"Even before the digital paint has dried on Zillow.com, a real estate valuation site that launched in beta form in February, an alternative site has sprung up at RealEstateABC.com. Both sites offer free home-price estimates to consumers at no charge and without requiring any form of registration." You can read the whole article Here, written by Glenn Roberts from Inman News.

"The site typically generates 30 comparable sales for each subject property, and users can edit this list of comparable properties by selecting and deselecting other comparable properties. The ABC Values tool features a Google-based mapping platform that identifies a subject property with a distinct icon that resembles a blue house. Comparable properties are listed on the map with reddish house-shaped icons, and other properties in the area that sold within the past five years are posted on the map as beige house-shaped icons."

This is another amazing site worth looking at, but like Zillow, it does have its limitations.

Like most people trying the site out for the first time, I entered my home address with anticipation of more miracles, a real estate appraisal with a push of the button. Unbelievable, 30 comps appeared, just like that. All of my neighbors were right there, within a quarter mile of my home.

Impossible, I thought, since I've only seen a couple of homes sell recently around here. Well, of course, there's only one home listed here that's sold within the last six months. The rest go anywhere from the summer of 2005, all the way back to 2003. Nice information, but maybe not too relevant. You never know. The dollar per square foot value for a specific address in 2003 may have the makings of a future interactive trivia game.

Find an agent. For $25 I get listed. For $200, I get listed as a featured agent within a zipcode that I get to own for a year. Instant credability. That's easier than passing the State Broker's exam!

The "Adjust Value" features are pretty cool. You can have some fun with these. However, even as a Real Estate Broker, I wasn't sure how to accurately tweak the "slider".

Hey, and don't forget that other site that launched this week as well, "Electronic Appraiser."

"This is more than just a face-lift," said Greg Sullivan, president and CEO for Electronic Appraiser. "We're continually identifying areas to expand and evolve how we distribute our services. Our customers can expect processes to be easier for all segments of our products, as well as more resources related to residential real estate. Our growth in service offering and continued profitability shows that the value in our products is proven instantly." (From a "Business Wire" released today).

I do agree with what Amy Bohutinsky says about both sites below. Consumers are more sophisticated now and will demand a much more up to date information platform to help them make a well informed decision. These sights will develop over time, definitely improve, and eventually change how we do real estate business in the future.

Amy Bohutinsky, a Zillow spokeswoman, said the launch of another valuation tool is more proof that consumers are hungry for real estate information. "I think what you're seeing is evidence that there's a great consumer search for more information on the Web, and consumers want data that's traditionally been very hard to find online for free. Valuations and data on 60-plus million homes is a first step on what we see as a marathon of opportunity to give consumers tools and processes. This is our first step. Seeing other sites out there develop consumer tools and information is a great thing."

A statement at the Web site notes that the ABC Values tool uses "methodologies similar to those used by Realtors, brokers and appraisers -- although we highly recommend that you consult local professionals to obtain an expert opinion. There is no substitute for deep local market expertise."

Follow this link to itulip.com to read the full story.

Louis Jordan

"In the Forties, bandleader Louis Jordan pioneered a wild - and wildly popular - amalgam of jazz and blues with salty, jive-talking humor. The music played by singer/saxophonist Jordan and his Tympany Five got called "jump blues" or "jumpin' jive," and it served as a precursor to the rhythm & blues and rock and roll of the Fifties." - Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

"Although Jordan's music has been described as part novelty, his jumping music bridging the gap betwwen the big band style and older school R&B through to the rock and roll of Chuck Berry and Little Richard. In a sense that's why he's represented here. The man and his music influenced so many, from Ray Charles, Etta James through to B.B. King as well as a whole range of rock and rollers. And of course, if you take a listen to the music the man produced, it still swings today, which is why musicals based loosely on his life and songs are so successful - his music has great staying power." (Read the full profile Here.)

"Jordan is one of a number of seminal black performers who is often credited with, if not inventing rock and roll, certainly providing most of the building blocks for the music." From Wikipedia.

