: July 2008

Permit me to quote paraphrase Bob Stewart. "If you don't attend Real Estate Connect, you are crazy." That was the gist of what he wrote in a post following the Connect conference this past January in New York.

The past two days have been a blur, so this will be a very brief post mostly filled with pictures. Blogger's Connect kicked off the day yesterday and from 9 to 2:45 we were treated to excellent advice from the best of the best. Linda Davis gets the quote of the day as far as Jeff Turner, I and many others are concerned: "If you have a crappy business, a blog won't help."

I had lunch and a very nice visit with Jeff Dowler. At 2:00, Rich Jacobson and Brad Andersohn announced the winners of the Makeover 2 Takeover contest. Congratulations to Brian Block and Desiree Daniels!

Brad Inman kicked off the general session at 3:00. Carter Murdoch from Bank of America joined him, followed by Craig Newmark of Craig's list (now getting 12 Billion! hits monthly). Dustin Luther from 4realz.net offered 50 technologies that will change your business. A six person panel capped off the afternoon with a gloomy Bear vs. Bull debate.

The cocktail party started at 5:00. At 6:00, a large number of us went to Trulia headquarters for their House Party. Matt Heaton even donned the Trulia suit!

From there it was off to the penthouse at the Adagio for the Active Rain party. It was a blast, and as I have to run for the start of today's events, here are some more photos.

More to follow. Check tomplant on twitter for updates.

Edit: posted this in a big hurry this morning, no time to edit photos - here's an email I received: "With all due respect, you need a camera or a lesson in photog."

Oh well, I guess I should just hang it up, eh?

Murrieta Real Estate Expert - Tom Plant, REALTOR® - Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage    Active Rain Ambassador   (951) 907-9701

It would be my honor to show you the incredible Temecula Valley, a place I'm very proud to call home.

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It's been a full day. Up at 5, finished writing an offer, packed, stopped at the office and hit the road for San Francisco for Real Estate Connect. I left home at 10:30 and by 5:00 I was looking at the Golden Gate Bridge to my right and downtown San Francisco to my left. I checked into the Hotel 480, jumped into a cab and took off for Zillow's now legendary Beer With Bloggers.

Describe the gathering? OK... it was jam-packed, hot, loud and... fun! There's no way I can name everyone I ran into, but here's a partial list:

Brain Block, Desiree Daniels, Jeff Turner, Bobby Carroll, Missy Caulk (and daughter), Linda "Carnac" Davis, Kim Wood, Ginger Wilcox, Bob Stewart, Matt Heaton, Rich Jacobsen and oh so many more. Day 1 of RE Connect gets underway bright and early tomorrow. Much, much more to follow.

A big tip of my cap to the folks at Zillow for throwing yet another great party!

Murrieta Real Estate Expert – Tom Plant, REALTOR® - Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage – Active Rain Ambassador (951) 907-9701

It would be my honor to show you the incredible Temecula Valley, a place I’m very proud to call home.

The long wait is finally over. Tony and Joan have opened to doors to Anthony's Lounge & Ristorante in Old Town Murrieta. Anthony's Ristorante has been a fixture in Temecula for years offering consistenly excellent Italian food. After months and months of remodeling, Tony opened the doors for a soft opening last Tuesday night.

Laura and I dropped in for dinner on Wednesday, and we were delighted with how the restaurant looked and how good the food tasted. We shared a garlicky spinach salad with cranberries. I had poached salmon with a dijon, capers and lemon sauce and Laura enjoyed linguine with clams. We look forward to many return visits!

We were also fortunate enough to find Lisa Bryant putting the finishing touches on her mural. She told me she has now finished, so we'll look forward to seeing the final work when we come back.

Murrieta Real Estate Expert – Tom Plant, REALTOR® - Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage – Active Rain Ambassador (951) 907-9701

It would be my honor to show you the incredible Temecula Valley, a place I’m very proud to call home.

I've been a longtime fan of Real Estate Connect. When I attended my first Connect it was called Inman Connect. Brad Inman is the publisher of Inman News, perhaps the premier real estate website. Next week hordes of us will descend on San Francisco in droves for nearly a week of networking and learning the latest and greatest in the world of real estate and related technology.

This will be my 5th Connect, having attended two in New York and two in San Francisco. The entire Active Rain contingent will be in attendance from Seattle, and literally dozens of AR bloggers including yours truly will be there, too. To get a better handle on what you can look forward to, check out Brad Anderson's post:

The Official ActiveRain Gathering at RE Connect - San Francisco

Murrieta Real Estate Expert – Tom Plant, REALTOR® - Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage – Active Rain Ambassador – (951) 907-9701

It would be my honor to show you the incredible Temecula Valley, a place I’m very proud to call home.

No, we didn't get married. I just wanted to see if you were paying attention.

We arrived in Las Vegas Saturday afternoon for Cosmoprof, where Laura had a booth to display her line of McCoy Foot Care products. After setting up her booth, we checked into the Luxor. To be completely honest, our first impression was less than favorable. I spent 15 minutes waiting for someone to help me with our luggage. When I went to find Laura, she was still waiting in the check-in line. We mentioned our experience hadn't been so great and asked to speak with a manager. After explaining the situation, she apologized and upgraded us to a suite. You ought to see this room!

