Ventura Living

Children's Shopping Online Page

2011-06-11T10:49:00.000-07:00

Some new merchandise added to the shopping site and some special videos for the children to sing along and some bedtime stories.

Remember to visit the link below to see more.

Shopping For Children

Style Tips For Men

2011-05-16T09:30:00.000-07:00

Shop For Men

For the man about town, some fashion and style tips to show you how to tie a windsor knot, how to tie a bow-tie, a cravat and more. Shining shoes? Here's some tips to help with that too and of course shaving tips for the gentleman! Say Oh! I Want That!

Makeup Tips For Women

2011-05-07T22:38:00.000-07:00

Ever wondered how some people make looking good look easy? There is good news. This is all strategies that anyone can learn to make the most of their features and come up looking great and natural.

More up-to-date videos here! Makeup Tips and Tutorials

Oh, I Want That!

2011-05-01T10:22:00.000-07:00

Online shopping site for all the things you want at the touch of a mouse.

Save up to 70% on prescription eyeglasses - risk free with fast shipping

Online Shopping Buy Hats For Men

2011-05-01T00:08:00.000-07:00

Men it must be said, sometimes like to confess they hate shopping. Perhaps it is not the shopping so much, as the hassles associated with getting to the shops not finding what you want and being stuck in a mall full of other shoppers.

Here's a way to find your goodies, if you are a man, or shop for your man if you are buying for someone else. More stock will be added over time but for now take a look and see what's available at the stores featured.

Let's Start With Hats For Men!

Summer or Winter, keeping your head covered can be important. If you like these hats, just click on the picture to go to the store for more details and to buy.

Brixton Grand Hat
The Grand Hat by Brixton is a high quality fedora made of fine woven straw. It also features a bow tie band that makes this hat nothing but snazzy.

Brixton Gain Hat
Some say the Gain Hat from Brixton is made from the felt of million baby doves. We're not sure if that's true, but it certainly is comfortable.

Find more mens apparel here

Ventura CA - A Lot Like Newcastle NSW Australia

2010-10-02T23:38:00.000-07:00

It's been while since I posted to this blog and I must say, not much has happened in that time to make buying seem like a good idea just yet.

Prices remain stubbornly overpriced for what they offer and given that jobs continue to be hard to come by - and hard to hang onto.

I've added some additional pages to the blog and will be populating this with more information on local businesses in Ventura, CA so if you have a business that you'd like to see added, contact me with a bit about your business and your story and I'll be happy to add it to the directory.

I'm in Australia at this time a couple of hours drive north of Sydney in NSW (you know where that is ... Oprah is coming to Sydney in December 2010) in Newcastle (sounds like "newcarrsle") and there is quite a bit about our town here that is reminiscent of Ventura. Our climates are both mild and while it is more humid here, we too share lots of beaches and a more relaxed environment than the major cities. If you are considering a visit DownUnder, do contact me and I'll be happy to fill you in on some local background on places you might be thinking of visting.

Here are some pictures for you from around the Newcastle and Hunter Valley in New South Wales, Australia.

Newcastle NSW

Ventura Businesses - Join Me Online

2009-07-06T22:55:00.000-07:00

One of the great things about the internet is the ability to shift how we do our work, and tailor our business to our lifestyle. Work from anywhere in the world, timeshift, placeshift - and reach out to the people who love what we have to offer!

For me, it is marvellous to be able to work with business owners no matter where they live and be able to help them, without getting tied to one location, or one central few streets.

A great tool that has been developed to expand our connectedness with other businesses, locally and at distance, is MerchantCircle and I've been involved there for several years as moderator of the business community forum.

For those with a business and looking to expand the scope of your work beyond your local town centre, and build strong connections with merchants in your local area, this is a good way to start interacting.

If you'd like to join me in building your business network and learning about how to use social media to help your business results, you can find me at the links below. Just let me know about your business and where you're located and we can expand your center of influence too.

Just a reminder - it doesn't matter if you only sell to the people in your close location, the internet is a way to provide service for customers and prospective customers alike. Social media and internet tools give us the key to some great opportunities, and if you are open to that I'd love to learn more about you and your business.

Are you using social media now in Ventura?

Please add your comments below. Always good to get feedback.

What kind of help do you need in your business right now?

Lindy on MerchantCircle

Follow Lindy on Twitter

Website

Is Your Bank Safe?

2008-07-28T19:25:00.000-07:00

Back in the day, the relationship one would have with a bank, from which we would seek to borrow money, would involve a relationship with that bank, and a history of saving with that bank! What a quaint idea that seems now.

Saving? Bah!

