It's funny. I was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, and had you told me 10 years ago I would be a resident of Southern California I probably would have asked you what you were smoking. The twists and turns life takes us on is an interesting process, to say the least.To condense a long story, my wife and I went to Mexico for a long weekend in the year 2000. She's a jazz singer and wound up singing at a local night club. Three months later she returned to put on a concert at the same place and that weekend, we wound up buying a home in Mexico! We flew home, put our San Francisco house on the market, and moved to Mexico.This will down the road lead to stories of how I got into real estate, my adventures south of the border, etc., but for now I'll tell you we decided to move ba... 08/22/2007

                   I was thrilled to learn that not only did this Murrieta vacant home sell in less then 1 week (see original blog Gettin' Busy Bloggin' ) after home staging with 1st Stage BUT the new owners wanted to BUY some of the FURNITURE  and ACCESSORIES also!!!  Can you see the smile on my face? :) As a Murrieta, CA Home Stager I made the business decision to buy all of my inventory. Don't get me wrong, owning your own inventory has it's advantages and disadvantages. The main advantage for me was being able to offer competitive pricing.  The biggest disadvantage is moving and storing the furniture.      The first reason why I decided to buy all the furniture and accessories instead of renting is because of the price.  I wanted to make Home Staging affordable for everyone.  I know... 08/20/2007

Thursday 9-13-07  Where did the summer go.  I can't believe it is fall already when the temperature outside is in the high 90's.  At least the evenings are beautiful and warm.  I just came back from Cleveland, Ohio following a family wedding, an engagement party for my other niece and a Large Family reunion with all 6 brothers and sisters and their kids.  Yikes we take up a lot of room.  My poor husband was not use to all the Hearns attending every meal together from Restaurants to home parties.  He is worn out.I on the other hand had a BALL.  My family is so much fun they should have a TV show about them.  They don't even realize how funny they are because they are use to everyone falling down laughing and having a Great Time.Now that it is time to get back to work I can only reflect o... 08/10/2007

Are bank owned homes worth the savings?I asked myself this question yesterday while i was showing bank owned homes with the realtor I work under to a couple clients. We chose three homes, and set out having no real idea of what kind of condition these homes would be in, etc. But we did have a client who insisted on buying bank owned.We traveled to the first home which was in Murrieta CA 92562 . It was a wreck. From the moment we pulled into the driveway the overgrown lawn with weeds as high as a foot seemed to come at us from all over the lawn. We walked inside to find black carpet, (Yes from dirt) holes in the walls, the front door was broken off of the support, a half gutted kitchen with remenents of an old stove and filthy oven, and needless to say, we quickly left the home.The secon... 08/06/2007

  Its literally amazing whats going on in my local market! I just returned from the Real Estate Connect in San Francisco and decided to stop by and say hi to a friend. As I was walking up to his home I noticed an open house sign advertising a bank owned "steal". Being that I am always in the market to buy if the price is right I decided to take a closer look. Walking down to the home was a joke. 7 out of the 18 houses on that particular street had dead lawns. The street looked like it was a ghost town! As I walk up to the home an over zealous Realtor walks up to me immediately telling myself why I must buy this home. She tells me it sold last year for $660,000 And that the buyer put money down and how solid of a home it was. I grabbed a flyer and realized the asking price was $440,000. ... 08/04/2007

Today I was checking in on AR and my AR associates and to my surprise I read a blog from a Keller Williams realtor Michael Garcia, GRI that I worked with in June that was titled Stage that Home and he mentioned me. (Blushing) Michael posted..... So, I approached the seller about this idea. I have had a few offers on the property, but none worth talking about. I also have a buyer interested in the property too. But I couldnt get them to see any vision for the home. The seller asked me to get a few bids and accepted one with 1st Stage Property Transformations. Oh yea, the cool thing is, I found Janice here on activerain! Can you believe it? She did a fantastic job and had such great vision on how the home might look and put into action. I e-mailed the picts to my buyer and to other agents... 07/26/2007

The City of Murrieta and the Historic Downtown Murrieta Association will be hosting its Second Annual Murrieta Block Party, Friday April 13th through Sunday April 15th. This is a family oriented event celebrating the City of Murrieta. Admission is FREE, and there will be over a 100 Vendors and Craft Booths to browse, as well as Food and Beverages, featuring the Fireman's BBQ on Sunday the 15th, a Murrieta tradition for 60 years! Local businesses will also be there promoting themselves, please look for the Tarbell Realtors Booth, we will be there all three days, please come by and sign up for our many FREE drawings being held through out the weekend with lots of great prizes, also inquire about getting your real estate license and working for our family owned company.At the block party w... 04/08/2007

This Saturday April 7th the city of Murrieta will be having its annual EGG-stravaganza from 8:30am to 12:00pm. This event will be held at the California Oaks Park. There will be plenty of activities for children ten and younger. Starting off with a pancake breakfast with the Easter Bunny. Pictures will be available to be taken with the Easter Bunny too. The young ones will be able to hunt for eggs, play in jumpers, slides and pet animals in the petting zoo.Egg hunts will be held for children three through ten. For ages two and younger and the physically challenged a seperate egg hunting area will be set up from 9:00am till 11:00am. Egg hunt times for older as follows; Age                                           Time (am) 9 to 10                           9:307 to 8                    ... 04/06/2007

Once Upon a Time........ 12/12/06 - Property Owner (Queen) from Murrieta, CA contacts me via AR to schedule a home staging appointment to look at staging a 1800 sqft vacant home (castle). 12/13/06 - Meet with Queen at castle.  12/14/06 - Email staging proposal to King & Queen. 12/15/06 - King & Queen are happy with proposal.  Schedule to meet both on 12/16/06. 12/16/06 - Royal Highnesses ready to move forward.  I advise them that I will be away on vacation for the holidays 12/21-29.  Will begin work 1/1 and finish on 1/4/07.  Contract signed and deposit paid.  :) 1/1- 1/4/07  -  Castle is fully staged.  1/6/07 -Castle is listed. 1/7-1/12/07 - The castle gets an offer and counter offers!!!! 1/13/07- I go to the Open House(Ball) with fresh flowers and cheese platter in hand.....BUT wait n... 01/24/2007

Murrieta Business Guide Courtesy of Mission Grove Realty (951) 927-8940The climate in the Murrieta - Temecula Valley affords golfing all year. With many great courses to choose from, you are sure to find the perfect game. With beautiful surroundings and an excellent climate Gofers will find the Temecula and Murrieta areas an excellent place to call home. The selection of Homes and provide many choices in home ownership at prices ranging from the low 300k's to over $1,000,000 and up. We hope that when you visit Temecula  that you will find the time to visit some of these great courses.Temeku Hills Golf &Country Club, Temeku Course 18 holes over 6,636 yards with a par of 72 (Public) 41687 Temeku DrTemecula, CA 92591-3909(800) 839-9949 0 miles from center of Temecula. RedHawk Golf Club, Re... 01/23/2007

I am so very excited about this! We are having a blood drive at our office to benefit the Blood Bank of San Bernadino and Riverside Counties. I was lucky enough to meet some area representatives at a local Business Expo here in town and knew right away it was something I wanted to do and that it would be a great event.Now is a very important time to give, the lack of natural disasters etc. has led many to believe donations aren't needed. That is not true and due to this false belief blood banks all over are running low. I urge all of you to donate, giving blood is a great gift and now is a time they could really use it.If anyone local would like to donate at our event to be held at our office, Integra Funding Group in Murrieta, please contact me, be it 1 or 100, I will do what I need to... 11/06/2006