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Wishing everyone a Happy Chinese New Year: The Year of the Horse!
Wishing everyone a Happy and Healthy Chinese New Year: The Year of the Horse! I would like to wish my clients and my Chinese friends and co-workers a Happy and Healthy Chinese New Year! After all this is one of the most important Holidays in China! This year is the YEAR OF THE HORSE. If you delve into Chinese history and literature you will discover a reverence to the horse. Then you will also discover that there is a correlation, parallel or should I say recognition of the attributes of pride and dignity! I always enjoy viewing names of famous people who were born in the different Zodiac Years. Hence I looked at the different historical figures who were born in the Year of the Horse. There are many but one truly caught my eye. This one in particular was born in 1162. So have you guessed it?? Genghis Kahn!!! In case you are not familiar the Chinese Zodiac is a Twelve Year Cycle and there are twelve different animals which comprise the cycle. In case you are wondering I was born in the Year of the Snake (honest not last year). If you are considering buying or selling a luxury home, an ultra luxury home, luxury investment real estate, luxury vacation homes, or luxury beach properties in Southern California, Los Angeles, Century City, Westwood, West Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Marina Del Rey, Venice or Malibu, feel free to contact me at 310.486.1002 or homes@endrebarath.com or visit one of my websites at https://www.endrebarath.com. I am a pet friendly realtor and I contribute a portion of my commissions to local animal rescue organizations. – ...
read moreWhat is a Vision Board? Is it just a trend? What does it really do?
What is a Vision Board? Is it just a trend? What does it really do? Does it work? When you hear people talk about Vision Boards, what come to your mind? Do think this is for individuals who need external motivation or do you think it really accomplishes something? Is this just a hip cool and trendy conversation piece or just a fad? Or is it just a Motivation Guru’s latest gimmick? I can only speak from my own experience. I have been a dreamer all my life and very visual. When I lived in Connecticut I used to visit Boston, MA and always said I wanted to live in Boston, MA. In those days I had an American Express Calendar Book, pre-Day TimersJ and I had a picture in the hardback portion on the last page. Before and after sales appointments I would look at the picture of the Boston Skyline as well as the John Hancock Building on Copley Square. Fast forward and a couple years later amazingly I was working in Boston, MA and my office was on Copley Square with direct views of the John Hancock Building. While I was working in Boston I still had my American Express Calendar Book and on the back page I had a picture of a Southern California Beach scene. Why you might ask? Well as much as I loved Boston, MA I had always wanted to be in California because of the weather and to live in the land of eternal sunshine! Fast forward ten years later, we moved to Los Angeles, CA and now I am about 500 yards from the Ocean living in Marina Del Rey, CA. So I never really had a vision board but I did have Goals, Dreams and I visualized them and amazingly enough they happened to become reality. So being a skeptic of trends of nontraditional solutions or gimmicks I have never subscribed to the Theory of Vision Boards. Now with that said, maybe I should have because everything I visualized and looked at more than once a day I managed to achieve. In conclusions: I decided to put up two pictures by my desk which I can see every day, I have been telling Diane for years that I wanted to take her to Taormina, Italy and I wanted to go to Portofino, Italy so I guess it is high time to visualize itJ and soon take a well deserved Vacation in the near future to my visualized destinations! If you are considering buying or selling a luxury home, an ultra luxury home, luxury investment real estate, luxury vacation homes, or luxury beach properties in Southern California, Los Angeles, Century City, Westwood, West Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Marina Del Rey, Venice or Malibu, feel free to contact me at 310.486.1002 or homes@endrebarath.com or visit one of my websites at https://www.endrebarath.com. I am a pet friendly realtor and I contribute a portion of my commissions to local animal rescue organizations. – ...
read moreWordless Wednesdays: Have a healthy dinner or lunch, just good eats!