"The rhythm of his band was so engaging -- it was unbelievable. And Jordan had a fabulous sense of humor. He found songs that could reach a wide public." - Rolling Stone

The Best of Louis Jordan (MCA) - "Serious collectors will want to explore a more complete series, particularly the one put out by Classics, but for a single acquisition, this is the Louis Jordan set to get." - Scott Yanow,AMG.

Lyrics to Louis Jordan songs.

"Welcome to the addicting and voyeuristic world of Zillow, the Seattle-based real estate Web site that offers real-time market values on more than 40 million homes nationwide."

Zillow ranks in real estate's top five after one month. "Nearly 2.8 million Americans last month logged on to Zillow.com in the days after its well-financed and publicized launch Feb. 8. They were eager to get an estimate, or what Zillow calls a “zestimate,” of a property's value and much more detail about the millions of homes listed on the site.

Zillow.com, a Seattle-based Internet company, offers an easy way to estimate the price of your home - or that of your neighbors. Just type in an address and check out the "zestimate." But the results do not necessarily jibe with owners' expectations.

"Not Everybody is Thrilled with Zestimating Property Values," by Roger Showley, writer for the San Diego Union-Tribune.

This article goes on to ask the question, "But how reliable is this home pricing information, which for those interested in real estate gives new meaning to being a looky-loo?"

"In some cases, the prices shown are wildly different from the reality of today's slowing real estate market." Overnight, an Internet sensation has arisen as homeowners click away on a new Web site to look up the value of their homes, then turn to those of their neighbors, family, bosses, politicians or celebrities – anyone with a street address.

Here's what Barbara Clements, of The News Tribune, goes on to say in her article entitled, "The Mark of Zillow;"

"Newspapers, blogs and real estate trade journals have blasted the site for giving inaccurate information on homes, with valuations as much as 20 percent above or below actual value. According to the company, variances on Zillow’s estimates range high or low by about 7 percent. In the Seattle area, the variance might be as little as 5 percent, Zillow says."

To all the criticisms, the site’s chief financial officer, Spencer Rascoff, says: Yes, we know that.

“This is a starting point,” said Rascoff, also a former Expedia employee. “You’re not going to be accurate 100 percent of the time on 40 million homes.”

"The Zillow Conspiracy," by Dustin Luther of Seattle's Rain City Guide. Rain City Guide is a great "cutting edge" real estate blog out of the Seattle area. Dustin makes some interesting observations;

Zillow seems to inspire one of three questions in people:

How did Zillow do such a good job zestimating the value of my home?
How did Zillow do such a bad job zestimating the value of my home?
Did they really hire people to digitize that many public records?

The answer to these questions:

1) They hired some darn smart people
2) Apparently not smart enough
3) I smell a conspiracy!

"What's your boss's house worth? Zillow can tell you," by Noelle Know, writer for USA Today.

"There's only one problem: You can't believe everything you see."

The article goes on to state; "The property values, or "Zestimates," are only within 10% of the right price 62% of the time, and the accuracy varies widely by county and state, ranging from a low of 47% for New York to a high of 82% for Nebraska, the company says."

View some of the comments made by readers of "Mortgage News Daily" about Zillow in their article, "Zillow May Not Be Ready For Prime Time."

Mortgage News Daily sums it up this way; "It is a shame that Zillow came on line before it was ready for prime time. The hype has been incredible - ABC's Good Morning America featured it this week and, as we stated at the beginning, CNN, CNET, Motley Fool, USA Today, Business Week, and dozens of metro newspapers have given it a lot of free air or ink. Many people have visited the site, came away disappointed and may not bother to go back. Better that Zillow had all of their ducks in a row before going public."

Longtime Chronicle and Examiner jazz critic Phil Elwood, who died Jan. 10, was remembered today in a packed memorial at Yoshi's in Oakland.

"Phil was the quintessential jazz critic," said performer Jon Hendricks, who met Mr. Elwood at clubs and festivals. "Most jazz critics love the music, but Phil knew the music as well as loved it."

Chuy Varela, from KCSM, served as a well deserved Masters of Ceremonies. A special all-star tribute band led by saxophonist Mel Martin, featuring vocalist Kim Nalley, trumpeter Allen Smith, pianist Dave Mathews, bassist Robb Fischer, percussionist John Santos, and drummer Eddie Marshall provided music, along with performances by Mike Lipskin (solo piano)and Richard Hadlock's trad-jazz band. Solos were also provided by Denise Perrier and Michele Rosewoman.

