A Property That Got Away … And Dangerous Realtor proven toothless

1st call … “Tom, you sometimes get tipped off when Robin Williams is doing stand-up at the Throckmorton. I understand that a tip off wasn’t given last night but your intuition was right … Robin (Williams) and Dana (Carvey) performed together last night. I should’ve gone to 142! You told me to go without you but I didn’t.”

My strained hip flexor, throbbing finger and bruised heart made it too rough to spend the evening laughing in a chair, but I called it right. Ahh, intuition. For me, a good night of healing (I’m using everything Francesca McCartney taught me over the past decade and, by the length of this blog you’ll know, intuition medicine works!).

Wish I’d been there for the laughs but I was better off with a good night’s sleep. Running life force and BC energy, plus two Advil pms, an hour and a half of gentle yoga at Yogaworks with Michelle Klink, and a hot tub soak at Shabui Gardens (thank you Jeanette for getting me in) are just what the doctor ordered.

2nd call … “Put me on your list if you know in advance that Robin’ll be there.”

Okay, I’m starting a list …. But the only people who’ll be on the list are those who let me know via this blog that they want to know when I know (which is usually at the last minute). Why this stance? Two reasons: I value the quiet tip off; When you Respond Directly (hit the comment button) I’ll know you’re enjoying (or not) this blog and, importantly, thinking, “Tom. Realtor Tom. Refer people to Realtor Tom. He’ll be good for them.” That’s the thinking. That’s the mantra!

Now to real estate and the people of Marin. In response to a recent blog on fixer uppers and family compounds, Duncan Tucker, well known for Transamerica, an award-winning film, Googled me, called from LA and said, ‘You’re a dangerous Realtor®.”

Duncan, if you’re reading this, comment on the blog.

“Dangerous Realtor®?”

“Yes. You so obviously love what you do that if I come up I won’t have a chance … you’ll sell me a home.” Not his exact words in spite of the “quotes.”

Duncan talked. I loved the listen. The man has quite the community in Santa Monica/Venice (beautiful but the dominant landscape color is gray). And we have an amazing community in an area where the dominant color is green. Visit LA, yes! But although I was at UCLA for four years, and taught in South Gate, I would find it hard to live in gray LA.

Digression: The Giants beat LA tonight, 2 to 1, and I’ve got a gaggle of guys going by ferry to the last of the SF-LA series tomorrow night. Go Giants! Terry Pearce, Leading Out Loud and Clicks and Mortar, Walter Humphreys, the original hairdresser who inspired Shampoo, plus a few amazing, talented other guys, an attorney and a poet, and one gal, Karen Herzog, Queen Bee of ADCO Marketing, dusted off her dirty A’s jersey and went looking for the old Giant’s one.  We’re going to (excuse me) Pac Bell Park cause the Giants magic will be on display.

Two or three weeks after Duncan, a single dad with three toddlers, first called, a home came on the market and I wish I’d said, “Duncan, I’m sending you a ticket.”

FYI, Brent and Julie Smith, now 20 plus years in Muir Beach, were living in Malibu many years ago but Brent was running the Levi account for an advertising giant Foote Cone. They flew up and bought the only home I showed them the first time I met them. Testimony to my finely homed intuition abilities? Yes! That was one of the only big string of ‘one show’ homes, 7 homes in a row were ‘one show and solds’ and that string included Richard “Sharper Image” Thalheimer’s first Marin home in Mill Valley, and Nurse practioner Caren and dentist par excellence Alan Cascio’s San Anselmo home (there were 3 or 4 offers, expertly handled by Rocky Vannucci, now again with FHAllen). Oh my, the good old days.

When ‘The Honey Farm’, a Mill Valley home on nearly an acre, came on the market two weeks ago, I contacted Duncan. I didn’t intuit that this was his home, but what a home!!. Go on my website to see it (Property search: 651 Eastwood, Mill Valley).

Leaving that, let’s continue with the quality of Marin residents. Oh my, oh my. I currently live a few blocks from Cedars and some of the most wonderful, kindest people on the planet: John, the mayor of Bolinas Avenue, is a frequent ‘let’s talk sports’ friend/fiend. Jenn Ashworth, A Kind of Intimacy, lives around the corner, and the SF Theological Seminary bells ring for me daily. Nights champion Carl Shapiro, whose wife Helen, grand dame of law, passed some years ago, is frequently passing by.

Yesterday, in my old stomping grounds, Yolanda Park, San Anselmo, I thought of my then neighbors: the lovely, compassionate Ram Dass, the gifted musicians Zakir and Toni, Gary Fisher (whose home on Karl Avenue is for sale  … bonus of a high-end bike to the selling agent – want to see it? Five bedrooms in a great neighborhood for less than $1M. Don’t call Alva, call me, right NOW!), notable neighbors: attorney Jay MacMahon, artists George Sumner, Igor Sazevich, Jerry Garcia, aqua-culturist Jon Finger (Hog Island Oysters), poets Francis Jaffer and Mark Linenthal and Joan Kryger,  and ran across an old promotional photo of Antoine’s great on the water restaurant, Tony’s Seafood in Marshall (a photo I shot)  Yes, there are also the gifted west Marin neighbors who have passed, Ellen Strauss (the dairy, MALT and a cousin of mine) and Peter Behr (the former state senator who rode a bike around Sacramento).

Marin is filled with more marvelous people per person than you can shake a stick at! And we’re blessed to live here. Wow! Now I gotta go to work.

Posted by:  Tom Verkozen