This remarkable property features a four-bedroom, Craftsman-style main house with four-car garage, two fireplaces, four jetted bathtubs, steam shower, game room, bar, theater, and wine room.

The expansive outdoor living areas include an outdoor kitchen, patio fireplace, fire pit, sports court, multiple seating areas, pergola, sauna, bathroom with changing area, swimming pool, and covered, 12-person spa. The one-bedroom guest house features a two-car garage and an art studio or storage room, plus a separately fenced yard.

There is also a workshop with office and bathroom, RV pad with hookups, family orchard, Sunkist co-op tangerine orchard, solar panels, well and city water, and mature trees and landscaping.

All of this is located behind a river rock wall with two gated entrances and well-designed landscaping providing privacy.

This is one of those occasions when there are truly too many features to list.

You really must see this spectacular home to experience all that it has to offer.

Main House:
•    Four bedrooms, five bathrooms
•    Theater with screen and soundproofing
•    Game room
•    Office
•    Full bar for entertaining
•    Kitchen Island and breakfast bar
•    Wolf dual-fuel range
•    Sub-Zero, Bosch, and Viking appliances
•    Two en suites in primary bedroom
•    Steam shower
•    Four jetted bathtubs
•    Two river rock fireplaces
•    26-foot vaulted, exposed-beam ceilings
•    Pella triple-paned windows with interior blinds
•    Three tankless water heaters

Guest House:
•    One bedroom + office
•    Tile floors, vanity and shower
•    Separately fenced yard
•    Covered front porch
•    Two-car garage

Grounds:
•  Approximately five acres
•  Two gated entrances
•  Swimming pool & spa
•  Outdoor kitchen
•  Patio fireplace and gas fire pit
•  Sauna
•  Multiple outdoor entertaining areas
•  Lighted sports court
•  Workshop with office and bathroom
•  Sunkist co-op tangerine orchard
•  Family orchard
•  Four-car garage
•  Solar panels
•  Well and municipal water
•  Mountain and Ventura River Basin views
•  Gated access to Land Conservancy for hiking and riding
•  RV parking pad with hookups
•  Additional RV and toy parking
•  Guest parking
•  Heritage oaks
•  Well-designed, mature landscaping
•  River rock privacy wall

For more photos and information, visit the property information page. To schedule a private tour, contact your Ojai Realtor, Nora Davis, today.

Rental properties can be a profitable investment but only when managed properly. This is particularly true in areas with higher property values where it is even more important to maximize rental income by reducing expenses, increasing your property’s appeal, and limiting turnover.

Whether you have just purchased your first investment property or are an experienced landlord with a full portfolio, there is almost always something you can do to increase your profit margins.

Here are seven tips to get you started:

1. Replace carpet with LVT.
There are two reasons to replace the carpet in your rental with luxury vinyl tile (LVT) or a similar product.

The first is that people just do not like carpet anymore. Having carpet in your rental automatically shrinks your pool of potential renters. The more folks interested in renting your house, the more likely you are to find a great, long-term renter at your asking price.

The second reason is that LVT is an easy-care, durable option that holds up well to traffic, pets, and kids and is far less likely to need to be replaced between tenants.

2. Complete simple updates.
You may not have the budget for major renovations, but there are plenty of simple updates you can do to increase your rental’s appeal and function. If cabinet hardware, sink faucets, ceiling fans, switch plate covers, doorknobs, or light fixtures are dated or have just seen better days, consider replacing them with modestly priced upgrades.

3. Improve outdoor living areas.
Good outdoor living areas are appealing to renters and will make your property stand out, particularly in areas like Ojai and Oak View where the weather allows for year-round outdoor entertaining. If a paving stone or stamped concrete patio is not in the budget, create a more affordable option with gravel.

You should also consider paying for ongoing landscape maintenance. Paying for maintenance allows you to select the gardeners and helps ensure that your investment is properly maintained. You can offset this expense by considering it when setting the monthly rent.

4. Install low-maintenance, drought-resistant landscaping.
While we are on the topic of landscaping, you should also consider replacing high-water or high-maintenance plants, natural grass, and other features with low-maintenance, drought-resistant options that will lower your maintenance costs and your water bill.

You can also help protect your investment by choosing fire-resistant plants, hardscapes, and other landscaping features.

5. Maximize tax deductions.
Work with your accountant or tax preparation professional to make sure you are maximizing your possible deductions, including travel and home office expenses, depreciation, repair costs, and your mortgage interest.

6. Vet your applicants.
If you are not using a property management company to do this for you, do not forgo this important part of the tenant selection process. It is well worth the money and time to run credit and background checks and to call previous landlords to inquire about their experience with the applicants. While there is no guarantee that this is going to result in amazing renters, it is going to improve your chances. Avoiding lost rent and eviction expenses is an important part of maximizing rental income.

7. Be a good landlord.
When you get good renters, you want to keep them. Reducing turnover reduces the cost of marketing and vetting applicants and results in fewer vacancies. One way to reduce turnover is to be a good landlord. For some, the best way to do this is to hire a property manager who will handle everything for you. If you choose to manage your property yourself, respond quickly to maintenance requests, make sure you are easy to reach when issues arise, and stay updated on local and state laws.

