Magical Motoring: California’s Very Best Road Trip

Part 1
by Tom Knight

San Francisco is a worldwide tourist destination, but I wonder how many Bay Area residents who routinely watch “California’s Gold” with Huell Howser or “Bay Area Backroads” with Doug McConnell on TV are aware that they live at the beginning of the most profoundly beautiful and historic road in the entire state: Highway 4. Truly, this must be one of the best kept secrets for those who enjoy a great road trip. An entire book could be written just on the several hundred miles which is absolutely the most diverse and fascinating cross-section of California’s geography and history. You could drive it in a day, but if you took a week you would never be bored. Here’s why…


Going from West to East, the road begins in Hercules where one sees lots of new homes and lots of eucalyptus trees. The trees are reminders of the past, when they were planted to protect the public from inadvertent explosions from Hercules Power Company, maker of explosives for both World Wars. Also present is a rail line, now owned by Burlington Northern Santa Fe, but once carrying passengers on the silver streamliner “Santa Fe Super Chief” from Richmond to Chicago. The brightly colored red and yellow “war bonnet” décor of the locomotives was a sight to see.

Immediately leaving the shores of San Pablo Bay, the road rises rapidly and winds over the rolling hills of the coast range, still grazed by cattle as it has been continuously for more than a century and a half. You might catch glimpses of old barns or ranch homes surrounded by tall palms or sycamores. Soon you pass the environs of Martinez with the beautifully maintained John Muir house on the left and a spectacularly large and rusty railroad trestle (still in use) on the right, spanning Alhambra Creek. Not long after that the striking view of Mt. Diablo comes into view on the right, the top of which is a landmark for the legal description of real estate throughout most of California. At 3,864 feet elevation and with no other mountains nearby, it is said to possess a view from the summit on a clear day of more of the earth’s surface than any other place on earth. The nearby Black Diamond Mines Regional Preserve was once the site of California’s largest coal mining operations.

Passing through Concord and just before rising over Willow Pass to the Pittsburg/Antioch area, one may notice the bunkers, raised mounds of earth and concrete, which are the reminders of explosives stored by the U. S. Navy during World War ll. Few people may know that this was the location of a great tragedy during the war, when a massive explosion occurred killing 320 men and injuring another 390, mostly African-American, who were loading ships bound for the Pacific Theater. The area on the waterfront was called Port Chicago, now the site of a historic marker commemorating the service and sacrifice of these young men. Immediately following the Port Chicago Disaster, the largest mutiny ever to take place in the U. S. Navy eventually resulted in the desegregation of military services in the U. S.

Descending the highway from the summit of Willow Pass, one views the heavily industrialized area along the Pittsburg waterfront, a reminder of the economic power of the Bay Area. Next is Antioch and the gateway to the Delta, a place forgotten by time, the repository of memories past, place of pears and parties, floods and ferries, fishing and follies, crawdads and Chinese, a place bypassed and unknown by most travelers passing by on the distant busy interstate highways which surround it.

1476 Greenwood Terrace, Berkeley

Designed in 1907 by Bernard Maybeck for Francis E. Gregory, this inspiring home features all clad redwood walls, a particular design Maybeck like to incorporate, views of the Golden Gate, and great separation of space.

Maybeck once said, "A house should fit into the landscape as if iit were a part of it," he declared, and then added: "It should also be an expression of the life and spirit which is to be lived with that it. "Back of all this," he continued, "is the simplicity, the sincerity and the naturalness of the expression." (Keeler, 2006) The location of this home in the Berkeley Hills and the simplistic design of this Maybeck home captures the essence of this quote.


The unique architecture of the surrounding houses, the beautiful redwood trees, incredible views and the incorporation of nature is what makes Greenwood Terrace a spectacular place to call home.

In addition to many homes throughout the Bay, he also designed the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco and The First Church of Christ in Berkeley among other public buildings.

Come by and see 1476 Greenwood Terrace this Sunday from 2-4pm.







written by Gina Odom, Realtor
ReferenceList:
(2006) Bernard Maybeck: A Gothic Man- by Charles Keeler.

http://www.palaceoffinearts.org/Welcome.html

http://www.friendsoffirstchurch.org/

Emeryville has far surpassed its label as the “Rottenest City of the Pacific Coast!”

