Sutter's Fort 175th Anniversary

175 years ago, John Sutter arrived in the Sacramento area, leading to the construction of Sutter's Fort, discovery of gold and the eventual founding of Sacramento. To commemorate Sutter's arrival in August of 1839, Sutter's Fort State Historical Park will conduct a special Hands On History event. 

From 10am to 5pm this Saturday, August 16, you can relive history through a display of rare Sutter family and Fort artifacts, special guests (including Sutter family descendants) and a variety of interactive activities. These will include pioneer dress-up, cooking demonstrations, a corn husk doll craft station, period games for kids, and much more. 

Tickets are $7 for adults, $5 for children 6-17 and free for children 5 and under. For more information, go to www.suttersfort.org or call (916) 445-4422.

817 26th Street Just Sold!

I have a wonderful client that just purchased this great home in the Midtown's Metro Square.

We had gotten in contract on another property, but on closer inspection it just wasn't the right fit for her and we had to cancel that transaction. I'm so happy to see her in this home instead because it lights her up where as the other one was just going to be lots of work to make it some place that she would be happy to be.

The sellers of this home have been wonderful to work with and the transaction went very smoothly.

I'm love seeing a happy client get a home that they truly love! Well worth the extra time searching to make that happen.

Wine, Women and Shoes

This Saturday, November 9, help homeless women get back on their feet by kicking up your own heels at Women, Wine and Shoes. This fun, glamorous event will include wine tastings, the "glass slipper" auction, and a runway show. There will even be "Shommeliers" (also known as Shoe Guys) on hand during the silent auction to provide the perfect pairings of wine and shoes on silver platters.

The event runs from 3-7pm at the Center at Twenty-Three Hundred (2300 Sierra Blvd.). All proceeds will benefit St. John's Shelter Program for Women and Children, the largest shelter in the county focused exclusively on supporting and empowering homeless women and children.

There are still tickets available for luxury stadium seating at the runway show, and for the "Keys to the Closet" raffle. For tickets or more information about the event, go to stjohnsshelter.org or wine-women-shoes.eventbrite.com.

16th Annual Sacramento Arts Festival

This Friday, Saturday and Sunday (Nov. 1-3), the Sacramento Convention Center plays host to the premier arts and crafts show in the region, the 16^th Annual Sacramento Arts Festival.

More than 200 artisans working in all categories of the fine arts (painting, jewelry-making, ceramics, photography, etc.) will present their works. And most of these pieces will be available for sale at a range of prices. So, in addition to being able to appreciate the wealth of artistry available in Sacramento, you can get some for your very own (or as unique gifts for the holidays). You will also enjoy live music and other visual arts performances, and have many dining options available along Restaurant Row.

Tickets are $8 for adults and $7 for seniors, with children 12 and under free. For more information about the festival, and to get a ticket discount coupon, go to www.sacartsfest.com.

Halloween in Sacramento, part 2

This is my favorite time of year! In addition to it being my birthday, the trees are changing color, my fireplace is going to get some use soon and I get to go wild for Halloween!

Over the next week, there are almost too many Halloween festivities going on in Sacramento to list. The following are just some of the highlights of activities located in or near East Sac, most of them family-friendly:

October 25-26:

The Haunted Fort

The 4th annual series of lantern-guided tours of Sutter's Fort.

Sutter's Fort Historic Park, 2701 L Street; 6:30pm-9pm both days, starting every 10 minutes

Admission: $8 (adults), $6 (ages 6-17), free (5 and under)

(916) 445-4422, www.suttersfort.org/events-and-exhibits

October 25-26:

Mansion After Dark

Visit the Governor's Mansion when the lights are out via special self-guided tours.

Governor's Mansion Historic State Park, 1526 H Street; 6pm-9pm both days

Admission: $6 (adults), $4 (ages 6-17), free (5 and under)

(916) 323-3047, www.parks.ca.gov/Events/EventDetail.aspx?id=4787

October 25-27:

27th Annual Safe and Super Halloween

This year, Fairytale Town transforms into the magical world of The Hobbit.

Fairytale Town, 3901 Land Park Drive; 5pm-9pm all days

Tickets before Oct. 25: $7 (members), $10 (non-members); on and after Oct. 25: $9 (members), $12 (non-members)

(916) 808-7462, www.fairytaletown.org/events/27th-annual-safe-super-halloween-friday-through-sunday-october-25-26-27/

October 26, 2013:

Capitol Apocalypse 5K Zombie Run

Outrun zombies along the 3.1 mile course (or go as a zombie yourself). Survive the run, and you can enjoy a beer, live music, food truck and other vendors at the post-run "Apocalypse Party."

