About Rancho Cucamonga's Victoria Gardens

After 10 years and several moves, including a brief stint as my son's bed at one time when he was younger, our living room furniture was beginning to show its age. The lining was sticking out from under the couch, the frames were separating from themselves and people were starting to throw their hips out everytime they had to get up after sitting on our living room furniture for any amount of time. So, we decided to do some furniture shopping on Saturday. We were told about this fantastic furniture store in Rancho Cucamonga called Living Spaces Furniture. So, we piled into the truck and headed out on a furniture shopping expedition.

Living Spaces has stores in several Southern California cities, including La Mirada, Irvine, Van Nuys and Rancho Cucamonga. They are open everyday from 10am-9pm and employ some of the nicest people you will ever meet. Their huge store is laid out quite well, with different sections for different types of furniture. And their selection is huge. As soon as we walked in the door, someone was there to greet us and let us know that there was free coffee and tea available if we were cold from the rainy weather outside. Even though the store was pretty busy with customers, we had several sales associates come up to us and ask if we needed anything or if they could get us something to drink while we were looking. Our wonderful salesperson, Eliza, was very helpful in pointing out the best deals for what we were looking for and stayed with us the whole time to make sure she answered any questions we had.

It was evening time when we bought our furniture, so they wouldn't be able to deliver until the following morning. We wanted to take our furniture home right then and enjoy it that night, so we had to pull around to the loading dock and have them put it on our truck for us. Even the loading dock guys were extremely friendly and helpful, offering us something to drink if we needed it while we waited.

If you live in the Southern California area and find yourself in need of furniture for any room in your house, I would highly recommend that you visit one of the Living Spaces warehouses. They're prices are great, their selection is massive, but their customer service is hands down the best I have seen anywhere for a long time. It made me believe that Yes, Virginia, there IS customer service. It's alive and well at Living Spaces Furniture.

Heather Chavez, Real Estate Virtual Assistant - Second Self Virtual Assistance: When There Isn't Enough of You to Go Around!

The original May 1, 2009 deadline has been extended to August 1, 2009. As outlined below, you must be Red Flags Compliant or face heavy penalties.

"New ‘Red Flag' Requirements for Financial Institutions and Creditors Will Help Fight Identity Theft
Identity thieves use people's personally identifying information to open new accounts and misuse existing accounts, creating havoc for consumers and businesses. Financial institutions and creditors are required to implement a program to detect, prevent, and mitigate instances of identity theft."

"The Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the federal bank regulatory agencies, and the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) have issued regulations (the Red Flags Rules) requiring financial institutions and creditors to develop and implement written identity theft prevention programs, as part of the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions (FACT) Act of 2003. The programs must be in place by May 1 2009, and must provide for the identification, detection, and response to patterns, practices, or specific activities - known as "red flags" - that could indicate identity theft."

"Who must comply with the Red Flags Rules?
The Red Flags Rules apply to "financial institutions" and "creditors" with "covered accounts."

"Under the Rules, a financial institution is defined as a state or national bank, a state or federal savings and loan association, a mutual savings bank, a state or federal credit union, or any other entity that holds a "transaction account" belonging to a consumer. Most of these institutions are regulated by the Federal bank regulatory agencies and the NCUA. Financial institutions under the FTC's jurisdiction include state-chartered credit unions and certain other entities that hold consumer transaction accounts."

Please refer to www.msicorp.redflagscompliant.com to find out how easy it is to become compliant.

Home-Aid is hosting the 3^rd annual Project Playhouse. Auction is to be help on September 27^th, 2008 at Victoria Gardens Cultural Center. An excellent fundraiser to provide temporary housing for homeless families. The playhouses are beautiful, all built by different corporations, reflecting different themes. Admission to see the playhouses is $2.50 for children and $5 for adults. They are located in the middle of Victoria Gardens.

Visit the Victoria Gardens Website

Or PlayHouseIE.com

Absolutely worth seeing! An amazing opportunity to help a lot of families, that could truly use the help.

Model yourself. . . Victoria Gardens

Its amazing how much Victoria Gardens itself, has been such a beautiful part of our community. It is the place that we all call home. The Victoria Gardens mall itself is an amazing place. Absolutely beautiful, it makes me feel like I am walking in a real-life fairy tale. It is somewhere I am proud to take my family, and love to hang out, work on my laptop and grad a cup of coffee. Victoria Gardens has become more than a mall, it is the basis of our community. It is very obvious that we take pride in our community.

The REO's (bank owned properties) in our community, are very well taken care of. Even the banks realize the importance of keeping this a beautiful place to live. I am very active in Real Estate here in Rancho Cucamonga, and very knowledgeable about certain areas in Rancho Cucamonga. Its amazing how much pride is truly in the air in our area.

It is very important to realize that we all worked to get the privilege to live here.
Yesterday, I was at the Victoria Arbors park and I over heard a mother make a comment to her daughter not to play with a little boy. It was obvious that the little boys mother was struggling to able to afford. As I looked at this family, and the other mothers reaction, I thought about everything I have been through, to get to where I am, and everything I stand for, to get to where I want to be.

We should encourage everyone, we are the people that can help other people make their dreams become reality. People who truly want to better themselves, will listen.

I walked over to that mother of the little boy. As we were talking, I realized that she was a very hard working mom, and she needed some direction. We sat there for 20 minutes; we went onto my laptop and researched the direction she needed to go to become a correctional officer. Those 20 minutes we spent together, truly changed her outlook, gave her encouragement, knowledge and resources. In those 20 minutes, we signed her up for a class coming up at the local community college, got information on how to apply for child care through the county, and found out exactly what steps to take to become a correctional offer.

We are very lucky to live and work in such a beautiful place, but we all got here some how. The world is a much better place when we take the intuitive to help someone. The lesson our children will learn from the way we treat people, will surpass and make our next generation that much better.

Always give, Always. Giving knowledge and support is the best way to help anybody. If you can make positive impact, or make a difference in one persons life, for the better, or just put a smile on someones face, each day, thats a whole lot people you gave a positive impression of yourself to.
And you know, when she gets to where she is destined to be, do you think she will forget about me??

Good Monday Morning to You!!

Hope that you're having a great year so far. Mine has been slow start and then when I finally realized how much I have to do, especially in getting better organized, I am working round the clock now.....

Over the weekend was working with a Relocation client from Florida. They were in (husband and wife) for Saturday and Sunday only, so alot of pressure was on to find the "right" place for them to live. I think we accomplished this....and are busily working on it as I type this entry to you. I showed them properties in Glendora, Claremont, LaVerne, San Dimas and Rancho Cucamonga. Yes, busy weekend!! They fell in love with a property in Rancho Cucamonga, near Victoria Gardens....Great Choice!! Nothing like being close to shopping and what many call, Downtown Rancho Cucamonga.

I will be participating in an upcoming auction, so if any of you are looking for auction properties and need a good Realtor Professional who specializes in Repossessed and Bank Owned Properties, I'm your man and please feel free to contact me.

Hope you have a great week!!

My Best,

Todd