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Surge Protection: Do you need it? What does it do? Hope you never…
Surge Protection: Do you need it? What does it do? Hope you never have to find out! The other day I found out what Surge Protectors do and do not do. I had an electrician over the house and he was explaining to me as he was doing some wiring, he indicated that there are some old cloth covered wires that we should be replaced down the road. I thanked him for the advice. He seemed very knowledgeable and was willing to share his knowledge freely with me. I was in my home office as he continued with his tasks; next thing I know is that smoke was coming out of one of my surge protectors. Needless to say drama ensued and all the surge protectors disintegrated. One of the most powerful Surge Protectors was protecting the Entertainment Center: The Pioneer Elite HD TV and all the components. This one also had the duty to protect the Phone & Fax line as well as the Internet (AT&T- Uverse). The other surge protector had the job of protecting the laptop (Dell), the cell phone (Samsung Galaxy S5) and the third one had the job of protecting the Fax Machine (Brother), the Scanner (Brother) & the Printer (HP Laser Jet) and the phone itself (AT&T). As you can see the Dollars add up quickly, it was clear to me that there were a lot of valuable items to protect. Needless to say I was distraught at best. Not wanting to get Diane all nervous before the damage assessment is tallied up. I was just concerned and as I saw in the Electrician’s Eyes so was he. Long and short of it he was a referral and needless to say he had now Liability Insurance, but that is food for another post. Clearly when I asked how this happened his answer was “ I am befuddled” this to me was not the right answer. Quickly he departed, no charge for his work, needless to say I was rushing to Best Buy to quickly buy new Surge Protectors. Two hundred dollars later I was able to do some damage assessment. Thankfully the only equipment that fried outside of the surge protectors was my top of the line Brother Fax Machine. Ironically a few months ago I just bought a new Drum for it and it was to last 10,000 pages. Go figure the drum is probably still good. So to summarize make sure you have good Surge Protectors, because your Equipments are more expensive to replace vs. the Surge Protectors. Now there is a lot of different Surge Protectors out there some are better than others. If you have some knowledge please share your comments here! The short answer is Surge Protectors save you a lot of money, head ache and you can continue with your business. If you are a Realtor or small business owner you know what that means. Lost connectivity is lost money! Just on a side note when the next electrician will come to check things out, I will unplug everything from the wallJ! If you are a consumer who is considering buying or selling a home, investment real estate, vacation homes, or beach properties in Southern California, Los Angeles, Century City, Westwood, West Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Culver City,...
read moreDid you know Westchester, CA 90045 has a Little Free Library?
Did you know Westchester, CA 90045 has a Little Free Library? Well if you happened to take a walk in your neighborhood in Westchester, CA 90045 and you did more than text, read your emails, you might have noticed that one of the home owners in Westchester, CA decided to create a free Little Library. If you look at the pictures you will see that you actually have to register and then you can participate. Clearly I find this as a great concept. It also sends a nice message that it is a safe and caring neighborhood. Not only does it help promote reading but it also exposes to potential readers that are inspired by what they happen to find in the Little Free Library in Westchester, CA. If you are a consumer who is considering buying or selling a home, investment real estate, vacation homes, or beach properties in Southern California, Los Angeles, Century City, Westwood, West Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Culver City, Playa Vista, Marina Del Rey, Venice or Malibu. Feel Free to give me a call at 310.486.1002 or email me at homes@endrebarath.com or visit one of my websites at https://www.endrebarath.com Your Pet Friendly Realtor. I contribute a portion of my commission to Local Animal Rescue Organizations. ...
read moreWordless Wednesdays: Great Find At Blackbird Air Park!
Great find at Blackbird Air Park! If you are a consumer who is considering buying or selling a home, investment real estate, vacation homes, or beach properties in Southern California, Los Angeles, Century City, Westwood, West Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Culver City, Playa Vista, Marina Del Rey, Venice or Malibu. Feel Free to give me a call at 310.486.1002 or email me at homes@endrebarath.com or visit one of my websites at https://www.endrebarath.com Your Pet Friendly Realtor. I contribute a portion of my commission to Local Animal Rescue Organizations. ...
read more1645 Mountcrest Dr. Los Angeles, CA 90069 Huge Price Reduction!
1645 Mountcrest Dr, Los angeles, CA 90069 Huge Price Reduction! Huge Price Reduction, best priced view lot in the Sunset Strip area. Fantastic neighborhood, this lot has spectacular views in a multimillion dollar neighborhood. There is a lot nearby also on the market for a much higher price point. Lot is close to all the Utilities, water, electric and sewer. This View Lot is great for an owner user or a developer. Seller has another project needs to sell ASAP just reduced under market price for the area! Seller is now willing to provide Owner Financing for up to three years. 30% Down payment at 6% per cent interest only. Ask me about the lot next door, it is also available. If you are a consumer who is considering buying or selling a home, investment real estate, vacation homes, or beach properties in Southern California, Los Angeles, Century City, Westwood, West Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Culver City, Playa Vista, Marina Del Rey, Venice or Malibu. Feel Free to give me a call at 310.486.1002 or email me at homes@endrebarath.com or visit one of my websites at https://www.endrebarath.com Your Pet Friendly Realtor. I contribute a portion of my commission to Local Animal Rescue...
read moreSpeechless Sundays: he is the Closer isn’t he??