When I was at Rotten City Pizza in Emeryville, I was reading a quote by the Alameda County District Attorney Earl Warren. He said that Emeryville was “the rottenest city on the Pacific Coast.”  This quote is what inspired the name of Rotten City Pizza. There is nothing rotten about their pizza, however, it is delicious.  They are open late, have free delivery and sell it by the slice if you are in the neighborhood.

And for you history buffs, following the crackdown on gambling in 1919, Emeryville began licensing card clubs, and many prospered along San Pablo Ave including Santa Fe Club, King Midas Club, Bank Club, Key Club, Alamo Club, Avalon Club and Oaks Club.  Today, only the Oaks Club has survived and it's thriving. You can still enter the Bank Club but it’s only if you want to grab a drink. Speaking of drinks, during prohibition in the 1930s, a number of “speakeasies” and bootleg joints offered illegal liquor. The Townhouse Bar and Grill built in 1926 and one of these “speakeasies” and still exists today serving up great food and drinks and has live jazz weekly.

Today, Emeryville boasts some modern fantastic bars and restaurants and is home to Bay Street. This urban hub uses architecture, lighting, landscape and environmental graphics to create a unique, contemporary atmosphere where you can shop, eat, live and has a tremendous, high quality movie theater.  You can also find the only IKEA in the East Bay located next door.  A few of my favorite restaurants in Emeryville are Café Bier where you can dine while drinking beers from around the world and watch soccer, and the original Rudy’s Can’t Fail Café where you can get food, both traditional diner food and good vegetarian delights any time of the day. And rumor has it, that a band member of Green Day is the one of the owners of this fine joint.

Emeryville is an easy commute to San Francisco, being the first stop over the bridge. Condo/loft prices range from $250K to $700K depending on size and era.  For single family homes, prices range from $250K-$500K but they rarely come on the market.  As a buyer, you will normally see condos or lofts for sale before you see a single family home.  Emeryville also has a down payment assistance program that is worth checking into should you need some down payment assistance.

By Gina Odom, Realtor

Northbrae Neighborhood in Berkeley Ranks Top 10 Places To Live

By Krista Miller, Realtor

The American Planning Association's "Great Places In America" has voted our own Northbrae neighborhood in their top 10 places in 2011.

Most people associate Northbrae with Monterey Market, Berkeley Horticultural Nursery, and Marin Circle Fountain. Me being me must associate it with food and coffee, so after I grab a latte from Espresso Roma Cafe and a slice of pizza from Gioia, I head with the kids to King Park and take in the amazing scenery.

http://www.planning.org/greatplaces/neighborhoods/2011/

Real Estate Agents as Online Content Curators

We live in interesting times. Because of the internet, it is possible to connect to information about everything. My seven-year-old knows this instinctively. Recently, I told her about my hypothesis that the Tooth Fairy paid children for baby teeth because "ground baby teeth" is the secret ingredient in pixie dust.  She said, “Why don't you look it up online.”  Sure enough, I quickly discovered that my theory is not original.  (See Tooth Fairy Fun "Facts".)

Real estate is no exception. You can go online and find infinite information. Some of it very useful.  Some of it as tangible as pixie dust.  A good real estate agent can help guide you to the most reputable sites and tell you what sources are flawed.  In the East Bay, agents with access to our local Multiple Listing Service (MLS) have a product called ListingBook, which allows them to share accurate MLS data with their clients.  This tool is by invitation only, so you do need an agent to hook you up.

If you are not yet aligned with a Realtor, and you want to filter out inaccurate information, it's important to understand why online data is not always reliable.  To do this, consider how real estate data is sourced and commoditized online-- and see yourself (homeowner, potential buyer or enthusiast) as the consumer of this commodity.

The first rule of reporting is "question the source."  Some sites gather information from their user community.  This is the Wiki model and requires the community to self-police its users.  Wonderful concept; but not always reliable, and often it is difficult to trace the source.  These sites can have inaccuracies due to human error or dishonesty.

In addition to requesting user participation, some sites employ complicated algorithms to automate the population of data.  The algorithms pull from a variety of sources including MLS data and county records-- sometimes resulting in surprisingly accurate calculations.  Other times, due to small sample sizes or the inability to account for individual variations (like the spectrum of remodeling choices evident in our Bay Area homes), the results are misguided.  The graph below is Zillow's  disclosure on the accuracy of their data.  Click on the graph to enlarge it.

