All posts by jd

Real estate broker, civil engineer and general contractor.
Bits & Pieces

Scotts Flat Lake, Nevada County, Winter 2010

1 Comment

I just recently bought a Canon Hf200 camcorder.  The last video camera I had must have weighed 30 pounds (just kidding). The Canon HF200 weighs less than one pound and is small enough to carry in my jacket pocket.

The Canon HF200 has 15X optical zoom, optical image stabilization and can record in full HD and outputs at 1920×1080. This is my first fully edited video and I am still learning the software that I just bought. If you are interested in the full specs for the Canon HF200 Click Here

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htW7RpS67d4

This video was shot during several periods this winter. Looking out from my deck, the lake is constantly changing  appearance,  even in the summer when the wind plays on the water and sail boats float like toys in a bathtub.

You can download a lot of video editing software for a free thirty day trial. I read all the reviews and tried about 4 different software packages and finally settled with Corel VideoStudio Pro X3. If you read the reviews online it will drive you nuts. All of the reviews seem to have horrible stories about their computers crashing and the programs freezing.

I had none of the problems with any of the software packages that I tried. Corel’s program can read my memory card from the camcorder which the other programs could not. It’s a fairly easy program to learn if you play around with it for a while. There are also a lot of tutorial videos on YouTube which really helped. After editing the video, I was able to download it to YouTube, which is part of the software. If you are interested in the specs for Corel VideoStudio Pro X3 Click Here

Canon HF200 Camcorder

Anyhow, this is my first try and it is not as seamless as I wanted, but it’s a start. I hope you enjoy it and any comments you might have on how to improve the beginning of my movie career would be appreciated.

John J. O’Dell
Real Estate Broker
Looking for property in Nevada County?
Search for it at JohnODellRealty.com
Can you think of a problem you might have in buying or selling?
Call me, I can help you   530-263-1091

Real Estate

Oddball Houses, Great, But How do You Get a Mortgage?

As you can see in the video below, some people have their own taste as to what they want in a home. As a builder, I have stayed away from “green” homes, that is straw bales, rubber tires and yes, recycled cans and bottles. Now home owners with non-conventional homes are having a hard time getting homes financed,

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jeCInpbnyqc

The Problem Is:

How do you find comparables?  In other words, where is another house built of tires or straw that just sold?   Hard to find, since not too many homes are built that way.  No comparable, no appraisal, no loan.

According to the Wall Street Journal:

“Such sentiments in some cases have been no match for the new resolve of the banking industry in the wake of the housing bust. Banks have become much pickier about examining sales of comparable homes, in deciding whether and how much to lend. Owners of odd homes can be out of luck.”

The story continues with three cases of odd-ball homes and how only one was able to get a mortgage.

Read the full story at: Wall Street Journal

John J. O’Dell
Real Estate Broker

Looking for a great deal in property in Nevada County?

Find it on JohnOdellRealty.com

Bits & Pieces

A Boy Named Sam

1 Comment

When my second family was growing up, our home was a safe haven for a lot of my son’s friends. They knew that they could come to our home, have a place to sleep, warm meals and a  refrigerator full of food for their taking.

Sam was one of those boys.  He always said I was like a real dad to him, and in later years whenever he and his friends and I had dinner, he always called me the king of dads. He said I was a dad to all of them.

A couple of times Sam got hurt. Once he went head over heels on his bicycle. I rushed over to help him, he was screaming and hollering. I talked to him, and doing therapeutic touch  he calmed  down until the ambulance arrived.

Then there was the time that he got stung by a wasp. He again was crying and screaming, again I rushed over and using therapeutic touch, I calm him down and he said the pain went away.

In the last two weeks, Sam has been coming over. He broke down several times. His dad was dying and he wanted me to go up to where his dad lived and do therapeutic touch on him. He also told me of the abusive childhood that he had. His dad shot his mother right in front of him. How his dad was mentally and physically abusive to him.

How one time he wanted to go to the county fair so bad and his father took everyone but him to the fair, than came back and taunted him and told him how they all had a great time and too bad he couldn’t go.

So I told him I would help him by going up and seeing his dad. I put it off most of the last two weeks, having got caught up in the day to day affairs. Finally, I told him I would up with him  last Friday.  Gotten busy that day, I kept thinking I should call Sam. Finally, I got home Friday evening and my son texted me wondering if I had called Sam. I texted back and said I would call him now. I called, no answer on his cell, so I left a message telling him that we could go up Monday for sure.

Well, the next text I got from my son was that Sam had committed suicide, he had shot himself in the early morning before sunrise. Later in the day, when his dad heard the news, his dad shot and killed himself.

