Batchelder Properties

Realtor serving all of Siskiyou County; Offering Reanl Estate and Property Management in Mout Shasta, Yreka, Weed, Dunsmuir, and Lake Shastina

A Self-Driving Tesla

 

My first ride in a self-piloting car was . . . an education.

See the huge monitor on the right? My “driver” friend put in the destination address (to a rental I was showing him) and yup, it followed the route. By itself.

A few distractions of course. My friend apologized that his model did not have all the current software updates. For example, the car did not recognize the stop sign where Big Springs meets Highway 97.

He said the latest version understood red stop lights but not stop signs so if he had not tapped the brakes and taken manual control the car would have recognized the cross road but we would be halfway across it before it did.

In a sort of apologetic voice he said however that if an oncoming car crossed the line our car’s sensors would detect that and swerved. We passed a bicyclist though with less room than I would have made manually but he assured me the Tesla ‘saw’ him and would have taken evasive action if he had strayed into our lane. I’m sure he was right.

12 hour range on the battery which takes about 45 minutes to charge from dead empty (we’ll have to come up with another term for that for electrics). He has to pay for recharging but at home he plugs it in every night and that it takes about as much energy as a crock pot.

Still.

 

Emergency Evacuation Support Plan

We residents in Lake Shastina just received this invaluable notice and it is well worth reading. Kind of like Neighborhood Watch, it is a smart thing to do and benefits everyone.

Watch Out For These Guys

I just got a call from a client who’d gotten a text message from somebody in New York inviting him to visit one of our rental listings. If he liked it he was supposed to wire the $1,000 security deposit and the $1,000 first month’s rent.

The problem was that it wasn’t the owner who was texting.

This has happened before and with other property managers’ listings. Crooks pick up the property photo and details through Zillow, Trulia, or even by searching property managers. And it looks very legitimate.

Then they use online advertising or even random phone calling to trap someone looking to rent a home.

Watch for unsolicited messages that offer something that seems to be too good to be true (we all know the saying . . . “If it looks too good . . . “). The listing this individual responded to was $1,650 per month, not $1,000 for example.

Bad grammar, asking for bank account info or your SSN. All red flags.

Stick with people you know.

 

 

 

What is The State of Jefferson?

This is a fascinating local tale that few visitors know and it survives as a political movement even today here in Northern California. Well worth your time to read on Google but here is a very short version:

In 1941, before Pearl Harbor, seven rural counties in Southern Oregon and Northern California (see map) had been so neglected by their respective state governments that they rebelled and threatened to form a new state. On Nov. 27th a few young men, brandishing deer rifles for dramatic effect, blockaded Highway 99 just south of our county seat in Yreka, Siskiyou County. They handed out leaflets proclaiming that “the State of Jefferson was in patriotic rebellion against the States of California and Oregon and would continue to secede every Thursday until further notice!”

Hilarious as this must have appeared to the blocked motorists, a ‘governor’ John Leon Childs of Crescent City, CA was ‘elected’ on Dec. 4, 1941. Pearl Harbor of course ended the movement rather dramatically just three days later.

But it never really died. As recently as 2016 it was noted that most of the rural counties that would have been included in the State of Jefferson voted heavily for Donald Trump whereas the rest of California voted mostly for Hillary Clinton, reflecting perhaps again how divided Northern and Southern California are still. The sentiment is still alive and well. Signs on barns along Interstate Five, Jefferson Public Radio, and dozens of these flags can be seen around our county to this day.

Bruce

Flag of Jefferson

 

 

March 11, 2018

Sally and I have some lots listed for sale and, talking with other Realtors and buyers, it is becoming more apparent how building costs are playing a big role in why they are selling so slowly. For example, there are 123 lots for sale on the MLS as of this morning. That’s high but the real telltale is that only five sold in the past six months (twice the normal range of 90 days that we used to use to find comparables).

Now compare to home sales: 21 for sale today, forty five sales in the last six months.

Asking prices for lots here are lower than they have been for years but demand for them is slack. Why is this ?

Building costs are rising, making it more difficult for builders to put up homes and sell them with any kind of reasonable return on their invested labor and money. There is a national discussion about the housing shortage that revolves around construction cost increases as an ingredient for this problem and we here in Lake Shastina are seeing it first hand.

California has enacted several energy conservation measures in recent years (see http://www.energy.ca.gov/title24/) intended to save consumers money in their utility bills. The intent is sensible . . . build fewer power plants, etc. . .  but the cost is hitting the housing industry, hard.

More to follow.

Must Read Book For First Time Home Buyers

Homes and Other Black Holes

Must Read Book For First Time Buyers Dave Barry Homes And Other Black Holes
Must Read Book For First Time Buyers Dave Barry Homes And Other Black Holes

You have got to read Homes and Other Black Holes and my only hope is that you don’t die of laughter before your escrow closes if you read it. This is a must read book for first time home buyers !!

Mr. Barry won the Pulitzer Prize among dozens of awards for his columns and books and no wonder, with chapter titles like these:

  • Why it Was Probably a Mistake to Buy This Book
  • How to Get Very Deeply into Debt
  • Moving; A Common Mistake

He answers buyers’ questions such as; “Can you recommend a good mortgage?” (There are several kinds: Fixed Rate, Variable Rate, and the banks’ secret weapons, the Party Hat Mortgage, and the Mortgage of the Living Dead).

And “Is there a secret to having a beautiful lawn?” (Yes and no. If you fail to feed, fertilize, and water your lawn, it will die. However, if you feed, fertilize, and water your lawn, it will also die).

The New York Times called him the funniest man in America and I believe them.

More Information

Dave Barry’s websites:

You can find Dave Barry’s book on Amazon: