La Cresta Life with Kelly Smith

View the Video version of this Episode at: https://www.lacresta.com/2021/06/03/what-to-do-in-hi…owntown-murrieta/ Hey y'all, welcome back to La Cresta Life. Today, I took us on a field trip right down to Old Town Murrieta about 15-20 minutes down the hill from La Cresta. Our main street through Murrieta, (they call it Historic downtown Murrieta, sometimes people call it Old Town Murrieta) is the old Hwy 395 and that was the north-south route in California before the big freeways went in and it goes right through our little town. You can see it's quite a little Mayberry situation. We've got restaurants on both sides of the street and lots of activity. One of the newer things that and has been happening down here, is this two Thursday's a month in the evening, the town opens up to an evening lifestyle where the shops take their wares out on the sidewalks and the restaurants are all open and there's even food trucks and all kinds of music and and fun activities. So people are strolling. If you've ever seen Gilmore Girls, it reminds me a little bit of Stars Hollow - such a great place to be and a new development here in Murrieta. So thanks for joining me here at La Cresta life. Not in La Cresta this time but in historic Old Town, Murrieta. I enjoyed bringing this to you. It's just another little cherry on our Sunday here in Southwest Riverside County. We'll see you next time on La Cresta Life.

View the Video version of this Episode at: https://www.lacresta.com/2021/05/03/does-la-cresta-have-a-micro-climate/ Does La Cresta have a Micro-Climate? Hey, y'all! Welcome back to La Cresta life. You know, I'm often asked about the weather up here on the Santa Rosa Plateau. So today I'm going to explain how our micro-climate works. We're up here on the Santa Rosa Plateau about 2,000 feet higher than the valley floor. The Temecula Valley includes Temecula, Murrieta, Wildomar all the cities of the Temecula Valley, including the Temecula Wine Country, which is really close by. We are in the mountains that separate Riverside County from Orange County, and this gives us our own special weather up here. We truly have our own micro-climate. You've heard me talk about the different parts of the Plateau - 5 different homeowners associations, and Tenaja, a Community Service District. Depending on where you are on this couple of thousand acres up here on the Plateau, you will get a specific breeze. On the Tenaja side of things, often times, you're going to get coastal breezes that come through Deluz from San Diego. It's a different wind direction. On the side of La Cresta where I live, we actually get a breeze from the coast about 14 miles as the crow flies from the Pacific Ocean. Coastal breezes come from that direction over there. Behind those mountains is Catalina, my landmark for where our breezes come from, and give us the reprieve. When it is super hot down below in the Valley, it is often 10 to 15 degrees cooler up here on the Santa Rosa Plateau. Because of our elevation and our proximity to the ocean, we have beautiful breezes every afternoon. They come through between 2 and 4pm every afternoon to cool us off - a welcome event during the hot days of summer. With our micro-climate, we're always cooler in the summer. In the winter, we may be a little colder, and that's okay, too. We don't get a lot of freeze - just an occasional crazy snow, that doesn't stick. But otherwise, it's very temperate here. The weather here is very accommodating to all the fruit and vegetables that we grow here on our ranch. It's a wonderful micro-climate, great for growing grapes. U.C. Davis, many years ago, called us out as a fantastic grape-growing area -- probably one of the best in Southern California. So come on up and enjoy our coastal breezes here on the mountain. If you're looking for a temperate climate, a rural vibe, the conveniences of the city, and the ability to grow your own fruits and vegetables, this is it. You can have horses. You can have all kinds of animals in this temperate climate, right up here on the Santa Rosa Plateau. Signing off today from La Cresta. Thank you for joining us on La Cresta Life!

View the Video version of this Episode at: https://www.lacresta.com/2021/04/09/what-cowboy-activities-are-there-in-la-cresta/ Hey y'all. Welcome back to La Cresta life. Today, we're going to talk about what cowboys and cowgirls do up here on the hill. We have a club up here called the Santa Rosa Plateau Riding Club. It's open to Residents who ride and those who don't ride. I haven't had horses up here in my whole 19 years after growing up with them in Texas, but I'm welcome. Everybody is welcome and it's a wonderful club to join because you have at least two events a month that you can attend. One as a potluck, and the other is an organized lunch, after the folks who do ride come in from the trails. So it's a great way to hang with the neighbors. One of the events is at night and one is in the day and it's a lovely way to get to know your neighbors in a different way. A couple weeks ago the Riding Club riders went on a trail ride and they came back to the organized lunch. Typically they're catered. So you just RSVP and pay your fee. The folks who ride come back in from the trails and we all sit down to lunch. At the last luncheon, the hostess and host (moves around every month) organized a sorting event. So we all finished our lunches and went up to their arena that had been partitioned off so that they could do the sorting event. We sat in their little grandstands that they had made and our local friends and neighbors who wanted to participate and sort were invited to do that. Some had never done it and some were pros, but such a fun event and makes you just feel like you are at dude ranch. It was just wonderful. I hope you enjoy the scenery of some that happening. Those are friends and neighbors. In fact, one of the clips of the sorting is the owner of the insurance company that I do all of my insurance with - Winchester Insurance in Murrieta. She and her husband are on horses, and it's just a delight to see people that you normally see in a different way, doing something completely different. So I hope you enjoy that. In summary, we neighbors have learned, and we all cultivate the idea, that we do not have to go off of our Plateau, out of our neighborhood to have fun. We do as many fun activities as we can up here, so we don't have to go elsewhere, and it has created a very tight community of people who may do some of the same things or not. But we all support each other. So it's an ideal place to live if you like to be outside and we sure do. I'll look forward to taking you along to some of the other things that we do. We don't always get dirty in a field. Sometimes we dress up . I'll keep you posted along the way of the social events that we have up here on the hill. In the meantime, it's great to see you. Come back and join us on La Cresta Life. I'll see you real soon.