Here's an article on bank safety. Who knows? Maybe one day people will start saving again... and maybe even buying within their means! Maybe.

The collapse of IndyMac has banks in customer-reassurance mode. But it just points to the lack of consumer information about bank solvency

by Avi Salzman

Is Your Bank Safe?

Nothing says hard times like people standing outside a bank demanding their money. IndyMac Bancorp's (IDMC) failure and the resulting chaos were reminiscent of Depression-era bank runs even if the country's economic condition doesn't marginally resemble that era. But in an economic slowdown with few visual reference points—what does a subprime loan look like anyway?—IndyMac's failure carried a clear message for some: Stick your money under the mattress.
Is Your Bank Safe?

Assessor Lowers Assessments on 34,000 Homes

2008-07-25T04:21:00.000-07:00

Lower tax assessments... looks like some people are recognizing that housing prices are going down. Not enough with their homes for sale though!

Assessor Lowers Assessments on 34,000 Homes, Most of Which Were Purchased Between January 2004 and December 2007.

Assessment Roll Increase of 3.2% is Lowest in 9 Years.

This year’s local roll will contain $106.85 billion of taxable property value, an increase of just 3.2% from last year’s total and the lowest rate of increase in 9 years. The slowdown can be attributed, in part, to the efforts of the Assessor’s Office in lowering the assessments on over 34,000 homes by more than $3 billion, which will save taxpayers nearly $31million in property taxes this coming year. Property owners interested in a review of their property assessment can download an “Application for Decline in Value Review” form from the Assessor’s website at http://assessor.countyofventura.org

See full article here

Photographs On Those House Listings

2008-07-14T19:51:00.000-07:00

Real estate listings are different from website to website, and some sites are great and have lots of useful features, while others are sluggish and very poor in their functionality.

Good pictures of all the main areas in a property are necessary. I am amazed, as I am researching homes for purchase, at the poor quality and limited number of photographs that many of the listings have. No photo, no point looking at it. Pictures of someone's ugly bed don't tell me how big a room is. It might suggest that the room is not big at all! Same with pictures of dining tables, and please not a picture of your dog in the house! And all that clutter in the room? Please, take it away. Let me find out for myself if there is insufficient storage space - don't tell me before I even consider taking a look. ;-)

Definitely, customers are looking to use the technology to help them buy. Technology to help them learn about the property and technology to enable fast communication between them and the agent is essential.

Realtors who don't bother to even respond to enquiries? Well that's the last straw.

Unwelcome Reality - House Sellers And Buyers

2008-06-24T04:39:00.000-07:00

Loved this quote I found on California Housing Forecast

from Edward Leamer, economist at the UCLA Anderson School of Management

"We love our homes. We don’t love our investments in General Motors or IBM, and when the stock market sends us the daily message that share prices have plummeted, we reluctantly accept that unwelcome reality. Homes are different. We have a close personal relationship with our homes. When the market is hot, buyers stream by our front doors proclaiming that they love our homes even more than we do by offering prices beyond our wildest dreams. Charmed by that flattery, many of us sell our loved ones, confidant that we have turned our homes over to people who will treat them well. Thus rising prices and high sales volumes. When the market cools, however, only a few prospective buyers come to our front doors, and those prospective buyers bring a most unsettling message: “We know you love your home, but it isn’t worth nearly as much as you think.” That can be a deal-breaker for female owners, but the clincher for males is the fact that their idiot neighbor sold his home for $1 million just last year, and the male owner is not going to take a penny less than that. It doesn’t matter what the market thinks. This house is worth $1million. Period.

Housing hormones, both estrogen and testosterone, make owners very unwilling to sell into a weak market and that unwillingness tends to keep the prices of homes actually sold high while greatly reducing the volumes of homes sold. What we observe are not market prices but sellers’ prices.

If you don’t like this love story, another good one is that sellers look backward, remembering what they or their neighbors paid, but buyers look forward, wondering what the house might be worth in a couple of years. Positioned in time looking in different directions, when the market is rising, owners estimate the value less than prospective buyers, and a sale occurs, but when the market is falling, the owners remember the good old days of high prices, and the buyers are thinking about a better deal in a couple of months. Then there is no transaction, unless it is at the high sellers prices. A third story comes from the behavioral economics: It’s loss aversion.7 As long as I don’t sell my home, I can comfortably maintain that it is worth what I paid for it."

That seems to explain the apparent slowness of owners to price their homes in line with the (scant) comps in the Ventura market area.

What's The Buzz From Buyers On Homes?

2008-06-16T00:36:00.000-07:00

Recently Zip Realty posted a blog on some responses to a survey on what house prices are likely to do next.

