Category Archives: California

Arnold the Sperminator at Pebble Beach Concours D’Elegance: Maybe My Second Home WILL Be a Car

Written by Candy Evans on August 25, 2011

Arnold Pebble Beach Concours D’Elegance is like a SuperBowl for car enthusiasts. Me, I love vintage and collectible cars: love the lines, love the (revving) engines, love the interiors. Concours is a show and tell of whose collecting what and strutting the best. The grounds of the venerable Pebble Beach Golf Resort– the 18th hole of the course, to be exact — is covered with hundreds of beautiful vintage autos shipped in on trucks, wrapped and pampered like a baby’s butt. (I swear some have their own butlers.) There are several glamour as events throughout the week and weekend that require coveted invitations, usually handed out to the uber rich, major wealth managers or consumers of expensive cars. Thursday (photo below) was the Jaguar party, which was held at the Pebble Beach and Tennis Club right on the water. The new Jaguar XJ75 was unveiled. Friday was the Bugatti event and the Bentley event, Bentley such a top-secret affair no one was allowed to bring in phones or cameras as Bentley unveiled an amazing new car.

Posted in California, Celebrity Homes, Second Shelters | Tagged Arnold Schwarzenegger, Beach Golf Resort, Bugatii, Pebble Beach Concours, Pebble Beach Golf, Pebble Beach Golf Resort | Comments Off

Welcoming McLaren to Dallas: If My Second Home Is Going To Be A Car, I’m Not Buying Till Park Place Premier Is Open

Written by Candy Evans on August 25, 2011

Guess what’s coming to Dallas this fall besides, hopefully, a nippier real estate market? The McLaren, over at Park Place. Park Place McLaren Dallas will be located along side the Park Place Bentley, Rolls-Royce, Maserati and Jaguar dealerships at 5300 Lemmon Ave. This new group of ultra-ultra- premium automotive brands, all of which were on display at Pebble Beach Concours D’Elegance, will be known as the Park Place Premier Collection.

Posted in California, Celebrity Homes, luxury autos, Second Shelters | Tagged Car Enthusiasts, Jaguar Dealership, Orange Paint, Pebble Beach Concours, Streamlined Structure, Vehicle Customization | 1 Comment

Your Second Home Nirvana in Northern Cali: Help Me Critique This Groovy Peninsula Spread

Written by Candy Evans on August 9, 2011

This could really get me in water that is hotter than my swimming pool right about now, but a friend in California is selling their home and these are the photos the agent shot.Naturally, I have some strong opinions, which I am going to withold. It’s a lovely contemporary northern Cali home circa 1983 but remodeled, located in Saratoga, on the Peninsula, ’bout an hour from San Francisco. Totally orgasmic yard.

Posted in California, Second Shelters | Tagged Fabulous Gardens, Home Justice, Medidate, Redwood Trees, Todie, Zen Master | 3 Comments

It’s about 68 Degrees Right Now in Pebble Beach and I am In Love with a Short Sale: Second Home Nirvana Marked Down More Than $100K

Written by Candy Evans on July 21, 2011

And fortunately, I’m a very cheap date. The home I’m in love with is a Blue Light Special marked down by a whopping $101,000. I am not kidding. As you know, many Dallasites are summering up in Pebble right now, cool as cucumbers. I’m talking about designer extraordinaire Trisha Wilson, Realtor extraordinaire Joe Kobell, Ellen Terry, and others. So when I saw this, I thought, why not put my home on the market, pack it up, just move and join the crowd? I could grab a little pied a terre on Turtle Creek to keep my Dallas residency (and zero Texas state income tax) and disappear come June 1. (Bree says she’d really prefer the cooler temps with her Doodle fur.) You’d only want to spend three to four months there a year, since, as my friend Debbie Hug (who has a home in Santa Barbara) tells me, more than six months and you are a California resident and must help Arnold pad up the state budget. Three in Pebble, nine in Dallas, and life is perfect!

Posted in Beach Homes, California, Second Shelters | Tagged Dallasites, Ellen Terry, Master Bedroom Suite, Pebble Beach short sale, State Income Tax, Turtle Creek, Wee Dram | Comments Off

Sam Wyly and Daughter Selling Off 20 Acre “Eco Estate” In Malibu: Dallas Real Estate Second Home News

Written by Candy Evans on June 22, 2011

More proof that the high end market is getting stronger, particulary in and around LA. And millionaires are getting more earth friendly every single day! Sam Wyly and his daughter, Christiana, are selling a four-bedroom, four-bath home at 1300 Greenleaf Canyon Road in Malibu for $2.995 million. The eco-estate, so called because of the extensive renovation done embracing not only the earth but the latest in green finishes and technology, as well as strategies for healthier and more efficient living (?). The 20 acre estate is minutes from beautiful Topanga Canyon, and features a huge great room with rock fireplace, kitchen with everything you or your gourmet chef could ever need, three bedrooms, numerous decks, glass French doors, guest house fully equipped with a kitchen and bath that opens to an organic garden — may be a nice way of saying quarters for the organic house manager or gardener — lap pool, and views views views of a huge California oak forest, crisp spring-fed stream, and mountains.