View the Video version of this Episode at: https://www.lacresta.com/2021/03/11/plateau-buying-pre-construction/ Hey y'all. Welcome back to La Cresta life! Today, we are doing something really different. We're here at a construction site ...and it has everything to do with real estate. So stay tuned. Wow, this real estate market is so hot in La Cresta. Jake and I have a beautiful family that's been trying to buy out here in La Cresta, and were really having a hard time finding a house that checked all the boxes . This one behind me was under construction, which we found was available to purchase pre-construction completion. So that is what is happening here. We are under contract. Our adorable family from Orange County is making lots of finish design choices. So they almost feel like they're building a custom home from scratch,. They didn't have to do any of the hard stuff and they are getting the house of their dreams. Let's go inside. We got lucky with this one happens to have aligned with this project just in the nick of time . As you can see the sticks are up. The roof is stacked. It's just before drywall. We've got electrical , plumbing, sprinklers. Windows were just installed . The distance between now and getting certificate of occupancy is pretty short. We are probably a month and a half maybe maybe two months away from this family being able to move in. They are able to consult with the builder and are able to choose things like light fixtures, colors, etc. They're going to do the pool later. I'll show you where that's going to go. The builder has committed to putting in an electronic gate and fencing the five acres. A concrete drive is being installed all the way from the road to the house. He has also made some high-end choices in the kitchen, like Viking appliances. The budget was, a nice luxury budget, but our folks were in time to be able to go in and make some of their own choices, as well. So the buyers are feeling the ownership already. They're loving coming up to La Cresta and playing homeowner while it's being done. You can see there's still a whole lot of work that needs to be done, but this process is really fun. Building like this from scratch is not everyone's cup of tea, as it can be very stressful. But if you've got the stomach for it and you have the ability to jump in midstream like these folks, it can work. In this case, it really is a perfect alignment. When you can't find the house that you want, think about something like this. Jake and I can hook you up with buying the land or having the builder buy the land and go the whole soup to nuts program. I'll sign off from here. I'm so happy to have you guys back with me on this beautiful construction project! We will see you next time on La Cresta life!

Watch the video version here: https://www.lacresta.com/2021/03/05/tips-listing-photoshoot-day/ Hey y'all. Welcome back to La Cresta life for all of you listing clients out there, this is one of the most critical things that we do. We hire a professional photographer to get drone video still shots and make your house look wonderful. Let's go inside. We got a little lucky on this one. We happen to have a homeowner who is absolutely impeccable and her design is amazing. Her aesthetic is just gorgeous and she's obviously a very neat and tidy person, so I didn't have to do a lot. But not everybody lives like this. So our services include coming in and doing a walk around if you've got some questions about what should be left how it should be staged. Are there some things we can move around and make it look a little bit more appealing to the masses and that's certainly something that we do. in this case didn't have to do it. Love this house. But I also love the challenge of being a kind of co-creating with our clients and reimagining their space that they lived in for a long time. So definitely something that we offer so don't be afraid of that part of this. How to make us look really good? We hire the best. Hey, Nick, you're the best. He is a wonderful photographer. He always makes us look good. We adore him. Notice behind me that there are pictures on the wall. Those are not family. They're not children. They're not pictures of your family that strangers shouldn't see. In my opinion strangers don't have the right to look at your family. They have to earn that right and I think when you put your house on the market if you really are serious and you're going to be moving anyway, just go ahead and pack up the pictures and if you have to know, stage it with some things that are not your family. You're trying to set up an environment where people can imagine their own family and pictures of your family only distract from there. So try to neutralize that by using photos and pictures that are not really really private to you. I know it's hard because you want your pictures on the wall, but you're going to be moving anyway. Take your time go through the house, get them all tidied up put them in a box cuz if you do it, right, you're going to sell your house. Hopefully we're going to sell your house and you're going to need those pictures at your next house anyway. I'm often asked if the homeowner should be home on the day of the photographs and I was just now reminded why if you can avoid it, avoid it. Because I just walked by a window and our photographer was outside shooting in and if I can see him, the camera can see me. So the whole day turns into a sequence of hiding from the photographer. So if you can avoid that go for a walk of her drive, it generally takes in our case usually 2 to 3 hours because we're also gonna take still shots. We're getting a video inside and outside and then we're getting drone videos of the entire property. So it does take a little while. Go for a walk and don't play this game of hiding from the photographer. The takeaway from today's experience is always have a great photographer, plan ahead, ask for help. We will help you make some choices on how to stage the house. Sometimes just using your own furniture and moving things around a little bit. And it's fun to get creative. We are not professional stagers, but if we need that will bring one in and give yourself plenty of time, that everything's tidy. We'll turn all the lights on and we'll turn all the lights off when we leave. Open the windows and all the things that we need to make the best shots, but it's a really important piece of it. So plan ahead tidy up and it's the first step in getting your house on the market. Anyway, thank you so much for joining me today and breaking up my two to three hour photo shoot. I look forward to seeing you next time on La Cresta Life.

