If you live in San Marino, you know that the trash service vendor, Athens Services usually schedules a couple of free "bulky" item pick ups throughout the year.

The next "bulky" item pick up is coming up on July 19th, 2008.

Save this date - July 19 - and call Athens Services at 1-888-336-6100 to schedule an appointment and get on their removal route.

"Bulky" items are those that are oversized or overweight.  For example, stoves, refrigerators (make sure that they are Freon free), water heaters, washing machines, furntirues, mattresses, box springs, large rugs, and furniture.

Every Thursday is a Broker's Open House day in San Marino.  This is an opportunity for San Marino real estate agents to preview all the homes that were listed in San Marino for the week.  This also gives an opportunity for San Marino sellers to showcase their homes and make sure that they are well presented to potential buyers and real estate agents.

Today, San Marino had a record 7 homes for sale open for broker's preview (2 homes were price reductions):

A San Marino Real Estate Market Snapshot:

San Marino Homes for Sale                47   at $649/sq. ft. on average

San Marino Homes Under Contract      26   at $572/sq. ft. on average

San Marino Homes Already Purchased by San Marino Home Buyers:

Sellers, if these numbers

 do not speak to you, let

me.  You are OVERPRICING

 YOUR HOMES!!! 

• The data is clear, San Marino Homes have been selling in the high $500s per sq.ft.
• Current homes on the market are averaging almost $650 per square foot.
• 4 out of 5 new listings this week are over $660 per square foot.
• Inventory is INCREASING
• San Marino's Real Estate market absorbs approximately 7 homes per month.
• There are 47 homes on the market for sale.
• This means that we have more than 6.5 months of inventory!

San Marino sellers, please understand San Marino buyers are looking at hard data.  This information is being provided to them by their San Marino Realtors.

For those of you that love charts, here're a couple from Altos Research, an independent real estate market statistics company.

These reports are updated weekly by Altos Research and I am offering them at no cost to my readers.  A copy of this week's San Marino report is available by clicking here - SAN MARINO REAL ESTATE MARKET REPORT If you would like to receive this report every week as it is updated, please email me at Irina@Irina4RealEstate.com.

MADISON HEIGHTS       

A great neighborhood right next to the South Lake Avenue District.  It has a strong neighborhood association and has an annual 4th of July parade and other family oriented activities.

The neighborhood was laid out in the 19th century, and the oldest house still standing dates from 1890.  Some of the origins of our street names go back to this era.  The most prominent is El Molino Avenue, named for Col. E. J. C. Kewen's El Molino Ranch with its "old mill of the padres."

Euclid Avenue was opened in 1885 by C. M. Skellen who took the name from Euclid Avenue in Cleveland, Ohio.  Glenarm Street was named by Thomas Banbury after his wife's hometown in Canada.  Los Robles Avenue was named after Governor George Stoneman's ranch which was at the southern extremity of the road.  Oakland Avenue originally did not extend south of California.  It was named after the City of Oakland and the street was also lined with oak trees.  The section of the street in Madison Heights was originally called Eastern Avenue.

The original "Madison Avenue Heights" subdivision consisting of 63 lots was opened in July, 1906.  Lots were priced from $1,500 and carried a stipulation that homes to be built should cost at least $3,000.

The Madison Heights neighborhood was largely developed between 1910 and 1917.  It consisted of family homes of professional people.  A number of architects and contractors who worked in the neighborhood also lived here.  Many early residents subdivided their lots to build homes for their grown children.  To this day, it's common for multiple generations of a family to own separate homes in the neighborhood.

Read More:  Everythng You Wanted to Know about Pasadena Neighborhoods

Allendale Branch Library (1920s)

1130 S. Marengo Ave.

At the southern border of Madison Heights, this adobe structure is currently a Pasadena Public Library branch as well as a school library for Allendale Elementary School.  Built as an isolation hospital for patients with infectious diseases, it became a library in 1951.

Heineman-designed House (1911)

885 S El Molino Ave.

This Craftsman home was designed by Arthur S. Heineman.

E.J. Blacker House (1912)

675 S. Madison Ave.

You can call this craftsman Pasadena home, a grandbaby of the original Blacker House in Oak Knoll.  This one was built a few years later.

Read More:  Pasadena's Oak Knoll Neighborhood

READY TO START YOUR PASADENA HOME SEARCH TODAY?  IF SO, CLICK ON THE BUTTON BELOW TO FIND YOUR DREAM HOME:

Last week, I shared with you an article by Joanna Beresford who writes a weekly real estate column for Pasadena Weekly.

Joanna and I met last week when she contacted me about another article that she was doing about Pasadena short sales. We took a couple of hours to go out and preview some of the homes for sale and had an opportunity to get to know one another.

So without further ado and with much fanfare, here's this week's Pasadena Weekly's articles on Pasadena Short sales with a few memorable mentions of me. How fun! Enjoy!!!