After getting settled in, we headed over to the Rio,had a fabulous dinner at Antonio's and went to see Penn & Teller. This was my second time to see them and I was no less impressed than I was the first time. They are simply beyond belief. They head to the lobby to greet the audience after each show. We met Teller, who actually spoke to us (if you're not familiar with their act he never opens his mouth). We then met Penn. I asked him if he would sign the name of their Showtime series on my ticket and he did so gladly. What a fun evening!

We spent all day Sunday at Cosmoprof which was held in the convention center at Mandalay Bay. We dined at Shanghai Lilly at Mandalay Bay and headed back to the Luxor. As we were walking towards the elevator, my friend Luis and I turned to each other. I said "that guy looked just like Captain Phil." Luis replied "that was  Captain Phil!" He and his companion had already turned the corner and were headed for the lobby and I called out "hey Phil!" It was indeed Captain Phil Harris of Deadliest Catch fame. We said hello, he shook our hands and we moved on. He seems to be a very nice, mellow guy when he's away from the stress of the Bering Sea.

We head home tomorrow. Life continues to be anything but dull!

EDIT: I can't believe I left the blue haired girls out!

Murrieta Real Estate Expert - Tom Plant, REALTOR® - Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage - Active Rain Ambassador - (951) 907-9701

It would be my honor to show you the incredible Temecula Valley, a place I'm very proud to call home.

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My idea of a perfect afternoon is a visit to the Temecula Valley Wine Country. Yesterday afternoon, Laura and I headed south on Margarita Road and took a left on Rancho California. Our first stop wasn't at a winery, it was at the fabulous Baron's Market. Baron's is located at the gateway to the wine country. It's really a beautiful place with fresh breads, homemade soups, an amazing olive bar, beautiful produce and a fantastic selection of wine and beer.

The first winery we visited was Maurice Car'rie. I told Laura how delicious their Pineapple Champagne was, but she didn't believe me until she tasted it for herself. Yummmmm!

O

From there we visited La Cereza, enjoyed their Pinot Grigio and Raspberry Champagne and had a nice visit with Tracey behind the wine bar. La Cereza gives back to the community and you can see their focus with wines like Michelle's Place HOPE & Miracles Happen, with proceeds going to the local breast cancer resource center Michelle's Place.

This was a fun day for me because I got to show Laura a lot of places she had never seen. The Castle is a sight to behold.

The Castle is a bed and breakfast and you really have to see it to believe it. You actually feel as if you're in a castle. The food is terrific and it's a great place to get married. I've got Laura thinking of all sorts of options now!

The pictures of grapes up top is from Palumbo Family Vineyards & Winery. Nick and Cindy Palumbo pride themselves on ultra-premium limited production wines. They only produced 60 cases of their Cote Rotie Rose. It's blend of Syrah and Viognier and is dry and delicious.

We had two stops remaining. We visited Filsinger Winery and we were fortunate enough to find Dr. Filsinger, the owner and winemaker behind the bar. They had a special on Fume Blanc and we took advantage of it. Our last stop was at the spectacular Leonesse Cellars. The last taste of the day was port with a chocolate truffle. Decadent!

With all that tasting we worked up quite an appetite! We decided to try a place we had been hearing raves about, Francesca's Italian Kitchen. We were greeted by Alessio, who owns the restaurant with his wife Francesca. The service was outstanding and the food was exquisite. We will definitely return.

Murrieta Real Estate Expert – Tom Plant, REALTOR® - Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage – Active Rain Ambassador – (951) 907-9701

It would be my honor to show you the incredible Temecula Valley, a place I’m very proud to call home.

I have a confession to make. I love fireworks! I always have. When Laura asked me if we could get married on the 4th of July next year I immediately agreed. We'll have an evening ceremony and watch the Canyon Lake fireworks display.

This year we went to a pool party/barbeque and then went to Laura's house to watch Lake Elsinore's fireworks display. Allow me to share some of my photos with you.

Murrieta Real Estate Expert – Tom Plant, REALTOR® - Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage – Active Rain Ambassador (951) 907-9701

It would be my honor to show you the incredible Temecula Valley, a place I’m very proud to call home.

 Subscribe in a reader

I've just returned from San Diego and yesterday I paid my first visit to Petco Park. It was a picture perfect day with the temperature hovering between 71 and 73 degrees. You should see my sunburned knees!

Petco Park is located in the historic Gaslamp district. It was a very short walk from the Convention Center, where Laura was manning her booth at the NACDS Marketplace. San Diego deserves to be very proud of the job they have done with Petco Park. It's beautiful and very fan and family friendly. It is a state-of-the-art facilty with a beautiful hi tech scoreboard.

If you've been to a ballgame over the past few years, you know how they pan the crowd and put people's faces on the scoreboard. Well I'm sitting watching the various fans and who's mug do you think they flashed on the 30' x 80' screen? After the initial shock, I pumped my fist in the air and flashed a big grin. That was a first!!!

As far as the game, well, I left my seat in the 7th with the Padres trailing Seattle 5-1. The score was 8-1 by the time I reached the exit and the final score was 9-2. Needless to say, though, I had a wonderful time and can't wait to go back.

Murrieta Real Estate Expert – Tom Plant, REALTOR® - Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage – Active Rain Ambassador (951) 907-9701

It would be my honor to show you the incredible Temecula Valley, a place I’m very proud to call home.

Subscribe in a reader