Chart "About Zestimates" from Zillow.com 1/20/12

Careful users should also consider how a site is monetized.  Many sites rely on on advertising dollars to keep the site free to the user.  To lure advertisers, they hope to show good search engine ranking on sites like Google and Yahoo.  To this end, some sites post real estate data indiscriminately in order to gain good SEO (search engine optimization).  Having lots of data offers more keyword search opportunities and better ranking.  Better ranking translates to more paid ads.  More is better here, so attention is not always given to fixing inaccuracies.

The foreclosure website ReatlyTrac suffers from the "more is better" syndrome.  In the quest to have the most foreclosure listings possible, they post "pre-foreclosure" information.  If a homeowner is behind in payments, their home could make this list.  Many of these homes never become bank-owned foreclosures:  The homeowner catches up on payments or sells the home before they get a notice of default.  These phantom listings can be confusing to a home buyer.

Real estate agents also use online sites to monetize their efforts, if indirectly, to gain a commission.   They do this by aligning their marketing prowess with the sites that have the best ranking:  “Dear Seller, I am so good I promise to post your home on Zillow and Trulia and Realtor.com….”  This creates inaccuracies because, although many agents are eager to put their listing online and gain the exposure, there is far less motivation to update the information after the property has gone pending or sold.  We get frequent emails asking about random listings found online, only to discover they have long since sold.  BTW, Berkeley Hills Realty prides itself on tracking our syndication efforts and we take the extra step to revisit the sites we have control over to post the most accurate data.

This article is not meant to render the mentioned websites disreputable.  We use all of the above sites daily in our business and appreciate the multiple streams of information.  No one wants to limit access to online data.  But, in the age of information overload, good advice is priceless.  Real estate agents have become the curators of good content.  Contact one of our agents for guidance to the best available information.

Berkeley is OK by Me

by Tom Knight, Broker Associate

For all the media attention to far out fringes of Berkeley, California, particularly those of a political nature, it may come as a big surprise to most that for the vast majority of citizens it is a just a very comfortable and pleasant place to live. People here do appreciate Nature, but who wouldn’t with the temperate climate and beautiful views of San Francisco across the Bay. Beaches and marinas are pleasant places to enjoy some sun, even if you aren’t a seasoned sailor. If the bug bites, the Cal Sailing Club is ready to provide all the instruction you need at a reasonable price. More of a hiker? Tilden Regional Park has valley trails, mountain trails, lakes, even a steam railroad and carousel for the young and the young at heart.

People do enjoy eating at one of the many diverse restaurants, the vast range of ethnic cuisine in part explained by the presence of the university. Having dining choices is wonderful, but you can still get an old-fashioned hamburger at Oscar’s, Barneys, 900 Grayson or Bongo Burger, just to name a few. For the more adventurous, there are Nepalese and Ethiopian places to dine, but my preference is more towards good Mexican or fresh seafood, sometimes one and the same.

Bookstores are kind of old fashioned I guess in this digital age, but for those of old fogies like me who like to let our minds wander as we browse the aisles, it’s pretty darn nice to have Moe’s, Shakespeare Books, Black Oak Books and Books, Inc. When you search the internet, you’re already starting with a direction. The beauty of browsing in a bookstore is the joy of discovering ideas you hadn’t thought of, as well as deepening your knowledge of established interests.

Kids are supposed to go to school from kindergarten through the senior year of high school. Sure, there are some fine private schools to send your kids to, but the public schools offer quality instruction. For the child with a ravenous intellectual appetite, Berkeley High School has classes in astronomy or Swahili, not to mention advanced calculus. For the slow learner, classes exist which enable those special needs kids to reach their maximum potential. It’s nice to live in a town where the unique attributes of each youngster is acknowledged and nurtured.

The public transit system is comprehensive, making it easy to get around by bus, rapid transit or train. You can rent a car by the hour or by the day. Bicycles are in vogue, with many streets having bike lanes and public places providing bike racks. You can combine bus and bike, train and bike. The Oakland Airport is only fifteen to twenty minutes away and offers domestic flights almost anywhere. From the nearby Emeryville Amtrak Station one can catch the California Zephyr to Chicago or the Coast Starlight to L.A. or Seattle. Walking is not all that bad either, and the many small neighborhood centers make a short stroll to the store or coffee shop a pleasure.

When it comes to a roof over your head, it’s true that there are some stunning estates high up in the hills with fabulous panoramic views and iron gates. But for every one of those, there are dozens of craftsman bungalows with fine woodworking from the 1920s, built-ins with leaded glass and cozy charm in modest living rooms with tiled fireplaces. In Berkeley even the smaller homes exude comfort and style, as welcome as an old pair of fuzzy slippers. Trees, lots and lots of trees line the streets and the flowers, well, they bloom just about all year long. It’s a gardener’s paradise with mild temps and great soil. You can get your hands dirty here, whether it’s in politics or in the backyard.

