I was raised with my older brother and younger sister in Santa Clara, just south of Marin. Back then, Silicon Valley was mostly walnut groves and cherry orchards. My folks paid $19,000 for their house, a place I visited some years back that had appreciated to over a million bucks. If I had any brains, I would have snapped up all the land I could. Alas, I was only three and could not have legally taken title, let alone qualified for a good mortgage. Thankfully, my father worked at Lockheed in Sunnyvale and he could qualify, which amounted to putting his name on a bank application and getting the funding some days later. No credit scores, no debt to income ratios, no job history. If you had a pulse, you got a loan of around 5%.

We soon moved to the foothills of Santa Cruz, where I spent most of my childhood. It was a great place to, as they say, "begin or end", but not much to do in the middle. So I left after high school and went to UCLA and the big city. Shortly after graduation, I returned north and settled in  to Marin County.

Our family of five stayed in "The Valley" just long enough to witness the first explosion of housing. Our bike trails were plowed under along with some of the most fertile growing land in the state as new homes went up in a matter of months. Yearning for a bit more room to breathe, my folks moved us into the hills between Los Gatos and Santa Cruz, to a small town called Ben Lomond. It was there that I finished up high school and followed my brother down to UCLA. By some magic, I graduated a short five years later with a degree in English and Business, though I was clearly a master of neither as my C average proved. With my schooling complete and the challenge of a well-paying career in front of me, I did what any smart Californian would do in 1980: I set out to travel the country for a year. My buddy Mike and I bought a Jeep and a Hobie Cat sailboat and set out across country in search of adventure and parts unknown. We didn't get far as Mike underestimated a turn and plowed the boat trailer into a gas pump about an hour into our trip. Back on the road, we worked and lived throughout the country, learning about the variety of people and places that make up the beef stew we call America.

Four years later, my one year of travel was up: it was time to return to Marin and my family. It was 1984 and I was ready to get my first real job. Sadly, there were no real jobs available, so I went into real estate instead. I got a job building fences and remodeling homes during the day while I worked in the Cantina restaurant in Mill Valley at night. I purchased my first home the following year (1985) and obtained my real estate license for no apparent reason. Pretty soon, my friends came calling to help them do the same thing. "Can you help me buy a house too?", they'd say. Well, yeah, I guess. I put down the hammer and put on a tie. My real estate career was born. Within a few years, I'd helped a hundred people buy or sell homes. It was a challenge, but I enjoyed it. Let me tell you, very little has changed today. It's still a challenge, but I still like what I do.

In 1989 my small company (Shoreline Realty) was absorbed by Frank Howard Allen, easily a lucky move for me. It wasn't like I had a lot of market knowledge. It was just a stroke of luck that seemed like a good idea at the time. As a company, Frank Howard Allen is far and away the leading company in Marin County with many of the best agents in the business. The Central Marin office, where I have enjoyed most of my career, continues to be one of the most productive real estate offices in the state. Fortunately, I've been lucky enough to be at or near the top of all agents in that office since I began. You can read about my career as a Top Agent in Marin County or what it takes to be a specialist in homes that need any kind of work. I also have one of the busiest web sites in the Bay Area with over a million visitors a year to my web site that spans all twelve cities of Marin.

Below are some of the fun things we do together (or on our own) throughout Marin and the surrounding areas. If I can help you with "what to do" for you or your own family, let me know. I grew up around here and know this area well!