FLOATING METAL JUNKYARD NEEDS CLEANUP SOLUTION!

I grew up a good portion of my life in Concord. One of the things I used to enjoy as a teenager was fishing near the "mothball fleet" in the Suisun Bay. This is when Benicia was a sleepy community with barely five thousand residents, and a downtown made up of bars or antique shops.

What’s changed? Where do I start? We used to think the closer we anchored off the fleet the better chance we had of catching a sturgeon - something we are now warned not to eat at risk to our health. Benicia is also now the jewel of the Suisun Bay, in my opinion. Great homes, great schools, a vibrant main street and downtown and wonderful people who care about our city, county and country.

Though we do have people who argue over ‘global warming’ and other such controversial issues, I believe that 90% or more share the same concern I do about the once majestic fleet of ghost ships that make up the ‘mothball fleet’ (actually the official name for this obsolete group of vessels is the Suisun Bay Reserve Fleet). Some of these ships go back to World War II vintage. Which begs the question "what are they being held in reserve for?" I don’t know, nor can anyone in charge give a concise answer. Nor what they will ultimately do to rid us of this once picturesque, but now toxic, decaying floating metal junkyard.

According to the people in charge - well, it’s a complicated question. The actual controlling governmental agency is the U.S. Maritime Administration. Part of their solution to cleaning up these now toxic ships is to have them towed through the Panama Canal to Brownsville, Texas to be dismantled for scrap metal.

There are various problems with this plan. First, the U.S. Coast Guard has indicated it would want the cruddy species that are attached to the ship’s hulls scraped before the ships are scrapped or moved. But wait, this would probably then leave large hunks of paint loaded with toxic materials, which would sink to the bottom of the brackish waters and further pollute the Suisun Bay. The officials of the Panama Canal would also not throw a welcome party to have these rust buckets pulled through the canal. In fact, most likely, they would nix any such plan.

So is there a solution? Probably, but it looks like with most governmental clean up issues it will not get done quickly, efficiently or possibly in my lifetime. I’ve had a colleague suggest having them hauled out to sea about 50 or so miles and sinking them for fish habitat. Of course, though there is merit to this idea (but one that would never get government approval), in my opinion, the only thing I (and you) can do is request help from our Congressman George Miller to see if he can’t use his influence to move things along. In my opinion it will take congressional action to finally get a resolve to this issue. Please join me in making a call (or writing a letter, faxing or emailing) to Congressman Miller at his local office headquarters: 375 G Street, Suite #1 Vallejo, CA 94592 - (707) 645-1888 - Fax: (707) 645-1870 or email address George.Miller@mail.house.gov.

ONLINE SEARCH ENGINES A BOON, NOT A THREAT!

Online property searches are no longer limited to Association of REALTOR’s web sites, or company web sites for that matter. More and more consumers are turning to Trulia.com or Zillow.com as a source of property information. It is interesting to note, like all new ideas that cost money, neither has announced profitability to date. Trulia now claims around 1.5 million unique visitors per month, while Zillow claims somewhere around 4.1 million unique visitors per month. If you haven’t visited one of the two sites I would encourage you to check them out.

Trulia and Zillow have built a consumer offering no-strings-attached real estate information site that is free and searchable at one destination. They’ve made the consumer the first priority while trying not to step on the real estate industry’s toes. So, having said that, I believe that the real estate industry also puts the consumer first. If we didn’t, we would soon be out of business. And, remember, the information that these two sites supply doesn’t take into account the neighborhood information that is unique to each city and/or location, such as the "award performing" school down the street, or the proximity to shopping, freeway access or backyard open space. It is these intangibles that can add or take away value.

Taking this a step further, I decided this morning to go on both the Trulia.com and Zillow.com sites to search for available condos for sale in the city of Benicia. I put in simple search parameters of $300,000 to $400,000 asking price, minimum of 2 bedrooms and 2 baths. I then hit the search button. What happened, you asked? Well, Trulia came up with 5 properties to view, and Zillow came up with 3 properties to view. I then went on our www.solanopacific.com site (which you are on if you reading this blog) and put in the same parameters. Lo and behold, 14 properties showed up, with more photos and information for someone like you to view. Another problem with Zillow is that Zillow presumes to really know market value and gives estimates of the value of each listing they show. The truth is Zillow’s estimates of value are usually either too high or too low (you find this out later when the property sells and closes).

This begs the question - are Trulia and Zillow a threat to our industry? Hardly! I can remember when the only information available to the public (or us agents) was a monthly MLS book followed up a with weekly hotsheets. It didn’t serve the agent or the consumer well. Both parties need accurate, full and the most up-to-date information available about properties and neighborhoods. Fortunately, with technology that is now available, we can have that. I just feel that until all brokers list all of their properties on these separately owned search engines, the public will get better, more accurate information from those of us who actually listed the properties and know the neighborhoods because we live and work in them.