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I recently observed a couple of Realtor owned homes for sale priced at over a million dollars. One was priced at 2.1 million until last week when the owner slashed $200,000 off the ask.  The other Realtor owned home I saw was priced around 1.3 million.

Of course I have no way of knowing why these Realtors are selling and it really isn’t any of my business (or yours), but if I were to guess, I would say that they are feeling the pinch (who isn’t in this business?)

We have one REO listed that, according to my agent who listed it, was owned by a Realtor who purchased it for around $53k then refinanced it later for around $180k and then lost it (or gave it) to the bank.  Current ask price is $129,900.

Looking for REO, Foreclosure, pre-forclosure, or million dollar plus home in Fresno? CALL ME, I CAN HELP YOU FIND ONE AND NEGOTIATE A GREAT PRICE!

Lazarus 559-301-1647

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A few years back I purchased a vacant lot in Goose Lake Estates during a Modoc County tax lien sale. Goose Lake is Northern California right on the Oregon border. In fact, the lake is something like 2/3 in California and 1/3 in Oregon. Its a very big lake, but also VERY shallow with a maximum depth of 24 feet.

[image from wikipedia]

After I purchased this parcel I used google maps to pinpoint its exact location. Then I zoomed in it and hit the button for satellite image and noticed what looked like a fence that extended WAY into my property from the neighboring property to the south. I said to my wife “it looks like the neighbor has built a fence around his property and extended right into the property I purchased.”

So decided to take a trip up there and check it out and sure enough, just like in the satellite image the neighbor’s his fence extended maybe 100 ft onto a prime portion of my newly acquired property. Well I went over to pay a visit with my neighbor, whom I had never met. He had his fence shut so I just sat there for awhile and I think I honked my horn once or twice. I could see he was home but he wouldn’t bother to come out and speak with me. I’m sure he saw me walking the property and figured what was up and didn’t want to address the issue.

Well, just over the border in New Pine Creek is a little general store. You know this is one of those fishbowl communities where everybody knows everybody else (and their business). You know the kind - country folk who say : ” oh yes, we all know BillyBob, you can trust him with a dollar, but not your daughter!”

So I go to this little store and tell the folks my problem and where my property is located and they are able to quickly figure out who my neighbor was (wont say what they said about him) AND gave me his phone number AND let me call him from there.

Well, I call my neighbor, identify myself, and explain the situation to him. He tells me he believes he owns the property by virtue of how long the fence was there and I explain to him a few details of real estate law to illumine him. I told him that I would sell him the property for $600.00 more than I paid for it and he told me that property was only worth about half that to him, so I got him to agree that it wasnt worth what it would cost for him to defend himself legally against a lawsuit by me and he agreed. He also agreed to remove the fence by an agreed upon time. After the time lapsed I called him and asked him if had removed the fence and he said “yes”.

I didn’t want to make another trip up there to verify that he did, in fact, remove the fence so I hired an engineer to survey the property, place stakes, and notify me if there were any encroachments. According to the surveyor their was no encroachment on my property. Cost: around $800.00

Thank You Google for the valuable tool!

© Randy “Lazarus” McAtee
Owner / Broker Lazarus Realty
559-301-1647
Email Me

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If your wanting to look at the new homes that are going up in Fresno you can access this map on Fresno Bee’s website. As you can see all the development is on the periphery. We live in a county island near the center of that map just about equal distance from all of them. The numbers on the map correspond to the various builders and I dont see an online legend, but you can find one in the Sunday edition of the Bee.

Many of the developers are offering some great incentives to move inventory and most of them are willing to offer broker participation so if your thinking NEW dont hesitate to call me and I’ll help you negotiate a deal that gets you optimum bang for your buck.

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Wow! Here’s and article I just read in the Fresno Bee about a meeting tonight to discuss potential plans to develop land in s.e. Fresno. No small development, that’s for sure, they’re talking about 9,000 acres! Now just to put this into perspective that’s just over 14 square miles of land, or 5 times the size of San Anselmo, the city I grew up in. Ok, so that doesn’t really help you get the picture, so try this: 14 square miles is roughly the equivelent to the area between Blackstone and Temperance (east/west) and Shaw and Herndon (north/south). That’s a lot of land.

Peter Calthorpe, the author of

The Regional City: Planning for the End of Sprawl

The Next American Metropolis: Ecology, Community, and the American Dream

New Urbanism: Peter Calthorpe Vs. Lars Lerup

and the Principle of Calthorpe and Associates has been hired by the city to help oversee the project. He looks like he has the credentials. He will be at the meeting tonight.

The meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. in Sunnyside High School’s cafeteria at 1019 S. Peach Ave.

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Howdy!

My name is Randy “Lazarus” McAtee. First off, folks ask me why Lazarus? Simple: Lazarus is the name I received when I was baptized (which happened to be on Lazarus Saturday) into Christ and the Orthodox Christian Church. Thus, Lazarus is my Christian name.

I am married to wonderful woman who is the mother of our six children: 5 boys, 1 girl. We are blessed with 5 beautiful grandchildren and still have 3 boys living at home with us. Speaking of home, we have lived in the same home in a great northwest neighborhood for nearly 20 years. I am a native Californian, born and raised in Marin County.

I’m a college dropout who is still wondering what I want to be when I grow up. Prior to marriage I was doing mission work in Mexico ( I do speak some Spanish amigo) and was a puppeteer. Marriage and the subsequent offspring forced me to get a real job

I have been a California licensed Contractor (in good standing with zero complaints and zero law suits) since 1988. My license classifications are B, C2, & D65 — which means I am a General Contractor with specialty licenses in Insulation & Acoustical, and Weatherization and Energy Conservation. My license # is 555829.

This is my 6th year in Real Estate and in May of last year I opened my own brokerage: Lazarus Realty. My license No. 01357881. I’d love to say something like ” I have a passion for Real Estate” or ” I really LOVE this business” but that wouldn’t be true. I DO like being a real estate broker. I don’t like it that public opinion of Realtors is low. But then again, from experience, I have a very low opinion of some of those who work in this field; on the other hand, I have met some really fine, upstanding people in this business that I have the utmost respect for.

I enjoy trading stocks and consider myself a micro-cap miner, i.e. I specialize in finding small companies with huge growth potential. An example of one such stock would be Spindletop Oil and Gas [ticker:SPND] which I started buying in 1998 at .18 per share. I sold the last of my shares at the beginning of this year at around $6.00 per.

I recently took up photography and many of the pictures on my site were taken by me. I currently shoot with a Nikon DX200 using a Nikkor 18×200 VR lens. It’s all the camera I think I will need for years to come. I do have some other lenses on my wish list. In the future I plan to have a photo gallery at www.finefotos.com .

In 2002 I got back in touch with my inner Puppeteer and built an entire Punch and Judy Theatre. I built the puppets, the props, the stage - everything- I even sewed all the little outfits myself. It took me 6 months. In 2006 I got frozen shoulder so until I regain my range of motion, I cant perform with puppets. In the mean time I am building a Flea Circus which is taking me far longer than anticipated. I authored and self-published a 16 page book about my distinguished troupe of fleas and you can read about it at the Flea Press (where one small mind itching to be heard lets the world know what’s bugging him).

During this market downturn I’m focusing on becoming more net-friendly. Many of my clients have been elderly people and hispanics with little or no internet exposure. I realize, however, that a large number of people, myself included, rely on the internet to identify prospective properties. SO - HERE I AM.

I hope that you will find some useful information on my blog. Whether your a friend, former client, prospective client, or a real estate agent feel free to comment or contact me anytime.

Lazarus - aka blogging broker

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