Sutter's Landing Regional Park, 20-28th Street: 8am-noon

Admission: $40 (runner), $15 (zombie); proceeds benefit the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

(916) 668-9776, www.capitolapocalypse5k.com/

October 26-27:

Spooktacular Halloween

Haunted house, pumpkin patch, costume contests and more all weekend at Funderland.

Funderland Amusement Park, 1350 17th Ave.; 10am-6pm both days

Admission: free, $3 for trick-or-treating

(916) 456-0115, funderlandpark.com/events/

October 30-31:

Boo at the Zoo

After the Sacramento Zoo closes, the ghouls come out (as well as candy, costume party, magic shows and games).

Sacramento Zoo, Land Park Dr. and Sutterville Road: 5pm-8pm both days

Admission: in advance, $10 (general), $8 (members), free (1 and under); day of, $12, free (1 and under)

(916) 808-5888, www.saczoo.org/page.aspx?pid=360

October 31:

Halloween Search for the Black Cat Scavenger Hunt

Trick-or-treating at the East Sac Mercantile.

East Sac Mercantile, 3257 Folsom Blvd., 3pm-6pm.

Admission: free; (916) 718-7153

Halloween in Sacramento, Part 1

If you just can't get enough of the costumes, candy, thrills and chills that Halloween offers, you are in luck. You don't have to wait until the 31st, as there are spooky goings-on nearly all October long in Sacramento:

October 11-26:

Living History Ghost Tours

The popular month-long tour of historical--and haunted--Sacramento sites.

Sacramento History Museum, 101 I Street; Fridays and Saturdays 6:30pm-9pm

Tickets: $15 (adults), $10 (ages 6-17), free (5 and under)

(916) 808-7059, www.historicoldsac.org/programs/programs-ghost.asp

October 12-26:

The Nightmare Before Christmas Art Lab

A class for kids 9-12 to create nightmarish projects inspired by the movie.

Crocker Art Museum, 216 O Street; Saturdays 1pm-3:30pm

Admission: $95 (general), $75 (members)

(916) 808-1182, crockerartmuseum.org/programs-events/studio-art-a-art-history-classes/event/2699-the-nightmare-before-christmas-art-lab

October 12-27:

Spookomotive Train Rides

A 40-minute ride along the Sacramento River on a Halloween-themed train.

California State Railroad Museum, 125 I Street; Saturdays and Sundays, running every hour from 11am-4pm.

Coach: $10 (general), $5 (ages 6-17), free (5 and under); 1st Class: $15 (general), free (5 and under)

(916) 445-6645, www.csrmf.org/

And that is just the beginning. Be sure to check back in a couple of weeks for even more Halloween events taking place closer to the day.

A Taste of Sacramento

This Friday is the 15th Annual A Taste of Sacramento, a popular event that allows thousands of attendees to come to the Community Center taste all the best that Sacramento has to offer all in one place. The event goes from 5:30pm to 9pm, with tickets running from $40 for regular admission to $80 for Early Bird tickets (early entry at 5pm).

You are sure to get more than your money's worth as many of the Sacramento area's finest restaurants, wineries and breweries will be sharing samples of their best nibbles and beverages. There will also be live music throughout the evening, as well as a large silent auction and raffle.

Proceeds from the night's event will go to support the local Easter Seals. For more information, and to purchase tickets, go to www.myeasterseals.org/events/a-taste-of-sacramento.html.

Click on the tab at the top of this blog to see all the East Sacramento Homes for Sale.

Gold Rush Days

If you're looking for something fun to do this long Labor Day weekend, look no further than Old Sacramento. From August 30-September 2, Old Sac will go back in time for the 14th Annual Gold Rush Days, with dirt-covered streets, historic figures in period costume and music recreating Sacramento in the 1850s.

You'll have a great time discovering the capital city's heritage. Become part of the action by panning for gold or watch Pony Express riders show off their skills. A variety of arts and crafts vendors, food and entertainment venues ensure a fun--and educational--day for all. Admission is free, with tickets available to purchase for wagon rides, train rides, Hornblower cruises and underground tours.

For more information about schedules and events, call (916) 808-7777 or visit sacramentogoldrushdays.com.

Click on the tab at the top of this blog to see all the East Sacramento Homes for Sale.

California State Fair

Living in the state's capital has many benefits. Easy access to the annual state fair at Cal Expo is one of them.

This year's fair runs from July 12-28th, and there's plenty to see and enjoy over the 17-day run. Some of the highlights are:

-The Magical Midway

-The Kids Park

-County displays and educational exhibits

-Livestock competitions

-Nightly concerts, including appearances by Night Ranger, "Weird Al" Yankovic, The Four Tops, Hoobastank, Lonestar, Grand Funk Railroad, En Vogue, LeAnn Rimes, Air Supply, Kool and the Gang, and many, many more.

