As if taken from the pages of Veranda, this extraordinary light infused masterpiece exudes warmth through the finest reclaimed and art-quality finishes. Set within the guard-gated Crosby Estates, the home enjoys serene views of the Crosby National golf course and San Dieguito Valley from the expansive outdoor areas and covered loggia. Recently completed, no expense was spared in this three year ground up new construction process.
Sommer Design appointed the interiors with Exquisite Surfaces French limestone, traditional lime based plaster walls & ceilings, hand-hewn circa 1850s beams, and steel windows. The details, from the unlacquered brass Barber Wilsons plumbing fixtures, to the stunning Lacanche range, or the hand-painted Tabarka tile, give the house an aura of authenticity.
The single level main home encompasses 4 bedrooms, 6 bathrooms, and 6,150 square feet. For guests, the one bedroom one bath casita is 640 square feet and has a large limestone terrace overlooking the reclaimed brick courtyard. Besides being stunningly beautiful, the home is incredibly smart and energy efficient, with an owned 8.5kw photovoltaic solar array and 700 square feet of pool solar heating, both tucked away from view. Control4 home automation handles the lighting, distributed video, and 14 zones of audio. The home was also certified to be 30% more efficient than the latest Title 24 requirements.
This is the best house I’ve ever had on the blog – take the full tour:
We got into the future of realtors over the weekend.
It started with the crowdfunding effort to raise money to build a realtor-owned portal, and the goal is $1,100,000. But less than $200,000 has been donated so far, so it’s unlikely the effort will be successful.
It’s a good idea though!
I explained why here, and then kept it going in the comment section:
But talk about the future may make you wonder what will happen here.
What is the future of the bubbleinfo.com, and JtR?
While most of the house-selling industry is going to the big agent teams, I’m going to stick with the personal-consultant approach, and use this blog to help differentiate myself from the rest of the pack.
I’ll risk being seen as irrelevant, but I’ll take that chance and try to appeal to those who are curious for more data/insight about our local market.
It is astonishing how many visitors still come to the blog! Don’t people stop reading real estate websites once they buy or sell a house?
Yet the Google Analytics above show that we’re still getting almost 5,000 unique visitors per months with virtually no promotion at all. Even if most of those hits are the sexy internet bots, I’d be happy if we had 500 people!
Thank you for being here!
What’s Next for JtR and Bubbleinfo.com:
More Kayla – I’ve said it before, but I mean it this time.
Grow the Staff – Interviews began today to hire one more person. Not looking for the big-team, just need more help with the little things.
Blog Upgrades – Work is underway to add a home-search feature, and consolidate others. Hoping to tune up the mobile access too.
Blog Content – This paragraph below is included in every sale, and I think it gives permission for agents to be honest and provide the transparency that is wanted and needed – not sure how far I will push it though:
Videos – I am more enthusiastic about videos than ever, and have been converting to Facebook Live as an alternative. Not that many people watch the videos here, but I’ll keep them coming and hope to improve on them because they are the future. Every blog post is automatically uploaded to that Facebook account, so if that is a preferred way for you to receive your knowledge, then like/follow the page there and you will get everything you get here, and then some!
Documentary Film – Today is the deadline for Sundance, and Giorgio has been screening privately to industry insiders to get valuable feedback before submitting. We discussed last week about including some of my old foreclosure videos, so there is hope I won’t end up on the cutting room floor.
Stick around, there’s plenty more to come!
Tell your friends and family who are thinking of buying or selling to use this blog as a resource, and to employ Kayla and I to be their realtors! I’d appreciate it!
I appreciate our clients who are willing to go on camera to express their thoughts about their experience – thank you Eddie89!
A key point for buyers in a bidding war is to know when to increase your bid, and by how much. I help you determine which houses are worthy of a higher bid – and most aren’t, so you will lose a few!
Eddie89 has been one of my all-time favorite contributors here at the blog, having left dozens of comments over the last three years – thank you for your insights! I appreciate the testimonial too, and publish it below to give Kayla and Donna their due props!
Since Zillow only allows me to write 1 review per real estate transaction, per team of agents we worked with, this is going to be a super long review.
Review on Jim Klinge: Jim Klinge is the quintessential real estate agent, the “broker’s broker” of real estate agents. My husband and I reached out to Jim for the purchase of our first home in North San Diego County. We emailed him on a Saturday night, received an email reply that same night and we were hitting open houses Sunday morning!
We also had a list of potential houses we were thinking about purchasing and Jim was able to expertly go through that list and eliminate the turkeys so that we wouldn’t be wasting our time and money. Due to the very competitive San Diego market, we were outbid on several of the houses we did like, before we finally hit pay dirt and found a home in excellent condition and more importantly, in an excellent location!
We highly recommend Jim Klinge to help you buy or sell your home!
Review on Kayla Klinge: We had the pleasure of working with Kayla through her dad, Jim Klinge. Kayla attended all of the home showings and helped dig up the details on each of the homes we were thinking of buying. Even though we were not looking at million dollar listings, Kayla made us feel like “million dollar” clients and her thoughtfulness and professionalism were instrumental in helping us choose the right home in the right location. She’s definitely going to be a superstar in the real estate industry!
Review on Donna Klinge: In a world where we’re seemingly surrounded by mediocrity, it was such a pleasure and refreshing change of pace to deal with a consummate professional like Donna Klinge!
After purchasing our first home in North San Diego County, Donna took full ownership of helping my husband and I navigate the gauntlet of paperwork we had to fill out with escrow and then deal with all the myriad contractors and inspectors to help get our new house fixed up. She was also instrumental in putting together the repairs estimate based on the findings of the home inspector, which resulted in the sellers reducing the sales price to help us with repairs.
We couldn’t have asked for a better team to help us purchase our first home in North San Diego County.
I’m honored to represent blog readers Kevin and Nancy in the sale of their home in the heart of Old Carlsbad! Though these are connected to their neighbors, they are SFRs on their own lots – and this might be the best location in the complex! Here is a video tour:
Is it Old Carlsbad, or Olde Carlsbad? Wiki uses the first version.
We can’t upload our listings directly to Zillow any more; instead they get auto-uploaded from the MLS if the broker agrees. But we can manually upload it as a Coming Soon – this will be in the MLS tomorrow once I receive the pro photos:
There are still bugs to be worked out. Apparently Zillow’s direct-connect to the MLS isn’t picking up the pendings, which was always one of the biggest complaints – listings that were pending or sold would still show as active listings on Zillow. They still do.
This is one of the house tours for Alan (story here). We did offer on this one, but there were multiple offers and it sold for $21,670 over list price:
