Best of 2015
12/31/15
Some of the following is fact, some is merely opinion. Either way, we hope you enjoy. Here’s our review for the year 2015:
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Best Buy of the Year: 1495 Foothill Road – listed for $879,000/sold for $879,000. One of the least expensive view homes we’ve ever seen in Ojai, this one was a bit of a surprise – as it was brought to the market by an out of area agent. No one saw it coming. It wasn’t perfect; the kitchen and bathrooms could have used updating. But at 1,962 sq. ft. – and those views – this one had the most upside of any home we saw this year. Yes, as it turns out, this was purchased by our own clients. Although they lived out of town, in the span of two days Maria took a video walk-through of the home, we took high resolution photos and provided comps of the area, and our clients made an offer, sight unseen. We had a deal by the 3rd day (and just in time, as there was another full-price cash offer that came in just after our client’s offer). We don’t always choose our own sales as Best Buy of the Year (last year it was a house on Palomar that we had no stake in), but that’s 3 out of the last 4 years that we felt our clients got THE Best Buy in Ojai.
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Highest Sales Price in the Ojai valley: $7,103,000 – 1015 Amber Lane.
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Lowest Sales Price in the Ojai valley: $215,000 – 436 Skyhigh Drive.
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Average Sales Price of homes sold in the Ojai valley (mobile homes excluded): $842,902. (2014: $790,026. 2013: $644,824).
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Average days on the market: 103 days. (2014: 111 days. 2013: 110 days.)
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Fun Pic of the Year: “Lazy Realtor” – This is an actual listing photo of a property right here in Ojai. It’s a photograph – of a computer screen – which is displaying a photo – taken from a Google street view vehicle/camera. (The property is currently listed with an out of town agent. They have since changed the photo – but this was the only photo available when the listing first came on the market.)
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Best Business Decision of the Year: Hiring our partner, Maria DePaola. She came on board with us in August, and the marriage has almost been too good to be true. She will be handling some of the Best Buys in Ojai updates in the coming year.
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Best Movie We Saw This Year: We tried to logic our way out of it, saying it was too easy. Too obvious. But we couldn’t help ourselves – Star Wars: The Force Awakens. The edge of the seat excitement, the guy sitting next to Cheryl who she swears was going to pee his pants between “A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…” and the opening music, the energy in the room when Han Solo and Chewbacca first turned the corner into frame – was just too much. We are by no means Star Wars geeks. We have no action figures or posters from the series. But this will be the first movie that I’ll want to see a second time, in the theater, in about 20 years.
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Best Movie We Saw This Year – runner up: Bridge of Spies. Loved, loved the dialogue and tension borne out of it, rather than action sequences.
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Our Favorite New Restaurant: Right here in Ojai, it’s Nocciola. Unbelievable scallops. Pasta so tender and perfectly cooked you could just pile butter and ketchup on top of it and it would still be good (but please don’t do that). An outdoor seating area that is perfect on a warm evening (with stunning pink-moment views). If you want good seating, be sure to make a reservation – believe us, it’ll be worth it!
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Strangest conversation within 15 minutes of meeting new clients (while showing them property): The fine details on their colonoscopy, followed by their mis-adventures with Viagra. Yes, we sold them a house. And we’re friends now.
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Strangest experience while showing a property: While Cheryl and I were showing clients a home, I noticed that the VCR in a TV cabinet was recording. “Strange,” I thought – “I haven’t seen a VCR recording anything in what…10, 15 years?” Then I noticed the wire going from behind the TV cabinet to a clock on the fireplace mantle. And there was the camera, recording us as we were showing the home. Now, we always try to have clients keep any negative comments about a home to themselves until we are in the car together, as we don’t want any hurt feelings if a homeowner is within earshot. So, I walk over to Cheryl and whisper to her that we’re being recorded. Her eyes grew wide for a moment, then she proceeded to plant herself and our clients in the center of the living room (right in front of the camera, of course) and go over every possible detail of the home. Minutes go by, and I’m just thinking about getting the clients out of the house because at this point, it’s clear they don’t care for the home and are no doubt going to make some comments about the glitter embedded in the popcorn ceiling. Finally, I’m able to get them all out of there only to find out that Cheryl thought we were being recorded by our clients (as if they were with the Department of Real Estate or something) – with hidden microphones. We never told our clients about the camera, but Cheryl and I had a laugh between the two of us as I explained to Cheryl that in my head I was screaming “What are you doing? Get them out of the house! Exit the premises immediately!”
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So that’s all for this year, folks. It’s been a great year for us and we hope it’s been a great year for you. It’s been a pleasure serving up Ojai real estate for you!