Best Realty's Lake Oroville Real Estate Blog

Having spent a part of my working life, in the Lake Oroville real estate market, as a financial consultant with a major Wall Street brokerage company I was always entertained by, not only the jargon of the industry,  but also by some of the odd, or some might say superstitious, ways that pundits use to predict the next direction that the market or the economy might move.
For example, the Super Bowl Indicator theorizes that the year in which a team from the AFC wins the Super Bowl the stock market will fall, but if an NFC team wins the market will rally. Amazingly, this “predictor” has been right 80% of the time over the years. Another of these anecdotal predictors is the Hem Line Effect. This theory says that as hem lines move up so does the market and when hem lines get longer the market drops.
So, what does this have to do with anything related to the real estate market in Lake Oroville, Paradise and Chico, you say?
As to those theories, nothing. But I think we unintentionally swerved into the first real estate industry anecdotal predictor of the real estate market, in our office. I call it the Redenbacher Effect.
I discovered this theory while Steffan, one of the associates in my office was popping his $1.00 bag of popcorn ( that he bought at the Dollar Store, because that is where REALTORS® shop these days) in our microwave oven. You might imagine the quality level of $1.00 popcorn is not quite the same as the good stuff you get at the movies for about $5.00 a bag.  The fact that Steffan eats at least a bag a day of this stuff has leads me to believe that he is quite the popcorn connoisseur.
I will never forget the profoundness of the words that eminated from his lips as the Redenbacher Effect was born:
 ”I sure will be glad when the market gets good again so I can afford to buy something better than this $1.00 popcorn c*@p.”
With the suddenness of a light bulb being switched on to interrupt the darkness of an empty room, it hit me that we may finally have an accurate way to forecast the pending direction of  not only the Lake Oroville real estate market, but the real estate markets of all 4 corners of the world!
The Redenbacher Effect is defined as this:
When Steffan is eating $1.00 popcorn c*@p the real estate market is c*@p. When he starts buying more expensive popcorn (i.e. Orville Redenbacher Movie popcorn) the market is going to improve.
Now you might be thinking that I have finally lost it, and actually, you may be right.  But just think about how well (or not so well) the so-called experts have predicted the direction of this market. I mean, really, can this be any less accurate than the methods they use. I think not.
There is, however, one thing that can throw this whole theory into a tailspin.  What happens when someone GIVES us a box of premium popcorn. For example, I was telling my friend Jim Moll about my theory yesterday and when I arrived at the office this morning there was a box of Orville Redenbacher popcorn at my backdoor.
It took me a while to consider the consequences of his generosity. What will happen if we eat this premium popcorn while the market is down like it is?  Will the market improve even though Steffan did not pay for it? The respective answers are, NOTHING, and NO.
You see it occurred to me that Jim’s gift was a POPCORN CREDIT. He was simply giving us popcorn in the hopes that it would give the market time to stabilize so that we can buy the better and more expensive popcorn later. So we have had the CASH FOR CLUNKERS credit, the FUNDS FOR FORECLOSURES credit and now we have CORN FOR C*@P credit.
I wonder if this will work better than the previous credits?……I think we all know the answer to that one hmmmmmm.
Stay tuned to this blog post for updates on the Redenbacher Effect. And remember, you first heard about it here.