Their findings? See below:

What do home buyers think of the current real estate market?

Based on our research, today’s buyers remain bearish on prices, with 61% anticipating declines over the next six months, while wild differences exist among ZipRealty’s markets:

* 82% of buyers in Los Angeles think prices will decline
* 24% of buyers in Charlotte think prices will decline

Interestingly, buyers and sellers are almost exactly in sync in terms of how long they think the decline will last: 42% of each group thinks it will last 12 months or less, while 43% of buyers and 42% of sellers think the decline will last 1-2 years.

Survey details here

California man losing nine homes in mortgage mess | Reuters

2008-05-19T09:20:00.000-07:00

From Reuters:

The mortgage market has melted down in the past two years in a crisis that began in the subprime sector and has left millions of Americans facing the possibility of foreclosure on their homes.

'THIS COULD GET UGLY'

Forgaard bought his first investment home in the booming housing market of North Las Vegas in 2004, followed in the next two years by eight others in such hot markets as Phoenix and Palm Springs, California, before he realized in 2006 that the situation was worse than he had feared.

"I knew that the market was soft but at that point I'm realizing that this could really get ugly," he said. "At that point I had a bad feeling in my stomach."

Forgaard thought he still had enough equity in the homes to "take a huge hit," possibly losing most of his investment, but thought for a while that he could still ride out the storm.

"It really wasn't until five months ago that I realized, 'Hey, you know what? Not only am I going to lose everything I have invested but this is going to force me into bankruptcy," he said.

"I'm going to lose my car and my primary (home) and we're not going to be able to live in Santa Cruz, where I was born and raised, and live by the beach. And that was pretty tough to take."

----- For full article follow the link

California man losing nine homes in mortgage mess | Reuters

And today on the news we read, that the squatters have moved in for free rent and a bit of the old payola to encourage them to move out and go quietly into the night... or to the next squat they can find.

I guess that's pretty much what the previous owners were doing in many of these foreclosed homes, if they but knew it. Paying very high prices to effectively squat in their homes before they lost the homes and any of their savings, legacies and sweat they put into it before it all came crashing down.

L.A. Land : Los Angeles Times : Foreclosure flood: 1,000 auctions per day in California

2008-05-16T08:58:00.000-07:00

Perhaps the Comments make the most interesting reading.

Check them out here:

L.A. Land : Los Angeles Times : Foreclosure flood: 1,000 auctions per day in California

The Team for Interior Designers

2008-05-10T19:07:00.000-07:00

The Team for Interior Designers

Every time I visit the Interior Design Team member showcase, I am blown away by the talent and array of beautiful homewares that the designers produce. Fantastic hand made items, and unique pieces to complement any home decor no matter what your taste.

What a great way to buy special gifts for the people you love (or yourself!) and support local US and artists in their business. No more cheap imported stuff - get original with your gift giving. At prices that are amazingly affordable.

Fantastic stuff.

Congratulations to Kristina Law for putting this together.

Visit the Interior Design Team Showcase and see what you like the best. New collections added all the time, so make sure you bookmark this blog.

The Team for Interior Designers

Walk Score - Ventura

2008-05-09T08:15:00.000-07:00

Looking at houses to buy has a lot of elements to keep in mind, in assessing what is a good location. Here is a link to a new site that lets you calculate a score for how "walkable" a home is, and that's definitely something to be keeping in mind with gas going up all the time.

Walk Score

Rate your home on the Walk Score meter.

Is Suburbia Turning into Slumburbia.pdf (application/pdf Object)

2008-05-09T04:57:00.000-07:00

Article on the state of the 'burbs in some areas following the tumble that the property market has undergone.

Is Suburbia Turning into Slumburbia.pdf (application/pdf Object)

The Age Blogs: Renovation Nation

2008-03-03T03:53:00.000-08:00

The Age Blogs: Renovation Nation

Want to be Green? Turn off that old fridge and bask in that ol' feel good moment.

Decline in Home Prices Accelerates - WSJ.com

2008-02-28T07:00:00.000-08:00

Decline in Home Prices Accelerates - WSJ.com

FT.com / Comment & analysis / Comment - America’s middle classes are no longer coping

2008-01-30T11:52:00.000-08:00

FT.com / Comment & analysis / Comment - America’s middle classes are no longer coping

Interesting read. How are you coping?

Listings Continue To Rise... Is Anybody Home?

