by John Harper 

I was over at one of my favorite hangouts in Pleasanton, CA on Friday - Tullys. Tullys is a great place to hang out and get some work done. Especially, if you get a soft ice cream and pour a couple of shots of espresso over it. Tully's has FREE WiFi access, though I think the FREE WiFi zone is now operational in downtown Pleasanton.

I was at Tullys to meet up with Rhonda Fee and Karen Bartholomew, a couple of blogging converts that needed a pointer or two on blogging. The biggest table with a power outlet near was being occupied by this gent - Brian Clark. Turns out that Brian is the VP Planning & Sales for Virgin Amercia Airlines.

Well, given that I retired from Delta AirLines last August, we started talking airlines and then blogging as Brian informed me that Virgin America had a blog on their site. After taking a look, I informed Brian that you really couldn't call what Virgin America has on their site a blog. We kicked blogging around a bit, the airlines a bit more and then Brian had to make some calls and Rhonda, Karen and I needed to have our chat.

One of the points of interest in the conversation with Brian was his mention of the resistance VA is getting from unions. I found that interesting as Delta is mostly non-union and most of the low-cost startups are non-union.

I'll be keeping an eye on the VA site to see if they get the okay to fly and if they figure out blogging and what it can do to help them connect with their customers. 

I’ve been looking for other bloggers in San Ramon, Danville, Dublin and Pleasanton, CA for months. There don’t seem to be many, in fact, I’ve only found two. So, I decided to create some.

I teamed up with Pat Kitano of TransparentRE.com to teach some blogging classes in the bay area. We have our third class coming up on Feb. 27 in Pleasanton. The focus of the classes has been oriented toward the real estate industry since we’re all in the industry, but I have been putting more and more attention into bringing in more business people from other areas.

Blogging is a fantastic way to increase your presence on the Internet. When I show people what is going on with The Harper Team site and the search engines like Google, their jaws hit the table. It’s one of those things that you really can’t grasp the significance of until you see it.

But this post isn’t about getting you to blog – it’s about a great group of bloggers I found throughout Contra Costa County. They’re the type of people that make you proud of your community. They’re an elite group of high school students and you can find them at I Should be Doing My Homework.

This is a blog community sponsored by the Contra Costa Times – our hats off to them. The CCTimes had an article on this group of bloggers on January 30 which is where I learned of them.

Since then, I’ve stopped in a few times and left a comment or two on some of the posts. There are a couple of students that are prolific writers. I doubt that they realize the impact that blogging can have on their futures at this time. In a year or two, maybe sooner, these students could be known-figures on the Internet with audiences in the tens of thousands. I’ll be interested to see where it all goes.

In the mean time, a salute to the students, their schools and parents and the Contra Costa Times.

Realtors Marketing Association
Danville - San Ramon

The weekly meeting of the Realtors Marketing Association was held at the San Ramon Community Center.

Dennis Viers from Diablo Funding gave a quick report on interest rates - seems like they had the most significant decline since last September. This should be good news for buyers and the real estate market. 

Although attendance was about 2/3 of normal, we had several new listings presented including:

• 100 Canyon Green Place, San Ramon
• 12 Poppy Hill Lane, San Ramon
• 187 Roan Drive, Danville
• 49 Grand Canyon Court, San Ramon
• 152 Canyon Green Place, San Ramon
• 3288 South Bridgepointe Lane, Dublin
• 3867 Cottonwood Drive, Blackhawk
• 2277 Deer Oak Way, Blackhawk
• 3125 Tewksbury, San Ramon

Shawn Willis from Income Property Services presented a Walnut Creek Duplex - 1971 Desert Circle.

The Harper Team Can help you with the purchase of any of these or any other properties in the East Bay area of California. Don't waste your time with online searching - read our special report. 

Michele MacMartin from First American Exchange gave us an eyeopener on the unregulated 1031 Exchange industry. First American is one of the room sponsors this month - thank you very much.

Tomorrow I will be at the Valley Marketing Association in Pleasanton. 

I’ve been spending more and more time at 24 Hour Fitness. When I moved to San Ramon, CA, I looked for the closest 24 Hour Fitness because I had a membership with them in Utah. The club in San Ramon is large – lots of everything.

The club is conveniently located on Norris Canyon which puts it halfway between Crow Canyon and Bollinger Canyon. Did I say convenient? Make that super-convenient – right smack dab in the middle of the biggest congregation of working population in San Ramon – Bishop Ranch.

When I first came to this club on Norris Canyon, they were remodeling the men’s locker room so the showers, and toilets where in trailers. When I moved into a condo with a small workout room, it wasn’t hard to let 24 Hour Fitness go. But after a few months, I noticed I wasn’t working out at the condo because the room provided was cramped – throw a few workout machines in a closet so you can advertise you have a workout room. So back I went to 24 Hour Fitness dragging 20 more pounds with me. 

The club has a good mix of folks. There are enough of us out-of-shape old dogs that we can workout at a sensible rate without trying to keep up with 6-pack ab crowd. I like to go at about 4pm. I can get there just before the 5pm crowd when finding a treadmill or elliptical machine is impossible. And, I get out of there in time for dinner at Whole Foods. Going to Borders Books is a great way to keep from becoming a couch potato in front of the TV.

The other night after leaving 24 Hour Fitness, I went over to Whole Foods in the Shops at Bishop Ranch complex and had a bite to eat. Then I walked over to Borders Books with my bag of reading material. There was an article in the East Bay Business Times on Carl C. Liebert lll, the CEO of 24 Hour Fitness. Surprise to me – 24 Hour Fitness is headquartered right here in San Ramon, CA.

Given that, I just had to write them up.

In the article, Liebert says one of the things he wants to address is the 100% turnover at 24 Hour Fitness. This is something I noticed in Utah, they went through staff faster than fitness memberships after the New Year’s resolutions wear off.

If Carl C. Liebert lll ever reads this post, I want to mention the two things that irk me the most at the club.

• People on the cardio machines yelling into their cell phones.
• Half lockers – at least in Utah they had a mix of full size – and you guys just remodeled the locker rooms.

I could share at least one marketing idea with Carl that his corporation seems to have overlooked. Who knows, maybe he'll email me and I can claim to have been a marketing consultant to 24 hour Fitness! 

If you are moving into San Ramon, I highly recommend 24 Hour Fitness – give me a shout and I will get you a couple of day passes so you can check it out.

Elizabeth Weintraub over at About.com gives us a lesson in contingency contracts in a buyer’s market and how the seller can use it to their advantage. How to Use Contract Contingencies When Buying Before Selling

Over at BusinessWeek we have a couple of interesting posts that got me to wondering how telecommuting will impact the real estate industry in 50 years. A lot of real estate is sold to people relocating for work. What if we see a significant drop in those numbers? Where would you live if you didn’t have to commute to work? What do you think Pat?

Towns Chasing Workers, Not Just Jobs

One Midwestern region wants to attract intellectual capital to replace its shrinking manufacturing base

Working from Home: It's in the Details

The benefits include lower costs and greater productivity, but figuring out how to communicate with off-site employees is crucial

Athol Kay won “Most Passionate Rant” in the latest Carnival of Real Estate for his response to our post over on our Active Rain blog.