Perhaps you already live here… but maybe you want to know more. Here are five of the most commonly cited reasons for people to move to Roseville:

Proximity to downtown Sacramento, but really - who needs it?

Roseville used to be one of those cities which was nice to live in because it was so close to Sacramento. Unless you are in commute traffic, the distance to downtown Sacramento - about 20 miles - can be covered in approximately a half hour. But lately, if you hate the commute, you can skip it. Roseville has become one of the fastest growing commercial hubs, with malls, offices and restaurants that can put downtown Sacramento to shame. And more businesses (hospitals, malls, restaurants) are moving to Roseville, making it a city to commute to, not from.

Have you Noticed how Clean it is?

Sure, there are older parts of Roseville that are charming and, er… hard to drive through. But the newer areas and especially the business districts have been planned with a focus on cleanliness and an eye toward making roads and neighborhoods pleasant to look at and drive around in. The city of Roseville also passed a law in the 1990s mandating nine acres of parks for every 1000 residents, twice the amount required by other cities in California of the same size. The city continues to follow a policy to maintain miles of trails for biking and walks along greenbelts.

Speaking of Biking…

The League of American Bicyclists recently awarded Roseville the Bicycle Friendly Community Award - Roseville was the first city in Placer county to receive this award. And why not? Roseville has 83 miles of on street bike lanes and 27 miles of off-street paths. It also hosts an annual bicycle event - the Roseville Bikefest. This year’s event occured on October 4th at Quail Glen Elementary School.

The Schools, the Schools!

I’m sure there are numbers out there to prove it, but you cannot beat word-of-mouth. One of the biggest reasons cited by home buyers in Roseville is the schools. Even when they would rather live in the country, most home buyers - if they are parents - will pick a home in the greater Roseville area for the proximity to nature trails, hiking, and fishing, while staying within the Roseville city school district.

Historic Old Town Roseville

If you’re bored on any evening, you can always head over to Historic old town Roseville. It has recently received a 13 million dollar facelift! The Historic Old Town Merchant’s Association also organizes special events like the Strawberry Festival in spring and a car show in the summer. Main street is shut down for these events and it’s a great place to bring family and friends or just hang out by yourself. Whether you are looking for a good restaurant, shopping or are looking for a quiet time in a museum, you can find it here in Old Town.

Convinced yet? Or maybe you didn’t need to be. Maybe you’ve loved Roseville all along and have wanted to buy a home here since you were a child. Well, what are you waiting for? A list of available homes, perhaps? Allrighty then. Go here!

Let’s hope this works so I can go home.

John’s Law is a scientific law — a hypothesis about the way the world works.

It has a comfortably mathematical looking formulation:

G = 1 / R²

Let’s break it down. G is the global importance of a given issue to consumers, the general public, the world at large.

R is the number of real estate bloggers writing about it during a given week.

Stated in words, the overall importance of an issue is inversely proportional to the square of the number of real estate bloggers talking about it in a given week.

Some hubbub over ePerks has gotten everyone up in arms this week. I estimate that there are 20 real estate bloggers talking about it, at least. So I judge the importance of this issue to be 1 / 20 squared, or .0025. We probably had a hundred bloggers talking about Greg Swann bagging on some guy’s video, so the importance of that issue was about .0001.

Counting the actual bloggers is left as an exercise to the reader.

To date I’m the only one writing about John’s law, so its importance is 1 / (1 squared), which of course is one.

I hope no one will write about this law except me.

I would hate to see it trivialized.

It’s a kitten!

Photo courtesy of FreePhoto.com.

Well, I don’t want to embarrass master builder so-and-so by printing his name, but one of the details he didn’t oversee was hiring a listing agent who proofreads.

Careful attention to detail, indeed.

Several authors including Genuine Chris Johnson have been making the point that that the real estate Blog-O’Sphere is inbred and cliquish.

I’ve been noticing that as well.

I don’t think there’s anything wrong with cliques, per se, but I do object to those that don’t center around me.

This is, after all, the Social Internets. It’s a series of tubes where people should try to be more friendly to me.

Introducing the Real Estate John O’Sphere

Unlike that worn out, old, legacy Blog O’Sphere, The Real Estate John O’Sphere (O’Sphere 2.0) includes me by definition.

Here are some important differences between the real estate blogosphere and the Real Estate Johnosphere:

Membership

Membership in the Real Estate John-O’Sphere is simple. All past and future clients are members by default, since I enjoy getting paid. Therefore they are members of my O’Sphere of O’Influence.

For everyone else, the nomination process is simple. First I think about you, and then I think “Do I like that person?” If I like you and I feel like you’d make a good fit, then you’re in.

The Appeal Process

What if you’re not in, then what? Well, that’s where the appeal process begins.

You try to do something to make yourself appeal to me. If you succeed, then I let you in.

Did you ever notice that Real Estate Agents always seem to have three important things?

1. Nice cars we may or may not be able to afford.
2. Our pictures on our business cards.
3. Some kind of motto that describes our business.

Well, naturally I’ve noticed it, too — hence my ability to point it out. Of course, if you saw my Honda Accord you wouldn’t exactly accuse me of extravagance in the car department. But I do have my picture on my business card. I even wore a tie.

And when it comes to marketing slogans, brother, sign me up! I love those things. “Putting service first”. Wow, that one’s bound to put me head and shoulders above the competition. Or how about, “It all adds up to better service”? That’s actually our Real Estate PLUS Team’s latest motto. (Back when I was a solo act, I used to use: “Professionalism You Can Count On.”)

In fact, I’m such a motto junkie that I’ve considered many alternatives over the years. For some reason, a few of these mottos never made it into our marketing materials. I don’t know, maybe it was fate, or maybe wisdom. Maybe that certain marketing “je ne sais quoi” just wasn’t there.

Now these misfit mottos are revealed. I’ve kept them in my sock drawer so long, but I thought that not sharing them would be an unfathomable loss to the mythopoeic literature of Real Estate Marketing.

Top Ten Rejected Real Estate Mottos