Hey y'all. Welcome back to La Cresta life ! Today, I'm going to tell you all about the way I like to show new Buyers the Santa Rosa Plateau. I call it my "Nickel Tour". The reason for my Nickel Tour is that I hear from my buyers all the time when they are looking at different properties online. They're trying to figure out...Are there elevation at this property? Where is it located within the community? Which HOA is it in? Is it far back? Is it close up? How far is it from the grocery store? And since this Plateau is so large and there are so many varying aspects of it, I really love to take them for a ride or caravan, and we go and look at the Plateau from a 30,000 foot view. We drive the whole thing, through the different HOAs, which are La Cresta, La Cresta Highlands, Santa Rosa West, Meadow Oaks, the Trails and Tenaja. They get the high-level view. If they're from out of state or from out of town, when they go back and start looking at properties online, it gives them a sense of where that property is. So I give them a kind of a guideline from a high-level perspective. I'll show you a map back at my office, which is located right here in La Cresta. Welcome to my office. I actually share the office with www.abcSAGE.com, my general contractor husband, who does renewable energy, whole-house generators, and general construction. It used to be our guest house and we use it as our office now. Here is the map of the entire Plateau. It even bleeds over into Deluz, but I'm going to focus right now just on the La Cresta area...So, you get off the 15 freeway, which is right here. And you come up Clinton Keith, then you jump on Avenida La Cresta and it winds around to all the different communities. This yellow is La Cresta, and that's what the whole Plateau tends to be called. This first one that you pass by is The Trails at Santa Rosa. Then you you go through La Cresta and you end up in La Cresta Highlands and Santa Rosa West, which is a little bit different because it's 10-acre minimums. Everything else is 5 acres minimum - we're very spread out! This is Tenaja, which is a community service district and not really an HOA. It has a few rules like an HOA but less rules. Here we have Meadow Oaks, which is in Tenaja. It's a gated community with a live guard gate. So, when I start talking to Buyers, if they've got little kids that go to school down in here in Murrieta, they might want to be in this part of La Cresta, since they may be going up and down the hill frequently. Here along Clinton Keith are all the restaurants, Rite Aid, etc. Just past the freeway, you've got one of our major hospitals - Inland Valley. If you want to take a road before you get to the freeway, you can go into Historic Old Town Murrieta - you can see It's really close. Everything is really close and convenient, with very little traffic. In my Nickel Tour, we drive all around the Santa Rosa Plateau and talk about the different aspects along the way. We discuss things like: Tenaja being the furthest area; the gated area of Meadow Oaks; how, if you more space, you might like it here; if you feel like you want a little bit more density or a little more views you might end up here or here; if you're super horsey, you might want to end up here or here or over here as well. You can see that when buying on the Plateau, it is really important to have agents that you're working with who really know the area. I like to consider myself an expert - I would think after 19 years! I really want to help you find the right home - not just on the Santa Rosa Plateau - but the right home in the right area of the Santa Rosa Plateau. Call me any time. [bark bark]...Those are my dogs. Thank you for joining me on La Cresta Life! We'll see you next time.

Welcome back to La Cresta life. Today, We are opening escrow and we are doing a pest inspection at one of the cutest houses. Very established Vineyard beautiful wine comes from this place and the new owners are super excited. We're going to talk to her pest inspector and see what we can look today. Termite inspections are an important part of the inspection process when you buy a home, we've got the general home inspection up here in La Cresta. We also have a septic and well if there's a well on the property and then the termite is critical for any home buyer to know if they are buying a home that has any kind of pest situation in California. We generally have a lot of Stucco homes. Do you don't see a lot of her might like you doing other parts of the country, but here at the inspection is still very important and there may be parts of the the home that have some wood that could be easily replace. So usually date the damage is minimal and the repairs are pretty affordable, but it's part of the necessary process. So here we are doing that today. We are with Black Knight and doing a pest inspection for one of our listings and what are you looking for inside the house? I'm usually checking along the baseboard moldings and things like that. And that's where pellets fall I'm also looking for things that completed Turnpike termite infestation fix roof leaks multigrade issues on the outside any of those kind of things. We are here with Mike from Black Knight Pest Control doing a home inspection and he is got a ladder what you can do with that ladder looking for wings termite swarm every few years after they've established the colony and their wings fall off and so I'll be looking for Green's when I'm up there when they re-infest a property after they want to leave a really fine sawdust called rasps. I'm looking for that kind of stuff still looking for subterranean termites just in case he's made it all the way up from the attic and roof leaks plumbing leaks. Awesome. All right, I don't want to slow you down mic. What are you looking for now with that pole? What I'm doing is improving the exterior game and I'm poking all the rafter tail station Port starboard all the expensive wood, and I'm looking for evidence that termite or evidence of fungus damage or dry rot. Got it. Good work. Thank you. Thank you for joining us for our termite inspection here in La Cresta. Make it a great day, and we will see you next time on La Cresta life.

Hey y'all. Welcome back to La Cresta life today, I'm showing you a little bit is why I don't generally go down the hill because I sure do love right here right here with a spectacular view of here in La Cresta that I'm going to take you down the hill and I'm going to introduce you to a couple of my favorite restaurant. Welcome to the first of our stop in our household, It's often asked: Do we want Italian or Mexican? I'll show you Italian in a minute at my favorite place. And then this is my favorite or Mexican. It's just across the freeway from when you go down the hill from La Cresta. So you cross right over the freeway and you stopped right in here at Los Reyes Mexican. They've got a cute little patio great margaritas and it's our home place for Mexican food sit down real service for years. We went without a whole lot of real service in this neck of the woods. So we're just thrilled to have some good food choices now cuz this is my choice for Mexican. Now we find ourselves at The Hive this is also right down the hill from La Cresta. This one is probably the closest restaurant and as you can see it's kind of a bar and grill. So you're going to have a little bit more of a just things on the menu and then across the street just across the street behind me is a place called this and it's really hard to see right now, but they've got roll up doors kind of like those garage doors and a patio and a full bar by Peter has a full bar as well. So there is that all of this is how I'm going to say Six or seven minutes from the entrance to La Cresta. You can be sitting down nice outdoor patio having a nice drink that make great cocktails in there and then across the street as well. Here we are getting a twofer we have. Sushi, beautiful sit down. Sushi and wait for it. Wait for it. Wait for it. The Crown Jewel right there best Angelo's hands down my favorite place to go Brick Oven Pizza. Angelo has been here for three years and came from Sicily. He is a wonderful wonderful man, he and his wife and it's my favorite place in the whole world give you a little shot of the inside. Hey guys, this is Angelo, Can you at least show us your face? And then look at what he brought Al. Oh my goodness homemade cannolis cannoli for her. The best place ever! Okay, we got lucky we get to come in really really quick just as the original location. You can actually get wonderful cheeses and meats from Italy fantastic and terrible timing for Angelo with this crazy year that we're having but this is the new part and it's designed for private parties and all of that. So as soon as private parties can happen again and all kinds of fun can happen again. This is where you want to be. This is the best place ever the greatest food and it's just like family. We love it here. Then if you got a sweet tooth there Baskin' Robbins and it actually is a drive-through pretty dangerous. So that's our little down the hill Venture. I hope you guys enjoyed it. And we are ending our tour with my favorite place home the best place to eat specially when you live in La Cresta. So thanks for joining us on our tour and look forward to seeing you guys next time on La Cresta Life.