Berkeley sometimes gets a bad rap from the occasional media blast over fringe points of view, but overall I find it to be very middle America: quiet, beautiful and a comfortable place to call home.  I guess it would be fair to say that Berkeley is definitely OK by me.

NAR overestimated real estate sales by 14% | Inman News

NAR overestimated real estate sales by 14% | Inman News

The National Association of Realtors says it overestimated home sales by more than 14 percent since 2007 because an adjustment that the trade group makes to data it collects from multiple listing services to account for sales that take place outside of MLSs got out of whack over time.

NAR says it's fixed the problem and "rebenchmarked" statistics going back to 2007, when it said its adjustments began to diverge from previous assumptions about how many sales take place outside of MLSs.

The trade group blamed much of the problem on a decline in "for sale by owner" sales -- properties not represented by real estate brokers and therefore not listed in an MLS.

NAR said consumer survey data show FSBOs accounted for 9 percent of sales in 2010, down from 16 percent in 2000.

"In addition to a decline in FSBO transactions, more builders began marketing new properties through real estate brokers (and those sales) weren't completely filtered from the existing-home data," NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun said in a statement.

"Some property listings on more than one MLS, and issues related to house flipping, also contributed to the downward revisions."

After rebenchmarking 2010 data, NAR now says there were 4.19 million existing-home sales last year, down 14.6 percent from the 4.9 million sales the group previously reported. For 2007 through 2010, sales and inventory were 14.3 percent less than previously reported, the group said.

Source: Calculated Risk blog.

NAR said the rebenchmarking doesn't affect previously reported median home prices or months' supply of homes for sale. Previously reported month-to-month trends in housing sales were also unaffected, because sales for each month have been revised downward.

Although rebenchmarking will also be done at the state level, data reported by local MLSs and Realtor associations is still valid, because those numbers are published before they are adjusted.

The need to rebenchmark NAR's existing-home sales statistics is generating national headlines that could damage the trade group's credibility.

Anticipating NAR's revisions, the Greater Tulsa Association of Realtors in Oklahoma last week issued a press release reassuring consumers that "the newly revised national data has no impact for local homebuyers" and that "rates are (the) lowest in history and it's still a great time to buy in Tulsa."

Phoenix-based broker Jay Thompson said that so far his clients haven't voiced any concerns about NAR's need to revise its existing-home sales statistics.

"I think within the real state industry we're probably more concerned about it, and certainly more aware of it, than consumers are," Thompson said.

The MLS numbers "are good and solid," he said, and his clients put more faith in the MLS-based local market reports he provides them with rather than media reports on national sales figures.

"The mainstream media tends to blow these things out of proportion," Thompson said. "I have no evidence that buyers and sellers pay any attention to the numbers that come out of NAR. They see the headlines but it never comes up in conversation."

NAR's national statistics are important to economists, policymakers and others who make decisions based on macro-level data including national home sales.

The benchmark revisions, for example, will require the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis to make a small downward adjustment to its estimates of national gross domestic product (GDP). That's because the bureau relies on NAR's existing-home sales figures to estimate real estate brokers' commissions on the sale of residential structures, most recently pegged at $55.5 billion a year, down from a peak of $109.9 billion in 2005. 

If that figure were adjusted downward by 14 percent, the $7 billion reduction would have only a slight effect on the U.S.'s $15 trillion GDP. Brokers would not be affected because they collect actual, rather than estimated, commissions.

NAR said that in the process of rebenchmarking, it consulted with the Federal Reserve Board, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae, the Mortgage Bankers Association, the National Association of Home Builders, CoreLogic, and individual economists.

The latest, rebenchmarked data from NAR shows existing-home sales increasing by 4 percent from October to November, to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.42 million homes -- a 12.2 percent increase from a year ago, when homes were selling at a pace of 3.94 million units a year.

Housing inventory was down 5.8 percent from October to 2.58 million existing homes for sale, a seven-month supply at the current sales pace. Inventories peaked at a record 4.04 million in July 2007, NAR said, citing the rebenchmarked figures.

The national median existing-home price was $164,200 in November, down 3.5 percent from a year ago.

