La Cresta Life with Kelly Smith

• What to do in Historic Downtown Murrieta?

  View the Video version of this Episode at: https://www.lacresta.com/2021/06/03/what-to-do-in-hi…owntown-murrieta/ Hey y'all, welcome back to La Cresta Life. Today, I took us on a field trip right down to Old Town Murrieta about 15-20 minutes down the hill from La Cresta. Our main street through Murrieta, (they call it Historic downtown Murrieta, sometimes people call it Old Town Murrieta) is the old Hwy 395 and that was the north-south route in California before the big freeways went in and it goes right through our little town. You can see it's quite a little Mayberry situation. We've got restaurants on both sides of the street and lots of activity. One of the newer things that and has been happening down here, is this two Thursday's a month in the evening, the town opens up to an evening lifestyle where the shops take their wares out on the sidewalks and the restaurants are all open and there's even food trucks and all kinds of music and and fun activities. So people are strolling. If you've ever seen Gilmore Girls, it reminds me a little bit of Stars Hollow - such a great place to be and a new development here in Murrieta. So thanks for joining me here at La Cresta life. Not in La Cresta this time but in historic Old Town, Murrieta. I enjoyed bringing this to you. It's just another little cherry on our Sunday here in Southwest Riverside County. We'll see you next time on La Cresta Life.

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• Does La Cresta have a Micro-Climate?

  View the Video version of this Episode at: https://www.lacresta.com/2021/05/03/does-la-cresta-have-a-micro-climate/ Does La Cresta have a Micro-Climate? Hey, y'all! Welcome back to La Cresta life. You know, I'm often asked about the weather up here on the Santa Rosa Plateau. So today I'm going to explain how our micro-climate works. We're up here on the Santa Rosa Plateau about 2,000 feet higher than the valley floor. The Temecula Valley includes Temecula, Murrieta, Wildomar all the cities of the Temecula Valley, including the Temecula Wine Country, which is really close by. We are in the mountains that separate Riverside County from Orange County, and this gives us our own special weather up here. We truly have our own micro-climate. You've heard me talk about the different parts of the Plateau - 5 different homeowners associations, and Tenaja, a Community Service District. Depending on where you are on this couple of thousand acres up here on the Plateau, you will get a specific breeze. On the Tenaja side of things, often times, you're going to get coastal breezes that come through Deluz from San Diego. It's a different wind direction. On the side of La Cresta where I live, we actually get a breeze from the coast about 14 miles as the crow flies from the Pacific Ocean. Coastal breezes come from that direction over there. Behind those mountains is Catalina, my landmark for where our breezes come from, and give us the reprieve. When it is super hot down below in the Valley, it is often 10 to 15 degrees cooler up here on the Santa Rosa Plateau. Because of our elevation and our proximity to the ocean, we have beautiful breezes every afternoon. They come through between 2 and 4pm every afternoon to cool us off - a welcome event during the hot days of summer. With our micro-climate, we're always cooler in the summer. In the winter, we may be a little colder, and that's okay, too. We don't get a lot of freeze - just an occasional crazy snow, that doesn't stick. But otherwise, it's very temperate here. The weather here is very accommodating to all the fruit and vegetables that we grow here on our ranch. It's a wonderful micro-climate, great for growing grapes. U.C. Davis, many years ago, called us out as a fantastic grape-growing area -- probably one of the best in Southern California. So come on up and enjoy our coastal breezes here on the mountain. If you're looking for a temperate climate, a rural vibe, the conveniences of the city, and the ability to grow your own fruits and vegetables, this is it. You can have horses. You can have all kinds of animals in this temperate climate, right up here on the Santa Rosa Plateau. Signing off today from La Cresta. Thank you for joining us on La Cresta Life!

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• What Cowboy Activities are there in La Cresta?

  View the Video version of this Episode at: https://www.lacresta.com/2021/04/09/what-cowboy-activities-are-there-in-la-cresta/ Hey y'all. Welcome back to La Cresta life. Today, we're going to talk about what cowboys and cowgirls do up here on the hill. We have a club up here called the Santa Rosa Plateau Riding Club. It's open to Residents who ride and those who don't ride. I haven't had horses up here in my whole 19 years after growing up with them in Texas, but I'm welcome. Everybody is welcome and it's a wonderful club to join because you have at least two events a month that you can attend. One as a potluck, and the other is an organized lunch, after the folks who do ride come in from the trails. So it's a great way to hang with the neighbors. One of the events is at night and one is in the day and it's a lovely way to get to know your neighbors in a different way. A couple weeks ago the Riding Club riders went on a trail ride and they came back to the organized lunch. Typically they're catered. So you just RSVP and pay your fee. The folks who ride come back in from the trails and we all sit down to lunch. At the last luncheon, the hostess and host (moves around every month) organized a sorting event. So we all finished our lunches and went up to their arena that had been partitioned off so that they could do the sorting event. We sat in their little grandstands that they had made and our local friends and neighbors who wanted to participate and sort were invited to do that. Some had never done it and some were pros, but such a fun event and makes you just feel like you are at dude ranch. It was just wonderful. I hope you enjoy the scenery of some that happening. Those are friends and neighbors. In fact, one of the clips of the sorting is the owner of the insurance company that I do all of my insurance with - Winchester Insurance in Murrieta. She and her husband are on horses, and it's just a delight to see people that you normally see in a different way, doing something completely different. So I hope you enjoy that. In summary, we neighbors have learned, and we all cultivate the idea, that we do not have to go off of our Plateau, out of our neighborhood to have fun. We do as many fun activities as we can up here, so we don't have to go elsewhere, and it has created a very tight community of people who may do some of the same things or not. But we all support each other. So it's an ideal place to live if you like to be outside and we sure do. I'll look forward to taking you along to some of the other things that we do. We don't always get dirty in a field. Sometimes we dress up . I'll keep you posted along the way of the social events that we have up here on the hill. In the meantime, it's great to see you. Come back and join us on La Cresta Life. I'll see you real soon.

