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Elizabeth Weintraub
Photos From My Last Day in Kailua-Kona
Airport Beach is fairly deserted late Saturday morning.
As you read this, I am probably still asleep, trying to adjust after my last day in Kailua-Kona. The time difference during the daylight saving is three hours earlier than Sacramento. I usually get up when the sun rises in Kailua-Kona. In Sacramento, that would be about 9 AM, but I cannot start my business day in Sacramento at that time. Now that Labor Day is over, it’s time to get back to work, and people expect me to be bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. Going forward in time is really hard for me.
I started out my last day thinking I would get a manicure, so I went to see Elaine at Hot Nails. The plumbing is out at the salon, so technically they were closed but Elaine made an exception for me. She asked if I have been to the Big Island Fair. No, I haven’t. Didn’t even know it was happening. She said if I drove down Kuakini to the end and then turned left, I would find the Big Island Fair.
The turnoff was easy to spot because the road that continued north was filled with potholes. It leads to the Old Kona Airport State Park, which the locals call Airport Beach. So I kept going.
Waves roll in at Airport Beach as a boat passes by
Elizabeth Weintraub at Airport Beach in Kailua-Kona.
I hung out at the beach for about an hour, watching people, mesmerized by the rolling surf. I recorded the sound so I can play it back whenever I feel homesick for the ocean. It was fairly empty and deserted. The people who were there mostly sat on the sand to stare at the water or read a book. A few others enjoyed picnics. There are small huts scattered about to provide shelter from the sun, featuring picnic benches and separate BBQ grills.
Big Island Fair did not open on Saturday until noon.
I arrived at the Big Island Fair around 11:30 AM. The gates were open, so I walked inside. There was nobody collecting tickets but it did cost to get into the fair. I walked all around and nobody told me to get out. See, this is how life in Kailua-Kona is. It’s very kickback. Elaine told me the food wasn’t very good but the rides were fun. I did not feel like waiting a half hour, so instead, I decided to go to the gas station and fill up my rental Jeep Renegade.
Kona Nissan at noon on a Saturday.
As I stood at the pump, filling my car, I started reflecting on the online searches I had been doing about buying a car for our house in Hawaii. I initially thought a Jeep Renegade would be a good vehicle. I used to own a CJ5 in 1974. I like Jeeps. Even though I rolled it down a hill and lived after flipping it. But my husband talked me out of a Jeep Renegade. He read Consumer Reports, which basically said the only good Jeep is a Grand Cherokee. He then sent me a list of recommended SUVs. On that list was a Nissan Rogue.
Hey Siri, take me to a Nissan dealer. I hopped back into the Jeep. Now, I know everybody says don’t buy a car in Kona. They say buy it in California and ship it. Shipping is cheap. On the surface that makes sense but I like to keep my money in local communities where I spend time. And surely the dealers in Hawaii know this and would be willing to offer a deal, especially since the 2018s are coming next month.
After negotiation, I put down a refundable deposit on a Monarch orange Nissan Rogue Sport. Plus, I know the Nissan dealer in Reno has a good price for this exact vehicle. I drove a Nissan Rogue SL but Kona Nissan didn’t have a Sport. The closest Rogue Sport is in Hilo. I like the orange because it’s such a 1960’s color. Plus, I can find it easily in any parking lot. It’s a rebellious color. We will need to test drive a Nissan Rogue Sport in Sacramento.
If we decide to buy it, the salesperson promised to meet me at the airport when I come out this winter and hand me the keys. They would never do this in Sacramento. What do you think?
Monarch orange Nissan Rogue Sport is surprisingly affordable in Kailua-Kona.
What You Should Know About Equifax Security Breach
Read below for how to find out if the Equifax security breach affects you.
When you hear that 143 million people were affected by the Equifax security breach, that seems like a lot of people. Especially when you figure the 2016 census has counted 323 million people who live in the United States. That’s more than one in 3 people in America. And some of those people aren’t old enough to have a credit file because they are babies. I’m not even sure they have Social Security numbers. Which would make the number actually much higher.
You don’t have to click on a stupid link some moron sent you to get hacked anymore. I get these emails all day long, and some are generated through Zillow now as well. There is also the hacked email from Docusign going around. What has Equifax ever done for you and why does it have all of your personal information? It’s one of three credit reporting agencies in the country, and you didn’t volunteer for it. You didn’t choose to do business with this company, yet the Equifax security breach probably affects you.
The first thing you need to do is go the Equifax website to determine if your personal information was possibly compromised. It will ask for your date of birth and the last 6 digits of your Social Security number. It’s bad enough the Equifax Security Breach has probably snatched your personal data and now the company wants even more personal information, but there is no way around it. I went there and sure enough, it is possible my data was stolen.