Stop by this Sunday (12/3) between 1:00 and 4:00 to tour this three-bedroom, 2.5-bathroom Oak View home for sale!

Date: Sunday, December 3
Time: 1:00 to 4:00pm
Location: 775 Spring Street in Oak View

Features:

• Three bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms
  
• Kitchen island and breakfast bar
• Large family room
• Formal dining room
• Laundry room
• Ample closet space
• Wood floors
• Central air and ceiling fans
• Large lot
• Attached Garage
• RV parking
• Covered front porch
• Paving stone patio
• Mountain views
• Walk to shops, restaurants, services
• Short drive to Lake Casitas
  

For more information and photos, visit the property information page.

We hope to see you this Sunday!

This is a great opportunity to build your dream home in the popular Live Oaks Acres neighborhood while living in the existing home and enjoying an easy commute to Santa Barbara via Hwy 150 or to Ventura via Santa Ana Road.

This approximately .81-acre horse property offers a two-bedroom manufactured home and outbuildings on flat, usable land with mature oaks and mountain views.

Enjoy it as it is or use the ample space to create a country retreat with horse facilities, pool, orchard, an ADU, or the workshop or art studio you have always wanted.

All of this potential is less than five minutes from shops and restaurants in Oak View, about 10 minutes from downtown Ojai, and about 15 minutes from the beach and downtown Ventura.

You will also be just about a five-minute bike ride from the Ojai Valley Trail and about a 20-minute ride or five-minute drive from Lake Casitas for camping, fishing, breakfast at Marina Caf, or a relaxing inner-tube ride on the lazy river at Casitas Water Adventure. 

Visit the property information page for more photos, or contact Oak View and Ojai realtor, Nora Davis, to schedule a showing.

I love growing food. I love talking about growing food. I really love sharing tips that show just how easy it is to grow at least a little food – even in tiny spaces. So, that is what I thought we would talk about this month.

Growing our own food, even if it is just a single tomato plant on a balcony, helps us stay more connected to the earth, teaches our kids where food comes from, and reminds us to appreciate the people who grow and harvest our food for us.

Gardening is time consuming, and most of us do not have room in our busy schedules to add growing food for ourselves or our families to the to-do list. In particular, most of us do not have the time or space to grow enough food to sustain us, but we can all grow something. There are plenty of easy options that probably come to mind, like radishes, carrots, tomatoes, and herbs. Today, let’s add potatoes to that list.

The experts, which I am not, will tell you that you must buy seed potatoes from a nursery, cut them into pieces, keep them in the refrigerator for a few days, and dust them with sulfur before finally planting them in either February or August. That is probably the right way to do it, but I have never done any of this, and I have grown up to 20 potato plants at a time throughout the year. Now, it’s true that you don’t want to use conventional potatoes from the grocery store for this, because they have been treated with maleic hydrazide (a growth inhibitor), but whenever I have some organic potatoes around that I didn’t eat fast enough and have started to sprout, I plant them in the garden and watch them grow.

Here is the simplest way to grow organic potatoes in your backyard:

1. Find tall, well-draining containers in which to grow your potatoes. You can grow them in the ground, but it is much easier if you grow them in a container that you can dump out at harvest time. I use tall, fabric planters that I can fold and store in the shed when not in use.

2. Fill the bottom of the container with about four inches of soil.

3. Place your sprouted potatoes about four inches apart in the container with eyes pointed up. If your potatoes are large, you can cut them into chunks with a couple of eyes on each chunk.

4. Cover them with about four inches of soil.

5. Water regularly and watch for sprouts to begin poking through the soil in a couple of weeks.

6. As the plants grow, continue to add soil to the container to cover most of the plant. Make sure to leave a few inches of the plant above the soil. This is going to feel wrong, since you will be covering up stems and leaves, but keep doing this until your container is full.

7. Once the plants have yellowed and withered, leave them for about a week or so, and then dump your container on a tarp or in a garden bed and sift through the soil to harvest your potatoes. You can brush off any big debris but keep them a little dirty for better longevity. Store them in a cool, dry, dark spot, and do not eat potatoes that are not firm or that have turned green. Green potatoes contain a toxic glycoalkaloid, solanine, that is toxic to us and our animal companions.

If you reuse the soil, which I usually do, you might find that you get some volunteer potato plants wherever you use it. I always seem to miss a tiny potato or two and end up with volunteer potatoes growing in other parts of the garden.

If you choose to purchase seed potatoes, check out one of our local nurseries to see if they are in stock.

If a primary suite with five closets sounds like a dream come true, this might be the house for you.

Step from the covered porch into the living room with hardwood flooring and mountain views.

Next, the kitchen is bathed in natural light from the skylight and has a breakfast bar and island, as well as ample storage and counter space, which will come in handy when hosting large gatherings in the long, adjacent dining room.

From the dining room, step down into the spacious family room with hardwood flooring, a powder room with tile floor, and sliding door to the patio for easy indoor-outdoor entertaining.

In the primary suite, you will find three closets and built-in drawers in the bedroom, as well as two additional closets in the en suite bathroom.