Distressed homes, including short sales and homes repossessed by lenders, accounted for 29 percent of sales in November, down from 33 percent a year ago. NAR said 19 percent of home sales were lender-owned properties and 10 percent were short sales.

All-cash sales -- mostly to investors -- accounted for 28 percent of existing-home sales, down from 29 percent in October and 31 percent at the same time a year ago.

First-time buyers accounted for 35 percent of existing-home sales, up from 34 percent in October and 32 percent in November 2010.

Breaking down existing-home sales by category, NAR said single-family home sales were up 4.5 percent from October to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 3.95 million, a 12.9 percent increase from a year ago. The median existing single-family home price was $164,100, down 4 percent from a year ago.

Existing condominium and co-op sales were unchanged from October, with transactions closing at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 470,000, up 6.8 percent from a year ago. The median existing-condo price was $164,600, down 0.2 percent from a year ago.

Regionally, existing-home sales in the Northeast were up 9.8 percent from October to an annual pace of 560,000, a 7.7 percent increase from a year ago. The median price in the Northeast was $240,200, down 0.1 percent from a year ago.

Existing-home sales in the Midwest were up 4.3 percent from October, to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 960,000, a 15.7 percent increase from a year ago. The median price in the Midwest was $133,400, down 4 percent from a year ago.

In the South, existing-home sales were up 2.4 percent from October to an annual pace of 1.74 million, a 12.3 percent increase from a year ago. The median price in the South was $143,300, down 2.1 percent from a year ago.

Existing-home sales in the West were up 3.6 percent from October to an annual level of 1.16 million, up 11.5 percent from a year ago. The median price in the West was $195,300, down 8.4 percent from a year ago.

Living Large with Less

by Rebecca Nemeth

  
Anyone who’s looked for their first home in Albany, Berkeley, El Cerrito, or Kensington (or wants to downsize into something more manageable) has noticed that we have homes in an array of sizes. While most homes here begin at 900 square feet and go up from there (typically up to about 3,000 square feet), we do have a few that are teensy. I’ve seen a few as small as 500 square feet.

Why would someone build something so small?
Sure, its possible that people just had less “stuff” in 1920 than they have now, but have you noticed that even smaller “tiny houses” are getting increasingly popular now?

The historic precedent – Why Albany has some Relatively Tiny Homes
In Albany, for example, the city subdivided some lots into parcels of 3,800 or 3,300 square feet, and even as small as 2,500 square feet. Fortunately builders like Charles MacGregor took on building nice quality homes on these small scale lots in the 1920′s and 1930′s. This allowed people who were probably then “blue collar” homeowners to afford a nicely built home with details like dining room built-in cabinetry, curved archways, recessed niches, and beautiful fireplaces. The layouts follow a typical Craftsman style, with logical layouts that don’t waste space, and that integrate the kitchen, living room, and dining room into more open public spaces than Victorian homes did. These single story homes were usually 850 to 1,000 square feet, huge compared to today’s 65 (yes, 65) to 500 square foot Tiny Homes.

Urban planners and environmentalists will tell you, small is beautiful. Here are a few reasons why.

Smaller homes make it easier to have strong, interconnected communities. Smaller homes can be built closer together, on smaller lots (such as the semi-urban lots that are common in Albany and Berkeley), making it easier to support something like Albany and Berkeley’s Solano Avenue, an old school type of Main Street with locally-owned businesses, and an array of city parks. You’ll find many neighborhood shopping districts and parks like these throughout the 1920′s era parts of the East Bay.

Smaller homes make it easier to have good public transit. Because more people can live closer together, the community can support an excellent, robust public transit network with features like our BART trains and AC Transit buses.

Smaller homes are better for the environment. From an energy conservation standpoint, smaller homes use fewer resources to build, require less energy to heat and cool, and the owners will be using furniture and items that serve double or even triple purpose (so they’re buying less furniture, etc.).

Smaller homes are easier and more affordable to build yourself (vs. a larger new home).
Plans for many smaller homes are readily available online, especially if you’re interested in the micro-size Tiny Homes that have become more popular in recent years. Cheap building plans, designs with an eye to energy efficiency and easy of use, fewer materials needed, and fewer “man” hours needed to build a home = a less expensive home.

Smaller homes more affordable to own. A smaller home = a smaller purchase price. That means you may be able to pay all cash and not have a mortgage, or have a very small mortgage. A smaller purchase price = smaller property taxes. And smaller homes also = smaller utility bills. Every heating and lighting dollar can go into usable space instead of that huge atrium or “living room” people don’t actually live in.