So I sit here as I write this, with great sorrow and guilt, I wonder if I had just taken the time to help Sam’s dad, would this have happened? I had run to help Sam twice before, but I feel like I failed him in the end.

John J. O’Dell

By the way I changed the name of the actual person involved  to protect the remaining family members. But this did happen last Friday

Fun Friday's

David After Dentist

This is a cute YouTube video of a woozy 7-year-old boy in the back seat of a car, struggling to understand the effects of anesthesia. It’s  been viewed 53,900,000 times and has helped the family gather income in the low six figures since it was posted 18 months ago.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txqiwrbYGrs

CNN has more on this rapid way to fame if you are interested Click Here

John J. O’Dell
Real Estate Broker
Search for foreclosures & Short Sales
Click here

Business, Local Writers & Contributors

Do-it-Yourself Marketing: Bad Idea

by Lisa J. Lehr

What’s wrong with this picture?

The fictitious Modern Widget Company in Grass Valley has a small staff of reasonably capable people who do pretty much everything. One day, Bob notices a leak in the restroom. “I can fix that,” he says, “and I’ll save the company a ton of money.” He goes the hardware store, buys some parts, and fixes the leak…or so he thinks. Next morning, when the staff comes to work, the toilet has crashed into the basement. You see, Bob didn’t know water was leaking under the floor, rotting out the floorboards.

Sally arrives, late and breathless, wearing a hat. Embarrassed, she confesses she’d cut her own hair. With an important presentation coming up, she didn’t have time to go to the beauty parlor. “It’ll grow out eventually,” she says, red-faced.

Jeff and his carpool buddy Jenny call to say they’re going to be late. They were on their way when they heard a strange racket coming from under the hood of Jeff’s pickup truck. “I can deal with that,” says Jeff. “Who needs AAA?” They might not make it in till afternoon.

What do all these people have in common? They tried to fix a problem themselves when they really needed the services of a professional. They ended up with problems far more serious and expensive to fix than their original problems. They suffered embarrassment, wasted time, and inconvenience.

Then one day the staff at Modern Widget Company is ready to launch their new Super Widget.

“I’ll do a website,” says Bob. “I’m a pretty geeky guy.”

“I’ll write a sales letter,” says Sally. “I majored in Creative Writing.”

“I’ll send out some e-mails,” says Jeff. “I like to do e-mail.”

“I’ll make a brochure,” says Jenny. “I’m a pretty good artist.” So they did. How did their cobbled-together marketing program do, you ask?

It bombed. You see, Bob, Sally, Jeff, and Jenny made the same mistakes twice: they thought they knew what they were doing—but they didn’t.

If you’re offering a product or service, you need a professional marketing program to reach your audience and make them buy. Even the best product or service is only as good as your marketing plan. Run, don’t walk, to find a professional marketing writer—before you waste time and money, before you suffer embarrassment and inconvenience. And definitely before your business crashes into the basement (figuratively speaking).

Lisa J. Lehr is a writer and copywriter living in Grass Valley. She can help you promote your business with a full range of online and offline marketing pieces. A member of Empire Toastmasters, she’s available to speak to your business or professional group. Visit her website www.justrightcopy.com for more information, opt in for a message series, and receive a free Marketing Guide.
—
Lisa J. Lehr
I write words that make you money–just ask me how.
www.justrightcopy.com
Visit my website and sign up for my fr~ee marketing tips.
New! No~cost Marketing Guide now available at my website.

Bits & Pieces

The Runaway Prius – What Gives?

Let’s go over the bad press that Jim Sikes is getting and then I’m going to take his side in case he was telling the truth. (Some doubt there huh?)

Here’s some comments by >John Voelcker Car Expert:

“But in one sentence: There seems to be a growing possibility that Jim Sikes, the bankrupt, heavily indebted real-estate salesman who claims his 2008 Toyota Prius accelerated uncontrollably for more than 30 minutes on a San Diego freeway, is not telling the truth.

Overseen not only by Toyota field representatives but a Congressional staffer, NHTSA investigators were unable to replicate the behaviors Sikes describes in his car. Pressing hard on the brakes did in fact bring the car to a stop, over multiple tests.

Indeed, Sikes’ 2008 Toyota Prius has a “smart accelerator” function built into its throttle software: If both the brakes and accelerator are floored, it cuts power to the engine, making it impossible for the accelerator to overpower the brakes.”

So OK, if you put on the brakes and the accelerator quits working, how did Sikes burn his brakes out? The claim is that you can gently put on the brakes and then continue to accelerate. So you can gently put your brakes on and burn them out in a short period of time?

