Randy Elliott - REALTOR®: Lodi / Stockton, CA

I came across this short video today that really puts this into perspective. At least it did for me.

We sometimes take for granted the little things in life, like a beautiful smile on someone’s face, or a baby’s laugh, the rolling clouds in the sky, or literally everything that we can see, hear, touch, or smell. What an amazing gift to have any or better yet, ALL of these senses.

I urge you to watch this video and to cherish all you can think of no matter how large or small you might consider it to be. It is all relative to the life you live.

One of my resolutions this year will be to laugh, smile and enjoy life more than I have in the past. I hope that you will consider to do the same. ;-)

Happy New Year, and welcome to your BEST YEAR EVER!

I wish you all a very healthy and prosperous new year!

Randy

According to Lender Processing Services (LPS), there were 6,298,000 mortgagesgoing unpaid in the United States as of the end of October.

Although that sounds like an incredibly HIGH number of delinquent mortgages, that total is actually less than the previous months.

At the beginning of this year, there were 6,870,000 delinquent mortgages. Compare that to the beginning of 2010 that showed 8,118,000 and you can clearly see how there’s been a major decline in the total numbers of past due mortgages.

CLICK HERE for more on this story.

Does all this mean that we’re nearing the end of the housing problems? I wouldn’t go so far as to say that, but I feel it’s definitely showing that we’re heading in the right direction. And although it may confirm that we’re heading the right direction, it’s kind of like we’re on a cross-country journey and we still have a long road ahead of us. Hopefully the trek will be less cluttered with road blocks the further we get.

It's time for the 7th Annual ZinFest in Lodi, CA coming this May 13-15th. There will be tons of festivities, fun, wonderful food, and of course plenty of wines from many of the local vintners. This will surely be a festival that will provide the adults that are still young at heart with lots to do and enjoy.

This is Lodi's premier wine tasting event and has grown in popularity over the last few years. It attracts wine enthusiasts and fun lovers from all around.

The festivities of Vintner's Grille at the Lake will start at Lodi Lake on Friday the 13th, yes that's right, I said Friday the 13th, from 6pm-9pm at the lovely Lodi Lake on Turner Rd. If anything, at least show up to see what happens at a small town lake on Friday the 13th just for fun. HA!

The fun continues as the actual Wine Festival on Saturday the 14th (not as scary sounding) from noon - 6pm, still at Lodi Lake. There will be 250 handcrafted wines from 50 local Lodi wineries.

Then on Sunday the 15th (not scary at all) ZinFest wraps up with self-guided tours and open houses of participating local wineries.

There are different ticket prices for the Friday and Saturday events, and Sunday is a no-charge day to tour the wineries.

Visit this website ZINFEST for all the details on tickets, locations, participating wineries, etc.

If you attend, BE SAFE and HAVE FUN! And while you're in town and would like to view any homes for sale in Lodi area, I'd be delighted to assist. Perhaps we'll even find you a property that has wine grapes growing on it and you can really be a part of the 8th Annual ZinFest next year. :-)

It's not that often I get to list what I feel is a "GEM" of an investor's delight, but now that I have an REO listed and I feel pretty darn sure that any investor would be lucky to find this deal, I can't seem to find the right investor with any interest at all in the Yuba City, CA area.

Here's a photo and here's a link to this already mostly rehabbed single family residence that offers an over-sized .21 acre lot, 2 bed & 1 bath with detached 2-car garage.

The home was already mostly rehabbed by someone else with newer stucco, dual paned windows, new garage door, tile flooring, etc, etc.

At this price I thought for sure that every investor within a stone's throw would jump on this one, but for some reason I was wrong.

I'm not all that close in proximity to this listing, and maybe I don't know the area as well as had thought or found from my research, so if anyone out here can give me some ideas about why it hasn't sold very quickly at such a LOW price, then I would greatly appreciate the input.

It's this kind of property that makes me wish I was able to be on the investor side and not just on the Realtor side, but I could be wrong here. It just "FEELS" like it would sell like hotcakes.

I usually deal most often with Short Sales in the Lodi and Stockton areas of CA, but my new Broker does a lot of REO's where her main office is located, and I was excited to start getting involved in the REO market myself here in Northern California. This has certainly not turned out the way I had imagined it would be.

Go figure! No really. Go figure out what it would take to sell this property. :-)

Make it a groovy day!