Can You Smell The Roses?

 

Can You Smell The Roses?

“Our natural given right is our sense of smell. Use it.”

 

We went to The Sea Ranch recently, with friends who live in Southern California and who finally joined us on a trip there, after many invitations. Michael, who calls himself a city person and rarely goes out to nature, said that the strolls along the bluff that we took during the morning and afternoons were the best walks he had ever had in his life. I was not surprised.

 

The beautiful nature, the wild animals that we encountered along the way, and the bloom of flowers, which were abundant after the late rain, made those walks memorable. The air was filled with different smells and aromas. The very specific smell of the ocean, the smell of freshly cut grass, and flowers. The blend of those aromas would invigorate anyone’s senses. The art of mixing different flowers to create ointments are known from the ancient times—

“Ointments and perfumes delight the heart” (Proverbs 27:9).

 

 

During our walks while I photographed the beautiful surroundings, our friend brought up an idea. It could be great if smells could be extracted and stored in photographs, so people can see and smell the images simultaneously. I thought about this when we visited a spice store in Murphys, CA.  My response was that it probably could happen. Like so many other inventions that started with an idea, the fact that these thoughts came up, means that this possibility exists and has just not manifested yet. On one of our recent flights in the Southwest Airlines’ magazine, Spirit, I found an article, “Scents and Sensibility”. Somehow I am not surprised when this kind of coincidence happens.

The article described what is going on in the study of smells called Osmology / Olfactology. Apparently, not everyone can smell roses, or anything else, because they lack or have lost their sense of smell—called anosmia. Smells can affect our behavior and change our moods. Scientists, who work at the Monell Chemical Sense Center in West Philadelphia, discovered that humans can actually detect more than 1 trillion smells. At the same time, “Monell scientists work tirelessly to crack the code of these scents. Trimmer and her colleagues are trying to figure out what odors light up which combinations of receptors and how genes influence that process. She says they know the receptor combos for at least 40 odors. Less than a trillion to go.”

While they are busy with that work, get out to nature, enjoy its’ beauty, and exercise your senses to the fullest.

P.S.

While I cannot share with you my olfactory sensory experiences, you can enjoy the beauty I was fortunate enough to capture on our trip to The Sea Ranch. You can see more of my images of flowers on Twitter, Facebook, and on my office walls. You are always welcome to visit.

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MEET UP EVENT: NOVEMBER

How To Find Money For Seismic Retrofit of Soft Story Building


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Meet up with Manny for a night of sharing common interests and ideas. You will have the opportunity to meet people with common real estate interests who own or want to buy commercial or apartment buildings, share, or address any ideas and concerns.

 

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What is the problem?
Who has the money?
What are Lenders looking for?
What are the solutions?
Can the city of San Francisco help?
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 EVENT DETAILS


When: November 13th, 2014
Time: 6:30pm – 8:30pm
Where: 2345 24th Ave., San Francisco, CA 94116 (Taraval Police Station Conference Room)
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See you there!

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Owner occupied and investment properties only. Rates, CLTV and amounts depend on various factors. Contact for more information.


Clients, who were referred by their CPA, recently bought a two-unit building and just finished the remodeling. As a result, they accumulated about $70,000 in credit card debts.

When they heard that the interest rates have come down, they called their mortgage broker who told them that paying off debts will create a “cash-out“–resulting in no benefits from refinancing.

We, the team at Pacific Bay Financial, looked at their situation differently.

Their current loan balance was $550,000 with an interest of 4.25% and monthly payments of $2,869. Instead of increasing the loan amount to cover the credit card debts, we suggested lowering the amount to the be within the conforming limit for two-unit buildings–$533,000.

Due to the low rate of 4.125% paired with no out of pocket closing costs, the new payment dropped to $2,665. The difference of $17,000 combined with $10,000 credit card debt was transferred into a line of credit (L/C) with a rate of 3.75% and $84/month payments.