Hey y'all, welcome back to the La Cresta Life. Today, we are showing you some of the things down the hill, specifically we're going to look at restaurants and grocery shopping today and you're going to see how close they are. So we got us a Rite Aid, we are only five minutes from down the hill and we have this adorable Shopping Center. Got lots of food coffee shop. Now, We're turning into my favorite little store. It's called Barron's. It's local there's about like 9 locations throughout the Southern California area, but it's where you go for your better. Cheese's your tire quality stuff. And then we've got a car wash in El Pollo Loco. So this particular shopping center doesn't have all those fine dining but their suit, there's a yellow basket you can eat in or drive-thru. And then there's my wonderful Barons. I have grade olive oil and all kinds of wonderful things. So now we are down at the main shopping center, which is right off of the freeway. The auto off-ramp is right behind me. You can see the marker. This is Clinton keys. This is our big shopping center. So we have to do a lot of grocery shopping. You can come down here and go to Jack In The Box Bank down here and there's Stater Brothers all the way back at the very end. We have a few other things like Pilates and pizza and gas. So what used to be very rural. We now have the conveniences of town. And right now I'm still only about 15 minutes from the entrance to La Cresta. You can jump right on the freeway and then in about a half an hour while you're at one of the big airport, so we've got it all. easy breezy Well, I don't do it very often. I came down the hill and I did it just to show you guys how easy it is to live right up those mountains right up there and scamper on down to the shopping centers and get everything you need done. Country living with the conveniences of City. Thanks for joining me on La Cresta Life I will see you next time.

Hey y'all. Welcome back to La Cresta life. My partner and I just sold this beautiful home in Santa Rosa West today. I was lucky enough to get to join the inspector. We're going to go check out how the solars working. So this particular home has solar PV, which is solar photovoltaic. It also has pool solar and it also has a whole house generator. I have engaged a contractor today who knows all three of those things and has agreed to give the new buyer a report on how all of these three independent systems are operating. So a huge shout out to our friends at ABC Sage. Up here on the plateau for doing this very unusual inspection for us. Just like you want to know when you buy a house that all the systems are working including the pool equipment and all of the appliances in the home and the roof inspections are really important. It's important that everybody has peace of mind buying one of the most important things they'll ever buy in their lifetime. So in this case with this house having all these extras with a solar filter for the pool solar for the house and the generator. This was an important inspection for the buyer in addition to the other inspection said he had done which were the well because this is a 10-acre property and it's got a really nicely producing well, so that was an inspection and also septic because everything on the Santa Rosa Plateau is on septic system you want to have that inspected as well. So it's it's it's a little tricky there's a few more things extra when you buy a ranch, but if you're in the right hands, which hello I have good hands. I can help you navigate all of that. So if you ever want to shop on the Santa Rosa Plateau, make sure you're engaging somebody like myself that really knows this stuff. I'll look forward to showing you around. We'll talk more about inspections and future episodes that for now. I'll sign off and say thank you for joining me here on La Cresta life we'll see you next time.

Welcome back to La Cresta Life. We are doing birthday is right up here on the plateau. This one's the drive-by. This is what our community is all about. One of our great local residents is such a wonderful man. He's turning 80 today, and we're still not Gathering. So what is our community do? we do a parade. So this is a drive-by parade. We brought scout out. There is my hubby Steve and we drove from our Ranch over to this Ranch so that we can wish this wonderful fellow a happy birthday. Happy birthday, Bob. We got to know our neighbors in all kinds of different ways up here where they provide education for 3rd graders and I think 11 School District they come up here for a day in nature. So we're all raising money constantly for this fantastic and ever and this guy is Mr. Wonderful. He's always volunteering I'm signing off from the birthday party drive by. We'll see you next time on La Cresta Life

Welcome back to La Cresta life today in our nuts and bolts series. We're going to learn about buying a fixer. So the marriage between buying the perfect house, which is very very rare to find and building one from scratch is to buy a fixer by one that's got good bones and do what you want to it in the case where I'm standing now, we've got a lot of Renovations going on these Property Owners bought the house based on location and acreage and view, but it wasn't quite the house that they wanted. So my husband's company ABC Sage is tearing off basically the back side of the house and building what these folks want. So they're getting the house. They want their saving money because they bought the infrastructure already existed on the property and they're going to end up with a beautiful beautiful property. How much are things that you want to think about when you're buying a fixer-upper are the things that you can't change such as proximity to the stores and the things that you may want to attend the land itself while it can be improved. You need to really be happy about the land and the way it sort of already exists. You also need to be happy with the location within the community for those are things you can't change and you can't really change the view unless you build two stories on top of one story and create your own few. But some of the things that will save you money are thinking about buying a fixer and already looking at the infrastructure there maybe irrigation there may Utilities. In fact, there will be if your body fixer so you're going to save school fees. So if a house already exist. The original to build which include the school fees the permit fees all the time that it takes to get permits. All of that is mitigated and you can kind of get from a to z a little quicker back a lot quicker than buying and land and building from scratch. Not that that's not fun and we talked about that and future episodes. So long story short and buying a fishes you can save time you can save money got to have a master plan. You got to have a little patience, but it can be a real when especially when inventory is tight and you're not finding the exact time that you want think outside the box a little bit get creative and see if you can't put your next stamp on something that already exists. Thanks for joining us on the crystal life from the fixer on the plateau we'll see you next time.