Here’s some more from John Voelcker

“The website The Truth About Cars rented a 2008 Toyota Prius to test the braking behavior. Its report is worth reading in full.

It concludes that Sikes could have applied the brakes at “moderate” pressure while continuing to accelerate, which would produce the smoking brakes and the worn-down brake pads that were observed by the investigators.”

OK, to defend Sikes a little more, I had a brand new 1999 Chevy Silverado. While in Sacramento, the engine fuel mixture started acting up and making the engine run rough. I took it into the Chevy dealer, he checked the on board computer and said the fuel mixture was OK. But then he came back after checking for fuel problems on 1999 Chevy trucks and stated that there was an upgrade for the on board computer that would fix the problem.

Now, I wish that was the end of the problems with that truck, but it wasn’t. I would drive the truck and try to come to a stop and the brakes wouldn’t work from time to time. Now that’s a thrill! To make a long story short, the Chevy dealer drove my truck several times, finally kept it for five days and could never recreate the problem.

I had to go to arbitration to get GMC to take my truck back. The reason I won in arbitration is that there were numerous cases just like mine on the web. The brakes wouldn’t work and the on board computer did not catch the problem. It didn’t catch the fuel problem and it didn’t catch the brake problem.

As I said before, I ran my 2005 Prius up to 50 mph on Brunswick Road and put it in neutral with no problem.  So my question to you and that everyone else is asking, why didn’t he put the car in neutral? The 911 dispatcher told him over and over to put the car in neutral and he completely ignored her. But let’s take that a little further. The driver of the runaway Lexus, who was a highway patrolman, did not put his Lexus into neutral. Of course you heard that he had a fatal crash that killed him, his wife and his daughter. So what happens, does a person panic when the car suddenly gets away from you? I don’t know.

So, who’s telling the truth, Mr. Sikes or the experts who say Mr. Sikes isn’t telling the truth? By the way, you can see they are really digging for dirt on this guy.

What do you think?

John J. O’Dell
Real Estate Broker

Real Estate

Foreclosures Rise Slowest in Four Years

U.S. foreclosure filings rose 6% in February from a year earlier, the smallest increase in four years, according to RealtyTrac.

RealtyTrac Chief Executive James J. Saccacio added the leveling of the foreclosure trend isn’t necessarily evidence that fewer homeowners are in distress and at risk for foreclosure, but rather that foreclosure-prevention programs, legislation and other processing delays are capping monthly foreclosure activity.

The market researcher reported foreclosure filings on 308,524 U.S. properties in February, up 2% from January. Default notices, meanwhile, were up 3% from the prior month but down 3% from a year earlier. Scheduled foreclosure auctions and bank repossessions were both down from January, but grew from a year earlier.

Nevada posted the top foreclosure-filing rate for the 38th consecutive month despite a 30% year-over-year decrease. One in every 102 Nevada homes received a filing, more than four times the national rate. Even with a 9% decline in February from the prior month, Las Vegas was the worst metropolitan area, with one filing for every 90 homes.

California, meanwhile, posted a 15% year-over-year decline in February. Six California and Arizona metro areas were in the top 10 nationally, while Florida again had two.

Source: Wall Street Journal

Do you know that it’s getting to be a seller’s market in the under $250,000 price range? Almost every home in that price range seems to have multiple offers now. Interest rates are low. This combined with federal tax credits and investors still  buying is continuing to fuel sales.

John J. O’Dell
Real Estate Broker
Search Foreclosed Homes And Short Sales
At click here JohnO’DellRealty.com

Real Estate

Bank of America’s Contractor Confiscates Parrot

Bank of America Nevada City, CA

A contractor for Bank of America went into the home of a borrower which was not vacant nor in default with the mortgage. While Angela Iannelli was away, under instructions from Bank of America, the contractor cut off utilities, padlocked the door and confiscated her pet parrot, Luke.  Maybe the contractor was thinking the woman was in default with her mortgage, would make her payments current if he took the parrot for ransom.

According to the Wall Street Journal:

“Angela Iannelli, 46 years old, alleged in a lawsuit Monday that the October incident—which separated her from her 11-year-old parrot for more than a week—caused so much “emotional distress” that she needed a prescription medication for anxiety.

A Bank of America spokesman said Wednesday a bank employee erroneously believed the house was vacant and sent the contractor there with instructions to install a new lock and otherwise “secure” the property. The bank spokesman said those instructions were inappropriate because Ms. Iannelli wasn’t in default and the house wasn’t vacant.