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• Plateau Buying: Pre-Construction

  View the Video version of this Episode at: https://www.lacresta.com/2021/03/11/plateau-buying-pre-construction/ Hey y'all. Welcome back to La Cresta life! Today, we are doing something really different. We're here at a construction site ...and it has everything to do with real estate. So stay tuned. Wow, this real estate market is so hot in La Cresta. Jake and I have a beautiful family that's been trying to buy out here in La Cresta, and were really having a hard time finding a house that checked all the boxes . This one behind me was under construction, which we found was available to purchase pre-construction completion. So that is what is happening here. We are under contract. Our adorable family from Orange County is making lots of finish design choices. So they almost feel like they're building a custom home from scratch,. They didn't have to do any of the hard stuff and they are getting the house of their dreams. Let's go inside. We got lucky with this one happens to have aligned with this project just in the nick of time . As you can see the sticks are up. The roof is stacked. It's just before drywall. We've got electrical , plumbing, sprinklers. Windows were just installed . The distance between now and getting certificate of occupancy is pretty short. We are probably a month and a half maybe maybe two months away from this family being able to move in. They are able to consult with the builder and are able to choose things like light fixtures, colors, etc. They're going to do the pool later. I'll show you where that's going to go. The builder has committed to putting in an electronic gate and fencing the five acres. A concrete drive is being installed all the way from the road to the house. He has also made some high-end choices in the kitchen, like Viking appliances. The budget was, a nice luxury budget, but our folks were in time to be able to go in and make some of their own choices, as well. So the buyers are feeling the ownership already. They're loving coming up to La Cresta and playing homeowner while it's being done. You can see there's still a whole lot of work that needs to be done, but this process is really fun. Building like this from scratch is not everyone's cup of tea, as it can be very stressful. But if you've got the stomach for it and you have the ability to jump in midstream like these folks, it can work. In this case, it really is a perfect alignment. When you can't find the house that you want, think about something like this. Jake and I can hook you up with buying the land or having the builder buy the land and go the whole soup to nuts program. I'll sign off from here. I'm so happy to have you guys back with me on this beautiful construction project! We will see you next time on La Cresta life!

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• TIPS: Listing Photoshoot Day

  Watch the video version here: https://www.lacresta.com/2021/03/05/tips-listing-photoshoot-day/ Hey y'all. Welcome back to La Cresta life for all of you listing clients out there, this is one of the most critical things that we do. We hire a professional photographer to get drone video still shots and make your house look wonderful. Let's go inside. We got a little lucky on this one. We happen to have a homeowner who is absolutely impeccable and her design is amazing. Her aesthetic is just gorgeous and she's obviously a very neat and tidy person, so I didn't have to do a lot. But not everybody lives like this. So our services include coming in and doing a walk around if you've got some questions about what should be left how it should be staged. Are there some things we can move around and make it look a little bit more appealing to the masses and that's certainly something that we do. in this case didn't have to do it. Love this house. But I also love the challenge of being a kind of co-creating with our clients and reimagining their space that they lived in for a long time. So definitely something that we offer so don't be afraid of that part of this. How to make us look really good? We hire the best. Hey, Nick, you're the best. He is a wonderful photographer. He always makes us look good. We adore him. Notice behind me that there are pictures on the wall. Those are not family. They're not children. They're not pictures of your family that strangers shouldn't see. In my opinion strangers don't have the right to look at your family. They have to earn that right and I think when you put your house on the market if you really are serious and you're going to be moving anyway, just go ahead and pack up the pictures and if you have to know, stage it with some things that are not your family. You're trying to set up an environment where people can imagine their own family and pictures of your family only distract from there. So try to neutralize that by using photos and pictures that are not really really private to you. I know it's hard because you want your pictures on the wall, but you're going to be moving anyway. Take your time go through the house, get them all tidied up put them in a box cuz if you do it, right, you're going to sell your house. Hopefully we're going to sell your house and you're going to need those pictures at your next house anyway. I'm often asked if the homeowner should be home on the day of the photographs and I was just now reminded why if you can avoid it, avoid it. Because I just walked by a window and our photographer was outside shooting in and if I can see him, the camera can see me. So the whole day turns into a sequence of hiding from the photographer. So if you can avoid that go for a walk of her drive, it generally takes in our case usually 2 to 3 hours because we're also gonna take still shots. We're getting a video inside and outside and then we're getting drone videos of the entire property. So it does take a little while. Go for a walk and don't play this game of hiding from the photographer. The takeaway from today's experience is always have a great photographer, plan ahead, ask for help. We will help you make some choices on how to stage the house. Sometimes just using your own furniture and moving things around a little bit. And it's fun to get creative. We are not professional stagers, but if we need that will bring one in and give yourself plenty of time, that everything's tidy. We'll turn all the lights on and we'll turn all the lights off when we leave. Open the windows and all the things that we need to make the best shots, but it's a really important piece of it. So plan ahead tidy up and it's the first step in getting your house on the market. Anyway, thank you so much for joining me today and breaking up my two to three hour photo shoot. I look forward to seeing you next time on La Cresta Life.

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