A plaque was installed in his honor at his customary table at Yoshi's where you often found him sipping Chardonay and listening to Jazz.

I didn't know Phil as well as most who attended, but like so many people in the Bay Area, he became an influence to me. I was fortunate to attend two of his jazz appreciation classes while at the Berkeley Jazz School.

Class with Phil was always facinating. I think that Chronicle jazz writer Jesse Hamlin, said it best; "I remember him coming into his Monday night jazz history class at Laney College in the mid-'70s," "with a funky old record player and a old briefcase stuffed with scratchy albums, most without their jackets. He'd just start riffing and reminiscing and playing records, never referring to notes, for 90 minutes at a stretch. That music was in his veins."

His appreciation for music went well beyond jazz. For he felt, as he so often paraphrased Duke Ellington, "that there are only two kinds of music, good and bad."

"Phil Elwood was born March 19, 1926, and raised in Berkeley. He first saw Count Basie in 1939 from a ballroom balcony in Oakland, which sparked his lifelong interest in jazz."

"He used to ride his bicycle around to Oakland thrift stores and spend his paper route money buying old jazz 78s by King Oliver, Jelly Roll Morton and others. Those discs were the beginnings of a legendary jazz record collection, which he stored in a serpentine basement in his North Berkeley home."

He was also one of the first people to broadcast jazz on the FM dial. His weekly radio program, "Jazz Archive," began in 1952, when very few people even owned FM radios. His show continued on Berkeley's KPFA until 1996.

Phil was a "life-long friend of jazz and an irreplaceable treasure for the Bay Area music community."

Exerpts are from an article entitled "Phil Elwood: 1926 to 2006," written by Joel Selvin, Senior Chronicle Music Critic.

As an added note, Joshua Kosman had an article in the San Francisco Chronicle, Tuesday that talks about the Sunday celebration at the Great American Music Hall, entitled; "Late music critic, radio broadcaster Phil Elwood gets an exuberant tribute."

Ray Charles
Known as "The Genius" since the early 1950s, Ray Charles started out primarily as a jazz and blues pianist and singer in the style of his early musical idols such as Nat "King" Cole and pianist Charles Brown. But over his more than 50 years in show business, Charles built a career that defied genre, bringing his soulful voice, keyboard prowess and songwriting talent to the pop, country and R&B charts.

It seems I can never hear enough of Ray Charles. I first saw him in the early seventies, and for anyone who's never seen him live,...I'm really, truly sorry. That first concert had me coming back to his shows for years.

I collected his records over the years, lots of records. I'm not sure if I could pick a favorite, but there was one record that always got more play time than any of the others. "The Genius After Hours," under the Atlantic label released in 1961. It was always the perfect late night listening jazz album.

After misplacing the disc, I spent countless hours searching, trying to find it again. It was out of print in the U.S. and not yet available as a CD. It wasn't until November, 2001 that it came out as a CD (Import) with the Wea/Rhino label. You can currently find it under an "Atlantic Masters" label.

It's not what most listeners would expect from Ray Charles. To explain it best, I'd like to quote directly from the liner notes;

"Today, without having lost the Southern Juke-Box audiences for whom his church-flovored early hits were geared, Charles has found a mass market that has earned him international identification, almost exclusively as a singer. In this respect, his career has duplicated Nat King Cole's: it was as leader of a Cole-style combo, patterned along the lines of Nat's trio of the early 1040's, that Ray got under way as an instrumentalist in 1949. Today, as in Nat's case, many of those have followed his development as a singer are only conscience secondarily, if at all, of his background as a musician."

View the Official Ray Charles Website.

(Li Ka-Shing)

According to Forbes magazine's annual list of "The World's Richest People," which ranks billionaires, many of the 793 billionaires made their fortunes in the real estate industry.

"Number of Billionaires Up to Record 793," by J W Elhinstone.