Good news for those of you in the Lake Oroville, Chico, and Paradise real estate markets, who have been unable to enjoy the benefits of my AGENTnTOUCH™ app on your Android smartphone.
I have just rolled out the Droid edition of this app and it is now available for download. I have also made some recent changes to the features of the app by adding mapping of area schools, and providing the ability to search for properties directly from my website.
After downloading the app, simply enter my Agent Id on the first page. The Id number is 5303704691.
With coming upgrades and the addition of more features it is my goal to make this the only real estate app you will ever need. Coming next is the Blackberry version of the app. It should be launching sometime within the next month. Of course you will hear it first here.
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I recently had cause to discuss an issue with the City of Oroville Housing Department regarding whether or not a particular home located within the city limits of the Lake Oroville real estate market could be approved to be sold to the first time home-buyer that I am representing.
Without getting into the minutia of the issue, the Housing Department originally said that my client would not be able to purchase the home based on the current guidelines that were established within the grant program that is being used to fund the loans for first time home buyers that are purchasing homes within the city limits of the Lake Oroville real estate market.
In my view, the guideline that they were using was one that was very subjective and open to broad interpretation. In discussing this issue with the housing department over a three day period I think I talked to nearly everyone in the department.
I talked to Dawn, Tiffany, Vanessa, and Pat during this time and to be totally honest I thought I was going to get the proverbial government runaround that normally comes in  dealing with “policy.”
Well I was wrong. That’s right….wrong!
Each of these public servants listened to my concerns and my position with an open mind  and in the end understood that the guideline was in fact extremely subjective and worked diligently to do the right thing for my client , as well as for future users of the First Time Home Buyer Loan Program, of which many in the Lake Oroville real estate market have availed themselves.
The postition that these ladies are in cannot always be an enjoyable job. Dealing with REALTORS®, lenders and first time home buyers while trying to keep up with, and communciate, the many changes that occur in the grant programs that make the loan programs possible has got to be quite a challenge.
A big thank you to Pat Clark, the Director of Business Assistance and Housing Development, and the entire staff in the department for their help. It is refreshing to see that common sense and fairness are alive and well in the halls of our city in the Lake Oroville real estate market.

Is this technology thing terrific or what.
Late last week I showed a home to a first time home buyer in the Lake Oroville real estate market. She liked the house enough to make an offer on it last Saturday evening  through the online bidding process that the seller had established.  No paper offer to write and no signature needed when submitting our bid.  I simply discussed the offer terms with the buyer and from my desk and computer  in my home office I entered the online bid.
Come Monday morning I received an e-mail, on my iPhone, at about 6:30 am informing me that the seller had responded to the offer by sending us a counter offer. I immediately called the buyer, discussed the counter offer and decided to submit a counter offer to the seller’s counter offer.
I submitted the new terms to the seller. After about an half hour I received another e-mail letting me know that the seller had accepted our new terms. I promptly called my buyer to inform her of the good news.  After congratulating her and discussing the next steps in the process, I ended the call and hung up the phone.
It was then that it hit me.
I was sitting there in front of my computer screen, in the privacy of my home office, negotiating, and getting an acceptance on, a contract for my Lake Oroville real estate first time home buyer, IN MY UNDERWEAR!!!
Not only can you now do a lot of your real estate business from home,  you can even do some of it in your tighty whities.
Ok, so now you think I am some kind of nut case. Heck, you might be right. It  just happened to be one of those things that brought to mind how quickly this industry is evolving. Probably should not have gone off my medication!!!! LOL
Is this technology thing terrific or what.

You knew it wouldn’t be long before I made it easier for you to utilize your smart phone to access this blog site, search for properties in the Lake Oroville, Paradise  and Chico California real estate markets, and get the latest in interest rates and other real estate news and advice.
Today I am announcing the launch of my very own iPhone app that is now available for download at the App Store. With this highly sophisticated, but easy to use, app you now have not only my contact information in the palm of your hand but you can now access all the services of my blog site with just the touch of a button. No more addresses to remember and no more passwords to forget. This is just another investment I am making for you in order to provide a service, that nobody else in the Lake Oroville real estate market will,  in order to make current and relevant real estate information readily available to you.
See my current listings, check out my latest blog post, or even find my Facebook, Twitter, and Linked-In pages. Spend as much, or a little time as your prefer because there is NO COST to you to download this App. Check back often, though because updates and come cool additions are coming soon.
And unlike many of today’s apps this app will be compatible with Blackberry and Droid users. Look for the rollout annoucement for these phones on the site sometime before Labor Day.
Download your app at the iTunes App store and search for AgentNTouch. After downloading, launch the app and in the Agent I.D. box enter 5303704691.
I would greatly appreciate your feedback and suggestions. My goal is to always be an AgentNTouch.
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