February 18, 2010

City of Livermore Report of Residential Building Record

Posted to Pam Dakan, Real Estate Tips

I am currently selling a house in Livermore and was unaware that the City requires a Residential Building Record report be sent to the Buyer before the property changes ownership. It just entails the Seller of the property filling out an Application with a payment for $60. Seller has to make sure they install a chimney spark arrestor and smoke detectors at the time of sale, and also is a record of any permits filed with the City, which is useful information for the Buyer.

You can call the City of Livermore Permit Center for the application at 925-960-4410, or go to www.ci.livermore.ca.us.

Posted by:Pam Dakan



February 17, 2010

Bank Owned Bargain in Union City

Posted to Pam Dakan

I have a bank owned listing for sale in Union City at 4171 Queen Anne Drive. It is located in a very nice neighborhood, close to all amenities, schools and transportation. The home has 3 bedrooms and 2 baths, is approximately 1357 square feet with a large back yard. It is in need of some TLC. It does have a separate living and family room. List price is $365,000, which is quite a bargain in that area. Please call me for a showing at 510.673-4721, or e-mail me at pam@pamdakan.com.

Check out the flyer by clicking here.

Posted by:Pam Dakan



February 09, 2010

IRVINGTON HIGH SCHOOL SOCCER FUNDRAISER

Posted to Area Attractions, Pam Dakan

My son Anthony played Junior Varsity soccer for Irvington High School for the last few months and they had their big fundraiser for the year, the 31st Annual Crab Feed! Parents donated baskets for the big raffle.

We made a Movie Night Theme, filled with goodies, Orange Crème Soda, Milk Duds, Blockbuster movie rental gift cards, popcorn, pretty much everything you would need for a great night in with movies. I get my baskets from the Gourmet Gift Horse, a company on the Peninsula. They do such a great job when I order gift baskets for my clients. I have personalized ribbon with them and I can use them as promotional items as well!

I helped with checking in people for the first hour – I saw parents I hadn’t seen in years, back from when my son played at Warm Springs Little League. I had no idea there would such a great turnout! I think there were over 400 people that came!

The kids all helped serving, wearing their soccer shirts, and were hustling to get everyone what they needed, be it carafes of unlimited wine, or salad, followed by spaghetti. It was all quite good, however, it was my first crab feed and I wasn’t as prepared as some of the veterans that have obviously been to a few crab feeds. I mean, parents bought home prepared cocktail sauce, fondue sets, and their own bottles of wine, as well as crab cracking tools! It was great! The crab was plentiful. I think I ate enough crab to see me through until next season!

Bill Aboumrad, my boss at Legacy Real Estate & Associates came with his whole family! It was nice to see support from my brokerage. Thanks Bill! Marie Rice, my office mate also came and supported the event.

It was fun, and I’ll sure be helping out again next year!

Posted by:Pam Dakan



February 03, 2010

Work to Live versus Live to Work

Posted to Pam Dakan

Having just returned from a 3 week trip to Paris and London, it amazed me just how many of us here in the U.S. simply live to work.

The standard paid vacation for most salaried jobs in Paris is approximately 6 weeks, meaning most people take what I call “real vacations” of two weeks at a time, three times a year. The standard work week is 37.5 hours per week. Personally, being born and raised in London, this was true for over there also. If you go visit many places in Europe during the month of August, you will find that everyone is on vacation, enjoying time with their friends and family. Here in the States, one is lucky to get two full paid weeks of vacation. I think people are more productive when they have something to look forward to and work harder if they know there’s a vacation coming up. Don’t you find that when you are going on vacation, you rush to get everything done and you are way more productive? I do.

And so, I realized, it’s important to prioritize what is important. Living to work is not it, for me. Working to live? Now that’s a concept…really living means being able to enjoy the money you make. Unfortunately it seems most Americans are so deep in debt this may not be possible. So people commute and are on the road several hours a day, working from 8 to 5 or 6, not getting home until late in the evening, leaving their kids to be raised by others. This is quite unfortunate. I can’t change the way people live their lives, but maybe we could take a lesson from the Europeans and enjoy our lives a little bit more, spend time with those who really matter a little bit more.

Posted by:Pam Dakan