Category Archives: Luxury Homes

Community Events, Golf on the Monterey Peninsula, Luxury Homes, Ocean view and Golf properties

#AT&T Pro Am Golf Tournament 2016 ~ #Pebble Beach

February 11, 2016 Susan Clark

Bill Murray will be able to play after all ~ here he is with a glorious backdrop at a previous AT&T — Bill Murray will be able to play after all ~ here he is with the glorious backdrop of Carmel Bay at a previous AT&T

The AT&T Pro Am Golf Tournament was started by Bing Crosby as the “Crosby Clambake” in Rancho Santa Fe in 1937. Later it was moved to Pebble Beach and has become a huge event and never fails to bring thousands of visitors to the Monterey Peninsula in early February. Since many of our property sales are to second home buyers, this event is looked forward to with great anticipation by the realtor community. All one has to do is check out the Pine Cone (our local Carmel newspaper) and view the pages and pages of “real estate eye candy” to know that the sellers of luxury homes are hoping for a sale to one of these golf enthusiasts here for the tournament.

3044 Cormorant ~ Listed by Alain Pinel Realtors

As realtors we started planning for the AT&T Pro Am Golf Tournament over a month ago by creating innovative advertising for the print media that would beguile and bewitch prospective buyers and invite them to purchase property while visiting the area. During the tournament while the golf crowd heads for the courses, we man our posts at the “Floor duty” desk at Alain Pinel Realtors or host numerous Open Houses at our listings hoping some of our visitors stray from the event. We hope to lure our golf enthusiasts to find the coveted prize – a home on the Monterey Peninsula.

Monterey Peninsula Shore course -view from 3044 Cormorant, Pebble Beach

On Friday, Saturday and Sunday( Feb 12-14th) from 10:00-1:30pm I’ll be holding Open House at 3044 Cormorant Road, Pebble Beach. This home looks directly out onto the MPCC Shore Course, one of the courses that the tournament is played on. I’ll be watching the tournament golfers go by all morning. Come on by and see this fabulous Mark Mills mid-century design on a premium front line Pebble Beach location and join me in waving at the golfers!

1117 Sawmill Gulch Road ~Listed by Alain Pinel Realtors

Also, in the afternoons on those same dates February 12-14th 2:00-4:30pm I’ll be holding open this extensively remodeled single level 3BR/2BA home at 1117 Sawmill Gulch in the Country Club area of Pebble Beach offered at $1,295,000.

The weather is in rare form this year with bright cloudless skies, warm temperatures, and a great cast of celebrities. I remember many previous years with pouring rain and fierce winter storms. I have an indelible picture in my mind of Bill Murray on a TV news broadcast standing out on the 18th fairway of Pebble Beach Golf links with waves literally crashing over the fairway soaking him to the skin.

Pebble Beach Lodge and the 18th hole on a lovely day

Many of the tournament goers come to see the celebrities up close and personal. Everyone is glad that Bill Murray is going to play after all, because he not only can play golf well, he has a knack for engaging the gallery with funny antics and high jinks. He wears “funny clothes” and somehow manages to play the clown and also play serious golf at the same time!

Bill Murray clowning around at a past AT&T Pro Am Tournament.

One year he was goofing around with a lady spectator and she ended up falling in a sand trap! Some of the other celebrities that will be playing this year are Kenny G, Andy Garcia, Huey Lewis, Chris O’Donnell, Justin Timberlake, Clay Walker, and Ray Romano.

A couple of years ago I had an amusing encounter with Ray Romano which I will tell you about in an upcoming entry.

The tournament takes place on three courses in Pebble Beach (Pebble Beach Golf Links, Spyglass Hill, and the Monterey Peninsula Country Club Shore Course) with players rotating to different courses each day. On Saturday most of the celebrities will play on Pebble Beach Golf Links which will be televised showing the world the unparalleled beauty of this course where greens meet the sea.

Brandt Snedecker, who won last year in 2015, will be defending his title and will be joined by other pro golfers such as Phil Mickelson, Davis Love III, David Duval, Dustin Johnson, Vijay Singh, and Jordan Spieth, who is ranked as #1 golfer in the world. Who will take the trophy this year? We’ll all know on Sunday – for anyone who plays golf, you know that anything can happen.

For the tournament goers that will spend most of their time watching the play or playing golf themselves – we hope they will at least pick up the newspapers and magazines touting our gorgeous homes for sale and return at a later time.

There is nothing more beautiful than Pebble Beach on a clear sunny day and that’s what we are blessed with this week. If nothing else our visitors will take home delightful memories of blue skies, sunlit courses and crashing waves, after bearing witness to some great golf!