Welcome back to La Cresta Life. Today, we're talking about vineyards on the Santa Rosa plateau. We're standing at a Vineyard owned by a producer called Plateau Vineyards. It's a winery here on the plateau. Remember, there's no commercial wineries. Everything is done by appointment. So this is not an area that's going to get tour buses and a lot of people driving around aimlessly and this particular Winery is everything is a state produce. So on the grounds here we have in the white family Albarino, which is what I'm drinking now. It's a Spanish grape kind of a cross between a Pinot Gris and a Chardonnay. There is also Brown is Pinot Grigio and sauvignon blanc in the red family. We've got Zinfandel Cabernet Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. I was asked to write an article a number of years ago about wine and grape growing on the Santa Rosa plateau. And I learned from an early adopter from an early grower that in 1975. He said UC Davis came to the Santa Rosa Plateau to test the condition and from what I understand, It was ballistically a yay and people have ran into as recently as today say that the Torah is most amazing place in Southern California. So if you're interested in growing grapes being a hobby grower or growing seriously, you should really take a look at the Santa Rosa Plateau. Thanks to the plateaus very own, Plateau Vineyards for having us here today and thank you for joining us. We look forward to having you being introduced to the wine of the plateau. We look forward to seeing you next time on La Cresta life. Cheers.

Welcome back to La Cresta life this week. We're going to go nuts and bolts and start looking for land. There are several things you want to look for when you're looking for land. You want to look for Access. When you just saw the road that we came in on was not paved, doesn't mean it can't be paved just mind the associated cost with it. This is another thing to be considered. This might be a blue line stream. If you have a county ordained Blue Line stream, they're going to have you set your building set from it from a certain distance. He's got to be mindful of that as well. We're looking at this land the beautiful 10-acre parcel. I'm previewing it for a customer of mine and I'm going to give him the rundown on all of these things that I know to be true about buying land that is first lesson was access and potentially blue lines. Another thing you want to look for is water. Where is the water? We have water in the street. We have fire hydrant when you're looking at a lot, You want to know where is the nearest fire hydrant and try to measure that in your mind. So, you know how far the fire hydrant is from the house that you're planning to build. This and see everything you want to look for electricity. This was a Transformer power the lot behind me make that was pretty valuable on this lot also, but if we learn before water But this one is a sweet spot. So the moral of this story is when you're looking for land. Do you want some of these? Big babies giant oak trees. Do you want flat and usable? Are you going to do horses? Do you want a hillside? That might be great for Vineyards. You got a factor in all of the things that are nearby all of the things you're going to have to bring in and a way that you're going to use the land. So there's a formula it's not ominous, You just have to be aware of it. But thanks for joining us today on La Cresta Life.

Welcome back to La Cresta life. Today, I'm going to give you the tip on the trail on the Santa Rosa plateau. One of the most important things about the trails on the Santa Rosa Plateau is that it is for residents and invited guests only. So all the more reason to become a resident on the Santa Rosa plateau in one of the communities right now. We're in La Cresta and we brought her own set of rules here in La Cresta, here in this particular HOA you can be on a bicycle and on but there are no motorized allowances on any of the trails, but LCPOA, we call it will allow for bicycle. I'll show you some others that don't and you got to be very mindful of what you're doing when you're out on the trail. We have to be very courteous of one another. We are now in Santa Rosa West. Remember, this is the HOA that has 10-acre minimums. All the HOAs have their own rules, the trails included. For the trails at Santa Rosa West, no bicycles, horses are going to be allowed everywhere. And there are few of the HOA is up here where there are no bicycle. Got the lesson? Be mindful of the trail you're on. When you know your way around so you can find yourself on a trail like this one, right next to a vineyard. We sure have some beautiful Trails here on the Santa Rosa Plateau. Right now, we're in the Highland. This is one of the ones where there are no bicycles. So again know your rules, but once you become a resident up here and you ride these beautiful trails, there's no place like it. We're so excited that you joined us today. See you next time on La Cresta Life.

