Windermere Agent Michael Paduano Supports SafeHouse For Teens

July 1st, 2010

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Michael Pad­u­ano has been a Win­der­mere agent for eight years and is also the exec­u­tive direc­tor of the Well­ness Foun­da­tion Palm Springs (WFPS). WFPS was founded in 2009 to help sup­port already estab­lished non-profits.

In sup­port of the teens at Safe­House of the Desert, Pad­u­ano recently orga­nized an out­ing and a guided tour of The Liv­ing Desert, along with lunch at Cal­i­for­nia Pizza Kitchen on El Paseo.

Safe­House of the Desert is for teens fac­ing dif­fi­cult sit­u­a­tions such as domes­tic vio­lence, drug addic­tion, unplanned preg­nan­cies, gen­der iden­tity issues, sui­cide and even life on the street. Safe­House is a cen­ter that offers 24 hours a day, 7 days a week care for teens.

Sev­eral teens from Safe­House were accom­pa­nied by staff mem­ber Brea Evans, vol­un­teer Esmer­alda Beclolla, Michael Pad­u­ano and WFPS board mem­ber Ger­ald Begy Ph.D.

The teens at Safe­House got the oppor­tu­nity to visit The Liv­ing Desert with a pri­vate group tour with Mike Chedester, Cura­tor of Edu­ca­tion. “We started the tour off pass­ing the G-Scale Model Train and off to see the ani­mals of the African wildlife exhibits,” says Pad­u­ano. “The Liv­ing Desert has worked many years to suc­cess­fully increase the world’s pop­u­la­tion of slender-horned gazelles, sand cats, addax and Ara­bian Oryx. Mike explained some of the sev­eral projects The Liv­ing Desert is involved with through­out the world help­ing endan­gered species and releas­ing ani­mals back into the wild to increase their pop­u­la­tion and sur­vival. The Wildlife Hos­pi­tal was also a very unique oppor­tu­nity to see the high­est qual­ity of care given to ani­mals while allow­ing vis­i­tors the chance to see while vis­it­ing,” adds Michael.

While at The Liv­ing Desert, many of the youth men­tioned that they had never been to The Liv­ing Desert before, and many of them had never been to a zoo before.

After The Liv­ing Desert the teens received lunch cour­tesy of Cal­i­for­nia Pizza Kitchen on El Paseo. Gen­eral Manger, Justin Jor­dan and Assis­tant Gen­eral Man­ager Bruce Brad­ford were gen­er­ous and wel­com­ing hosts for lunch.

The Well­ness Foun­da­tion Palm Springs 501 ( c ) 3 Tax ID #26–4397952, is located at 125 E. Tahquitz Canyon Way #203 Palm Springs, CA. 92262. Con­tact Michael Pad­u­ano, Exec­u­tive Direc­tor at 760–831-3761.

10 New Agents Join Windermere Coachella Valley In May

June 7th, 2010

Win­der­mere Real Estate is proud to announce the addi­tion of these new real estate pro­fes­sion­als to its Coachella Val­ley offices in the month of May.

Please wel­come Vic­to­ria Cal­en­der, Ran­cho Mirage; Dan Conover, Palm Desert Cook and Hov­ley; Angie Dominguez, La Quinta; Daniel Dominguez, La Quinta; Kathy Dool, La Quinta; Glo­ria Gutier­rez, Cathe­dral City; Penny Poyn­ter, Indian Wells Main; Cyra Valen­zuela Cathe­dral City; Juan-Carlos Vizaga, Cathe­dral City and Susan Zazzetti, Palm Springs South.

As we con­tinue to grow, open­ing new offices in Cathe­dral City and Indio, we offer full cov­er­age for Buy­ers and Sell­ers in the Coachella Val­ley, as well as the sur­round­ing areas,” says Win­der­mere owner Bob Deville.

New San Diego Windermere Office Opens

June 7th, 2010

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Win­der­mere South­ern Cal­i­for­nia is pleased to announce the open­ing of our newest San Diego office, con­ve­niently located in the heart of Down­town, just blocks from the Con­ven­tion Cen­ter and the His­toric Gas Lamp District.

Rep­re­sent­ing some of San Diego’s finest prop­er­ties, Win­der­mere Sig­na­ture Prop­er­ties serves buy­ers and sell­ers from the vibrant Down­town area to the beach com­mu­ni­ties of the North County. Office own­ers, Francine Finn and Raye Scott, offer over 45 years of com­bined real estate expertise.