Pebble Beach Golf Links ~ photo by Bob Borden

For more information about Pebble Beach and Monterey Peninsula properties call Susan Clark at 831-320-6801

Alain Pinel Realtors/Relocation, Homes for Sale, Luxury Homes, Purchasing a home, Realtor training programs

#Stanford Student for the Day in #Palo Alto ~ #Alain Pinel Realtors

January 27, 2016 Susan Clark

Fellow students at Stanford — Fellow students at the Graduate School of Business ~ Stanford University January 14, 2016

Wow! What a thrill to be on the Stanford campus. Last week myself (in the orange vest) and dozens of my Alain Pinel associates attended a Design Thinking Boot Camp at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business as part of APR’s collaboration with Stanford’s Innovation and Entrepreneurship Program.

The first part of our 3 part APR Stanford Innovation Certificate program launched last year with an on-line Negotiation Class taught by Professor Maggie Neale which was awesome! Last week the in-person class on the Stanford University campus in Palo Alto was even more amazing.

The Stanford campus is awe-inspiring and is so huge and spread out that the students all need to ride bikes to get around.

Our class was on the top floor of the library and as I walked in the circular staircase leading to all floors was front row and center. I was running late so took the elevator, but walked down this staircase later getting a good view of all the different floors.

The energetic and enthusiastic Professor Sarah Soule led us on an amazing journey through the Design Thinking process. She was in continual motion for the whole day-long class and kept us all on our “toes”!

There were 40-50 of us from all the different Alain Pinel offices.

We were divided up into teams. I teamed up with Rainy Hake, executive vice president and COO of Alain Pinel, Marsha Williams APR San Francisco, and Greg Albertson who is a realtor with me in our Carmel office.

We shared the results of our pre-class homework and did a lot of brainstorming. Made me remember how effective brainstorming is when creative ideas are just allowed to flow with no judgements!

Of course, the brain needs energy to work effectively and delicious food and drink were available at all times. Who said snacking was bad – not if you’re eating the right thing! Our lunch that was served at another location on campus was also first class.

Our next task was to develop a prototype to solve a “problem”. Below is a prototype that one of the other groups developed. This is an app for an iPad demonstrated in a very colorful fun way.

After our team’s brainstorming we developed an App for an iPad to solve a specific “problem” that one of our team members had put forth. Her client wanted to visit open houses but wanted to look on her own without an agent “talking at her”. We developed an app that had every imaginable piece of information about the property and community included on it.

Now come the users. Ta Tah . . . now we were going to have to explain our concept to a prospective user and get their input about our idea.

Students from a Design class were our “guinea pigs”. Here they are just having walked into the room wondering, “what in the world are these people creating?”

Rainy explained how it works to our “User”. We received some valuable suggestions we hadn’t thought of and added the ideas to our design.

By the end of the class our brains had been exercised, we had enjoyed great food, we had been inspired by a wonderful teacher, we had worked as a team, and had made some new friends. A day well spent. The piece de resistance was receiving this beautiful Certificate of Completion from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business.

As I left the building I noticed this lovely quote by Philip H. Knight an MBA student from 1962 on a stone tablet inlaid in the plaza.

“There comes a time in every life when the past recedes and the future opens. It’s that moment when you turn to face the unknown. Some will turn back to what they already know. Some will walk straight ahead into uncertainty. I can’t tell you which one is right. But I can tell you which one is more fun.”

By the way, in case you don’t recognize the name. Phil Knight is co-founder and chairman of NIKE.

So here we go as we leave Stanford University letting the past recede and facing the unknown. Not sure which path the others will take, but I’m going for the one that’s more fun!

Golf on the Monterey Peninsula, Homes for Sale, Luxury Homes, Purchasing a home

#Best Buy in #Pebble Beach! Come enjoy the #Pebble Beach Lifestyle

January 5, 2016 Susan Clark

1117 Sawmill Gulch, Pebble Beach, CA

Offered for sale $1,295,000

Open House Saturday January 9th 10:00am – 4:00pm

Open House Sunday January 10th Noon – 3:00pm

Stunning single level residence in the Country Club area of Pebble Beach

Why is the Country Club area of Pebble Beach the choice of so many that move to the Monterey Peninsula? I’m sure there are many reasons . . . for one thing, you can take a short lovely stroll and end up at the beach listening to the surf and enjoying a picnic or an amazing sunset!