According to Martin Fridson's book, "How to be a Billionaire," here's what Realtor Magazine published about what you can learn from their habits, lifestyles, and business styles;

1) Go commercial. Billionaires who make their fortunes in real estate don’t do it by selling one home at a time. They do it by owning and operating office buildings, shopping centers, apartment complexes, and luxury hotels.

2) Do more than invest. Buying a piece of property and sitting back and waiting for it to appreciate in value is not the way to make billions. You need to enhance its value. J. Paul Getty did just that after he bought New York’s Pierre Hotel for $2.35 million in 1938 and turned it into a hub for New York society by convincing a prominent socialite to stay there. He increased the value of the investment by more than eight times.

3) Be able to see the property for what it could be. Just because you buy a shopping complex doesn’t mean that’s the best use of the property. Recognizing that real estate will have a greater value with an alternative use is what helped billionaire Laurence Tisch achieve success when he acquired controlling interest in the Loew’s Theatres chain and converted prime Manhattan property into the Summit Hotel. Know the zoning laws in your area and apply to have properties rezoned if needed.

4) Be tenacious and relentless. Billionaires don’t let obstacles or pitfalls keep them from achieving their goals. Just because you fail doesn’t mean you can’t succeed in the end. Kirk Kerkorian, who headed Chrysler Corp. and other companies, has made and lost millions in many investments, but he refuses to give up and always gets back in the game and continues to make deals.

5) Have a thick skin. People are by nature resentful and jealous of successful people. Don’t let criticism of your work deter you from your goals.

6) Have superior information. If you do more research than your competitors, you’ll have an advantage in any transaction.

7) Don’t accept the cards you’re dealt. Although one-third of the world’s 46 billionaires who make their money in real estate inherited and then grew their fortunes, two-thirds are self-made, according to Forbes.

8) Live in California. Of the 21 U.S. billionaires who made their fortune in real estate, according to Forbes, more than one-third live in Atherton, Los Angeles, Newport Beach, Palo Alto, or Stockton.

9) Get, and stay, married. Of the 43 real estate billionaires whose marital status is known, according to Forbes, 37 are married, while only three are divorced and three are widowed.

10) Go back to school. Of the 26 real estate billionaires whose educational attainments are known, 20 have a college degree or higher. Five made it on high school diplomas, and one is a high-school dropout

View Forbes video entitled, "Highlights From Our 18th Annual Billionaires List," or "The Making of the Billionaires List."

Who are the world's richest people, Forbes 2006 List of Billinaires.

You can always dream of winning the lottery. Take a few tips from Patricia Huang's article on, "How To Spend $1 Billion."

Do you have what it takes to be a billionaire? Take the Quiz.

"Since 1978, DataQuick has built a solid reputation as a premier provider of real estate information solutions. From the early days of microfiche to today’s high-speed Internet solutions, we’ve helped thousands of customers realize their goals by offering the most current and advanced data products on the market."

DataQuick Real Estate News is another resource to keep referring back to. You'll find that a number real estate news articles pull their statisitics from this great informational site. I use it to give me a snapshot of the real estate activity in the area. View their Home Sales Activity charts Here. It's broken down by zipcode to help give you a more informed picture of the neighborhood you're living in and how the past months sales compares to last years. You can also review Home Sale Price Medians by City.

Of course, for Californians, that can be either good or bad news depending on whether your are looking to sell or purchase property. California's Housing Affordability Index, as reported by the California Association of Realtors, is now at an all time low. This index measures the percentage of households that can afford to purchase a median priced home in California. As of their Feb 2, 2006 report, that index now stands at 14% for all of California.

"With mortgage rates, home prices rising faster than annual incomes, affordable housing is not an option for many." This mornings article in the Contra Costa Times, entitled "American Dream fading for Many," by Alan Heavens further deals with this issue.

Anyone who has ever purchased a home has come accross a description in their preliminary title report referring to easements. One of the most common found are Easements in Gross, or a personal right to use land. For example, Utility Companies may have an Easement in Gross to install and service power lines.

To learn more about easements, there's a very informative article supplied to us by Robin Sewell, Marketing Manager for Chicago Title in Albany. It's in their March 2006 Critical Issues Resource publication and it's titled "Understanding Easements, What is an easement or right-of-way?"