Hey y'all. Welcome back to La Cresta life. This is the place you're going to learn all about La Cresta on the Santa Rosa Plateau. Stay tuned and we'll tell you all about it. So, La Cresta and the communities of the Santa Rosa Plateau. There are 5 HOAs and 1 Community Service District. Every single parcel up here is at least 5 Acres. So we all have space we all have open Skies we act as if we're all one big community. We have a ton of social activities. We love animals. So there's a lot of horses, clearly. There's a lot of horse ranches and a lot of other animals, but we also have a view properties and luxury property. So there's really a beautiful mix of super fancy properties and then kind of ranch-y properties and everything in between, but the beauty of it is we all come and go and appreciate each other because we're all living this kind of La Cresta life together and no one's afraid to get to prissy and get their hands dirty. So we have a lot of fun. We work hard we play hard and we're all pretty consistent about loving life on the Santa Rosa plateau. So while we're just a few minutes from town right down the street is town and it's only 15-20 minutes away. Its got a major grocery store associate grocery stores in pretty good restaurants and a freeway, which gets you pretty much everywhere between LA San Diego Orange County Palm Springs and Big Bear, you're only an hour and under an hour and a half to all of those places and only 45 minutes to Ontario Airport, which is a pretty great airport. So we are right in the hub or tucked in the mountains where Riverside County meet Orange County and where the secret little pocket and we do have a lot of fun. This is what we do on weekends. We have all of the amenities of town. We have stores restaurants really great hospitals. By the way that we also have the Cleveland National Forest on one side or buffered by 220000 Acres of Camp Pendleton on another side 9,000 Acres of Ecological Reserve on the other side. So we're basically a lollipop the street that comes up off the freeway takes you up the mountain and then it expands into the circle at branches. We are a Ranch Community at the top of this little bubble and we're immune from traffic street lights all the things that make you crazy during the day we came out at to our homes and we just breathe, so you have all of this natural wonder with all of the conveniences of town 5-acre minimum slice of animals, and it's super cool to come on down. I'll show you properties anywhere you want up here anytime. Give me a call.

Hi y'all welcome back to La Cresta Life. Today is 4th of July. EPIC! Today at the plateau. Unfortunately, Covid had a different story for us, and we didn't get our parade. So we decided to go out. I got my mama with me. We decided to go out and we're gonna make our own little parade in a minute and we'll take you with us. Well, I'm feeling kind of lonely on his fourth of July. This is the parade route. Our community is so amazing one of the most and perming days that we do is Fourth of July. So generally right behind me, there will be horses antique cars, mini horses, many donkeys, little tiny carriages, fire trucks, tractors, kids, swim teams marching bands all kinds of crazy crazy crazy stuff marching down the street. We didn't get that today Covid kinda squashed it for us, but we're still paying homage to this wonderful day in La Cresta on the plateau and this great Fourth of July. So God Bless America. Sorry, you're not here to see all the glory which is normally right here at the next year for sure. I'll get this for you and see you soon. Well my expectation for you guys was to show you Fourth of July on the plateau. It is such a special day. It happened about 9 in the morning and the parade happens and then we generally have kind of a party afterwards and and then there are fireworks that can be seen from parts of the plateau. So we really carved this day out as a a day to be on the plateau on our home turf and this year, It didn't happen the way we want it to happen, but it will in the future and you can just a little bit of the Parade route and vision our floats and little horses and little mini donkeys and kids and bands and walking people and tractors and trailers and cars that are dressed up. It's so cute. So Mayberry, it's one of the best days ever and a next year will bring it to you live. But I for now won't sign off from Fourth of July here on the plateau. Thank you for visiting us at La Cresta life. We'll see you next time.

Hey y'all. Welcome back to La Cresta life. I just couldn't help myself today. I was driving through an adjacent Community adjacent to La Cresta and the Santa Rosa Plateau. It's a beautiful area called Deluz and today. I'm just going to show you around a little bit. You're just going to love it is so green and beautiful. You're not going to believe your eyes. Welcome to Deluz. It's next door to La Cresta and the Santa Rosa Plateau communities. It's still 5-acre minimums like the plateau. It's right next door little bit more known for farming avocados. Great all kinds of citrus and the sexiest thing in town olive. Amazing olive oil coming out of this region. It's so pretty out here. I can't help myself. So I just stopped in the middle of the road and there's not very many cars on the road. Let me tell you this place few and far between it is time for the farmers to be getting off about 3:30 here and the crops out here are just fantastic. I think I can point out avocados, which Deluz has always been known for. Avocados, tons of avocado orchards and situations replanted and again, I think this is what I mean here looks like new citrus and not sure which kind but back behind me over there. You can see the crops going up the mountain and up that mountain right there is the little Connector Road because up there is La Cresta and the communities of the Santa Rosa Plateau. So we love Deluz. It's like our little sister community. So we come down that little road and plop down into this very different but still lots of space and natural wonder. Ocean breezes and every kind of crops. You want to grow in all the land that you need to do it on. So I would highly recommend checking out Deluz when you're in this area because it's got a little bit of a different feel and it's not as horsey as La Cresta, but it's very far me is very pretty and very very green and people are making some pretty darn good stuff out here. This map gives us an idea of where we are in Deluz. You can see La Cresta La Cresta Highlands Santa Rosa West Meadow Oaks to the trails and then over here where I said we drop down a little road a little windy cute steep little road drops into to lose this whole area is Deluz and we were driving all through it and then we came back up the little windy road and went back home and the right about now we are right over here. So we've had a fun day routing around to lose went back up to Plateau through the plateau and back to my office. So we're back from our little day trip to Deluz, not even really a day trip, it's like 15 minutes. I just got caught up and how beautiful it was and I couldn't stop taking pictures and showing you that beautiful farmlands of Deluz. So I will go there again soon and check out some of the olive oil that's being made there. But in the meantime, I just want to thank you for visiting me at La Cresta life, and we'll see you again real soon.

Welcome back to La Cresta Life. Today, we're in Meadow Oaks. Welcome to La Cresta life. So technically we are in Tenaja. Tenaja is not an HOA, it's a community service district. So, there's a little pocket here called Meadow Oaks they have their own gate, it's guarded with a real life person and it's a little loop, a small community that you can see the map on my website, but we're going to take a little cruise around here today and let you see Meadow Oaks. So I did say a little more manicured, right? Definitely a little more formal, a little more traditional. It's all 5-acre minimums, just like the rest of the plateau. Remember we have 5 HOAs and one community service district. This one is an HOA with the minimum 5 acres and the common thread here is that they tend to have a lot of ponds. Not sure why, but in Meadow Oaks, people have their own private ponds. Well, that's it for Meadow Oaks. We've got a little fun we got some ponds, we got some friends back here. Yes, they have horses in Meadow Oaks, and here they come to say hello. Anyway, thanks so much for being with us. We'll see you next time on La Cresta Life.