Wordless Wednesdays: Have a healthy dinner or lunch. Easy to do, tastes good and is good for you. Look close most of it is “Raw Food” the rest is “marinaded”. Good Food! See it is really pleasing to the eyes! If you are considering buying or selling a luxury home, an ultra luxury home, luxury investment real estate, luxury vacation homes, or luxury beach properties in Southern California, Los Angeles, Century City, Westwood, West Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Marina Del Rey, Venice or Malibu, feel free to contact me at 310.486.1002 or homes@endrebarath.com or visit one of my websites at https://www.endrebarath.com. I am a pet friendly realtor and I contribute a portion of my commissions to local animal rescue organizations. –...
read moreGoals, Visions & Dreams!
Goals, Visions & Dreams! I have been a private person all my life, most people only saw the side I wanted them to see. Hidden underneath were my Dreams, my Visions as well as my Goals! Then came the internet in my life, as far as I was concerned nothing changed. Then came Facebook in my life, now this on the other hand started to chip away from my private persona keep in mind not because of me, rather because of friends and family who mentioned bits and pieces of my life in a public forum. Then came Active Rain into my life. I still managed to control my Goals, Visions and Dreams and keep it private. Then came Active Rain with many different contests, more and more my private persona was being chipped away, slowly but surely by the internet and Active Rain. Then came the Active Rain Contests with big points being dangled in front of me. Now keep in mind that I am a competitive person wanting to get more and more points to move up the latter of Active Rain, I have slowly given up my private persona. The best part is I am confident most people do not care about me personal life and those who do are my friends anywayJ So with that said, what are my Goals? Well I have many and as the years go by they change. Some become more important than others. I feel lucky I have good friends, a good life partner and we have similar goals: Good quality of life, good food, good wine and our pets. We are blessed to live in a great climate in a good location. Southern California is not a bad place to call home as I watch our East Coast Friends being in a deep chill. I am also lucky to be working for a great company with a fantastic manager. There are many people in this world that cannot say the same. I can count on one had how many great companies I worked for as well as how many great managers/ bosses I had. I can still hear my father saying enjoy it because they are far and few in between. I am also lucky to have great clients who come back to me over and over because they appreciate my value to them! So with that said my goals, my dreams and my vision is to keep what I have and add to it as need...
read moreCommunity Guidelines on Active Rain
Community Guidelines on Active Rain I have been here on AR for somewhere since 2007/2008 please view my Blog Post about the Weltanschauung for a clearer time lineJ. (http://actvra.in/49ZF ) Just as I did not read the Weltanschauung until January 26th, 2014, I did not read the Community Guidelines either. At least I have heard about the Guidelines through various postsJ from Seasoned Active Rain Members. Some have gone on to greener pastures such as Google+ and who knows where else, WordPress Blogs Platform, and places I have no ideaJ! Well to meet Lynn B Friedman’s Contest requirements I forced myself to read the Community Guidelines too. Now keep in mind I have come from a very restrictive background, communist Eastern Europe. Then spending time in the extreme freedom world capital of the early 1970’s at Ann Arbor & Ypsilanti, Michigan and then followed by an equally restrictive USMA at West Point NY in the late 1970’s. This background and experience, clearly lead me not to follow Guidelines but move to my own beat. Now with that said yesterday I read the guidelines and was pleasantly surprised nothing really looked out of line and clearly I have been complying to them all along. This tells me that the guidelines were nothing more than asking the community to apply common sense. Nothing unusual, no weird restrictions, I totally understand the message! I remember often members violating on particular guide line and all the seasoned bloggers were on it like you would not believe it. “Spamming or High jacking the blog post via the comments” after I understood the logic and it was explained to me how to correct the errors of my ways, I became a fan of supporting and enforcing this rule of the guidelines as it related to this subject. Interestingly this violation has faded away and I give direct credit to the current regime at Active Rain. There are Training Classes, educational post and Hallway Monitors or should I say Ambassadors. Now days spamming by comments and high jacking a post are virtually a distant memory. So thank you Lynn B Friedman for motivating me to read the Guidelines something no previous member of Active Rain was able to...