Speechless Sundays: he is the CLoser isn’t he?? Douggy is wondering based on the pitches If you are a consumer who is considering buying or selling a home, investment real estate, vacation homes, or beach properties in Southern California, Los Angeles, Century City, Westwood, West Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Culver City, Playa Vista, Marina Del Rey, Venice or Malibu. Feel Free to give me a call at 310.486.1002 or email me at homes@endrebarath.com or visit one of my websites at https://www.endrebarath.com Your Pet Friendly Realtor. I contribute a portion of my commission to Local Animal Rescue...
read moreLancaster, CA home of the Air Force Flight Test Museum
Lancaster, CA home of the Air Force Flight Test Museum One of my most memorable and surprising discovery came by accident as Diane and I were driving around Lancaster, CA. Long and behold we ran into Blackbird Air Park an Annex of the Edwards AFT Flight Test Museum. The best part was that The Air Park is Open Friday through Sunday from 11am to 4pm. There is a catch it is subject to Volunteer Availability and Weather. Weather is not that big of an issue here in Southern California, but Volunteer Availability is another story. Keeping in mind that The Flight Test Historical Foundation is a private organization. It is not a part of the Department of Defense or any of its components and it has no government status. Hence it is mostly run by the people who were involved with the Test Flights. We were in luck on all counts, there were Volunteers as well as we were there when Black Bird Park was open. I could have stayed listening to these guys talk all afternoon, keeping in mind that we had to be back on the West Side of Los Angeles by about six in the evening. So with a few interesting stories under my belt I will post a few pictures and might have to do a few more posts about Blackbird Air Park. So if you thought Lancaster is only famous for Ground Zero of the Real Estate Meltdown you will be pleasantly surprised. Just to give you an idea I saw the Lockheed U-2, the Lockheed A-12, the Lockheed SR-71 and ofcourse the Lockheed D-21 to name a fewJ! If you are a consumer who is considering buying or selling a home, investment real estate, vacation homes, or beach properties in Southern California, Los Angeles, Century City, Westwood, West Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Culver City, Playa Vista, Marina Del Rey, Venice or Malibu. Feel Free to give me a call at 310.486.1002 or email me at homes@endrebarath.com or visit one of my websites at https://www.endrebarath.com Your Pet Friendly Realtor. I contribute a portion of my commission to Local Animal Rescue...
read more7644 Franklin Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90069! SOLD!
7644 Franklin Ave, Los Angeles, 90069 View Lot in the Hollywood Hills SOLD!! There are always trials and tribulations in selling a property. In this case the buyer had his money in GOLD! Needless to say Gold has been tanking for the past 30 days. The buyer requested and extra week to close with the hope that the Price of Gold would improve. Sadly he took a hit for about 27%. The good news was he was a businessman and understood sometimes you gain and other times you lose. Needless to say he is thrilled to have the property and he can work on getting his dream home built with panoramic views of Downtown Los Angeles & Century City. He also got a fantastic deal and that makes up for the drop in value of the Gold. On a side note Escrow was extended an extra week so he could gain some of the money back. If you are a consumer who is considering buying or selling a home, investment real estate, vacation homes, or beach properties in Southern California, Los Angeles, Century City, Westwood, West Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Culver City, Playa Vista, Marina Del Rey, Venice or Malibu. Feel Free to give me a call at 310.486.1002 or email me at homes@endrebarath.com or visit one of my websites at https://www.endrebarath.com Your Pet Friendly Realtor. I contribute a portion of my commission to Local Animal Rescue...
read moreHow to get to Page one of Google, The Holy Grail… the dilemma…
How to get to Page one of Google: The Holy Grail of Realtors…the dilemma… Social Media Expert, SEO Experts, Internet Gurus, Successful Internet Realtors… The list goes on and on… Everyone has a point, everyone has a theory and the message is either mixed or polar opposite from each other. So what is a Realtor to do? We all wonder on how to get the attention of Home Sellers, everyone agrees on one point: Content and more so good content in a blog post is the key. Up to this point all the advice is the same, now this is where the directions change in the advice of all the experts. Before I address this point let me go back in time: Once the internet was accepted as a vehicle for communication, email eliminated or drastically reduced “snail mail” i.e.: what we used to call the Post Office and letters.( Sadly we lost an art, but that is another post) This was followed by Texting, for convenience, not having to have to wait to get to the “internet” this clearly shortened the length of the posts. Twitter came on the scene almost a decade ago, eight years to be exact. The message was clear: people have short attention spans and do not want to read long emails as well as their need for quick, short answers became the norm. Flutter has been around for a couple of years and their messages are shorter than Twitter’s this is all a continuation of shorter, faster and minimum attention span of the reader… Email marketers have noticed that if you do not like the Subject Line or it is not compelling you will not even bother to open the email. It just simply gets deleted at best saved for a later time to read which does not happen. So here is the Dilemma: The Gurus state that good content is needed for Google to index you. First the message was a good post has to be 300 words, and then it increased to 600 words. Now these experts are saying you need 1000 words to make Google happy. So my question is: great you got to Page One the Holy Grail with your 1000 word posts, but no one will read it? Let me know where I am going wrong? I am Looking for advice, input and thoughts: what do you think and why? If you are a consumer who is considering buying or selling a home, investment real estate, vacation homes, or beach properties in Southern California, Los Angeles, Century City, Westwood, West Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Culver City, Playa Vista, Marina Del Rey, Venice or Malibu. Feel Free to give me a call at 310.486.1002 or email me at homes@endrebarath.com or visit one of my websites at https://www.endrebarath.com Your Pet Friendly Realtor. I contribute a portion of my commission to Local Animal Rescue...