Welcome back to La Cresta Life. We've been to the other side of Tenaja where you can see the ocean Today, we're going back to Tenaja the horsey side. Welcome to La Cresta life. So we're here on the horsey side, as opposed to the ocean side that we saw the other day. Then were going to take a little ride and check out the beautiful horses and the beautiful equestrian landscape. Tenaja is known for its kind of wide-open ranches, especially right here in the Tenaja valley. We're going to go that way toward the Cleveland National Forest. There's a trailhead there that you can hike and there's actually a waterfall. It's pretty famous it's called Tenaja Falls. We're not going to go there today, but it is a beautiful place to hike and in this wide-open valley. You're really having a good time up here. The hills above we have been there before, that is La Cresta highlands. We have the Cleveland National Forest Trail system. That's where we are right now will find it when we go to other trailheads Riverside Parks. So we've got kind of The Best of Both Worlds going on at Cleveland forest and our County Park. Meadow Oaks on the Santa Rosa Plateau Welcome back to La Cresta Life. Today, we're in Meadow Oaks. Welcome to La Cresta life. So technically we are in Tenaja. Tenaja is not an HOA, it's a community service district. So, there's a little pocket here called Meadow Oaks they have their own gate, it's guarded with a real life person and it's a little loop, a small community that you can see the map on my website, but we're going to take a little cruise around here today and let you see Meadow Oaks. So I did say a little more manicured, right? Definitely a little more formal, a little more traditional. It's all 5-acre minimums, just like the rest of the plateau. Remember we have 5 HOAs and one community service district. This one is an HOA with the minimum 5 acres and the common thread here is that they tend to have a lot of ponds. Not sure why, but in Meadow Oaks, people have their own private ponds. Well, that's it for Meadow Oaks. We've got a little fun we got some ponds, we got some friends back here. Yes, they have horses in Meadow Oaks, and here they come to say hello. Anyway, thanks so much for being with us. We'll see you next time on La Cresta Life.

Welcome back to La Cresta life. Today, we're in Tenaja. So we're here in Tenaja. I'm breaking Tenaja up into two parts. This side is the southern side and it overlooks San Diego County and you can actually see the ocean which we'll do in a minute. So what I want to talks about are these rocks. It does not percolate the water doesn't permeates through it and therefore water stands on the top and it's only open for evaporation. So it's a very tricky build up here. You got to really know what you're doing and you got to learn to navigate this train and some of their habitats restriction better up here. We've got some endangered species. But all in all we got beautiful sight. It's the farthest out of all of the association's that pure again. We're on the Oceanside today next time. We're going to be on the more we're Seaside the valley side, but you're going to love some of these keys wait till you see them. If you refer to the map if you can find out my website, you'll see if we kind of all back around on to this ecological reserve. What you're seeing the background in one of the other episodes is 9,000 Acres total and and that's never to be built on in this direction over here. Where a hop skip and a jump from San Diego County. So that's going to lead you into Fallbrook through an area called you lose which is also a farming community. And then over here in a minute is the ocean. I don't think we're going to see the ocean today. I think what we're going to see is a cloud layer because guess what that's what happens on the coast out here to Sunshine's everyday even in the morning. Well, when you have it all roads lead to Wine, it's yet another Winery up here again, we're still in that area where there's no commercials. That was not going to be a commercial public beach near him. It's for private event on late and another example of growing their own grapes and doing a state route. Now as promised the view. Overlooking San Diego County is Mount Palomar where you'll find the Palomar Observatory. Palomar Observatory with the largest observatory in the world for 30 years, and that's where they spot Halley's comet. Signing off from Tenaja, take a last look at San Diego county is Pacific Ocean Orange County in the distance. In the next episode a little more horse shoe there should grab your boots and thanks for visiting us on La Cresta Life.

Welcome back to La Cresta Life. So far we've been to La Cresta, La Cresta Highlands, Santa Rosa West, and now, we're heading to the trails. This is the Trails and this is a HOA that I told you about this entire area was developed all at once by a developer. So it's just it's basically a loop through and we're going to drive it. Across the street on another road but it's a pretty small part of the plateau and the uniqueness here is that it was all developed at one time and it has direct access to Sylvan Meadows that will try to get a shot of and that's where in the Ecological Reserve area. It's the one part that allows horses and dogs. So we'll catch a glimpse of that. Behind me is the Ecological Reserve, part of the 9,000 acres of natural that's what you look out over there. It looks like the Serengeti. This is known as "The Hump". My friend Austin, is an artist and he creates these metal sculptures. You'll see them around Tenaja, around the plateau. So this is our landmark. It's traffic time, I'm sorry. We have very little traffic here, but work is getting out right now. So this is "The Hawk" at "The Hump". Thank you for hitting the trail with me at the trails at the Santa Rosa plateau. Again, this community is the first one as you enter the communities up here. So it's great for moms and dads that shuffle their kids up and down our good work or whatever and it's got the beautiful Serengeti in the background, and it's just a beautiful beautiful place to be. Again, thanks for joining me. We'll see you next time on La Cresta life.