Smaller homes may be the best fit for the available empty lots and suit what city building codes will allow. In our area, any lot that could be built on in conventional ways has been built on. But you may find some smaller lots, or some that would accommodate a smaller home in part of the lot. Also, most cities limit the amount of living space you’re allowed to have relative to the size of a lot (for example, in Albany that ratio is 55% of the lot size). Many cities also have set-back requirements, which state how far from a house must be from the lot line or the neighbor’s house.

For more information check out these articles and blogs on Tiny Homes. Many include plans for building your own tiny house.

Yahoo article on “Five Tiny Homes You’ll Love”: http://realestate.yahoo.com/promo/5-tiny-homes-youll-love-big-time.html
Tiny House blog: http://tinyhouseblog.com/
Tiny Green Cabins: tinygreencabins.com/
Tiny House Design: www.tinyhousedesign.com/
Tiny Texas Houses: tinytexashouses.com/

Service With a Smile, Your Smile

by Tom Knight

There seems to be a trend these days: everything costs more and what you get is less.  OK, I know I’m just another “old guy” who remembers the “good old days”  when things like this were taken for granted: 

Fresh cold milk was delivered to your doorstep. Butter and cottage cheese too.

The gas station attendant not only pumped the gas, but cleaned the windshield, checked the oil and gave you a free map. Oh yeah, forgot to mention, gas was 35 cents per gallon.

Postage stamps were 5 cents, except for air mail: that was 7 cents. Mail never got lost and there was no such thing as “junk mail” to clutter up the mailbox. The mailman was a friend.

People actually used words like “please” and “thank you.” If you gave a gift, you could reasonably expect to receive a handwritten thank you note.

Everyone nowadays seems to be stressed out, in a hurry, and pissed off. That’s why it’s such a shocking experience to encounter old-fashioned service, so extraordinary these days. And that is why I wish to briefly acknowledge the outstanding service I recently received.

Men’s Wearhouse: I bought some good sports coats and dress shirts for work several years ago. The coats get heavy use with all the stuff I carry in my pockets, such as my real estate electronic key, my iPhone, business cards and my wallet. Recently I put my wallet in my coat pocket and it went right down to the bottom corner of my jacket. Something’s wrong with that! I decided to go back to the store with my coat. They said, “if you can wait just five minutes, we’ll have that fixed for you.” Indeed they did. The pocket was sewn back together, my coat was good as new, and there was no charge. Prompt, courteous, efficient service. Kuddos to the Men’s Wearhouse. I will return again and again.

Pastime Hardware:  It’s a crowded and busy place, and easy to see why. They have everything you could ever need or imagine and much more. But so does Home Depot. The difference? Pick a number, just like Baskin-Robbins. Your number will come up quickly and a well-informed employee will escort you to wherever it is in the store you need to go to find the item in question. Sometimes you might not even know what you need to solve a home repair, but never fear, they know the answer! In my case, I have an old swamp cooler up at my country house. The belt which drives the fan was starting to fray. The clerk took the old belt, measured it on a wall device, looked up the number, got a long pole and fetched the replacement belt from high on the wall. A couple of minutes and I was out of there. Kuddos to Pastime Hardware. They’ve got it all, including the best customer service anywhere.

I am a real estate agent at Berkeley Hills Realty. Nothing is more irritating to a buyer or seller than having to wait hours or worse yet, days for a return call. Not with our agents and not with me. I will answer your e-mail or phone call right away. It’s about “old-fashioned” customer service. Courtesy, caring, efficiency and professional expertise are the services we provide. Sometimes it’s good to be “old-fashioned.”

Tom Knight
Broker Associate
tom@berkhills.com
vm 510-524.9888 x56

DRE #01441406

New Pop Up Restaurant in Rockridge starring Guest Chefs!

That's right Rockridge has a new pop up restaurant starring guest chefs! How cool is this going to be? Every two weeks there will be a new chef, new menu, new type of food. I love it! The restaurant will be opening by Oliveto (watch out Gourmet Ghetto....Rockridge is on the culinary rise)! Chefs apply online and everything is provided for them including staff, cashier, and booze. The chef just needs to bring his or her ingredients. First up is the Oakland Fire Department as they will be cooking for a fundraiser from Nov. 4-6th and then followed by a grandmother from Mexico. Oh yum...homemade enchiladas, tamales and menudo. Can't wait!

Check out their website:
http://www.theguestchef.net/

written by Gina Odom, Realtor