I love that sound that just happened – the sound of a chair being moved in the kitchen. It is getting moved so that my wife can reach the ceramic pot on the top shelf of the cabinet for a special dish we will share with my family tonight. That sound says to me, “you’re home.” That sound makes me stop my concentration and think of the comfort of home and my beautiful wife. . . our life together. The next image in the background that it draws in, is family. I am blessed to have a multi-generational family here and it helps to anchor my history through family bonds and stories passed from parent or grandparent to child – and sometimes the grandparent’s child. (You are never too old to learn).

I sometimes wonder what explorers millenia from now will think if they come across remnants of me and my family and our life here. In a way I hope they will be kind of like us here trying to look back at others to figure out, not their world, but who they were as people.

As I look at the past there is one family I think about. I have no idea what their names would be. And no idea what language they spoke. I can’t tell you much about them individually, either. Well with the exception of one little girl – I don’t know if she had other brothers and sisters or not – and her father. She is about 5 and he, well I am guessing here, but I like to imagine him to be about my age. Maybe a little younger.

I know that technologies were changing all around them. Women were helping to change society. Fashions were changing. And people were reveling in the arts.

In my mind the father and the daughter somehow communicate and I cannot quite hear his words but I see him as a great storyteller and able to excite her sense of adventure. And as I said, I don’t know much about her but she reminds me of a girl I once knew so I am calling her, “Claire.”

What I know about Claire’s family is from the art they left behind.

Claire was a five year-old girl who lived in France in the Rouffignac cave system about 328 miles south of Paris and slightly to the west.. She lived in what we call “The Latest Stone Age” or the Upper Paleolithic era. That was somewhere between 50,000 to 10,000 years ago and we know that Claire and her family were there about 13,000 years ago. It was a long time ago and we can’t really narrow it down to exactly when then like we can today. There were no “months” or even”years.” It was “eras” back then. It was a time when new tools, more complex ones, were being figured out and women were learning to weave cloth. Great migrations of humans spread from Asia through Europe. (The Neanderthals had disappeared somewhere around 33,000). And it was a time just before the widespread practice of agriculture.

Females have their index (second) and ring (fourth) fingers about equal in length. Males have a longer ring finger than the index finger. And width can tell you a child’s age. Leslie Van Gelder is an archeologist who has studied the finger flutings of the cave. “Finger Flutings” are marks left by people who repeatedly dragged their fingers over the limestone ceilings of the caves. She figured out that the finger flutings in one area of the cave system were made by about eight to ten people. Four were children and out of them there was a five year old girl whose artwork covered more area than anyone else. Her work is on ceilings that are about 45 minutes from the main area and in an area where they would have had to go through bear dens and cramped passages before entering the area of relatively high ceilings, higher than she could have reached by herself.

Claire’s father enticed her to travel deep into a cave and then held her up as a small flame lit the ceiling and he helped her create the art she imagined in her head. Not once but many times.

Our physical location gives us a sense of place and our family gives us a sense of being. The desire to have our own place is, dare I say it, near an instinct. And it is a comfort to know that parents encouraging their children, helping them grow, and helping them become creative is a part of humanity – that is as old as the hills, or in Claire’s case, the caves.

John Gregory Brown, the American author, once said, “There’s something like a line of gold thread running through a man’s words when he talks to his daughter, and gradually over the years it gets to be long enough for you to pick it up in your hands and weave it into a cloth that feels like love itself.”

That is the gift I get from Claire’s father and one I want to someday be able to present to my daughter. And I hope that the millenia explorers will find my gift, my love, to my daughter, lasting as long as his has to Claire.

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What’s this Blog for?

Before I started my career as a real estate agent, I found it quite difficult to find informative articles or websites that provided accurate information catered towards selling and buying houses in the San Francisco Bay Area. Yes, there are some out there, but those are not catered specifically towards the Bay Area. Sometimes, even tips and facts regarded as common knowledge aren’t applicable and outdated from a Bay Area perspective. My original intention of starting this blog, was to help shed some light on the seemingly inscrutable real estate market. As a real estate agent who has been practicing for several years, I wanted to provide accurate and relevant information to those who might be interested in buying or selling a home.

If you’re curious and want to learn more about buying and selling in the San Francisco Bay Area, then this website might be a good starting point to gain some insight.

Who Am I?

My name is Chiuho Lin. I first found my calling for real estate in 2016, while I was looking for a new home in the San Francisco Bay Area. I found myself inexplicably drawn to this profession and after meeting over one hundred real estate professionals, I made the decision to become a real estate agent myself. To me, being a real estate agent is rewarding not only because I love meeting new people, but also because I have the privilege of helping them start their new chapter and make their vision a reality.

What Is My Promise?

If you are interested in selling, then the process would start from an initial consultation, to price assessments, market analysis, repair advice, time-to-market recommendations, staging assessment, style selection, housing listings, posters, social media promotion, marketing media selection, follow-up on house delivery. I will be active and present in the entire process to make sure everything goes smoothly.

If you are interested in buying a house, again as an agent I can promise you that I will be present in all stages of the buying process. This includes everything from consultations to address all your concerns, investigating real estate to find a home that suits all your needs, visiting the houses, providing insights on the neighborhood, assessing the current conditions of the homes that may require additional attention, read various reports filled with technical jargon, to helping you understand contracts. I ensure quality care and commitment in the entire process from start to finish.

As a professional, I take pride in my work ethic and ensure the utmost care and consideration while working with all my clients. I’d like to consider myself a trusted advisor to ensure a phenomenal experience throughout your buying/selling process. With that being said, if you ever need a professional consultation or assistance with anything - for example, gardening/landscaping, property manager property lawyer, paint master, decorator, roof repair master, loan broker, registration accountant - feel free to reach out. I am genuinely passionate about what I do and hope that I can help share my knowledge with you all.

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