Tracy, CA

The proverbial 2 x 4 smacked me right upside the head Thanksgiving Day.

First, - Cousin is moving to Cedar Rapids, Iowa-  this means selling home in Huntiington Beach, and buying a home in Cedar Rapid and in San Diego area. UH - Hello -- did anyone call me so I could refer them an agent -- NOPE.  Well for one part of the transaction they DO have to use a RElO - Company, but still.

THEN - other cousins DAUGHTER is buying a home in Santa Rosa -- this is a bit far for me, but I could have found them a great agent to refer them to.

At one point, someone said, "you've been selling Real Estate for how long?"  4 YEARS!  4 YEARS! 

I do realize we only see each other once a year -- but -- SMACK!  2 x 4 - I've done a lousy job at explaining to others not only WHAT I do but HOW I get PAID!

Lesson learned - sphere of influence will all get a letter, email, phone call explaing WHY they always need to call me if they or ANYONE they know are EVEN THINKING of buying or selling a home.

Thanksgiving has been here and is gone--- so there is NOTHING STOPPING CHRISTMAS FROM ARRIVING NOW!

I like to have a "Birthday Month", so I've decided to make December "Christmas MONTH".  Although every day should be about giving - not every day is.

So for the month of December it's going to be all about OTHERS!  All about YOU!  (This is usually my goal, no excuses this month.)

How about you -- if we all make December "Christmas month" it will be a habit of giving by January!

Where to start........

Do you have a Wachovia Mortgage?  Are you upside down?  Do you want to keep your house?  Do you want to short sale your house?  Well, if your loan is with Wachovia you have a great opportunity to make any of the above options happen.

I was speaking with a Wachovia rep the the other day, and this is one bank that is being very pro-active.

Call today - they even have LOCAL FIELD REPS to handle the short sale or the loan modifications with minimal paper work.

If you are in the Northern California - call me directly, I'd love to help you.

Susan

As I read Seth Godin's Blog this morning on Thanksgiving I realised how right he is.

Thankgsiving is about just that THANKS. 

How often do we think it's about FOOD?  Yes, we all eat far more than we should, and shouldn't we be thankful that we have more than enough to eat?    I especially thankful that Thanksgiving is in November and not in May - 4 weeks before bikini season!

Yes, most of us spend this day with family and friends, do we really think about being thankful that we have family and friends to be WITH?

I personally need to STOP and really think about everything I have to be thankful for this year.

I know I have taken for granted the fact that I have my health (there was a scare that really brought this home.)  I'm thankful for a Husband that loves me and thinks I'm the only woman in the world.  I'm Thankful for 5 great kids who are growing in to fabulous adults. 

I'm most thankful for the problems, the growing pains, the lessons learned the hard way as I'm certain it is those things that make each of us the people we are today.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving.

Step by step instructions...

Go to this website:  http://www.sjgov.org/treasurer/OnlinePay.htm

It looks like it is for paying your taxes but it actually will give you the specific property tax bill for any house in San Joaquin County including Tracy. 

• You have to click on the "Don't know your parcel number? CLICK HERE to look it up by address". 
• Then after you know the parcel number of the property address you want to look up, click on the 'I have read and agree with the above disclaimer". 
• Type in the parcel number in the search criteria box & press submit. 

There you go, it should pop up & gives you so much information.  How you can calculate what your future taxes are on this property, would be to take the "prop 13 tax amount" and take your future purchase price & it will be 1% for our area.  For example, if you plan to pay $200k for a home, then you would plop $2,000 in that spot & add up all the rest of the figures because they don't change when you purchase the home for any price. 

Hopefully this helps you tremendously.

If you need more help, email me at christina@christinaoneal.com to set up an appt.