Twice a year, the street in front of our office is filled with tens of thousands of people. Every May and October, the City of Escondido holds it’s Street Faire, the second largest in all of California!

Our office at Windermere Exclusive Properties is located at the center of it all in the heart of downtown, and our agents participate along with our sister company CW Mortgage. Braving near 100 degree temperatures, over 600 vendors, lots of live entertainment and all types of food adorn the downtown streets.

Even though the faire is supposed to start promptly at 9am, folks are arriving looking for the latest in folding tailgating chairs, herbal remedy’s, getting the spine stretched by a bevy of chiropractors and searching for Fido’s latest dog collar.

The faire looked a little less crowed this year, and I
think there were a few less vendors than in years past. I take this as a sign of the economy today…

Many of the people who display their wares of offer services may have been driven out of business or have had to confine their street faire schedule to areas closer to home. The city says they expected 60,000 people, but my guess is that we may were two thirds of that.

It’s still great fun, and we meet lots of people who never knew our office was right on one of the busiest corners of downtown Escondido.

We offer cool water, candy and snacks, and of course have the requisite contests and giveaways, all in an attempt to get noticed and meet new folks who may need to buy or sell a piece of real estate this year. We

We break up the eight our day in shifts of 3 hours and hand out hundreds of flyers. This year our flyer was focused on bank owned properties, or REO’s (Real Estate Owned) as they’re known to us. We’ve got a ton of them in Escondido…one of the hardest hit areas of North County; but there are some incredible deals here right now!

Lately, I’ve seen listings of 3 bedroom two bath homes on decent lots for under $200,000! This has been unheard of for quite some time and investors are cashing in on these deals by the dozen right now. I estimate that about 70% of our escrows open today are bank owned or short sale properties.

All in all, another great day downtown followed by relaxation. I even bought a couple of new shirts from a one of a kind surf shop. Stay tuned, as we’ll wrap up fall with another one in October!