With decreasing costs for solar systems and increasing cost of electricity solar energy has become a very solid investment. PG&E has requested additional increases for 2014 and 2015 that would translate to 30% higher rates. These increases are driving the demand for solar systems. In Napa and Sonoma alone hundreds of solar systems coming online

Prices Continue to Appreciate The Bay Area’s housing market is finishing 2013 where it began the year – with home sales enjoying sharp gains over last year and prices continuing to appreciate.  It is particularly showing impressive strength in the luxury market.  This comes as the stock market nears record highs, raising the net worth

If you are thinking about purchasing either an existing vineyard or raw land on which you hope to install a vineyard, there’s a lot you need to know. Having gone through the same process myself when purchasing my vineyard property, I discovered that there are very, very few sources of good information on buying and/or

The only way to talk about pricing vineyard land and not go crazy is to make some broad assumptions about the price per acre for established vineyard and plantable raw land. However, it is a very rare parcel that has only vineyard. Most parcels have houses or house sites or other improvements that complicate the

There are two main ways that all real estate is valued. The first is by comparable – similar properties that have sold recently. Comparables are used to establish the value of 99% of real estate sold and are by far the most reliable way to value any piece of real estate. The other main way

Evaluating a country or a vineyard property – planted or unplanted – is a little complicated – because the properties involved are usually complicated. The goal is to understand exactly what you are buying so that we can value the property correctly and so that there are no surprises after the close of escrow. We

Or, how I learned to stop worrying and love Round Up Help is available to wine grape growers from a wide variety of professions. It is important, especially early in vineyard ownership, that you have advice you can trust and which is consistent with the way you want to farm. Because in the end, all

The skinny on wine grape prices in Sonoma County I went to an interesting seminar the other day where they laid out the “mechanics” of wine and grape pricing. Here goes. The retailer marks up a bottle of wine about 1.5 times. The distributor marks up the bottle of wine about 1.33 times. And the

The infrastructure of a working vineyard If you enjoy the mechanics of a vineyard, then here are the gory details about some of the major elements of a vineyard Grape Vines Since the only family of grapes (vitus) capable of making fine wine (vinifera) – is susceptible to a variety of diseases native to North