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Don’t Forget to Attend Our November MeetUP Event
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Date: Thursday: November 13, 2014  
Address: 2345 24th Ave, San Francisco, CA 94116
Time: 6:30pm to 8:30pm 

RSVP on Facebook  OR email  Ausra@Pacbay.net

Can We Get Drunk From Too Much Beauty?


Can We Get Drunk From Too Much Beauty?

“If you want to have a beautiful life, fill it with beauty.”

 

We spent last week in the Berkshires, MA. Our reason to travel there was to celebrate the 90th birthday of a man who we have known since we lived in Riga, Latvia over 40 years ago. We are very good friends with his daughter. She and her husband live in Pittsfield—which is the heart of Berkshires County. My wife managed to get a time-share  exchange there, and we had a remarkable, though tiring, time exploring the area. While it is said that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, there are certain things in life that most people would agree are beautiful.

While we certainly have enough beautiful trees and flowers where we live, traveling to different places allows us the special opportunity not only to see nature’s beauty with our eyes but also to experience nature’s influence of the beauty with all of our senses. This is why we decided to visit The Berkshires in the prime time of Fall, when leaves are changing colors. This area is probably beautiful all year round. It is located about 2.5 hours drive from Boston and Manhattan. We spent a whole week driving around to experience yet another place where nature was showing off its diverse and all empowering beauty. Looking around, I asked myself, why is this beauty in nature only available for those who live in areas with real seasons, while us Californians have to go to places like the Berkshires to experience it?

I think that like anything else in life, we need to make an effort to gain any benefits and like the Fall, nature’s beauty changes quickly into something else (like Winter), and brings about a whole new beauty. We just have to learn to appreciate what is readily available to us, break our routines, and visit places that are eagerly waiting for us.

It was easy and at the same time challenging to photograph what I saw with my own eyes. It was like slicing a small piece of a beautiful cake that nature created for my enjoyment—which part of the cake should I cut? The cake was changing right before my eyes. The last red leaf hanging on a barren tree with a multicolor background of other trees, and then with a small break of wind, it would lift into the air and slowly join other leaves that created a beautiful carpet on the ground. No other people walked in the forest attached to the house where we stayed, and the carpet would slowly disintegrate into the brown surface, which served as a protective blanket and fertilizer for the seedlings on the ground, which will come out next Spring as a beautiful new tapestry that we call “nature”.

Our friend told us that this year was exceptional for the amount and the intensity of the coloration. Perhaps it was done specially for our visit, but we are planning to come back again just to check if it is true. Since we also change, as well as our sensitivity to the world and the beauty around us, this will be difficult to measure.

P.S.

“A picture is worth a thousand words”.

There are at least 176 quotes about seeing beauty. One of them is from the famous Chinese thinker Confucius. “Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it”. It was challenging to choose a few images to share my experience with you. Enjoy!

 

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On one hand, conventional lenders demand a lot of the documents to prove borrowers eligibility for the mortgages. At the same time, some of them offer “old fashioned” stated income loans.
As King Solomon once said,
“There is nothing new under the sun” (Ecclesiates 1:4-11).
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Spotlight
Don’t Forget to Attend Our November MeetUP Event
meetup

Date: Thursday: November 13, 2014  
Address: 2345 24th Ave, San Francisco, CA 94116
Time: 6:30pm to 8:30pm 

RSVP on Facebook  OR email  Ausra@Pacbay.net


Cheers, 

Manny<br />
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Are You a Good Driver?

 


 

 

Are You A Good Driver?

“When in a rush, drive slowly.”

 

45 years ago, I received my first driver’s license. At that time, we lived in Riga, Latvia and only a few people actually owned their cars. I was working as a car mechanic (one of the ten occupations I had before becoming a mortgage broker) in a garage where we repaired trucks. I needed a driver’s license to move them in and out. I enrolled in the driving school for a yearlong course. It was offered through a military organization, which inadvertently saved me from going to the Army later on—but this is a separate story.