We are very proud to have Francine and Raye as the newest mem­bers of our Win­der­mere South­ern Cal­i­for­nia fam­ily,” says Bob Dev­ille, Win­der­mere Ser­vices Rep­re­sen­ta­tive for South­ern Cal­i­for­nia. “Their stel­lar rep­u­ta­tion in the real estate indus­try and the respect they receive from their peers is typ­i­cal of what Win­der­mere Own­ers represent.”

Office loca­tion is 560 First Avenue, San Diego CA 92101, phone 619–481-6300.

Windermere Contributes $10,000 A Year To YMCA Of The Desert

May 27th, 2010


On Thurs­day, May 20th, the YMCA of the Desert held its annual YMCA Golden Cir­cle Recog­ni­tion Black Tie Din­ner. The event was held at Wally’s Desert Tur­tle, in Ran­cho Mirage, to rec­og­nize sup­port­ers and spon­sors. Win­der­mere real estate is proud to be an annual spon­sor of the YMCA, con­tribut­ing $10,000 a year, from the Win­der­mere Foun­da­tion. In atten­dance was Win­der­mere Palm Springs Bro­ker David Cantwell (left) and Palm Desert Bro­ker Don Rossig­nol (right).

The Shams Real Estate Group Joins Windermere

May 14th, 2010

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Win­der­mere Real Estate Coachella Val­ley is proud to announce the recent asso­ci­a­tion of The Shams Group. “Niloo and Negin are a for­mi­da­ble force within our local real estate com­mu­nity and we are proud to have them on our team,” says Win­der­mere owner Bob Deville.

Fra­ter­nal twins Niloo & Negin Shams started The Shams Group real estate in 1990, and are estab­lished indus­try lead­ers in the valley’s real estate mar­ket. They have more than 20 years expe­ri­ence, list­ing and sell­ing prop­er­ties in some of the desert’s most pres­ti­gious com­mu­ni­ties, and they pro­vide their clients with expert knowl­edge in the high-end lux­ury home mar­ket. The Shams Group will con­tinue to oper­ate as a team, work­ing out of their cur­rent office at 75–270 High­way 111, Suite 204, in Indian Wells.

With over $500,000,000 in sales, The Shams Group is among the top 1% of agents nation­wide. They pride them­selves in effec­tively mar­ket­ing their port­fo­lio of lux­ury homes glob­ally. They are mem­bers of Who’s Who in Lux­ury Real Estate and FIABCI Inter­na­tional, both pow­er­ful global real estate net­works with more than 5000 offices and 80,000 top real estate pro­fes­sion­als worldwide.

Join­ing Win­der­mere was a nat­ural pro­gres­sion in pro­vid­ing the high­est level of expo­sure and ser­vice to their clients. “We strive to exceed our clients’ expec­ta­tions with global mar­ket reach and with the real estate ser­vices we pro­vide. We have asso­ci­ated our­selves with the best avail­able lux­ury real estate net­works world­wide to pro­vide max­i­mum expo­sure and now we proudly have joined the lead­ing real estate com­pany in the desert area,” says Niloo Shams.

Win­der­mere pro­vides us with all the tools we need to ensure the absolute best ser­vice to our dis­crim­i­nat­ing buy­ers and sell­ers. It all makes for a real estate expe­ri­ence that is seam­less and enjoy­able,” says Negin Shams.

Together The Shams Group and Win­der­mere pro­vide a pow­er­ful Real Estate force for buy­ers and sell­ers of lux­ury homes. The Shams Group can be reached at (760) 340‑6300.

Women’s Council Of Realtors Holds Fashion Show Fundraiser

May 13th, 2010

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Win­der­mere Real Estate Palm Desert Bro­ker Don Rossig­nol (pic­tured above left), and Win­der­mere Indian Wells agents Jeff Miller (above right) and Diane Busch mod­eled at the Women’s Coun­cil of Real­tors (WRC) Fash­ion Show Fundraiser, Fri­day, May 7th at the Indian Wells Coun­try Club to show their sup­port of the organization.

The fundraiser pro­vides for ongo­ing edu­ca­tion and lead­er­ship train­ing for WCR mem­bers and event guests. Win­der­mere agents, past and present, have held the fol­low­ing posi­tions in the orga­ni­za­tion: Susan Lon­don, 2003 Local Chap­ter Pres­i­dent; Diane Busch, 2008 Local Chap­ter Pres­i­dent, 2009 CA State Dis­trict Vice Pres­i­dent and 2010 CA State Gov­er­nor; Wendy Formica, 2009 Local Chap­ter Pres­i­dent and 2010 CA State Dis­trict Vice Pres­i­dent; Linda Novick, 2010 Chap­ter Vice Pres­i­dent of Mem­ber­ship, and Cathi Wal­ter, 2010 Chap­ter Secretary.