read moreSpeechless Sundays: Tiffany & Co. in Century City, CA 90064
Speechless Sundays: Tiffany & Co. in Century City, CA, 90064 If you are considering buying or selling a luxury home, an ultra luxury home, luxury investment real estate, luxury vacation homes, or luxury beach properties in Southern California, Los Angeles, Century City, Westwood, West Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Marina Del Rey, Venice or Malibu, feel free to contact me at 310.486.1002 or homes@endrebarath.com or visit one of my websites at https://www.endrebarath.com. I am a pet friendly realtor and I contribute a portion of my commissions to local animal rescue organizations. –...
read moreWeltanschauung: Views of the World according to Active Rain & Endre Barath:)
Weltanschauung: Views of the World according to Active Rain & Endre BarathJ I have joined Active Rain sometime in 2007/2008 time frame. Sadly I cannot tell you exactly when, due to Active Rain’s last update. The powers to be deleted my history of my original comment and many of my early comments. Since then I am on my third laptop and a total wipe out of the history on my previous Laptops…. So now it is just a guess. The good news is: now I have Carbonite J I clearly remember reading blogs for many months and then finally making my first comment and needless to say, I was hooked. I kept commenting, expressing my opinions, providing my input and my views. Some people liked my comments others did not. It was a small community back then, most of us did not know what we were doing and there were some established bloggers who helped guide newbie’s along like me. Needless to say, I finally wrote my first blog on August 28th, 2008. Nothing special but it was a big moment, I took a leap of faith and the rest is history. Most of us back then did not know what we were doing. I do not remember having neither Community Guidelines nor a Weltanschauung. We had a couple of community managers during my “growing up phase as a blogger on AR” we reached out to them for help as well as suggestions. I clearly remember that we wished that there were ideas or information we could follow i.e.: Guidelines. No one knew of any and if they did no one suggested reading it. As time progressed there was Active Brad who would answer his cell phone if you had a question. No Job Order Request…nothing like that. He wrote How to Blog Posts that we all cherished and looked forward to reading. How to do this how to do that…anyway you get the idea. So did I read the Guidelines and the Weltanschauung? YES today on January 26th, 2014! So now I wonder and these questions come to my mind: When were these guidelines created? When where they modified? Please do not misunderstand: I love the fact that there are guidelines as well as views of the world. What I am wondering now is how many people have actually read them? I enjoyed reading all the points needless to say this made me wonder how closely they are being followed. Again I am just thinking out loud: If there is “no hierarchy as point #9 states, then who makes the decisions? Who do we direct complaints and where is there recourse if a decision has been made and we do not agree with?? Clearly #10 is my favorite: On a serious note, I love being on Active Rain and all the things I learned from the membership as well as the friends I made and let us not forget the business it has generated thanks to my blog posts. I am sad that we lost some great members and I am happy to have gained new friends and new members! In conclusion not only have I evolved, but so did Active Rain and now we have guidelines, training programs we clearly have all come a long...
read moreBreaking News: The Harry & David Store in Manhattan Beach,CA Closed!!