The second thing you need to do is READ your next step. The next step is to sign up for a free year subscription to monitor and protect your financial identity, paid for by Equifax. The deal is Equifax is counting on you NOT reading the second step or thinking erroneously that Equifax is there to help you, when that’s the last thing Equifax wants to do. Equifax hopes you do not read the instructions or that the instructions confuse you, or that you click on something else and forget about it. But I’m telling you, read it. If you want to enroll in the free security protection benefit, you need to save this information.
The Equifax enrollment screen for Equifax Security Breach.
If you are affected, you will need to come back to a special link at a later date to complete your enrollment. I received the screen above after I completed my initial enrollment. It’s a two-step process. You can see that I am asked to come back to that link on September 11th to finish the enrollment. Equifax is figuring I will not.
The third thing you need to do is write to your Congress woman or man and ask them to put pressure on the SEC to investigate Equifax. Why would you do that? Well, it’s not because Equifax found about about the breach in July and didn’t tell any of us until September 7th. That’s bad but that’s not as bad as the fact that within days of discovering the breach and prior to public notification, 3 top executives at Equifax dumped their Equifax stock.
As reported by the Washington Post, Chief Financial Officer John W. Gamble; Joseph M. Loughran III, the president of U.S. information solutions; and Rodolfo O. Ploder, the president of workforce solutions, each sold off shares right after the breach.
Why Curtis Park Home Appraisals are Difficult Today
Classic 1924 bungalow contains vintage details with tasteful dates.
People have all kinds of thoughts about Curtis Park home appraisals, and I’m not about to argue with them if I don’t have to. When I am forced to argue, though, I tend to go whole hog. I appeal to my target’s common sense, which of the 6 senses is always the most important. You see, the problem is low inventory, coupled with the way we systematically prepare appraisals. When there are no comparable sales to pick a sales price, none to substantiate value, naive buyers might gravitate toward sales that are not really comps.
They will point to that one house, for example, which is located on a busy street, where the bus runs and stops in front of that particular home. That is not a similar location. That is a bad location. Buyers won’t add $50,000 of value for a good location because they don’t know how to do it. Even if you say to them, would you pay $50,000 more NOT to have the bus stop in front of your house 30 times a day, they might say no, they would not, even when they would.
I struggled with such a sale in Curtis Park. The appraisal came in $50,000 low. The sellers had purchased the home 4 years ago for about $600,000. Prior to market, they replaced all the carpeting on the lower level with hardwood flooring. I ran the trends that clearly showed strong price increases over the past four years in Curtis Park, but the buyer didn’t care. I considered tightening my hands around the guy’s neck while screaming in his face: Do you think values have fallen over the past 4 years? Prices have gone up and up and up.
Because I didn’t want to make my sellers pay for the buyer’s problem, we made the buyer pay for a new appraisal. And it was the buyer’s problem that his lender hired an appraiser from another city who felt he was somehow capable of conducting Curtis Park home appraisals when he was not. It was also not our fault that the buyer needed to finance his purchase.
With cash, we get a much truer picture of market value. People with cash want to make every penny count. I knew I was right on the market value of that home in Curtis Park. I also knew not to use a couple of distressed sales as comparable sales because, thank goodness, in a normal market like today, distressed sales are not comps. With this particular sale, the buyer had enough money to bridge the gap between the appraised value and our list price but refused.
That was his loss. Too bad. Because we turned around and sold the home to cash buyers who recognized the value. I’m Old School about real estate values. I was taught 40-some years ago that market value is the price at which a seller is willing to sell and a buyer is willing to purchase. It’s not what some doofus appraiser who doesn’t really know Curtis Park thinks about Curtis Park home appraisals.
Almost every home in Curtis Park is unique. Two homes side-by-side with similar square footage can vary wildly in market value. This is why sellers should hire an experienced Sacramento Realtor who knows how to sell real estate and understands older, established neighborhoods. In the end, my sellers got what they wanted, and that’s all that really matters to me.
2557 5th Av, Sacramento, CA 95818 closed escrow on August 29th at $682,500.
My Critter Catcher: Handy Tool for Hawaii
My Critter Catcher opens by squeezing the handle.
Some things in life, like the need for My Critter Catcher in Hawaii, are a given. For example, it is a given that I cannot be trusted to fork spaghetti without flinging sauce. I cannot go for 15 minutes without automatic email download. And I am habitually on time for everything. Until a few days ago, I had no idea how much of a need there was in my life for My Critter Catcher. I was content to use an empty yogurt carton and spatula to catch, cart and release gold dust geckos; primarily because they were the only available tools.
