Jan Skrentny

Jan Skrentny Presents…

MICHAEL DAVIDSON
Press Release-(pdf)

Visionaries IV, the fourth in a series of extraordinary face-to-face presentations that take you inside the minds of some of today’s most forward-thinking and creative personalities.

Presented by Jan Skrentny at the Prime Properties Welcome Center, An Evening with Professor Michael Davidson, will take place Saturday, June 26th, 2010 from 4:00 to 7:00 PM.

Michael’s work has given him the opportunity to work with amputees who are active in triathlons. Through these athletes, he has learned even more about biomechanics, aesthetics, cybernetics, and the value of being physically active.

Then in 2006, a client and a good friend, challenged him to become a triathlete. “How do you tell a “one-armed” six-time Ironman finisher that you can’t run, bike, or swim?” Seven weeks later, he did his first triathlon. The experience taught him that exercise is just as essential as knowledge in a balanced life.

Michael Davidson continues his quest at the Loma Linda University Medical Center, where he manages the Department of Orthotics & Prosthetics and is Co-Director of their post-graduate program in Bionics. Building a team of dedicated and brights minds, Michael is striving to make bionics and cybernetics open-source, low cost and globally available for all those in need.

Reservations are highly recommended as seating is extremely limited. Please contact Jan Skrentny at 909-908-8520 or call the Prime Properties Welcome Center at 909-337-7653. Cost of the evening is $35.00 per person, please make your checks payable to Jan Skrentny and mail to Jan Skrentny PO 2319, Lake Arrowhead, Ca. 92352.

We encourage you to make donations on the night of the event, directly to PossAbilities.

Jan Skrentny Presents…

On Saturday, October 24, 2009, 5-time Emmy Award winning Art Director and Production Designer, Rene Lagler will share numerous career highlights and insights with our special guests. This is a rare opportunity to get a behind the scenes look at Rene’s highly acclaimed body of work.

Where are great ideas born? How does a concept become reality? Who creates the future?

Join our host, Jan Skrentny, for the first in a series of extraordinary presentations that take you inside the minds of some of today’s most forward-thinking designers, inventors and innovators.

VISIONARIES – with Rene Lagler, guest presenter
Date: Oct. 24, 2009
Time: 4:00 PM to 7:00 PM
Location: Arrowhead Welcome Center ~ 26816 Highway 189, Lake Arrowhead, CA. 92352
Seating is limited ~ RSVP Jan Skrentny 909-908-8520
Price: $75 per person donation
All proceeds will be donated to Mountains Community Hospital Foundation
Cocktails and hors d’oeuvres from the imagination of Casual Elegance.
Press Release-(pdf)

About Rene Lagler
5-time Emmy Award winner Rene Lagler has been the production designer of more than 2,500 television shows and major events, including awards shows and specials, sit-coms, talk shows such as The View, network news shows, and game shows- the first of which was Hollywood Squares.

Rene designed the 57th Academy Awards from which he won an Emmy; the Grammy Awards from 1983 to 1988; the Emmy Awards; and the Country Music Awards from 1991 to 2006. He was Production Designer for the Opening and Closing Ceremonies for the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, and for seven events celebrating the 100th Anniversary of the Statue of Liberty, for which he won an Emmy.

He designed specials and television series for Barbara Streisand, Frank Sinatra, George Burns, Billy Crystal, Julie Andrews, Carol Burnett, Glen Campbell, Dolly Parton, Barry Manilow, Tony Orlando, and Neil Diamond.

Other projects include The Three Tenors at Dodger Stadium and at the Eiffel Tower. He created the stage environment for Pope John Paul’s Mass in Central Park, the 50th Anniversay of Mount Rushmore and We the People 2000 in Philadelphia. Since 2000, Rene has designed the Capital Concerts for Memorial Day and the 4th of July on the lawn of our nation’s capitol. He designed the Democratic National Convention in 1988, 1992, 1996, 2000, as well as two Presidential Inaugural Galas in 1993 and 1997.

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.

I’ve mentioned in other posts that the motto of Prime Properties is “Transforming Real Estate.” The best example of that catch phrase realized is our Welcome Center / Sales Office – an eye-sore of an old gas station turned into a glorious craftsman style office.