Posted in California, CandysDirt.com, Celebrity Homes, emerging real estate markets, Second Shelters | Tagged Dallas real estate news, Federal Securities Laws, Greenleaf Canyon, Monte Nido, Sam Wyly, Sarah Sutton, Sutton Real Estate | Comments Off

Second Shelters is About to Have a Sibling: Real Gutsy Dallas Real Estate News Coming Up

Written by Candy Evans on June 6, 2011

Tony and Candice's pad

Counting the Braxton-Hicks contractions over here at SecondShelters.com where we are about to launch a sibling blog called… CandysDirt.com. After much soul-searching, a few wine-laden focus groups, and a whole bunch of email, we have decided to do some organizing. (Ha! Then you get knocked up!) Vacation home news will rule on SecondShelters.com as it was originally intended to, and CandysDirt.com will bring you all the LOCAL DFW real estate news just like we did over on DallasDirt. Both blogs will live side by side, promise not to fight over the property line, and will be a click away up there on the BLOGS tab, see it? We are getting so much national traffic on SecondShelters.com now, and while out-of-state folks love Dallas, they tell me they prefer the focus to be strictly on the second home market. Meantime, I never could stop tracking Dallas/Fort Worth — who was buying and selling what — I do it in my sleep. So the solution was to get preggers create a local clone.

Posted in California, CandysDirt.com, Second Shelters | Tagged Candices, Celeb Gossip, Dallas Morning News, Dallas real estate news, DallasDirt, Dfw Real Estate, Real Estate Decisions, Smart Real Estate | 3 Comments

Dear Troy: We’ve Done a Little Dallas Real Estate Shopping for You

Written by Candy Evans on May 27, 2011

guest post by Kersten Rettig

Anyone who knows me knows that I love two things: my kids and football. Sometimes not in that order. I grew up in Ft. Worth in the 70s and 80s and, in those days as we all know, the Cowboys were IT. America’s Team. I’ve been bitter ever since you-know-who bought the team and, IMO, made it a safehouse for ego maniacs and drama queens. But there was a time, in the 90s, when there was a flicker of love again for the boys in Blue and Silver. And it was because of one man. One player. One QB.

Posted in California, Dallas real estate news, House Candy, Second Shelters | Tagged Autographed Footballs, Ego Maniacs, Micocina, Miniature Ponies, Nfl Football Player, Troy Aikman, Versailles Ave | 4 Comments

The Real Estalker (Mama) + Candy Evans = BFF

Written by Candy Evans on May 26, 2011

Mama’s got the scoopola on the Aikman estate and even unearthed some things I had no idea of! God, “she’s” good. Like didjaknow:

“Mister and Missus Aikman acquired the first parcel of their two-lot compound in April of 2004. A few minutes research did not turn up a sale price but public records Your Mama peeped show the purchase price was high enough they took a seven million dollar mortgage on the property.”

Posted in California, Celebrity Homes, Dallas real estate news, Second Shelters | Tagged Cooper Aerobics Center, Dollar Mortgage, God Shes, Ironwood Country Club, Palm Desert Ca, Real Estalker, Square Foot Mansion, The Real Estalker | 6 Comments

Pay $2.5 Million for a Mobile Home, Avoid Real Estate Property Taxes

Written by Candy Evans on April 20, 2011

When my husband teases about getting a mobile home, I threaten divorce. But he may not be so crazy: when you own a mobile home, you own only the home and not the land under it so guess what, no real estate property taxes! Still, you have to rent the land, because the owner has to pony up the taxes, but you can pick up and leave when you think the rent, i.e. property taxes, are too high.

Posted in California, Second Shelters | Tagged David Carter, Melting Pot, Mobile Home Ownership, Mobile Home Park, mobile home second home, mobile homes and taxes, Paradise Cove, Santa Monica | 2 Comments

Death of the Vanity Ad: Real Estate Take-Aways from Agent ReBoot: Dallas Real Estate News

Written by Candy Evans on April 14, 2011

When you shop for a high-end car, do you pick the salesperson (and buy the car) because he or she had a vanity ad in some glossy magazine or on a billboard? Or do you buy because of the car and dealer? We have bought almost our all cars for years from Park Place because their service is so flawless you never want to try another dealer again, ever. Like, I wouldn’t buy a car they don’t sell, that’s how be smitten I am. Inman’s Agent ReBoot on Wednesday really woke up the 400- plus agents attending to the fact that more than ever, real estate is an internet-based business. The Realtor is still necessary, but just not the overpowering personality force of nature of times past. Guess what’s selling the most houses? Telephones. In January, Americans looked at 3 homes per second on mobile apps. In February they looked at 9/sec, last month as the market heated consumers surfed over 27 homes per second on the internet. On their phones! By 2014 mobile internet usage will overtake desktop. People today spend more time socializing on their phones — 2.7 hours — than they do watching TV. And increasingly, they use their phones to shop for homes while out driving or kicking the tires.