How do I give back?  With time, money and attention. No special order- they all apply to the realtor that can take you home. Time to drive you around and show you the

amazing beach areas.   Coming to California?  We are ready for you.

Carson- Jerome G. Groomes
Gardena-Mitchell G. Lansdell
Hermosa Beach- Steve Burrell
Lawndale- Keith M Breskin
Lomita- Interim City Mgr. John Jalili
Torrance-LeRoy Jackson

The topic of the day was GREEN,  Have you heard “Follow the money?”  Grant Money that is. Some say Earmarked money, whatever you call it the keyword has GREEN in there somewhere. Each city will work to to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and save energy. The talk is not just chatter…it is here to stay. REDUCE REUSE RECYCLE is being an active part of education in our schools and coming forward in businesses.  American Buildings use 78% of all the energy consumed. The place to begin is there-Lighting, Windows, Insulation, waterless urinals are the first fixes coming out with Solar coming along when it can. AV811 Residential Whole house retrofit – energy savings- look in the fall for opportunities being rolled out- for ways to put improvements into the home using property tax and pay over time.
City leaders missing were Manhattan Beach and Redondo Beach. It was a small turnout of Realtors compared to years past. Here are some facts- Loans are at 4.75 for 30 year fixed. FHA at 4.875.
Here is the news from the city managers- It is so inspiring. I have so much community pride in these cities and the leadership they have. I am saving you the time to go and the calories from the great bacon with breakfast.I have been to these meetings over the years and been educated on the effect of so many things. The roads carry the bulk of the traffic after offloading the containers from the PORT of Long Beach. Storm drains built in the 1950s are all needing attention at once in Palos Verdes and the South Bay. This is where the education from the leaders comes to the Real Estate community in one amazing morning meeting a year. This is 2010: my notes of what they had to say.
Parks are being developed.

Lawndale-New Library, first Park in 25 years 2/3 acre and a new Community Center coming together a 5 year process.
Hermosa Beach- Seniors don’t want to use that Senior word. They have a community center and recreation area that wanted a Wii System and more beach volleyball.  3 new restroom facilities are being updated at 2nd, 14th and 22nd streets.Look for state of the art waterless urinals. Sidewalks and trees have needs after 50 years. Storm drain systems filtration system water is being drained into 700 feet of sand to complete by end of July. Pier Avenue construction funded by Federal Stimulus money.
Carson- think “Carson Green Team” 100K people in 22 sq mile area. Developing Brownfields (google that if you don’t know what it means) into 18th month of remediation with 150Million dollars and another 900Million for the project overall. Developers are coming- with a Multiplex, Big Box users to open Jan 1012 by end of first quarter. His 12 years of city manager has been busy. Two big freeway interchanges are starting construction, 405 at Avalon with a 30 Million dollar upgrade of access and egress, 405 and Wilmington. “Progress has pain” said the mayor regarding the busy freeway work with the 110 and the 405 convergence.
Senior Centers developing in first phase with family area in 2nd phase. 100 Town-homes being built with federal Stimulus funds. 1M dollar grant from the dept of energy to put in solar. The Senior tech lab. Neighborhood stabilization program with 10-15 Foreclosed homes rehabbed and sold. 1st time home buyers with down-payment assistance. Neighbored pride improvement assistance. Several mobile home parks are trying to condo-mize. Carson has great leadership and as a result has some money to spend to improve its city.
Torrance- has a 10 year plan to look at the community. They surveyed the community and found the measure of progress toward the goal with environment as #1 safety #2. Construction projects, Single Family Homes, Multi use and Commercial construction projects are being developed. They have a general plan over 5 years for land use, traffic and environment. This is available online( google Torrance city)There is a downturn in sales tax, utility tax which restricts some things. TWO hospitals Little Company of Mary and Torrance Memorial are continuing to get updated. The boom in business is Medical, the environmental impact, empty space behind Costco is going to be a Medical complex in first stage of planning. Federal, State and Local money will connect areas in city hall for a one stop center right in front to create a simple easy access system to get permits planning, hillside, and zoning, They are refurbishing the library. Public works has a reconstructed Class 1 fire station, Safety in the community has always been a priority. The community respect for the fire and police in Torrance is awesome!
Lomita- 20K people in 2 sq. miles. The goal is to protect and stabilize the residential neighbored. 12.5 Million dollar project to purchase all the water closet reservoir with 50% local well water. (This is awesome – I have learned some things about private vs city ownership- I have seen the disaster of the private ownership and lack of community concern in observing the rate hikes on energy it is a state and local issue and a sore spot) Hooray for Lomita in taking the reigns of water for its community. The streets need help here too with 4 main water breaks. The staff is successful in its 2nd year of making a friendly, readable, understandable way, to teach  how to save on  utility bills with changing toilets, shower heads, landscape water saving plants.
Gardena -New 5 inch street signs, repairing rubberized asphalt. 55 homes to be built. Gardena bus lines, a 57 Billion dollar facility, added to 5th route to El Segundo Blvd. 400 residents came to hear the Chief of Police on Feb 18th. 89 cameras are coming into the city and monitored right at the police station. 10 acre parcel of land.1.2 Million dollars of federal money to enhance public safety with incentives for businesses. Two Casinos, and California car clubs are down 17% in revenue. In 25 years the only 2 downturns were last year and this.
To conclude- the city leadership has a huge job and they are doing loyal work to improve in every way possible. They are learning and helping each other. Even in meetings like this..education is key to inform us and work together with great respect. Here is more good local news.