-Shopping and food (with everything ranging from healthy and fresh offerings like veggie kabobs and fish tacos to those wacky and deep-fried foods, including deep-fried watermelon, deep-friend Fruity Pebbles and spaghetti ice cream)

For fair hours, admission and concert ticket prices and other information, visit the website at www.bigfun.org/.

For those of us that live in East Sac (at least in the northern portion) and River Park, we will be hearing the fireworks every night as they celebrating each day of the California State Fair.

Click on the tab at the top of this blog to see all the East Sacramento Homes for Sale.

1842 Zurlo Way Just Sold

I was able to help a wonderful client purchase this great little home in Natomas. We closed right on time and everyone in this transaction was wonderful to work with.

Looking back on it, this has been one of the smoothest transactions this year!

Click on the tab at the top of this blog to see all the East Sacramento Homes for Sale.

2336 Rudat Circle Just Sold!

This was a long short sale process that almost didn't make it through. I had the listing and worked with another agent in my office who managed the whole short sale approval side of things.

We listed it in January and had it in contract in February. At some point just before we had short sale approval, the bank that owned the loan on the property sold that loan to another bank. We had to start the approval process over!

Right after we got the short sale approved, the buyer decided that he wanted to back out of the purchase. Fortunately, his agent had another, all cash buyer that was willing to step in. It was a very rare case where the lender allowed us to swap out the buyer without having to go back through the whole short sale process.

We just closed last week and my clients are so happy to have this chapter in their life behind them.

Click on the tab at the top of this blog to see all the East Sacramento Homes for Sale.

Father's Day

This coming Sunday, June 16, is Father's Day. Amongst all the barbequing and giving of ugly ties, there are actually quite a few other things going on throughout Sacramento to help you celebrate your Dad and show him how much you appreciate him:

Family Day at the Ballpark

Raley Field, West Sacramento;12:30-3:30pm

Tickets: $5-65 (up to 4 per family, RSVP required)

(916) 520-4229

Father's Day at Funderland

1350 17th Ave., Sacramento; 10am-6pm

Free entry plus cost of ride tickets (today, Dad rides for free!)

http://funderlandpark.com/

Father's Day in the Wild

Effie Yeaw Nature Center, Carmichael; 1:30-3pm

Free admission, donations gratefully accepted (parking $5 per car)

http://www.sacnaturecenter.net/

Hornblower Father's Day River Cruise

1206 Front St., Sacramento: 1:30-2:30pm, 3-4:00pm or 4:30-5:30pm

$20 general admission, $10 children 4-12

http://www.hornblower.com/port/overview/sac+fathers-day-river-cruise

1st Annual Superheroes 5K Run/Walk

1300 7th St., Sacramento; 8:00am sign-in (race starts at 8:30am)

Entry fee: $45 (thru 6/12), $55 (thru 6/16); $20 children 0-16

http://www.superheroes5k.com/

Sacramento Music Festival

Rejoice, all music lovers! This Memorial Day weekend you can listen to all the live music you desire at the Sacramento Music Festival. Once upon a time, this was known as the Sacramento Jazz Festival. However, a name change to the Sacramento Music Festival was deemed necessary to more accurately reflect the wider range of music genres the festival will offer. There is something there for everyone.

Celebrating its 40^th anniversary this year, the Festival is, as the organizers put it, "one GIANT PARTY pulsing with many styles of music. There will be dancing in the streets! Music will be running morning, noon, and night."

The Festival will feature such notable bands as Kenny Wayne Shepherd Band, Los Lobos and the Bob Ringwald Trio (featuring his daughter, Molly). These and more than 80 other bands will serve up traditional New Orleans style jazz and swing, blues, R & B, Cajun/zydeco, American Roots rock, Western swing, Rockabilly, country, bluegrass, Latin and mariachi music.

Over the weekend, these bands will perform at more than 20 sites throughout Old Sacramento and the Convention Center (including a number of free Next Generation youth band sites).

Tickets are available by the day or as an All-Events pass for the entire weekend. For more information on who will be performing, when and where, and ticket info, visit http://www.sacjazz.com/.

Sacramento County Fair

The State Fair may get all the attention, but the Sacramento County Fair has just about as much going on. And it's going on sooner, this Memorial Day weekend from May 23rd to the 27th. There's the Midway of Fun, livestock auctions, a demolition derby, live entertainment and, of course, plenty of delicious (bad for you) Fair food.