My actual driving experience came some years later, when we moved to Israel and I was able to afford my own car. Israelis are aggressive drivers and I became quite a pushy driver myself. Later on when we moved to the United States, I had the opportunity to drive in New York where I was at par with the local taxi drivers. But I also acquired some bad driving habits. One of them resulted in being stopped by a police officer for driving at 93 mph. With age, I mellowed down, but sometimes it is difficult to get rid of years of questionable driving practices.


 

But I was lucky—I’ve had no major accidents and not too many encounters with the police. As the world progresses and technology improves, it is becoming easier to get caught. Last week, I described my experience dealing with being “photographed” for a moving violation, which led to 8 hours of driving school. The court gave me a list of authorized traffic schools. After checking convenient hours, I ended up at the New Chinatown Traffic School, (which is actually located in the Sunset District at 2710 Vicente Street at 38th Ave). Samson Chung, who for many years has also worked as a driving instructor, taught the class. Despite the cost of the class ($45), plus the cost of the citation ($337), and the time I spent dealing with the whole process, at the end of the class I felt that it was a good investment of my time and money.

 

Driving a car is serious business and one needs to know the rules. After all, we have the responsibility for the safety, not only for our own lives, but also of those who get in our cars and those drivers and pedestrians who share the road with us. Unfortunately, there are a staggering number of fatalities on the road.  The recent story which appeared in The New Yorker titled “Auto Correct”, describes the development of the self-driving cars by Google and some Automakers. It also pointed out that:

“Americans drive nearly three trillion miles a year, [the author] was told by Ron Medford, a former deputy administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration who now works for Google. It’s no wonder that we have thirty-two thousand fatalities along the way, he said. It’s a wonder the number is so low.”

Do we all have to learn how to drive and become more responsible, or just rely on the technological developments? I think that the first option is cheaper and easier to accomplish. After the class, I started stopping at yellow lights, stopped making U-turns in the middle of commercial streets, used my blinkers to signal turns, and paid attention to the pedestrians (all of those and other “small” violations lead to encounters with cops and cost a lot of money and time).

P.S.

I drive a 10 year old Lexus SUV, but my wife Elfa likes smaller cars. She had a Mini Cooper, which she drove for 4 years with only 10,000 miles. When a light appeared on the dashboard, she drove her car to the dealership where she was told about a carbon buildup on the engine, which would cost about $1,700 to remove. I suggested that instead of using this money for the repair, to look for a new car. After some searching, we ended up with an electric Smart car. After all of the rebates, the dealership and government offered, it did not cost anything to get it out of the showroom with a three-year lease of $230/month (half of what she was paying for her Mini Cooper). We also became responsible citizens and saved some money! We were told that the electrical bill would only cost about $3.50/month for every 100 miles. Wow! The car industry has come a long way from the old ones (that I photographed in Havana), the sport ones we saw in Carmel—to the small electrical box on wheels. If you want to buy one in San Francisco, ask for Aleksey Keytiyev. He offered great help and good advice.

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After Ben Bernanke was turned down for his mortgage application, many lenders started showing how they could help him get his loan approval.

I do not think the options above would help him (as his loan scenario was different), but it might help someone you know.

Don’t forget to share this with a friend!

Whom Do You Know That Might Benefit From Our Tailored Mortgage Solutions?
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Spotlight
Don’t Forget to Attend Our November MeetUP Event
meetup

Date: Thursday: November 13, 2014  
Address: 2345 24th Ave, San Francisco, CA 94116
Time: 6:30pm to 8:30pm 

RSVP on Facebook  OR email  Ausra@Pacbay.net

You Are Innocent Until You Get Caught

 

 

You Are Innocent Until You Get Caught

“A car can be a privilege or a liability–depending on the driver.”