read moreWhat would you do if trying to submit an offer and your laptop crashes
Trying to submit an offer and my laptop crashes….. Today was a stressful afternoon, my Windows was running slow, so I tried to reboot a few times finally I got annoyed and figured I shut it off…keep in mind I am about to submit an offer on a $5.3million dollar listing. As I am about to shut down, Windows tells me that there are”… 14 updates…” generally that is a 15 minute maximum event…Not today it took two hours to finally update the 14 updates. When the computer shut off, I immediately turned it on and that is when trouble started. Numerous attempts later it was clear that the Windows update killed the laptop. Now it has been 2.5 hrs and I am overdue to submit the offer. The good news was Diane left her laptop at home so I called to see if I could use hers…. 45 minutes later offer is submitted. Three hours and going strong my Laptop is still down, various attempts later and letting it sit for about 30 minutes I am back on my laptop. So no thanks to Windows updates… With that said how would you have handled this drama? Offer is to be submitted ASAP. One buyer is in Texas on business the other buyer is local. DocuSign, Zipforms, The MLS, and someone else’s Laptop. Technology is Great when it works and frustrating when it does not! If you were in my shoes what would you have done, inquiring minds want to know? On a side note I texted and emailed the agent asking to confirm receipt…still waiting… If you are a consumer who is considering buying or selling a home, investment real estate, vacation homes, or beach properties in Southern California, Los Angeles, Century City, Westwood, West Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Culver City, Playa Vista, Marina Del Rey, Venice or Malibu. Feel Free to give me a call at 310.486.1002 or email me at homes@endrebarath.com or visit one of my websites at https://www.endrebarath.com Your Pet Friendly Realtor. I contribute a portion of my commission to Local Animal Rescue...
read moreAs a new first time home owner, if you just received your first Los…
As a new first time home owner, if you just received your first Los Angeles Department of Water & Power Bill (LA DWP), it should now cause you to get a Myocardial Infarcton you should just laugh it off and call the LA DWP first thing in the morning. Keeping in mind no matter how good an advice I give, not everyone listens when they should… the buyer could not sleep all night emailed me her invoice. Clearly $3,146.27 for a two week period of time is a mistake. I have had clients who had seven thousand square feet of living space with half an acre of land and their monthly bill was under $800. I suggested to her to call the LA DWP in the morning and not stress, clearly this is a mistake. She in turn emailed me about previous errors that DWP had on the News in November 2013 as they were switching over to a new computer program/system and they have caused many new home owners as well as existing home owners some stress i.e.: about 70,000 people were affected by it. See link http://abc7.com/archive/9342447/ . Needless to say I reassured her, that those problems were fixed. This must be clearly a human error. First thing in the morning she did call LA DWP and needless to say after a 35 minute stressful wait she did get a person to help. Manually she had to read the meter and it became evident that the person who was to read the meter at the change of ownership did not do his or her job. The problem was corrected in twenty minutes due to her not being familiar with where the meters were for water as well as electricity. The bottom line was within a few days a new bill was to be sent to the new home owner for $183.32. So from this experience I would like to recommend to all home owners especially the new owners: 1. 1. Do not put LA DWP on automatic payment from your Bank Account 2. 2. When you take the keys from the previous owner ask them to show you where the water and electric meters are (provided the owner is there) if not have the listing agent point them out. 3. 3. Then read the meter and call in to DWP with the figures. 4. 4. Lastly do not stress errors will happen and will get rectified. If you would have received this bill & or the call from you client what would you have done? If you are a consumer who is considering buying or selling a home, investment real estate, vacation homes, or beach properties in Southern California, Los Angeles, Century City, Westwood, West Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Culver City, Playa Vista, Marina Del Rey, Venice or Malibu. Feel Free to give me a call at 310.486.1002 or email me at homes@endrebarath.com or visit one of my websites at https://www.endrebarath.com Your Pet Friendly Realtor. I contribute a portion of my commission to Local Animal Rescue Organizations. ...
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