Win­der­mere has been a com­mit­ted sup­porter of the Women’s Coun­cil of Real­tors and their events. We were happy that three of our agents vol­un­teered to be mod­els for the fash­ion show,” says Win­der­mere Indian Wells Bro­ker Char­lie White.

Windermere Sponsors CDAR Golf Tournament

May 12th, 2010

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Win­der­mere Real Estate was proud to be a Plat­inum spon­sor of the Cal­i­for­nia Desert Asso­ci­a­tion of REALTORS® (CDAR) Golf Tour­na­ment at Desert Island Coun­try Club on Wednes­day, May 5. The Win­der­mere Golf Team included agents Jen­nie Robin­son (La Quinta), Jane Comelli (Ran­cho Mirage), Ted Morey (Ran­cho Mirage) and Peter Schmidt (Ran­cho Mirage). The team played to help raise funds for Sem­per Fi Air 29 and the CDAR Association’s Schol­ar­ship Fund. Win­der­mere also spon­sored a booth on Hole 9, hand­ing out cold bev­er­ages and Win­der­mere fans, orga­nized by Palm Desert Bro­ker Don Rossignol.

The pro­ceeds will be divided equally between their Schol­ar­ship Fund for high school seniors and the Sem­per Fi Air 29 orga­ni­za­tion, which pro­vides free air trans­port for Marines from the Palm Springs Inter­na­tional Air­port to the Twenty-nine Palms Marine Corps Air Ground Com­bat Center.

The event was a tremen­dous suc­cess. Our loca­tion on the course was per­fect and we were able to help golfers quench their thirst with plenty of laugh­ter and drinks!,” says Win­der­mere Bro­ker Don Rossignol.

PHOTO (From left to right): Peter Schmidt, Mar­celle Buc­kee, Don Rossig­nol, Jean­nie Robin­son, Jane Comelli, Trent Teigen and Ryan Manos.

High End Buyers And Sellers Benefit From Premier Program

May 7th, 2010

Win­der­mere Real Estate sales sta­tis­tics for first Quar­ter 2010 were just released by the Desert Area MLS. Win­der­mere leads all other real estate com­pa­nies in the desert in home sales over $1,000,000.

Our high end mar­ket is active, and mag­nif­i­cent homes and estates are sell­ing well,” says Win­der­mere Real Estate Coachella Val­ley owner Bob Dev­ille. “Every trans­ac­tion is a chal­lenge for buyer, sell­ers and the real estate agent, in our cur­rent mar­ket cli­mate, how­ever with the suc­cess of our Win­der­mere Pre­mier Prop­er­ties Pro­gram, deals are clos­ing. Win­der­mere has always had a very suc­cess­ful Pre­mier Prop­er­ties Pro­gram. This unique pro­gram is rep­re­sented and man­aged by Pre­mier Direc­tors — agents spe­cial­iz­ing in high-end and unique prop­er­ties,” adds Dev­ille. “With spe­cial sig­nage, our award-winning Pre­mier Prop­er­ties web site, spe­cial­ized and spe­cific mar­ket­ing mate­ri­als and our tar­geted net­work­ing, both within the com­pany and with out­side real estate com­pa­nies and agents, Win­der­mere has been extremely suc­cess­ful in the list­ing and sell­ing of home in this segment.”

Win­der­mere recently installed its 2010 Exec­u­tive Pre­mier Direc­tors and 2010 Pre­mier Direc­tors. This spe­cial group of Pre­mier Direc­tors are respon­si­ble for approv­ing Pre­mier Prop­er­ties to the pro­gram as well as men­tor­ing non-directors by phys­i­cally pre­view­ing prospec­tive Pre­mier Prop­er­ties. Accep­tance and qual­i­fi­ca­tion into the pro­gram requires the writ­ten approval from two Pre­mier Direc­tors. The Direc­tors also pro­vide mar­ket­ing and adver­tis­ing advice for agents with a qual­i­fy­ing Pre­mier Property.