Hey y'all. Welcome back to La Cresta life. Today, We're going to Santa Rosa West and other community here on the Santa Rosa Plateau. Stay tuned for all the goodies. So quiet out here Santa Rosa West has a number of things that make it really special while it's right here with the other associations. The thing that makes it different is said it's 10-acre minimums instead of 5. So what you end up with is a little bit more sprawling spread out ranches over here. You don't really have the Giant Oaks as much and you don't have the giant boulders. So it lends itself really well too beautiful a horse ranches and agriculture. Behind me is a house that was purchased several years ago by a lovely family and they planted a ton of olive trees. You'll see in the footage that I do from time to time that there's a lot of Olives going on between grapes and olives. It's almost replacing all of the agriculture up here and I'm going to show you this Ranch over here. This is an 80-acre horse Rehabilitation Ranch and I'll stop out in front will look at that in a minute. This is that horse Rehabilitation Ranch that I told you about. Since I've been here since 2002, It's been owned by a couple of people; One definitely was a rehabilitation facility and they work with thoroughbred and I'm not really sure what's going on with it. Now the horses seem to be gone but it is for sale. It's a beautiful property 82 acres and it has a racetrack. So we'll get a little footage of the racetrack and let you see that too. This is a really really special area. Obviously agriculture is a big part of what we do up here on the Santa Rosa Plateau. grapes, grapes and more grapes. We love our wine. We love our winemakers. Behind me is a tasting room. We are not allowed to have a commercial tasting room, so they're not open to the public, but there are several really good wine producers up here. There's a a beautiful place to enjoy the scenery sip on some wine and sometimes do a little dancing a little bit of music. We are so blessed. We have so much here, and this is just a little taste of it. What other amazing things about our communities up here on the Santa Rosa Plateau are are interconnecting recreational trails. They're very horse friendly they're foot friendly they're paw friendly, they're not motor friendly, but that's alright. They are wonderful and they go all around this Plateau for miles and miles and miles.

Welcome back to La Cresta Life. Today I'm taking you to La Cresta Highlands. This is where Ronald and Nancy Reagan used to ride. Welcome to La Cresta Life the prettiest streets up here it's one of my favorites. It's got a lot of ancient oaks many of them are Engelmann Oaks which are wonderful part of our heritage here. They're protected they are very special. Indigenous to this region which makes it really really rare. You can see that it's a lot of fencing and trails there's a horse trail right over there and that takes you through the trail easements. There's a whole system up here you can go for miles and miles. If you do horses this is a great place to live if you don't do horses, still a great place to live. Okay folks we made it to the top. This is the top of La Cresta Highlands this is the view that looks down into the Tanaka valley we will go there in an episode or two. You can see Catalina in that direction on a clear day and you can see Oceanside. You can actually see the tower at Oceanside on a clear day. So right now we are probably 12 or 13 miles as the crow flies from the ocean and if you drew a line in that direction you would know clearly where we would be right around Oceanside, San Clemente. So we're about as high as it gets up here folks. Well I'd like to thank you for joining me in the highlands today. I did want to sign off with just a little tiny pebble. Did I mention rock? Yep, well you've got the boulders up here this is what I love about La Cresta Highlands it's got a mix of some of that horse property that I showed you down below and then it's got these massive boulders and killer views. Kind of got it all, so I'll be signing off from La Cresta Highlands. Until next time on La Cresta Life

Welcome back to La Cresta life. We're going to get a little air today. We're going to ride Scout. That's my ATV seats 6 come on down. Let's go for a ride. Well, I didn't even make it out of the driveway cuz I wanted to tell you where we're going. This is La Cresta. Remember that there are several HOAs, We call then POAs. La Cresta is the first and the one that's closest up to the front and also am is the largest it happens to be the one I live in so, this is where we're starting. That little Valley down, there is where we are going on our little ride with Scout. The street were on now has got a ton of flat and usable. The whole street is pretty much flat seats about horse ranches on both sides and you can see the horse trails that basically they go up to the mountains through the Enchanted Forest. Word has it that you can actually ride as in, physically able to ride all the way to the ocean from here on a horse. Pretty fun. So I've mentioned before that we grow grapes up here on the plateau, really good grapes. That is the local wineries make wine with some of them. This one behind me, this 60 acre ranch Farm happens to be for sale and it is a winery with all of the land and a beautiful estate. So if you're interested give me a call and we can get in and show it to you. But this is an example of the beautiful wine growing area that we live in. Cheers. Thanks for taking a ride with me through La Cresta today. Next time, we'll hit the other HOAs and we'll have some fun. Until next time on: La Cresta Life.

I'm coming to you today from the heart of La Cresta on the Santa Rosa Plateau… Otherwise known to me as Paradise. La Cresta Life is the place where you will learn all about life here. In this episode, I'll be introducing you to this Southern California equestrian community, offering some basic logistics and some really cool stories. You will notice that I will use a few interchangeable titles for this area… La Cresta, The Plateau, the Hill. The formal reference is The Santa Rosa Plateau. However, many people refer to all of it as just La Cresta. Indeed, La Cresta is the largest of the associations up here, but also included are La Cresta Highlands, Santa Rosa West, Meadow Oaks, The Trails, and Tenaja. The whole area is tucked into the mountains between South Orange County and the Temecula Valley Wine Country. We are in unincorporated Riverside County and have the postal address of Murrieta, CA. All parcels are at least 5 acres, and there is no commercial zoning. Because we are bordered by the Cleveland National Forest, Camp Pendleton, and 8000 acres of Ecological Reserve, this is a very private and rural estate community. We experience a real country vibe, VERY little traffic, and amazing star gazing, which we protect by not having street lights. In a nutshell, this is a magical pocket of ranches and estates, in the hills above Murrieta, with a fantastic lifestyle and the conveniences of the city, just down the hill. OK, now that we got all that out of the way, let's talk about the really cool stuff…the People on the Plateau. This current COVID situation has really shown a light on the beautiful people here. While if you are going to be stuck at home, a ranch on the Hill is a pretty good consolation prize. That being said, we still need stuff. Enter the creative phase of the program… Here's to living in Paradise! See you next time!