Breaking News: The Harry & David Store in Manhattan Beach, CA Closed! Harry & David has been an American institution for the past 80 years. They went through highs and lows but managed to come back stronger, hence you can imagine my shock. I am very sad and disappointed. First the economy is improving and we are still finding out that this historic business is downsizing. How sad, there were so many great knowledgeable workers with strong customer service skills who are without a job. From a personal perspective, I will miss the store, since for me it was less than a ten mile drive and I could buy the best gift baskets as well as perfect tasting fruit. I have never seen such large and flawless pears as the Harry and David pears, just to mention a favorite of mine. Many of my clients will miss the Gift baskets I used to give them around Christmas time. Ironically I was in the store probably five times during the holidays and you would not believe how much products they sold. I had a conversation with one of the staff members, because I needed one more Gift basket and they were out of 85% of all their products. She said it was the best year they ever had and it was the best day the other day and their inventory is virtually nonexistent. Needless to say I was shocked at the fact that this store closed! Sadly there are no other Harry & David Stores within at least a 20 mile radius from Marina Del Rey, CA to the best of my knowledge. Now I might have to order on line, but with my last poor experience with the delivery service I had with UPS I am not sure that will be a wise decision. If you never had their products check out their website and I am sure you will be a fan www.HarryandDavid.com . If you are considering buying or selling a luxury home, an ultra luxury home, luxury investment real estate, luxury vacation homes, or luxury beach properties in Southern California, Los Angeles, Century City, Westwood, West Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Marina Del Rey, Venice or Malibu, feel free to contact me at 310.486.1002 or homes@endrebarath.com or visit one of my websites at https://www.endrebarath.com. I am a pet friendly realtor and I contribute a portion of my commissions to local animal rescue organizations. – ...
read moreGreat News: the Median Sold Price of Condominiums Month by Month in Century City CA have increased!
Great News: The Median Sold Price of Condominiums Month by Month in Century City/Westwood have increased again! As most of you who read my Blog Posts know that I love writing about Westwood /Century City, so I would be remiss if I did not give a Month by Month Median Sold Price Report of the Condominiums in Westwood/ Century City. December 2012 the Median Sold Price for Condominiums was a fantastic value at $611,000. Well needless to say not surprising to me the Median Sold Price for Condominiums was $720,000. Clearly this increase of $109,000 translates to an 18% increase! The demographics of the buyers were clearly foreign nationals, because they understood the value. Needless to say those who were local buyers and were on the sidelines will be very disappointed when they see these statistics. So please do not take offence when I tell you it is still a good time to buy, because we anticipate price increases for 2014 as well. Maybe not in double digits but in the single digit figures, hence I strongly encourage you to buy now! If you are considering buying or selling a luxury home, an ultra luxury home, luxury investment real estate, luxury vacation homes, or luxury beach properties in Southern California, Los Angeles, Century City, Westwood, West Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Marina Del Rey, Venice or Malibu, feel free to contact me at 310.486.1002 or homes@endrebarath.com or visit one of my websites at https://www.endrebarath.com. I am a pet friendly realtor and I contribute a portion of my commissions to local animal rescue organizations. –...
read more857 Loma Vista St, El Segundo, CA 90245: Closed & Recorded,SOLD!!!
857 Loma Vista St, El Segundo, CA 90245: Closed & Recorded SOLD!!! This has been one of the more challenging transactions I had the pleasure to close! After the Judge Approved the Probate with Court Confirmation Sale and the Buyers were thrilled, you would think a few days later it would be done with! Well not quite: I was told that the Loan Docs will be arriving Thursday, then Friday….now my Antenna is up and I am looking for answers! After some hardball verbal and written threats, the Lender confesses that there are some “Conditions” that need to be cleared. Needless to say I wanted to know “what the Conditions were”….some more hard discussions, the lender confessed, that it has to do with Bonuses & Income. Needless to say three days later or should I say counting the stalling six days later we are assured that now The Loan Docs are in the “Cue” 24hrs later we finally get Loan Docs go figure it is Friday and it is a Three Day weekend. After the Lender looking for the executed prepared Loan Docs they could not find it….after more drama, Loan Docs were found and long and behold more delays later it finally funded. So two weeks later this Escrow finally SOLD!!!! If you are considering buying or selling a luxury home, an ultra luxury home, luxury investment real estate, luxury vacation homes, or luxury beach properties in Southern California, Los Angeles, Century City, Westwood, West Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Marina Del Rey, Venice or Malibu, feel free to contact me at 310.486.1002 or homes@endrebarath.com or visit one of my websites at https://www.endrebarath.com. I am a pet friendly realtor and I contribute a portion of my commissions to local animal rescue organizations....
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