We have a very impres­sive and pow­er­ful 2010 slate of Pre­mier Direc­tors,” says Dev­ille. “As a direct result of their hands-on involve­ment and team work, our high-end buyer and sell­ers will con­tinue to ben­e­fit from this pro­gram, as our num­bers clearly indi­cate, and as the high end mar­ket activ­ity increases,” he says.

Windermere Gains 15 New Agents In April

May 6th, 2010

Win­der­mere Real Estate is proud to announce the addi­tion of the fol­low­ing new real estate pro­fes­sion­als to our Coachella Val­ley offices in the month of April.

Nancy Beaty, Indian Wells Main; John Wynine­gar, Ran­cho Mirage; Ed Siegel La Quinta; Mark Gutkowski, Palm Springs South; Peter Walsh, Palm Springs Main; Will Cook III, Palm Springs Main; Jean Van Bev­eran, Palm Springs Main; Ramon Lara, Ran­cho Mirage; Laura Cer­vantes, Ran­cho Mirage; Madelin Fer­gu­son, Ran­cho Mirage; Can­dida Gar­cia, La Quinta; Vicky Lucas, Ran­cho Mirage; Leisha Larsen, Indian Wells Main; Mauro Lupian, La Quinta and Lau­ren Boucher, Palm Desert San Pablo.

Our real estate mar­ket con­tin­ues to improve and as we con­tinue to grow with new agents and offices through­out the Coachella Val­ley, our Broad Expo­sure is ben­e­fit­ing both Buy­ers and Sell­ers,” says Win­der­mere owner Bob Dev­ille “The way things look for us I think we will have a longer sea­son this year, as we did last year.”

Valery Neuman Ranks Number One For 2009 Coachella Valley Real Estate Sales

May 1st, 2010

valery neumanWin­der­mere Broker/Associate Valery Neu­man has reg­is­tered over $58,000,000 in CLOSED SALES Trans­ac­tions for 2009.

With 4,130 licensed real estate agents in the desert, Neu­man is solid proof that hard work, tenac­ity and always plac­ing her clients’ best inter­est first has estab­lished Valery Neu­man as a true leader,” says Bob Dev­ille, owner of Win­der­mere Real Estate Coachella Valley.

Valery Neu­man has been a licensed real estate pro­fes­sional in Cal­i­for­nia since 1991 and liv­ing in the desert since 1992. She rep­re­sents many of the most expen­sive and exclu­sive prop­er­ties in the Coachella Val­ley and enjoys a very dis­crim­i­nat­ing client base of Buy­ers from around the coun­try. “Real Estate is my golf game,” says Valery. “Although real estate is seri­ous busi­ness, I find great sat­is­fac­tion in assist­ing buy­ers and sell­ers to suc­cess­fully reach their real estate goals.”

To achieve $58,000,000 in closed sales in a very chal­leng­ing year is an inspi­ra­tion not only to her fel­low real estate pro­fes­sion­als, but it is also encour­ag­ing to Buy­ers and Sell­ers,” says Dev­ille. “In our ever-changing real estate indus­try there will always be buy­ers and sell­ers. It is imper­a­tive that a suc­cess­ful agent not only be in tune with the eco­nomic cli­mate of their spe­cific mar­ket areas and region, but just as impor­tantly they must adapt with the chang­ing market.”

House Search Leads To $500 Prize At Windermere Open House Gala

April 30th, 2010

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Susan Irv­ing of Palm Desert is the win­ner of the Win­der­mere Real Estate Coachella Val­ley $500 Gift Cer­tifi­cate, awarded to the win­ning entry sub­mit­ted dur­ing their Open House Gala.

Susan Irv­ing attended Win­der­mere real estate agent Andi Helgen’s open house in Sun City Palm Desert, dur­ing Windermere’s two-day Open House Gala, over the Easter week­end. Irv­ing was just one of two hun­dred atten­dees who entered to win dur­ing the Open House Gala, which show­cased more than 100 desert prop­er­ties dur­ing two days. The Gala was open to the pub­lic and atten­dees could enter their names into the draw­ing at any of the open houses. Win­der­mere holds Open House Galas peri­od­i­cally through­out the year.

Win­der­mere was the first to begin the OPEN HOUSE Gala/Extravaganza/Celebration five years ago. “We are happy to see our fel­low real estate com­pa­nies pick up on our lead. More houses adver­tised OPEN to the pub­lic equates to an increased selec­tion and bet­ter informed Buy­ers,” says Win­der­mere Real Estate Coachella Val­ley owner, Bob Dev­ille. “Win­der­mere has always under­stood and embraced cama­raderie and the impor­tance of con­tin­ued coop­er­a­tion and net­work­ing with other real­tors and real estate offices.”

