The term "shaken not stirred" has taken on a new meaning on the set of the latest James Bond movie "Quantum of Solace". A stunt driver crashed 007's Aston Martin into Lake Garda in northern Italy. The driver was delivering the Aston Martin to the film set in heavy rain when he lost control around one of the lake's narrow curves: he wasn't hurt but the $300 000 car was a write off.

My wife Ginny happened to be in Riva del Garda (visual tour here) where the crew is filming; she and a couple of our friends are staying at our house ‘Villa Teggiole’ to get the house ready for the rental season; if you are interested in renting a villa overlooking the largest and most beautiful lake in Italy than check out our website www.VillaTeggiole.com where you can read all the details and see the pictures.

Ginny told me that my Italian cousin, Mauro Morandi, who is an ambulance driver, is present at the film set in case somebody would get hurt. Yesterday, they were filming in Limone; a quaint little town right on the lake. I have always loved this part of Italy. Ginny saw the ambulance go by with sirens on and and Mauro driving. Most likely he was taking the injured driver from the second crash in two days to the hospital.

In my previous life when I worked for KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, I used to travel all over the world but every time when I came back to Lake Garda I thought this is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. For Ginny’s friends, Rebecca and Michelle, it is their first time at our house and they are both blown away by the beauty of the area. The last couple of days they have visited: Malcesine, Limone, Torbole and Riva del Garda. Tomorrow they will be in Venice which is only 2 hours away and on Friday they will visit Verona, the town of Romeo and Juliette, at the south part of Lake Garda.

Ginny and I are Realtors in the Bay Area. Together, with our partners, we form the real estate team Harper Mees and Associates. In addition to being experts on local residential real estate, we specialize in international real estate and foreign investors, people that are relocating for work or people that are looking for properties abroad. Since we are opening our first European office in The Hague in The Netherlands later this year, we have decided to sell the villa; a great opportunity for anybody who is looking for a brand new villa on a private location, with a pool and overlooking vineyards and amazing views of the Dolomites and Lake Garda  - details here.

During our HarperMees team meeting on Monday, Craig received a call from a woman wanting to rent 4 VIP portable restrooms. He handed the phone to me.

Don’t jump to the conclusion that this team of Danville – San Ramon real estate agents are moonlighting in the portable toilet business. If you recall, Hanson & Fitch Temporary Site Services is one of the Bay Area businesses that I consult with on Internet marketing.

I’ve written a couple of posts on Todd Fitch, the real Bay Area portable toilet guy, here and here. Because of those posts, when you Google portable toilets for many of the communities in the Bay Area, our site comes up #1 on Google.

The woman on the phone found our site and apparently didn’t read the whole article as she was calling us to deliver 4 of Todd’s temporary restrooms!

I gave her the web address for Hanson & Fitch. Todd emailed me within 10 minutes saying they got the job. Last week Todd had his first client book via their iPhone using the Internet. He tells me they are now receiving about 6 calls a day as a result of our Internet marketing consulting. So much business, in fact, that he has had to order another 100 toilets!

If you need portable toilets or temporary fencing, please contact Hanson & Fitch. Leave the real estate transactions to us and the toilets to them!

Cathy Lee, stager and owner of CLDesign Services, alerted me to a new coffee cafe in Danville – The Sideboard.

Cathy was raving about the pastries and the souffles, though they aren’t called souffles on the menu (I can’t remember the term they use).

So, Sunday morning I decided to give the Sideboard a try and get some real estate blogging done. I was wandering around trying to locate the Sideboard because I thought Cathy had told me it was in the back where Celia’s used to be. Cathy Lee happened to be there and saw me wandering around dazed and confused. She came out and rescued me just as I was leaving her a voicemail asking her for better directions. I was standing right next to it!

Just goes to show you how desperately this real estate agent needed his morning coffee!

Cathy introduced me to the owner (baker extraordinaire) Erin Andrews who tried to keep me from taking her picture, but I persevered. Later I met Erin’s husband, Ford, who was bussing tables (this division of labor should surprise no married couple).

Cathy, her husband, Kurt Waag, and friend Rose had a nice corner table. Kurt left and I joined Cathy and Rose. I had an excellent cup of coffee and a wonderful (souffle?) with asparagus and goat cheese.

I’m recommending the Sideboard to all Realtors, real estate agents, mortgage brokers and lenders in Alamo, Danville and San Ramon. I’ll probably mention it to a few others as well.

The Sideboard is located in the Danville Hotel at 411 Hartz Avenue, Danville, CA 94526.

As a real estate agent, I get around the local communities. I hold a lot of meetings in coffee shops and cafes. So, maybe I should call this - straight to the Realtor's mouth.

A week ago, I held two meetings at Moonstruck in Walnut Creek, CA. Moonstruck is a great coffee & chocolate cafe on Locust next to the Olympic Parking structure.

I met with Pat Malone to discuss an upcoming presentation by me to Experience Unlimited – a job search network in Contra Costa County. I’m scheduled to address the group on May 6. My topic will be 8 Tools to Market You.

A few days after meeting with Pat, I met with Michael Onibokun at Moonstruck. Michael is from Nigeria and has many contacts in Africa. He is interested in building a consulting business and leveraging his network of contacts.

I encouraged both Pat and Michael to leverage the power of LinkedIn. 

Moonstruck is a great place to meet – good coffee, comfy chairs and very quiet when you compare it to Peet’s or Starbucks where the background music is more foreground to entertain the troops.

How to Price a Home to Sell in Danville CA

A Danville homeowner put their house on the market just before the Christmas holidays. It was priced to set a new benchmark in the neighborhood due to extensive upgrades and remodeling.

The owners thought it unlikely the house would sell during the holidays, but they were leaving town for a couple of weeks and wanted it shown as much as possible during that time. When they returned after the first of the year and after getting the feedback from agents and buyers, they lowered the price. A few weeks later, they lowered the price again. A few weeks later, they were in contract.

Before putting the house on the market these owners knew:

• They were pushing the price point
• The local Danville market real estate trends (especially their neighborhood)
• They would move the price within a range to get the home sold and were willing to move the process along expeditiously.

In short, they were prepared to be proactive on pricing to find the market sweet-spot in a real estate market that was still correcting.

How to Price a Home NOT to Sell in Danville or San Ramon

A San Ramon condo owner wanted to sell early last fall after owning for only a year. The owner had a set price in mind and did not want to even entertain offers at a lower price. An offer came in about 6% lower than asking. The owner wouldn’t counter. The owner leased the condo to wait for the market to improve. Today, similar models in the complex are selling for about 20% less than the offer made.

A Danville home owner wanted to sell and move to another community about 40 miles away. The owner wanted to price the house about $100K higher than the exact same model a block away that was in better repair and had more upgrades. The owner was also stuck on paying as little commission as possible.

The home was placed on the market overpriced. It’s been 8 months. The home is now priced about right (about $250K less than the original overpricing desired). If the owner had priced it right eight months ago, they probably would have sold the home and saved $50K to $70K. Additionally, they could have taken advantage of the wide disparity in declining property values between Danville (about -6%) and where they wanted to move (-33%). But, the house still languishes on the market (not our listing) and investors are now gobbling up properties in the other community.

Both of these owners could have leveraged purchases on the buy side to more than make up for any pricing on the sell side.

How to Price a Home to Sell

• Know YOUR market
• Be prepared to be proactive on pricing
• Find a agent that will tell you what you NEED to hear, not what you WANT to hear.