There is also a large wood vanity, tile shower, and an over-sized soaking tub.

Other features include two guest bedrooms with ceiling fans, a remodeled guest bathroom with dual-sink vanity, laundry room, and large backyard with a paver patio.

For more photos and information about this Oak View home for sale, visit the property information page.

To schedule a showing, contact Nora Davis today.

This mountaintop retreat minutes from town beautifully blends Mid-Century Modern and Spanish Colonial architecture and is surrounded by well-designed landscaping, multiple outdoor living areas, and beautiful mountain views.

A full remodel completed in 2022 updated every room and added upscale features throughout, including Brazilian wood floors, marble counters, remote-controlled window coverings, tankless water heater with recirculating pump, owned solar, hardwired ethernet throughout, and an EV charging station.

The remodeled kitchen features two Bosch dishwashers and an island with a breakfast bar and Bosch downdraft cooktop.

The gallery-style foyer features an over-sized, glass door that allows in natural light and mountain views on the front side of the home and opens to the living room with a glass wall at the backside of the house looking out to the heated pool and gorgeous mountain views beyond.

Additional features include two primary suites, guest quarters, media room, and hot tub.

Features include:

Five bedrooms, five bathrooms
Approximately 3,349 square feet
Full remodel completed in 2022
Two primary suites
Guest quarters with separate entrance
Media room
Two fireplaces
Brazilian wood floors in living areas
Sisal or wool carpet in bedrooms
Marble counters
Island with breakfast bar and downdraft cooktop
Two Bosch dishwashers
Remote-controlled window coverings
Vaulted ceilings
Ceiling fans
Skylights and glass walls for natural light and views
Dual-sink vanities
Over-sized soaking tub
Large closets
Hard-wired ethernet
Approximately two acres
40-foot, heated swimming pool and hot tub
Deck with pool cabana
Pergola-covered main outdoor living area
Multiple patios and seating areas
Two fountains
Flagstone walkways
Sheds and fenced storage in side yard
Two-car garage
Gravel guest parking area
Two owned solar systems
Whole-house water softener
Tankless water heater with recirculating pump
Electric vehicle charger
Mature, drought-resistant landscaping
Heritage oak trees
Space for guest house or horse facilities
Beautiful mountain views
Short drive to downtown Ojai
Approximately seven miles to Lake Casitas

For more information and to see more photos, visit the property information page. To schedule a showing, contact Nora Davis today.

This country cottage with a covered front porch and picket fence is tucked away in one of Oak View’s most charming neighborhoods.

Just minutes from the post office, grocery store, coffee shop, and all that Oak View has to offer, build your dream life in this comfy home with remodeled kitchen, hardwood flooring in the spacious living room, newer carpet in the three bedrooms, primary suite located for privacy, laundry room, ceiling fans, two driveways with gated parking for your RV or toys, detached garage, and mountain views.

The large backyard features a custom patio, deck, two fenced areas for dog runs or vegetable gardens, and plenty of space for a pool, garden, play area, sports court, or other hobbies.

Start the day with coffee on the front porch where you can chat with passing neighbors or in the backyard enjoying mountain views from your back deck.

This one is a must see, so don’t miss the opportunity to enjoy the Ojai Valley lifestyle along with the easier commute from Oak View

Learn more about this Oak View home for sale by visiting the property information page, or call Nora today to schedule a showing.

Don’t miss this great opportunity to build your dream home or two rental homes on approximately 1.25 acres in Upper Ojai.

The property currently has a water meter, 20-25gpm well, Edison drop, approved grading permits for a guest house, approved plans for a guest house, and plans for a main house that have not yet gone through the approval process.

The main house plans are for an approximately 2,600-square-foot, three-bedroom, three-bathroom home with an office and attached, two-car garage with a bonus area above the garage.

The approved guest house plans are for an approximately 1,200-square-foot, three-bedroom, two-bathroom home with a detached, two-car garage with a game room above the garage.

This Upper Ojai horse property with great mountain views is close to Rock Tree Sky, Summit Drive-In restaurant, and Stagecoach Station Market and is just a short drive from the shops, restaurants, schools, and weekly farmers markets in downtown Ojai.

Visit the property information page for more photos of this Upper Ojai land for sale, or contact Nora today to schedule a tour of the property.

Historically, this Ojai commercial building has homed plumbing and HVAC businesses, but as Bryant Circle evolves from an industrial area to a hip entertainment district, it could be transformed into a wine bar, restaurant, lounge, or whatever creative endeavor you can dream up.

The building is currently set up with separate spaces used as a showroom, office, breakroom or storage room, and large workshop with a roll-up door.

There are two bathrooms, a parking lot, large front windows for natural light and mountain views, a covered front porch, and central air conditioning.

The office furniture, tools, equipment, and inventory are included with the sale of the building at no additional cost or will be sold separately if the buyer does not want them.

This versatile commercial property is located at the east end of the downtown area near a brewery, restaurant, and vintage trailer hotel and just a few minutes from all that downtown Ojai has to offer.

Visit the property information page for more photos and a floor plan.

Call Nora today at (805) 207-6177 to schedule a tour.