In fact, I’m surprised that Joy Mangano hasn’t managed to invent and market her own brand of gecko catcher. Well, I have no evidence that she hasn’t. Further, on third thought, I guess I should admit that I have no proof that My Critter Catcher will catch a gecko. Especially the babies, because they are really fast if they want to survive. They haven’t been around the block like the bigger geckos. They don’t know what’s what yet. They instinctively know that everything and everybody can eat or kill them.
I read a very interesting blog about gecko poop as I noticed that over the past two months, the exterior of our vacation house in Hawaii now features brown drips that didn’t seem to be there before. I remember our tenants furtively glancing about the yard when warning me the house should not be left empty; it needs attention. I felt vaguely uncomfortable at that moment, wondering what they were keeping secret.
They didn’t tell me about the gecko poop. I learned geckos poop in the same places, which is good, means I don’t have to hunt for it. The geckos poop while they are hanging. An upside down punctuation mark.
Morris the gold dust gecko with his new tail in Kailua-Kona.
Our gecko in the front yard has a name now: Morris. After Morris the cat because he looks like he’s had 9 tails. They regenerate their tails. But when the tails grow back, they are a different color. It is clear to me which geckos have new tails and which do not. You can see Morris above. He is very pretty. He has turquoise feet and a turquoise band around his eyes. I learned in place of suction feet, they have millions of hairs, and they curl up their toes when walking on flat surfaces.
My Critter Catcher comes with a plastic spider so you can practice.
I’m sure My Critter Catcher does a great job of capturing creatures with many feet, like a centipede. We have centipedes here in Hawaii, and B52 bombers that fly at you. The occasional cockroach, too. I feel safer already. I got mine through Amazon Prime. You can choose your own color. I guess you know my preference.
My Critter Catcher could use an extender.
My only complaint is the device itself has a short stick. But it’s not any shorter than say, a flyswatter, which I also bought for slapping geckos. My neighbor says a flyswatter is a useful tool because it stuns them. Yet, when we discovered a gecko on the inside of our transom window, my husband’s attempt to swat seemed more like tapping to me. I was screaming “harder, harder” but that was easy for me to say because I wasn’t the one with the flyswatter in my hand. I don’t know if I could actually hit one. But I could try My Critter Catcher.
And you think all I do is sit in front of my computer all day logging purchase offers on Sacramento real estate or talking to potential sellers about listing . . . I just click my cellphone to speaker and go on a hunt.
Updated Starter Home in Rosemont is Surprisingly Affordable
8949 Alderson Av, Sacramento, CA 95826
This updated starter home in Rosemont will knock your socks off. Buyers who tour this home will not believe how affordable this type of home can be, even with all of these upgrades. The flooring looks just like wood, even though it is a laminate plank. You can’t tell the difference between wood and laminate anymore. Only the baths are a different surface, stone and tile mix. So it’s perfect for children and pets.
It’s odd when I think about it that this home was built in 1960, about the time that carpeting became real property, so builders began installing carpeting in homes. Wall-to-wall carpeting became all the rage because it could be financed as part of the purchase price. And now today, we don’t want no stinking’ carpet in our homes. We’re back to hardwood flooring or at least flooring that looks just like hardwood.
You will love this starter home in Rosemont because all the work has been done for you. Oh, maybe you might want different counters in the kitchen but that’s a personal preference and so inexpensive. The expensive stuff has been done. It seems to be in great condition. The home features newer kitchen cabinets, stainless steel appliances, crown molding, designer colors, dual pane windows. There is a gorgeous picture window in the family room, and a beautiful white brick fireplace.
The home features 3 bedrooms, and 1 1/2 baths. And yes, before you ask, there is a master suite. It’s appeal is mighty despite it’s cozy nature. Further, check out the back yard, it’s huge, and there is a raised deck plus your very own private spa. The yard is simply begging for your own garden.
Please come to our open house on Sunday, September 10th, from 1:00 to 4:00 PM. You can see this starter home in Rosemont for yourself. 8949 Alderson Av, Sacramento, CA 95826 is offered exclusively by Elizabeth Weintraub at Lyon Real Estate at an affordable price of $259,000. Call Elizabeth at 916.233.6759 for more information and feel free to check out this virtual tour.
Here are more photographs of 8949 Alderson Avenue:
Open floor plan at 8949 Alderson Av, Sacramento, CA 95826
Family room with white brick fireplace and picture window.
Updated kitchen, newer cabinets and stainless appliances.
Spacious lot with raised deck and personal spa.
