked me if I could do a virtual tour of her home, and I said that I could, but that it wasn't the best way to show her particular house. A virtual tour is created by putting a camera on a tripod and taking a series of photos around the same point. This can be a nice way to show large rooms and an open floor pattern, but not much is achieved in a small area other than a careful examination of a narrow, horizontal (or vertical) swath of furniture and knickknacks.

For smaller spaces and even for shots with a lot of depth, such as a long but narrow yard, I prefer stills. And now that our MLS allows up to 20 stills, a good variety of shots can give a very nice impression of a house. Plus, the stills now show up on 1 screen instead of an excruciatingly slow slide show (try saying that 10 times quickly!).

So, yes, I can and do offer sellers the option of a virtual tour, but I find that it's best used when appropriate.

Overly zealous HOA tries to ban peace wreath

Hmm, I have to admit, while I wouldn't want to pay to water someone else's pot farm (see the entry from 9/23/06), I think I'd rather have a laidback HOA than one like this. Apparently, a woman is in trouble for putting up a wreath in the shape of a peace sign. Unlike a Christmas decoration that we have that actually spells out P-E-A-C-E, this one is in the shape of the symbol, which is fairly common in Berkeley, but which elsewhere in the country might be taken for a satanic symbol or an antiwar statement. Geez, are they going to attack the people with decorations like mine next? Uh, oh, my "peace" decoration was made in China and given to us by my Jewish inlaws... What does this mean? That I'm pro-Communist? Anti-American? Pro-Christmas? Luckily, there's only one other house on our street, and they don't mind us, even when we leave our garbage cans out.
For an article on the hullabaloo, click on the following link:
article on anti-peace sign HOA

Skype and email come in handy when the webmaster is in China

My husband, the webmaster, is in Shanghai for a conference, but we're actually emailing each other about as often as when he's in his office or on the couch beside me (yes, it's funny how we do that). Skype is also coming in handy. We have cameras set up, so we can have a family meeting daily. Our little girl loves it because he got software that makes him look like a cat, a dinosaur, and even a princess.

The good thing about all this technology is that he's keeping up with my listings and links even though it's tomorrow morning when it's 4 pm here. A young couple that I helped buy a house a couple of years ago are now putting it on the market, so they can move closer to family. My husband told me to go ahead and email him the info and the photos, and he'll put a page up for them. I'll have to tell them that it was done in China, but that it wasn't outsourcing!

I haven't had a chance to use Skype yet with clients, but I look forward to the possibility once more people start using it. It sure beats emailing back and forth endlessly, only to have questions pop up that were already answered in a previous message further down the queue. One quick conversation can be worth a dozen emails.

Of course, it isn't a perfect system. We had a rough connection today: the video kept freezing up, and the sound was way behind. So we went back to email. But when it does work, it's fantastic, and it's free...

To read up on Skype, you can go to their website by clicking on the link below:
skype.com

Is there a 50-year mortgage in your future?

I was talking to a lender the other day who told me that a woman had come to him looking for a lower payment. He explained to her that if she didn't want an interest-only payment, she might want to consider a 50-year mortgage. Well, she just didn't believe it was possible, but it is...

In fact, the same lender is doing a 100% financed loan right now with the first for 50 years and the 2nd for 40 years. It's the only way that the buyers can afford a home and pay some principle (and not very much at that).

Now, these buyers are assuming a couple of things: 1) that values will go up in the long run 2) that they'll sell and buy another house or else refinance once the prepayment penalty runs out.

Are they crazy? Perhaps, but not crazier than the people who are taking on negative amortization. Should they just rent instead? Possibly, but then they don't at least have the tax benefit. And let's face it, rental properties can be beat up, and if you fix them up, you're just doing the owners a favor, and they can sell it out from under you at any time. Even while paying a mortgage might seem like rent, you still have the ability to make the place as nice as possible, enjoy it as your own, and sell it for more at the right time.

This doesn't mean that it's a great loan. It's just that for some people, it's the only loan that works unless they want to leave the area.