But just recently I had another opportunity to demonstrate the value of that phrase. I was referred the home of two doctors from Redlands. They and their family had owned and enjoyed the lake view home for over 20 years but of late because the boys had grown and moved away, the house was not being used. The interior  was in excellent condition but the exterior had a lot of deferred maintenance that greatly reduced the value of the property – peeling paint, wood rotted decks, a dated feeling. Our agents estimated that in “as is” condition the home would sell for under $300,000.

But we calculated that if the doctors would spend money to fix, repair and repaint we could get them their investment back plus a fair amount more. A designer on our staff consulted with them about new colors for the home. We got bids from several builders and I over saw the repairs. In my next post I will show pictures to prove the point – the house turned out beautifully.

The doctors paid $20,000 for all new decks, paint, termite completion and exterior upgrades and before the house went on the market I got an offer of $365,000 for the property. Their $20,000 investment gained them a $45,000 profit in under one month.

Now not everyone has that kind of disposable funds available. But this is absolutely true – most buyers in this market want well cared for homes. Those sellers who are throwing their homes on the market in “as is” condition are lumping their most precious possession along with the banks repoes — also sold in “as is” condition.

You only get one chance to make a good first impression – use it wisely.

Several weeks ago we had three separate winter storms roll through the San Bernardino Mountains starting on Monday and carrying through to Thursday.

Snow depths ranged from three feet in Crestline to over four feet in Lake Arrowhead (the difference is based on altitude: Crestline is just below 5,000 feet and Arrowhead is at a mile high, 5,280 feet — with every 1,000 feet of elevation temperature drops roughly three degrees — thusly the higher the altitude the colder the air and the more snow.)

On Saturday I got a call from clients saying they wanted to come up and view property. I told them that  there was lots of snow and that I doubted if many of the homes had been shoveled out. They said they were okay to climb over snow berms (where the snow plows had piled snow to clear the roads) and trek through knee high snow fall.

And by God, they were.

The group,  myself and six others, in two SUV’s blasted our way down snow packed streets and trudged through deep snow. The skies were blue, the sun was shining brightly and the temperature was in the high 40’s. It was a delightful time, even when we had to shovel snow away from doorways to gain entrance. One of the men offered his sweat shirt so we could wipe our feet when we viewed a newly remodeled home that had no entrance mat.

Amazingly, they found a place that they loved: A very rustic cabin with huge views that in the white dressing of the day looked as picturesque as you could  ever imagine.

Afterwards, over a hearty lunch at a local lakeside restaurat, Woody’s Boat House,  everyone admitted it was fun. 

It was fun: Embracing the elements instead of hiding from them. 

Just don’t wear tennis shoes, they get pretty soggy.

In winter my SUVs are outfitted with extra boots, gloves, coats, shovels, towels, powerbars, water and buckets of salt. I can’t guarentee I have sizes for everyone but I do my best to take care of my people – my clients and friends.

Starting a week before Christmas this last year and continuing steadily through Christmas Day, a series of winter storms rolled into the mountains that brought in over three feet of snow. A storm of this magnitude is called up here a 30 year storm because that’s about how frequently they occur.

When my wife and I first moved to the mountains and built our home, three days after the county inspectors had signed off on the construction, the March Miracle of 1991 occurred. After seven years of dought conditions, 20 plus inches of rain fell, filling lakes and resevoirs, nourishing trees and replenishing underground springs.

In 1991 the mountain communites were shut down for weeks. Power was disrupted for days. Residents were captitive of their mountain homes as work crews struggled to clear main roads and side roads.

By comparison the 2008 storm, almost as great in snow fall, was a testimate to how much better public services have become in the mountains. Power was barely interrupted in the week’s period. Plowing crews kept the main roads open and even the back roads were plowed within the first 24 hours.

The best advice in those situations I can offer to perspective new home owners in the mountains when a storm of such magnitude rolls in is — stay home, light the fire place and enjoy it. There is unparrelled beauty out every window as the world is transformed. With proper clothing and footwear a walk outside will be an event you will long remember.

And if your children and grandchildren can come up to enjoy the sledding and snowman-making… it is beyond comparison. A true delight. 

Their faces light up viewing the transformed surroundings. So does mine. Every time.

There is something significant to say about the change of seasons that so few Southern Californians know anything about.

Yesterday I went on a listing appointment for two homes; one near the the golf course the other in a very desirable area just off the lake called Shelter Cove.