It’s a quiet and serene way to live close to nature, yet it’s easy and quick to get to shopping in Pacific Grove or to Highway One to visit the other Monterey Peninsula cities.

It is a mecca for golf with both public and private courses minutes away. Pacific Grove Golf Links “offers the most affordable golf on or near the Pacific Ocean” The back nine has breath-taking views of the coast and the course also offers a pro shop and restaurant.

The famous Monterey Peninsula Country Club is a private club near by that hosts the AT&T Pro Am that will be taking place in early February 2016. In addition to these courses there are many public courses in Pebble Beach as well as in the surrounding area.

The Country Club area is known for privacy as well as quiet. The parcels are much larger than in nearby Pacific Grove. For instance the lot size of the home at 1117 Sawmill Gulch Road is a quarter of an acre allowing space between neighbors.

Ok, back to why is this amazing home the Best Buy in Pebble Beach? I confess this is a bit subjective, but look at the facts. It is priced at a reasonable $1,295,000 (just look at the prices of some of the others!) yet is beautifully remodeled. The owners lovingly did extensive upgrades after they purchased the home updating the kitchen, baths, windows, flooring, fireplace, and installing new baseboards, crown moldings, French doors, skylights, and Casablanca fans. They also upgraded the things you can ‘t see like the electrical, plumbing and outdoor drainage system.

Spacious living room with vaulted ceilings.

Why do I love this home? I love it’s flow. It’s all single level with one room easily flowing into the next. Also, the vaulted ceilings in the living room give it a very spacious feel – you have a sense it is much larger than the 2123 SF it actually is.

And the gourmet kitchen is amazing!

Kitchen with Cambria Quartz counters, maple cabinets, and dual fuel Wolf range. — Kitchen with Cambria Quartz counters, and maple cabinets.

Wolfgang Puck . . . look out!

I love to kick-back and the family room is my kind of place to do just that. Numerous windows and skylights make it a bright, light room.

Family room with slate flooring for easy indoor/outdoor ease.

The 2-car garage is extra roomy with room for storage and a work bench even with 2 cars inside. That would make my husband very happy

If I have peaked your curiosity Take a Complete Tour along with a video if you hang in there. The floor plan and Feature list is also included with the Virtual tour. Or . . . just come by one of the Open Houses this weekend and see for yourself!! Of course, I am always available to give you a private tour.

For a private showing contact the listing agent at Alain Pinel Realtors, Susan Clark 831-320-6801.

Golf on the Monterey Peninsula, Homes for Sale, Luxury Homes, Ocean view and Golf properties, Purchasing a home

Country Club West, Pebble Beach CA ~ Stop the Car and Look at this View!

January 4, 2016 Susan Clark

YOU ARE INVITED

TO AN OPEN HOUSE AT 3044 CORMORANT ROAD, PEBBLE BEACH ~ OFFERED FOR SALE FOR $4,800,000

Listed by Alain Pinel Realtors

Open House Saturday Jan 9th/Sunday Jan 10th 1:00 – 4:00pm

Views from 3044 Cormorant Road, Pebble Beach CA

Experience panoramic ocean and golf course views from this fabulous *Mark Mills mid-century modern design on a premium front line Pebble Beach location in Country Club West. Enjoy it as it is or create your own dream home in this amazing location.

Living room with fireplace. — Three bedrooms, three baths 2,558 square feet. 2-car garage ~~ Lot size 9,400 SF

Country Club West in Pebble Beach is known for its exquisite ocean views and sprawling greens delighting golfers, ocean lovers, runners, cyclists, surfers, and dog walkers. The seemingly endless coastline is level and great for long strolls smelling the sea air and listening to the crashing surf. And the sunsets are . . . AWESOME.

Come by my Open House this weekend to view this amazing property or Call Susan to set up a special showing at 831-320-6801. I love finding the perfect home for my clients in Pebble Beach so call me and we’ll find your dream home!

View from 3044 Cormorant Road, Pebble Beach CA

*Mark Mills was an American architect who worked during the latter half of the 20th century. He apprenticed for Frank Lloyd Wright at Taliesin West from 1944-1948. Wikipedia

Susan Clark, Realtor

Category Archives: Luxury Homes

#AT&T Pro Am Golf Tournament 2016 ~ #Pebble Beach

#Stanford Student for the Day in #Palo Alto ~ #Alain Pinel Realtors

#Best Buy in #Pebble Beach! Come enjoy the #Pebble Beach Lifestyle

Country Club West, Pebble Beach CA ~ Stop the Car and Look at this View!

Susan's Musings by the Sea