2008-01-25T11:31:00.000-08:00

Despite the increase in the numbers of listings, and the constant reissue of old listings on the MLS as "new" listings, it seems that there is less effort being spent on showing these homes, than one might expect. Driving around the past few weekends, has revealed a marked lack of Open Homes, in areas where there are multiple homes for sale. Is it because so many are bank owned, and nobody cares if these are sold or not? At the same time, the listings sit there, priced at a level that is way out of line with recent sales and totally unreflective of the current market. One wonders if these vendors really want to sell at all.

While I'm on that, I have noticed an increase in listings lately, displaying pictures that look like they have been taken to show the damage left by the previous tenants - not to show the houses in their best light for buyers! Is this plain inattention, or something else going on?

What's Really Important In A Home To Buy?

2007-10-30T19:20:00.000-07:00

Looking at the different homes for sale it's interesting to see the last prices paid for homes and wonder about the people who bought them. Were they wealthy, investors looking to flip the house, working people who could afford to buy but something happened to bring their dream to an end - maybe a divorce, or a job in another state perhaps?

Or were they just fooling themselves when they signed up for a mortgage that would cripple anyone on an average income, just in the mortgage payments? Looking at the numbers alone, with mortgage payments (and for some there will be additional mortgage insurance), and property taxes to calculate into the equation, and if it is a condo, then monthly HOA fees, as well as utility bills that may be a new challenge too, if one has previously had gas and electricity and water supplied as part of a rental agreement. Those numbers just keep racking up, and that's without making any changes or budgeting for maintaining the home, or redecorating and the like.

So how to determine what makes a good purchase? It will come down to personal preferences. Some things like:

Space required
Hobbies and living requirements - 3 cars do not go into 1 garage very neatly!
How many bathrooms you really need
Is a garden important to you
Are you competent to do some handyman work on a home to improve it or is that way outside of realistic
Is it sound - or will you be faced with replacing the roof, or windows relatively soon
Just how far is that commute anyway? Is that practical?
Will you be happy to live there for the long term?
Is it worth buying because you can afford it, but it doesn't match the important things you want?
Are you considering buying this thing that is just what you want, even though you know deep down that you will struggle to make the mortgage every month
Is location more important than what the house is like?
Is it worth it to commute a little farther, to get a home that is in line with what you want and can afford?

Knowing what is really important to us is the first step in matching the house or condo to the home that we have in mind and will be a source of happiness. Whether we buy for now or for the future, it is possible that we may have to live in this place far longer than we may have bargained for. The notion that homes always go up - is not evidenced by the thousands of people who have found themselves in foreclosure, or lost their homes already. Good planning, and a good grounding in what is possible, is a good step in buying well and establishing a solid foundation for the future.

Realtors And The Web

2007-10-30T04:25:00.000-07:00

Researching homes in Ventura has been an interesting thing for me, not just on the side of the house market, but also in terms of business practice in the industry, both on the ground, in person, but also so far as the internet is concerned. Since I am a big fan of technology, it is a simple deduction to understand why I love the new tools that are now available for using in researching homes for sale, and the market in general. What a surprise to find that some companies still think that they are going to gain some advantage from effectively 'trapping' would be customers with a rigid and controlling attitude toward the MLS information they make available.

Please... if you have a website on the multilist, or if you are tied into a large group that uses the internet, tell them that customers want to be left alone and we will Let You Know when we want you to call us. We don't want you phoning us because you've noticed that we've been to your site. Give us good tools, and answer our questions when we have them, and leave us be when we are 'just looking'.

With that in mind, there are actually some very good tools out there, and one of my personal favorites is Zip Realty. The links are there to contact a person if you need help, and they are very helpful, but they have some very neat functions on the site to let you save homes (I'd like more than 100 to store though!) and room for you to make notes and jiggle the listings around to view in different sorts. Nice too, the layout and the ability to see at a glance what size of the house, and the lot size are, and when you poke around further, you can find the last sale price and all manner of groovy information. (Oh, and I understand they share commission with you if you buy from them).

A big thumbs up for Zip.

The Great Housing Standoff

2007-10-30T03:15:00.000-07:00

It's almost twelve months now that I've been watching - well, more like studying - the housing market in Ventura, California now. Now this much further down the track, it is almost looking like there is the possibility that homes fit for human habitation may even become affordable. Well, that is a bit of a stretch, but signs are there. Not good news for those who bought in at the top of the market, but 'one man's meat, is another man's poison' is as true for the home buying market as any other context.

So this blog is going to be where I track my observations on what is happening in the home market in Ventura and hopefully we might find some interesting bits of trivia and intelligence to share at this volatile juncture, and together find the answer to the burning question... is the SoCal housing market going to fully Crash and Burn, or will it be the salvation for would be homebuyers to grab a toehold in the Ventura house market at last?

Watch This Space!