[lindismith]

PD,
Just wondering if you have ever traveled outside the US? And when I say traveled, I don’t mean a cruise to Puerto Rico, I mean, spent time in a foreign country, learning about it’s culture and people, whether on holiday or for business.
Just curious.

[lindismith]

Sounds good.

[lindismith]

Docteur, I like your posts too. Hopefully you’re coming to the meet-up in July!

I work in marketing for my family’s manufacturing biz. We have survived for many reasons, but one of them is because we have embraced technology (unlike other US mfrs.) Anyway, in my marketing role, I have to stay up on Search Engine Technology. I thought many of you might find the following link interesting:
http://searchenginewatch.com/searchday/article.php/3611756
It is clear the web is having a huge impact on RE.

I’m not convinced that individual real estate agents need a website, but they do need to understand and appreciate the impact the web is having on their business (and all related businesses.) At the very least, potential referrals will google a realtor’s name and a realtor without a website could present an image of a realtor who is not living in the 21st Century, and therefore not as knowledgeable. That’s just my marketing opinion of course.

[lindismith]

PD wrote: “john67elco, are you really attached to your signature line? Would you be willing to get rid of it?”

LOL!

john67elco, at a minimum, it has a typo in it. You need to change “your” to “you’re.”

That’s great that people would like to meet! Could change the way some of us interact with each other on this board…

[lindismith]

I’d love to meet some of the people on here. I’ve been a member about 6 months, and have learned so much! I would particularly like to meet Powayseller, Bugs, Barnaby33 (Josh), and of course Rich.

Any day works for me also. I think early evening is best in terms of time.

[lindismith]

I’m in. I’d love to meet some of the people on this forum!

[lindismith]

It will be interesting to see what they actually sell for. It says the 50% is the opening bid, not necessarily what they will sell for. Powayseller, do you have time to track, and let us know what they go for?

On the organic thing – yep, I don’t even shop at ‘regular’ supermarkets anymore. Vegetables, meat and fruit at the regular places seem to have lost all their taste, so the organic is worth spending a bit more.

[lindismith]

I believe Weseloh (sp?) dealership is offering 2 years of free gas, if you buy a Hummer, Suburban or Tahoe right now. I’m not sure what that translates to in actual gallons, but they must be desperate to sell any inventory in such a high-priced gas market. I think I read somewhere it’s about $150 to fill up a Hummer. And who knows how many times you have to fill it when the mpg is so bad….
The whole concept of these massive cars is just so ridiculous. Sometimes I literally get sick to my stomach when I see these cars on the road.

[lindismith]

Love this thread!

[lindismith]

Yes, I agree with Jim who says “gold is universally recognized as money.” When my folks decided to emmigrate from South Africa in the late ’70s, they could only take a certain amount of money out of the country, so they opted to convert some cash to Kruger rands, and bring them out of the South Africa, and into the US. I’m not exactly sure how they converted them back to US Dollars, but believe me, many things can become cash if there is a buyer for them. It really doesn’t matter if it’s a commodity or a currency, it just matters that you can trade it.

[lindismith]

There’s a very good book about the marriage of Big Oil and Big Politics, by Linda McQuaig, entitled “It’s The Crude Dude.” I’m quite certain our right-leaning participants on Piggington won’t like it, but for the rest of us, it puts a lot of the pieces together on how we got there, and why we’re staying there (in Iraq). If you like non-fiction, it’s completely absorbing.

As for the decline of the petrodollar, it’s not good for us at all. It’ll be interesting to see how it all plays out. I suspect it will only take one big player like Russia for many, many others to follow, including Chavez in Venezuela, and right behind him, France.

It’s not only our economy that can take a hit from something like this, it’s our role in the world, and how the rest of the world views us.

[lindismith]

When you become un-bored, please post more on what you find out.
I have always thought San Diego is the toughest market in California – not enough good jobs translate to so many difficulties including growing the city with a strategy worthy of it’s size, rather than the willy-nilly develop and develop at any cost, without giving real consideration to the impact on our freeways, beaches, open space, and schools. (Does anyone really think it’s reasonable that the traffic should be so bad here? When will the city planners actually promote business building in North County so the impact on i-5 south is reduced?)
I remember trying to get a marketing job here a few years ago, but because there are so few companies headquartered here, I gave up. I think the biggest 3 employers at the time were Qualcomm, UCSD, and SAIC – none of which were a real match for me.
I too would love to know how a city can keep giving out permits to build fancy high-rise condos downtown, sprawling McMansions in North County, and yet focus on the hospitality and leisure industries as our ‘growth’ areas. Even the middle managers of these industries can’t afford a median-priced home.
We do have bio-tech, but I’m unclear how much these R&D companies actually impact our local economy. Some of my friends employed by those labs have second jobs, to afford living here.
It seems like my friends who are successful (rich) are all in business for themselves, with landscaping or roofing contractor-type companies they own. Or they work for Qualcomm.

[lindismith]

oh, and I also realized you would have a nice view of the city from Point Loma. There are some condos down by the water. Old Venice Cafe is a great restaurant too. Some of the newer developments were advertising studios in the 200K range about 6 months ago. Maybe they’ve come down? I’m not sure the studios would have a view though. The one and two bedrooms might. Take Rosecrans west, and at the second last traffic light, make a left and go down towards the water. They were conversions.
There are plenty of older buildings there that would have views too.

[lindismith]

You might also try the Hillcrest and Banker’s Hill area. There is a lot of development that is going in on 5th. You can walk to Balboa Park, or the restaurants on University. You would be slightly in the flight path though, so make sure you can’t hear anything when you’re inside. The views are really beautiful though.

[lindismith]

Has the city planned for any parks? Is there 1 park downtown? I don’t think there’s one square, with a statue, a few benches, shady trees, grass and some swings. Someone please let me know if there’s some OPEN NATURAL space planned down there….

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