The organizers sum up the event on their website:

"The Sacramento County Fair takes place during the Memorial Day weekend and draws nearly 90,000 attendees. We are fun, affordable and safe for the whole family! Our community enjoys our friendly atmosphere, traditional county fair competitions, agriculture displays, hands-on family activities, carnival, festival-style entertainment, and specialty foods.

"We serve our community through our youth programs. For over seventy years our County Fair has provided a platform for local 4-H and FFA youth to show and sell livestock; demonstrate club projects; and display their arts and crafts. More recently, the Fair has opened its doors to Sacramento area elementary schools with its popular Free School Tour Program hosting over 10,000 local students, educators and chaperones and the County Fair distributes a fully-funded wheelbarrow garden program to over 85 classrooms."

This year’s theme is "Let's Eat, Have Fun & Celebrate the Red, White & Blue." Can't argue with that.

Admission is just $5 for adults, with children 12 and under free. (Parking at Cal Expo is $10.) For more info on Fair events, check out the website at http://www.sacfair.com.

Zillow, Zestimates, Love and Hate

I love Zillow and I hate Zillow.

I love Zillow. I've loved it since I first discovered it a decade ago. My love of zilliow is for it's compilation of information in a mapped source. I can pull up the app on my phone and zoom in on a house across the street from a listing and be able to tell my clients the lot size and square footage of their neighbors. I will probably be able to see what it last sold for as well.

I hate Zillow. I hate how inaccurate the price opinion is in Zillow, what they call a “Zestimate”. They can't give an accurate estimation of price just by averaging similar sized home sales close by. This doesn't take into account upgrades, lot size and most importantly, location, location, location! East Sac can have a huge price change in just one block. Compare the sales in the Fab 40's to any sale just one block outside of those boundaries. Some streets are quite with a full canopy of trees and the next street over could be a high pass through street with very little curb appeal.

When a home owner tries to use Zillow to get an estimate of value on their house, they could be greatly off.

Zillow recently published a very interesting article about the accuracy of their Zestimate numbers. Looking at Sacramento, they proudly state that 24.4% of the time their estimate is withing 5% of the actual sales price of any give home that sells. Without going into how much being 5% off on the price can cost a seller, let's look at the rest of their numbers.

When you increase the margin of error up to 10% they hit that 47.1% of the time. This means that less than half of the Zestimate numbers for Sacramento properties are within 10% of the actual value of the home. 74.8% of the time they are within at least 20% plus or minus the actual sales value of a home.

Wait, this means that the other 25.2% of the time they are off by more that 20% of the actual value of the home! I don't like those odds at all.

As much as I love Zillow for the easy access it gives to a variety of information, I hate the false sense of accuracy the Zestimate gives buyers and sellers.

Nothing can replace the accuracy of an experienced agent working the neighborhood and knowing the value of each given block and why the comps in the neighborhood might be better or worse than any give home.  

966 Q Street Downtown Just Sold!

I love my listings in the Saratoga Townhomes. This is a great complex and I have had the honor to list five properties in here in the past two years.

The property at 966 Q Street was wonderfully updated and that is reflected in the price that we were able to get for this great home. We just closed the sale at $257,000 for this two bedroom, one and a half bath townhouse.

The market has definitely heated up, the buyers are out looking for homes and there is very little inventory on the market!

You can see the full details of this great property at my official real estate site here.

3331 L Street Just Listed

I have a great new listing in East Sac. This is a wonderful two story brick home. Nice and spacious at 1780 square feet.

Stop by during any of our open houses and see this wonderful and unique home.

You can see all the details about this property at www.3331L.East-Sac.Com or here.

4 Marina Blue Just Sold

Hey, I never posted that this one closed. It had everything that my client was looking for. We missed it on the first time through by a day and it went Pending as he put in an offer, but we got into back up position and when the first buyer fell out we stepped in and made the deal work!

You can see the full details of this property here.

900 Q Street Just Sold

Well, it sold a few weeks back, but I've been very busy and as usual, my blog suffers when I am spending all my time helping my clients.

It is a great 3 bedroom and 2.5 bath townhouse and I was happy to help the owner make this big transition. 

You can see the full listing here. 

New Listing: 966 Q Street, Downtown Sacramento

I have a second wonderful listing in the Saratoga Townhomes in Downtown Sacramento. This is a great complex and I love having listings here. This is one of the few complexes in the downtown/midtown area that has garages with direct access to the units. Add that this is within walking distance to the Capital and lots of great restaurants and you can see why these sell so well. Low HOA dues, great updates, light and bright, what else could you ask for?

You can see all the pictures and the full listing at www.966Q.east-sac.com or at my site.