As a photographer, I like to photograph others—often without asking their permission. This time, I was on the other side of the lens. As you know, I love photography. That is partially why I wanted to share this photograph of my car taken by the $300,000 photo equipment taken by the city of San Francisco. This is how much I was told the City paid for two cameras located on the diagonal corners of some city streets with a warning sign on the pole in-front of them. I was making a right turn from Van Ness onto Bush Street, apparently on a red light. I did not remember this and only found out when a citation with four images of my car was mailed to me. To deal with this matter, I had to go to the Superior court.

 

In the courtroom, we were given an option to pay the $490 fee with a discount, and for those who are eligible (no traffic school for at least 18 months) to spend 8 hours in a classroom or in front of a computer, or to protest in front of a judge—losing the opportunity to get a discount and enrollment into traffic school. Being stubborn and stupid, I decided to meet the judge. (I have done this in the past when policemen had mistakenly cited me and I successfully got the citation dismissed.) But this also meant another trip to court.

 

The judge simply explained to me what I did wrong. She also told me that if I will insist on the court hearing, there would be a technician present, who would testify that all of the photography equipment was functioning and tested. There was also a sensor under the surface of the road. I was told that I did not stop completely and turned right at the speed of about 16.4 mph, 4.2 secs after the light changed to red. The judge also pointed out, a complete stop is defined as when the wheels stop rolling at the intersection and the body leans back after the stop vs. a “California” roll when the wheels continue rolling.

Perhaps because I was not arrogant and was smiling as I spoke to the judge, she gave me a discount anyway and sent me to traffic school. After the administrative fee of $52, my total bill came out to $337. I did not want to stand in the long line to pay the fee and decided to come back at the end of the next day. I arrived at 4:30pm, only to find out that they close at this time. Thus, I had to take yet another (fifth) trip to settle this matter—every time struggling to find parking. And there was still traffic school about which I will write about next week.

P.S.

Instead of my regular photos, I decided to show you the work of the city. The technology is amazing, but the qualities of my images are much better, which you will be able to see next week.

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niche

When SF Gate reported that the former Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke‘s request for a mortgage was turned down, it showed the conditions of today’s loan underwriting.

But the point of the matter is relatively simple. He applied for a mortgage with the WRONG BANK.

His issues probably arose from no longer having W-2’s  and becoming 1099 self-employed. The underwriting rule is that a 2 years average of 1099 income is needed. Until then, forget about a new mortgage or find another W-2 job.

Each bank has their niches and it is our job to find the right tailored solutions. One thing is for sure–with us, he would receive an answer about his qualification right away.

Above is the information we received from one of our bankers.

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Spotlight

Date: Thursday: October 9, 2014  
Address: 33 Arroyo Drive, South San Francisco, CA 94080
Time: 6:30pm to 8:30pm 

Flyer: CLICK HERE

RSVP on Facebook  OR email  Ausra@Pacbay.net


Cheers,

Manny<br /><br /><br /><br />
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MeetUP: Real Estate Asset Protection

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Meet up with Manny for a night of sharing common interests and ideas. You will have the opportunity to meet people with common real estate interests who own or want to buy commercial or apartment buildings, share, or address any ideas and concerns.

Did the housing recovery end foreclosures?

  • Short Answer is “No”. Have we learned anything from our past mistakes we made in Real Estate?
  • “Ride the Wave” with Ildiko Pali and learn from her 40 years of experience in 5 cycles of Real Estate!
  • Market recovery typically lasts 5-6 years
  • Market decline/recession typically lasts 3-4 years

 

Where can homeowners learn about Real Estate Asset Protection?

  • At www.RE-AssetProtection.com, the mission is to help clients.
  • How to become bullet proof to foreclosures
  • Master the knowledge when to buy and when to sell real estate
  • Steps they need to take to protect their real estate assets

 

RSVP on  Facebook | OR email Ausra@Pacbay.net | EVENT FLYER
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See you there!

Cheers, 

Manny<br />
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