Today is a BONUS Day! Carpe Diem.

Listen Up! This is truly a SPECIAL DAY… it’s your bonus day. GO OUT AND DO SOMETHING AMAZING FOR YOURSELF!!!
How often do you get an extra day in your life? What if this was your last day? What would you do? No… REALLY? What would you do to express yourself fully and completely?

This is my 6.2422 Step Leap Day challenge to you:
1. Get Massively Creative and Inspired
2. Do Something Unexpected for You and those You Love
3. Mix a healthy dose of Extra in your ordinary day and get all kinds of Extraordinary
4. Break out of your normal routine and try something unusual, exciting, new… NOW! Get to it.
5. Invite your community of people to join with you. As many as possible.
6. Share what happened with the world via YouTube, Your Blog, Twitter et al. Inspire others.
6.2422. MAKE LEAP DAY A TRADITION IN YOUR LIFE as often as possible.

…shut off your email and go make someone’s day;^)

Below is the email that inspired the above post. I received it from one of my West of the Five clients this morning and is worth reprinting.
Thanks to MikeD and being back on coffee for the inspiration.

“Dear Friends,

Today is a BONUS day that we only get to celebrate once every 4 years.

It’s Leap Day!

I wanted to take this opportunity to remind everyone how cool life is and to take some time and appreciate it. Also, I think leap year is pretty fascinating and thought you might enjoy the knowledge. Check it…

Why do we have leap years?
First, in order to clearly understand what a leap year is, let’s define the following.

One day: The time it takes for the earth to rotate once.

One (solar) year: The time it takes for the earth to revolve around the sun once.

One (Gregorian) calendar year: 365 – twenty four hour days.

Pay attention, because this is where it gets cool and rocks my world (literally).

One solar Year = 365.2422 days

Since our calendar is only 365 days long, there is a distance between where the earth is on its revolution and the end of its 365th day (365 rotations) and the completion of its orbit around the sun. It will take the earth .2422 days or just under 6 hours to cover that distance. Over the course of time, neglecting to adjust for this distance (1/4 day) would cause our seasons to eventually “drift” between the months. The fourth of July would one day be cold at the beach.

In order to ensure the seasons stay inline with our calendar (which is really just convenient for us) we add one day to the year every fourth year.

This system is not perfect though! You may have noted that one year is not exactly 365.25 days. There is still a difference between the calendar year (even with leap year) and the solar year. Adding one day, every fourth year is TOO MUCH! So… here are the rules for determining Leap Year.

1. Every year divisible by four is a leap year.

2. Of those years, if a year can be divided by 100, then it is NOT a leap year.

Unless…

3. The year is divisible by 400. Then it is a leap year.

Examples:

1900 = not a leap year

2000= leap year

2008= leap year

I hope everyone has a great day! It’s bonus so enjoy it!”

My Favorite Ocean/Bay View Home JUST REDUCED!!

Alright! One of my favorite listings, one that was previously listed for $4.4 million just got a minor haircut and a new listing agent. It was previously listed with Prudential California Realty and now is listed with Villa Sotheby’s International. It has a value range price from $3,999,999 – $4,650,000. The views from this home are my favorite in San Diego. Check out the listing below.

5794 La Jolla Mesa Dr. MLS Listing

Feb ’08 San Diego Real Estate Market Update – West of the Five

NO, the economic outlook for San Diego isn’t getting any better as it relates to real estate, but I’ll share the trends and information as it becomes available. Don’t kill the messenger! This particular report is from LandAmerica and is for February 2008.

San Diego, California Real Estate Market Updates by City and Zip Code – West of the Five
Single Family Homes Only:
92037 La Jolla Market Update
92109 Pacific Beach Market Update
92106 Point Loma Market Update
92107 Ocean Beach Market Update
92118 Coronado Market Update

Taking a look at the Market Index Action for each zip code (which attempts to decipher between Buyer’s and Seller’s Markets) i’s obvious that we are experiencing a Buyer’s Market both on paper and in reality. And YES, I do think it is a good time for 1st time home buyers and investors to be in the market.

With these stats in mind I have to post an article I recently read, Investor Report from Realty Times. Read this article an then make 2008 the year you look back on in 10 years and say, “I’m glad I bought more property!”

Most people don’t know that they can access sales stats and information themselves directly from the local San Diego MLS HERE.

Real Estate Agents in “Foreclosure”

Someone had to say it… and my man Seth Godin has a mouthful for real estate agents nationwide. His latest blog as of this post is titled, Advice for real estate agents (quit now)

OUCH.

If you are in business and interested in marketing and great idea generation give his blog a read. Seth has words worth repeating and books worth sharing. I was introduced to his work about 9 months ago and have since gone back to read his books, ebooks and posts from 1999 forward. I am a card holding SethGdevotee. RSS his blog Here.

Turns out, Seth was a bit behind the curve in San Diego for his real estate agent blog post. Many agents preceded his advice to quit. According to a manager at Prudential California Realty who is on the board at SDAR, the local San Diego Board of Realtors, over 30% of agents in our local San Diego market have not renewed their yearly dues. This means no lookey lookey for homes on the MLS for thousands of San Diego agents. In our office alone we’ve lost at least that percentage of agents and office meetings have dwindled in numbers.

REAL ESTATE AGENTS read this POST! It’s time for a healthy dose of Plan B. My lens is here. Can’t wait to read your too.

The Low Down on the Throw Down for Some BLING

Just popped in to see the new inventory over at Symbolic Motors for my quarterly motivation. Lots of choice rides, as usual, with my favorite being the ’06 Gray Ferrari F430 F1 Spyder. Make sure to talk to Bill as he has the low-down on this particular one and knows the previous owner.

My wife and I sat down with the finance director, Carmen, to run some numbers. Here is the estimated breakdown:
2006 Ferrari F430 F1 Spyder with a smidge over 4000 miles
Purchase Price of $270,000 (which seems a bit high for this particular model, but you have to start negotiations somewhere)
Residual Value @ 35% for a Lease (talk to your CPA about the benefits of doing an exotic lease for taxable write offs)
20% down: $54,000 (could be less down if you have a previous high auto loan above $175k)
Approx. $4,500 per month on a 60 month Lease at 8%

So here’s the agreement my wife and I have.; I can have ANY toy I want just as long as I find  an appreciating cash-flow asset that pays for my expensive depreciating assets.  I am on the hunt. I’ll let you know what I find.