Photo: Win­der­mere agent Andi Hel­gen (left) with win­ner Susan Irving.

Windermere La Quinta Office Sponsors City’s Birthday Party

April 15th, 2010

The city of La Quinta is turn­ing 28 this month and the Win­der­mere La Quinta office is one of the spon­sors of the annual birth­day party

Cel­e­brate the City of La Quinta’s 28th Birth­day, April 24th at 10am at La Quinta Park, located at 79120 West­ward Ho. The party is free, open to the pub­lic and will include games, activ­i­ties for chil­dren, hot dogs, cake, cold drinks, and give­aways. As a city part­ner, Win­der­mere will have bal­loons for the kids, Win­der­mere visors and a spe­cial putting green with lessons and prizes for the kids.

Rancho Mirage Flagship Office Celebrates One Year Anniversary

April 7th, 2010

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Win­der­mere Real Estate agents from Ran­cho Mirage gath­ered on April 6, 2010, to cel­e­brate the one year anniver­sary of mov­ing into the new Cor­po­rate head­quar­ters at 71–691 High­way 111 in Ran­cho Mirage.

Pic­tured (top) are Les­ley Rosen­thal, her hus­band Stan Rosen­thal, Joel Cohen and owner Bob Dev­ille. Pic­tured (bot­tom) are Win­der­mere agents David Giusti, Scott Palermo, David Sid­ley and Brenda Scott.

Windermere Agent Volunteers To Support Cathedral City Relay For Life

April 7th, 2010

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This year, Win­der­mere Real Estate Coachella Val­ley was a Cor­po­rate Spon­sor of The Annual Amer­i­can Can­cer Soci­ety Relay For Life event which was held in Cathe­dral City March 20 and 21st and raised over $40,000.

The Amer­i­can Can­cer Soci­ety Relay For Life unites com­mu­ni­ties across the coun­try each year to cel­e­brate the lives of those who have bat­tled can­cer, remem­ber loved ones lost, and fight back against a dis­ease that takes too much. They are com­mit­ted to help­ing peo­ple get well, stay well, find cures, and fight back against cancer.

Know­ing way too many peo­ple, both fam­ily and friends, who are fight­ing their bat­tle with can­cer, or who have lost their bat­tles, I wanted to get involved with the Amer­i­can Can­cer Soci­ety in some way,” says Win­der­mere agent and Relay For Life vol­un­teer, Lau­ren Ham­mer­s­ley. “When they asked me if I wanted to vol­un­teer on the plan­ning com­mit­tee for the Relay For Life in Cathe­dral City, I didn’t really know much about the event, but I’m so grate­ful that I jumped on it. Relay For Life is an incred­i­bly spe­cial 24-hours of can­cer sur­vivors, their fam­i­lies and sup­port­ers, vol­un­teers and the entire com­mu­nity, com­ing together to give of their time and raise money to fight back can­cer. If you know any­one who has been through the can­cer expe­ri­ence, you can’t help but be over­whelmed at the con­nec­tion you feel to all those around you at the event,” adds Hammersley.

Pic­tured above is Ham­mer­s­ley next to her overnight tent on a foot­ball field inside the track.  Ham­mer­s­ley explains that the whole premise for the event is that you’re giv­ing 24 hours out of your year towards the fight against can­cer. In addi­tion to cor­po­rate spon­sors, the event is made up of teams (com­pa­nies or just groups of peo­ple through­out the com­mu­nity who form teams). The idea is that not only are all teams doing dif­fer­ent things to raise money at least one per­son from each team is walk­ing around the track at all times out of the 24 hours, which is where the tents come in.

Palm Springs Agents Raise Thousands For Charity

April 2nd, 2010

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Win­der­mere agents Denise Ander­son (Palm Springs Main office) and Jonathan Wil­son (Palm Springs South office) spear­headed efforts to raise thou­sands of dol­lars for char­ity by donat­ing Easter Bas­kets to the Board of Real­tors Easter Bas­ket Auc­tion. Win­der­mere won 2 of the 3 awards given out dur­ing the event: Most Cre­ative and High­est Dol­lar Bid for our Bas­ket. Our 2 Bas­kets and other items donated by Win­der­mere agents raised $1055. Win­der­mere agents that bid on items raised $1270 for the charities.