History in the making

Short sales make owning a home a reality for many

By Joanna Beresford 06/26/2008

Last week's CMA Report listed 20 single-family residences available as short pay properties in the city of Pasadena, more commonly referred to as short sales. Offered at prices ranging from $279,000 to $869,000, most of those homes have been on the market for about 100 days. The newest house on the list was built in 1984; most date from the first half of the last century, and the oldest place was constructed in 1886.

I visited the latter home recently, where I swear, when I put my hands on an original door frame and closed my eyes, I could almost hear the conversations and feel the vibrations of people who've passed through those rooms for the past 122 years. This was a slightly melancholy place. The previous owners have left behind neat piles of clothing, children's toys, even family photos. I studied a picture of a mother and her two handsome boys for a while. They looked very proud and confident. Maybe they're coming back for these belongings, or maybe they had to leave them behind.

Irina Netchaev, a broker with Keller Williams Realty, guided me through several short sale properties. She's great at making lists and she offered me, at the outset of our tour, an overview of the short sale process in list format:

1. Seller contacts a Realtor for help

2. Seller completes a hardship package

3. Short sale application along with hardship
package is submitted to the bank (or banks) for review

4. Bank reviews for completeness, orders valuation and assigns to a negotiator

5. Negotiator begins the initial review and contacts Realtor and homeowner

6. Property valuation performed according to investor guidelines

7. Mortgage insurer and investor approval gained and additional liens negotiated by Realtor

8. Application decision is made and a decision letter mailed.

This list applies to sellers, obviously. Potential buyers should consult a lender and determine what they are comfortable with paying for a home. Buyers can research the market to some extent on their own and then should contact a real estate professional who can help them find the perfect home.

Many agents don't want to bother with short sale properties because, ironically, the process can be LONG and arduous, compared to a more conventional transaction. Netchaev considers it an obligation to present buyers and sellers with all options, so she's become adept at negotiating the ins and outs of the short sale procedure.

"The first question I ask a potential seller is, 'what are you trying to accomplish with this sale?'" says Irina. "And what helps me as the Realtor is education. So many of us aren't trained properly, and I've found it invaluable to me and my clients that I'm familiar with trends, listings, timing, and aspects of the community."

Here's another list and this one I made up all by myself - Five Reasons Why I Admire
Irina Netchaev:

1. She's got the most delicious Russian accent

2. She has a spiffy GPS system in her car

3. She's smart, honest and funny

4. Her husband is a former Russian hockey player and mentor
to hundreds of other athletes (not relevant, maybe, but interesting!)

5. She's pretty and extremely graceful

In 1886 (by the way, the year the oldest short sale house was built), Pasadena incorporated as a city. I've been told that the main reason residents sought incorporation was so they could get rid of the local saloon. In the next decade sewers, paved streets, and electric lighting were installed.

Educational facilities expanded, the Shakespeare Club and Grand Opera House opened, and the Pasadena Street railroad opened.

And here's this house, redolent of all that history, that just needs a little love and refurbishment. The city of Pasadena, like every community, rides the thrilling roller coaster of good times and bad, but certain universal truths prevail: we all want to go home, and somewhere out there is a home for everyone.

Joanna Dehn Beresford is a former teacher, nanny, actress, rock star, farm girl, waitress and clerk. She can be reached at truewrite@yahoo.com

Okay, I've been struggling with something for a few weeks now and decided that I can't do it alone.   So... that's the reason for this post.  I need YOUR help!

I have been trying to come up with a catchy term for "stale" home listings. 

What is a stale listing?  A home listing that has been sitting on the market, in our Pasadena MLS for over 3 months with no takers.

Pasadena home buyers are not interested in these home listings because they're either over priced, not marketed properly by the real estate agent or are just plain overlooked by the Pasadena real estate community for a variety of reasons.

As new homes come up on the Pasadena Real Estate Market, the first few weeks are critical to the successful sale of that home at the best price. 

This is the time when most Pasadena Realtors will preview the homes on the Pasadena weekly broker tours.  Open Houses will drive a lot of new home buyer traffic during the first weekend or two of the home being placed on the market and on-line marketing is at its strongest with search engines picking up the new home listing.

As time goes by, these in most instances, overpriced homes, sit on the market and lose value day by long day.  This offers an amazing opportunity for my Pasadena home buyers to pick up these homes at a great price.

So... getting to the point here... what I would like to do is provide a monthly list of these "stale" homes to my readers and clients.  And to do that, I need a catchy name for this list of homes.  For example, a real estate agent in San Franciso, Alexander Clark, has come up with a great, catchy name for his list of homes that he calls his StaleFish List.

My creative juices are just not flowing and I'm getting some major writer's block here, so I am hoping you can help me come up with a name that would be perfect for our Pasadena Real Estate Market's stale homes.

If you have a suggestion, please comment below.  If I end up using the name you suggest, I will thank you by giving you a $100 gift certificate to your favorite restaurant.

So come one... what are you waiting for?  Please help a desperate realtor.  :-)