My husband Robert Pope of Pope and Associates Interior Planning and Design, Inc. reported after being at the Building Department in Downtown LA that, they are guardedly optimistic. Wow activity- There were a lot of people there getting permits for Buildings, for Businesses developing, this past week.

This Christmas let us be mindful of the energy savings we can do. Small steps…energy saving front porch light is a great start. When you order new appliances did you know to take advantage of the money you can save both initially and over time? (It’s usually posted online or on the appliance)

These are som e web links on Rebates Discounts and Special offers available TODAY.

South Bay Environmental Services Center http://www.sbesc.com

Southern California Edison www.sce.com

The Gas Company www.socalgas. com 

West Basin Municipal Water District www.westbasin.org

Merropolitan Water District of Southern California www.bewaterwise.org

www.epa.gov

www.energystar.gov

www.epa.gov/watersense

Follow the guidelines on tree removal in your local city.

Drive slower and save gas with a soft petal

Bless people in your thought as you move through the holidays. Malls, roads, bring the spirit of joy and don’t fallinto the rush.

Look into a simple thing…insurance from  the department of water and power. for a small fee you can insure the line from  your home to the main city connection, several dollars per month on your water bill.  and possibly save thousands if there is a break in between. Without it…its your property and your bill.  How did I hear about that….I read the little paper the put in the bill one day…its usually a good suggestion before you toss it away.  They usually have a tip.

Otherwise: Clean out those roof gutters, weatherstrip the doors, caulk the tub shower and sink and you are on your way to homeowners pride and JOY.

Out of area families in town for July 4th. I met them on open house. Twin sisters and their husbands.They were searching for over a year. They read the papers. circled and went to open houses. It was fun for them and the following top 10 things were discovered. It had been more miss than hit. The result of our meeting included about 6 hours and amazing results.

1.They needed a Real Estate Agent. 2.They needed a Lender. 3.They needed to know things about the area. 4.They needed to make to search plan. 5.They needed to discover that they wanted to be close to each other.

The price of living near the beach.

We started at open house here, in South Redondo Beach, looked at listings in Hermosa Beach,  homes in West Torrance  and Old Torrance.

Then we talked about the next 5 points…

6. Cost in Dollars 7. parking places 8. view 9. available choices 10. rental income

These are details the Realtor knows all about. City parking permits, where you can avoid the tourist stream to the beach, and those current rental income prices. All was information worth years of doing the work. Priceless.

The top 5…here is the story.

Realtor. Affinity and Knowledge. Affinity, we just liked each other. It was as if we had grown up together. This can’t be minimized. We actually really saw the world the same way. We talked alike and understood each other. Knowledge-How much price appreciation can they expect at a minimum over the next 10 years? We can look at charts to see those stats but I sold some 4 years ago here and know the price every year since. They are priced about 2005 value.

Lender. knowledge -how much to put down -what will my monthly bill inc. taxes insurance be?- how much tax reduction on income will I gain?

Area. Places to avoid- congested streets- over built area -lots of renters of homes

Search plan- we looked at my printout of all the properties under 800K town homes and homes, They deleted town homes right away saying “Look how many choices we still have.” We then put them in order and started the search.

After looking at homes and deleting them, weird floor plan, bad homes next to the one for sale, still too close to the busy street.

Found one they loved and yet they couldn’t agree on which would be the master bedroom for them. We stumbled upon 3 in the day and stopped anyway, it was a waste of time on two and the last one was a total surprise. We were going to the sisters house and 1/2 mile away we saw the open house sign. No idea of price and stopped in. The rooms were confusing to 3 of us. I couldn’t wait to get outside. The yard was really cool, big and had potential. One sister came out and said isn’t this the best ever? We looked at each other. Huh? We thought it was terrible. Well, come see what I see. We trailed in and she showed us what she loved. The kitchen, the living room and then the one weird room she said lets open this up to be a dining room and the circle stair over there? Let’s put a real stair in right here. She was right, suddenly the whole house made sense. It was all about potential. It would not have to be immediate. The roof would be. So the price was pretty good. We drove the neighborhood and could see this was the best for her .6 miles to her sisters house. They talked together. I didn’t know you wanted to be near my house. I didn’t know it either. It was a sweet discovery.

This past year we helped people move to Texas from Arizona, from England to Palos Verdes, from Redondo Beach to Washington D.C. and Los Angeles to Atlanta Georgia. Each had very different needs. Each was completely satisfied and available to contact.