Real Life Real Estate Blog

Janine Romney has been kind enough to put together a list of fun events across Northern California for this weekend and will be posting new activities every week. Check it out on our Fun Things in Norcal Page.

Today marks a momentous occasion for RealLifeRealEstateBlog. We are introducing the first of several new contributors to help provide useful information about Real Estate, along with some fun stuff. Her name is Janine Romney and since her debut here at RealLifeRealEstateBlog coincides closely with the start of the 2008 Major League Baseball season, she has provided us with the Season Schedules for the A’s and the Giants on our new “Fun Things in NorCal” page. Look forward to hearing more from her on important title issues and interesting events in and around the Sacramento Area.

Since the DOW closed today at 12548 points, I figured that now would be as good a time as any for a little diversion. Good news, although temporary, is still good news and cause to celebrate. Without the weight of a drooping stock market on my mind today, I decided it would be best to sit down and “process” what has been going on with the economy and everything in general by rekindling a long lost passion of mine. Tonight, for the first time in almost two years, I will attempt to play my guitar. I was inspired by a website I ran across, Chordbook.com, which is filled with lessons, music theory help, and a very good chord dictionary. It can definitely help anyone, a novice or someone who has fallen far from guitar greatness like myself, to learn and enjoy the instrument. Over the next couple of weeks I’m going to try to learn a full song again with the help of Chordbook.com and some old guitar books I have.

I’m feeling a little more down to earth so I want to learn something acoustic. Also, the strings on my electric guitar are broken while my acoustic has been safely gathering dust in the closet and I am too busy (or lazy, you pick) to go buy new strings. I was thinking of something by The Dave Matthews Band, John Mayer, Oasis, Radiohead, or the Beatles. These are just a couple of groups I was thinking of.  I’ll be giving an update soon about my song choice and how well (or not) my guitar rehabilitation is going.

I just returned this week from Monterrey Mexico and I have to tell you that it is NOT good to be home. If it were up to me I would have stayed, but I do have silly things like family, friends, and a job that pulled me back to Sacramento. I went with my colleagues from Team Shanahan to Realty World’s 9th annual convention in Monterrey, Mexico. We were there working for a week like any business trip only this one was a little different. The people that we met inside and outside of the convention made it a week to remember. The leaders of Realty World Mexico did a great job of putting together presentations from great speakers with relevant information for the brokers there. What we saw at the convention and the people we met inspired us to begin posting articles from brokers in Mexico regarding their everyday lives, Mexican Real Estate, and their market knowledge so you the reader can get to know and love Mexico as I have. We here at Team Shanahan have teamed up with several brokers in Mexico who would love to let Americans interested in investing, retiring, or vacationing in Mexico know more about Mexico from people who actually live there! So look for more and more articles regarding Mexico in the coming weeks. I’ll also be posting more pictures that I took on the trip just because Monterrey is a very beautiful city and I want to show off my awesome cell-phone photography skills

…Rosario Marin, the former U.S. Treasurer (that’s her signature on a dollar bill!) and current Secretary of the California State and Consumer Services Agency, was the keynote speaker at last night’s Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Gala. I guess I should can any ideas I had about becoming the chamber’s booking agent (j/k). The gravity of her words were evident in the fact that hers was the only speech during which almost all of the dinner tables were completely silent. No paraphrasing would do justice to her oratory…truly moving. She described her journey to the office of Treasurer from immigrating to the United States at the age of fourteen, completing a degree while working full time, the struggles she encountered after giving up her career to care for her disabled son, and going from not wanting to wake up in the morning to reaching for the impossible and making it so. I’m no cry baby but I must admit, I did get a little misty eyed. It’s comforting to know that there are people who have had much worse days than when I miss my morning cup of coffee; who go on to excel beyond their wildest dreams and end up extremely happy.

Last night was the 36th annual Sacramento Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Gala. As it was the first event put on by the chamber that I experienced, it certainly surpassed any expectations I had going into it. When one is asked, “Do you want to go to a chamber of commerce party with us?” one can jump to the conclusion that there will be nothing but boredom and stuffiness about. On the contrary my friends. I think only James Bond himself could have put together a classier, more top-notch event. I will be posting some more pictures of the party as they become available on their website and as I try to hunt down people who didn’t forget to bring their camera’s last night. Until then, please to enjoy beautiful logo.