Mortgage lenders have struggled in the past three years to hire and train enough people to deal with the biggest wave of foreclosures since the 1930s. Nearly eight million households, or 15% of those with mortgages, are behind on their payments or in the foreclosure process.

Many borrowers complain they get the runaround when they call their lenders for help, receive contradictory information from different employees and are required to repeatedly fax the same documents.”

You can say that again. Dealing with banks, you can expect multiple answers to your mortgage problems and repetition of them asking for the same paper work over and over.  You are also transferred to a different person each and every time you call them, so that it appears that they are in complete chaos. In the final analysis, it seems that the last thing they want to do is modify your mortgage or help you in any way.

You can read the full story by clicking here: Wall Street Journal

John J. O’Dell
Real Estate Broker
Do you know one thing about a short sale
that could haunt you for many years to come?
Call  me and find out 530-263-1091

Bits & Pieces, Nevada County Information

The Useless War on Drugs in Nevada County

Although this raid on a marijuana plot in North San Juan happened last September, I think it is still newsworthy.  The producer of this film makes a good analogy of pot growing versus farmers growing tobacco.

According to the video, the pot grower grossed over $1,900,000. More people die from using tobacco than any other drug on the market. Somehow, we don’t seem to be raiding too many tobacco growers. The number two killer drug is alcohol. One in ten deaths in Europe is alcohol related and one in twenty five world wide are alcohol related.  As far as I know, we’re also not doing drug raids on bars.
Death rate extrapolations for USA for Smoking 440,000 per year, 36,666 per month, 8,461 per week, 1,205 per day, 50 per hour. Note: this automatic extrapolation calculation uses the deaths statistic: 440,000 annual deaths each year are smoking-associated (CDC)  Average number of years of life lost because of smoking, 12 years.

Source: WrongDiagnosis.com

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ctd–dipNOs

In 2000, 85,000 deaths were alcohol related and 17,000 deaths for all illicit drugs. In 2006, 38,396 persons died of drug-induced causes in the United States. This category includes not only deaths from dependent and non-dependent use of legal or illegal drugs, but also poisoning from medically prescribed and other drugs. It excludes unintentional injuries, homicides, and other causes indirectly related to drug use, as well as newborn deaths due to the mother’s drug use.”  Seems like the war on drugs isn’t working.

Source DrugWarFacts.org

I almost lost a son to drugs, so I know the pain and suffering that drugs can do to a family. So I am not a fan of any drug on the market, including tobacco, alcohol or marijuana.  However, it seems extremely meaningless to continue to fight a losing drug war when we take a blind eye to the number one and number two killer drugs. The money spent on drug wars could be used much more efficiently to cure  people who have a drug addiction, be it tobacco or any other drug on or off the market. Prohibition did not work, why do we think we can win the war on drugs?

As Carl Jung said: Every form of addiction is bad, no matter whether the narcotic be alcohol or morphine or idealism.

What do you think?

John J. O’Dell
Real Estate Broker
Questions about Real Estate?
Call 530-263-1091

Real Estate

Now is the Time to Get Your Real Estate Deal, While You Still Can


The combination of affordable home prices, low interest rates, and the federal tax credit for home buyers have created an opportune time for many buyers to purchase a home.  Many real estate analysts also believe that most housing markets have stabilized, but that some markets may decline further.

MAKING SENSE OF THE STORY FOR CONSUMERS

  • Buyers should keep in mind that housing markets are local and can vary greatly from one neighborhood to the next.  Working with a REALTOR® familiar with the area in which the buyer is searching can help the buyer select a house that best suits their needs.
  • California’s housing market has shown signs of stabilization since early last year.  Sales of existing, single-family homes bottomed out in August 2007, and the median home price reached its trough in February 2009.  In January, California’s median home price was 17.2 percent above the low for the current cycle.
  • The federal tax credit for home buyers was extended and expanded late last year.  Qualified first-time buyers may be eligible to receive a tax credit of up to $8,000 on homes purchased before April 30, 2010.  Repeat buyers may be eligible for a tax credit of up to $6,500.  Visit First Time Home Buyers Credit Answers for more information about the federal tax credit for home buyers, including eligibility requirements.
  • The Federal Reserve has helped maintain low interest rates, which, in turn, has assisted home buyers.  However, the agency plans to stop purchasing mortgage-backed securities at the end of this month, which likely will increase rates on 30-year fixed mortgages.  Buyers may be able to lock in a low interest rate by working with their lender.

To read the full story, please click here.

John J. O’Dell
Real Estate Broker
Here for you
Because I care
Call 530-263-1091