Jan Skrentny

An old friend of mine asked me to come to the Northern Virginia to help them look for a new home in horse country.

As a licensed California Real Estate Agent, I can list and sell anywhere our diverse state. But I have no professional standing in Virginia except that I know the questions to ask to help my friend get the necessary information on HOA (Home Owner Association) rules, zoning, taxes, septic systems, water rights, construction codes, historic excavation sites, drainage, and, not to overlook, the best price for the property. Like agents in California, some of the Virginia agents we dealt with were very forthcoming with information while others only answered the questions they are asked.

In my opinion you’re better off with the former.

However, the point of this page is that at the same time I was in Northern Virginia, in Lake Arrowhead I had an escrow closing, two clients wanting to write offfers, another escrow running into some bumps, and one new client wanting to know information on property that had just come onto the market and I had not seen.

As I have written before, Prime Properties is a boutique agency. We have ten agents, all ten of whom I know well, especially their strengths - construction, landscaping, decorating, appraising, contracts, commercial property, repoes, dealings with banks, people skills. I am fortunate that I could pick between them for the qualities I needed most to help my clients even though I was physically not there.

Of course I was on the phone with my clients all the time but when they needed to view a property in person, submit an offer, investigate an inspection problem, get keys after a closing – I had skilled people to back me up; as I would back them up if the situation were reversed.

It’s early October and the leaves have begun to change. Over night a cloud system covered the mountains creating a grey overcoat around the towering pines and cedars.

Where I live the fog gathers thick on the needles and when the wind blows and the tree shakes rain falls.

We call it tree rain. But it only happens on one side of the house; the side that is canopied by the tall trees. One side of the house has rain, the other is dry. Micro-climates not more than 60 feet apart. I can plant and grow totally different flora from the front door to the back door. It’s quite delightful and fascinating.

There are many micro-climates up here. In one area it might be socked in, a mile distant it coule be patchy clouds and a mile further it is sunny.

I like athmoshere and weather - vision altered, light becoming shafts of illumination.

Throughout my garden I have mushroom lights with rounded glass top. At night in the fog the light goes up in straight beams much like those eerie images of the lasers that were shot into the sky where the World Trade Centers once stood.

I have dozens of shafts of light, outlining stairs and pathways that lead far up the mountain side, up to leveled area where I built my grandchildren a tree house. In the fog it is like a light house, high above our home, the gardens and waterfalls, its illumination dimmed and then brightened by a dancing cape of fog.

It’s eerie and magical. I hope some day you’ll get to enjoy it.

WHY THE MOUNTAIN?

I have lived in the mountains for 20 years with my wife Jessica and at some time or another with our grown children who have wandered through while growing up. I have been a real estate agent for eight years. Prior to living in the mountains, I lived in Los Angeles, Washginton, D.C., rural Virginia, Canterbury, England, New York, Rome, Italy and Milwaukee. I also traveled the world for the National Geographic and the Smithsonian. I’ve seen lots of cities, rural areas, cultural centers, isolated communities and historic ruins. I like it here, now.

I live in Crestline, just outside Lake Arrowhead, 60 miles east of Los Angeles and 5,000 feet higher - in a house that my wife and I designed and built (that’s something you can still do up here, after you buy the land).

This is an area of cedars and pines, ravines of dogwoods, no stop lights, small towns, post office boxes and seasons. In fall, trees turn colors and leaves fall. So does snow in the winter, but just some of the time. In the spring there are glorious explosions of color from trees in bloom and fields of daffodils. Mid-summer temperatures are in the 80’s at the highest - it’s 18 degrees hotter in San Bernardino (temperatures decrease 3 degrees per 1,000 feet of altitude) and 22 degrees plus in Palm Springs. Our 85 is 107 in PS.

REALITY CHECK

We’ve had two forest fires in the last four years. I’m sure you’ve seen them on TV. My wife and I have evacuated both times and both times we returned to find our house safe and sound. But there were people who did lose their homes.

ARE WE CRAZY TO LIVE HERE?

Live in nature? Amidst trees that could burn? With deer, bear, raccoons, coyotes, blue jays and humming birds all around you? Hell, aren’t they dangerous?

All of California is dangerous. Most Americas think its crazy to live here. I’m from Milwaukee, believe me, I’ve heard it repeatedly from relatives.

Malibu burns regularly. If a major earthquake strikes, like Northridge or Oakland, both in the last 15 years, buildings and freeways will flatten. In the mountain there’s a 5,000 foot buffer of granite, a two point better Richter scale chance of survival. When we lived on the beach in Playa Del Rey in LA, our house flooded twice in three years, waves rolling over 100 years of beach to pound the glass sliding doors which in time did buckle.

If global warming is real, LA’s underwater and I’m living on an island.

Still, one of the biggest dangers in California is real estate prices. Admit it, few can afford San Diego or Brentwood. No one can afford oceanfront any more. You dream of beauty, vistas, privacy and quiet. Can’t afford it - try the mountains.

Because of the recent fires, you can get more for your dollar than you could ever imagine other than in — Oklahoma.