It’s hard to tell owners who have beautiful homes that they have recently remodeled and taken excellent care of that their homes are worth less than they paid for them in 2005.

Fortunately for the Lake Arrowhead area the price decline has not been as great as in the Inland Empire or in Southern California in general. Our inventory is larger than normal but not glutted; our market is not riddled with bank owned properties or short-sales. 

Still, after all the fees are sorted out (commissions, inspections, cost of sale expenses) they will lose money. These two parties were aware of the market and knew that they had to price their houses well so as to not be “chasing the market” (i.e. pricing too high to begin with and only dropping price as the market drops – effectively always chasing the real value of the property).

My best advice to sellers in this market is “don’t sell.” But if you have to (to relocate, for health reasons, job transfer, etc.) tell your agent you want a price your house so that it will sell.

Too often agents will seduce sellers by telling them their houses are worth far more than they really are. The agent gets the listing and in a month asks for a price reduction. The next month or two there is another reduction. And then another. The seller is always chasing the market.The best way to know what your house  is really worth? Ask the agent to show you well priced houses in your price range. Then ask to see them. You compare. How do these houses stand up to yours? In curb appeal, location, size, quality of construction, maintenance. These houses are your competition. Have your agent evaluate these other houses with your house – the pros and cons or each and how it factors into the pricing.

Don’t get trapped in chasing the market, it’s a great waste of time and value.

Surprise, surprise! Most mountain homes are built on land that is not flat!

Therefore, you have upside houses and downside houses.

Seldom flat land houses, that’s for “down the hill” (as it is called up here, actually it should be down the mountain, the homes up here being anywhere from 4,000 to 8,000 feet above sea level).

Older homes, which often equates to less expensive homes, almost all have outside steps, that’s just how they built homes in the past, seems silly now, but there they are .

These older upside homes have steps leading from the driveway. The beauty of upside homes is that most have some kind of view – of trees, mountains, lakes and sometimes electrical and telephone lines. Upside houses also tend to be brighter.

With older downside house you usually have a parking deck that is level from the street and steps leading down to the house which is most likely more shady because you’re down in the trees. Downside houses are easier to carry your groceries to – it’s downhill – and quieter, noise rises. Although in most mountain communities there are few significant noise problems.

Within the last 15 years, newer houses (more expensive) were built with level entry into a garage. And like down the hill homes, the garage opens into the main house although some garages might have interior steps leading up to or down to the main floor.

Interior steps are far better than exterior steps – you seldom have to shovel snow or sweep pine needles from interior steps. They do need to be vacumed though.

WHAT IS GOOD ABOUT STEPS?

Steps keep you fit. Remember at the gym the Stair-Master? Step aerobics? Steps can be your friends.

They can also save you money.

It seemed bazaar that it came on September 11^th, in light of what happened seven years before. This event did not have national significance or perhaps in a small way it did, as in the detail manifesting the greater picture.

Century-21 High Country in Lake Arrowhead sent an e-mail to all its employees and agents saying they were closing their doors for good in four days. That’s 45 agents and a dozen employees given four days notice.

Some say they saw signs of the impending closure months before, reduced sales trying to support local and national advertising and expansive office space.

The hardest part is for the clients: By law the Broker owns the listings. Will the clients see their agents maintain control? Who will handle escrows? Will commissions be paid?

In a down economy the big agencies are not all they are cracked up to be. Just look at Wall Street as financial giant crumble.

A flashy name will never replace “someone you can depend on.” And it has to be more than just an advertising slogan.

One of the things that I am proud of is that over the past five years, during this time of real estate frenzy and fizzle, none of the homes that I put buyers into have gone into foreclosure or been repossessed.

Now please understand, a real estate agent in California cannot tell a buyer how much to offer for a property much less what to buy or not buy. But we can show you comparable homes, point out trends in the market, prognosticate (that’s an educated guess) on the future of the market.

During the peak of the market everyone was sure that anything they bought would double in price in no time at all. But what if it didn’t? What if the property lost value because it was too overpriced to begin with. Could you still afford it?

I believe a good agent has the moral obligation to steer clients away from disasters.

The investment in a first or second home is not just financial; it is a life style investment. How much enjoyment will this property provide you and your family often weighs more than how much can I make from the property.