Stewart Penn - West Hollywood Condo Specialist

I am currently working with a "Professional Organizer" - Rosalind Lakomy, owner of "Clearing Space" - who has been employed to help prepare a condo For Sale. The listing I have was awarded to me by the beneficiaries of a deceased estate.

Rosalind is arranging for all the furniture to either be sold or stored, so that the condo is vacant when I begin marketing later this month. She is also arranging for the condo to be painted throughout, have minor repairs taken care of, and oversee the professional cleaning of the condo.

My assessment is that whoever buys the condo will want to remodel and update the unit, but having a presentable product (albeit dated) will definately help yield a higher price for this property.

The members of the family who have inherited the condo are all busy with their respective jobs and businesses, so they called on the services of Rosalind to ensure the property can be presented as a "fresh clean slate" to all prospective purchasers.

I look at this as a team effort by the owners, the professional organizer and me, the Realtor - and I am confident that I'll achieve a fair price for my clients.

The Westfield Century City Shopping Mall (on Santa Monica Blvd.) has recently installed a simple, yet brilliant system to assist customers find parking in the mall's parking structure.

We've all seen the electronic signs that indicate how many parking spaces are open on each level, but the Westfield Mall has taken this concept further.

Not only do their signs indicate the number of free spaces, but they also indicate where "disabled parking spaces" are.

Now what they've added is a sensor above each parking space with a green, red or blue light to indicate if a space is taken, free, or available for disabled drivers.

So when one turns down a parking aisle it is easy to see where an available parking space is by seeing the green light above a space, eliminating endless driving around the parking structure.

Westfield Mall has also installed self-check-out cashiers in their parking structure, although this system still seems to be causing delays in exiting the parking garage.

SEPTEMBER 2008 - Total Value of Condos Sold: $10,296,500 ($14,828,500)

CONDOS: () Previous Month Figures

Median Price: $640,000 ($544,500)

Average Selling Price: $605,676 ($617,854)

Average List Price: $$634,835 ($644,579)

Therefore, Average Sales Price was 95.41% (95.9%) of List Price

Lowest Price Condo Sold: $310,000 ($370,000)

Highest Price Condo Sold: $875,000 ($1,525,000)

Number of Listings Sold: 17 (24)

MEDIAN SALES PRICES:

August 2008: $544,500 / July 2008: $421,000 / June 2008: $585,000 / May 2008 - $519,000

April 2008 - $516,500 / March 2008 - $615,000 / February 2008 - $618,250 / January 2008 - $620,000

For further information, please contact:

Stewart Penn - Realtor/Broker - " West Hollywood Condo Specialist"

This week I spoke to two clients who received letters from American Express, advising that due to the large outstanding balances on their residential mortgage loans, American Express had reluctantly decided to lower the credit limits on their respective accounts.

Apparently American Express apologized for this action but claimed it was decided upon after a thorough review of the client's accounts.

For weeks Suzie Orman has been warning that banks would take this action to curb credit and warned that such action would have the effect of lowering individual's Fico Scores because the credit used as a percentage of the new reduced balance would increase - making the card appear "maxed out". The result of a lower Fico Score could mean higher interest charged by lenders.

Many sites are now discussing the severe implications of the decrease in credit card limits, which could snowball into more serious debt problems. The consumer credit-card web site Cardratings.com, which features an active community forum on credit-related topics, has reported dozens of recent posts complaining about credit-limit cuts.

Check your own limits to ensure there's no surprise waiting for you.

The "$700 Billion Bailout Plan" - euphemistically called "The Rescue Plan" - is an instinctively wrong but practically essential step to ease the financial crisis plagueing our financial system.

What is most disturbing is the fact that the House of Representatives rejected the Bill on Monday 9/29/08, which was then modified and then approved by the Senate on Wednesday 10/01/08. The tweaked Bill contains some ridiculous items not related to the Rescue Plan at all. The outrageous "Pork" (aka sweetners) items are discussed on The Taxpayers for Common Sense website:

Sec. 503. Exemption from excise tax for certain wooden arrows designed for use by children: This provision will have a cost of $2 million over ten years, according to the Joint Committee on Taxation. According to Bloomberg News, the provision would be worth $200,000 to Rose City Archery in Myrtle Point, Oregon. What possible relevance does this have to the Rescue Plan?

Sec. 317. Seven-year cost recovery period for motorsports racing track facility: This provision will allow racing track owners to be able write-off the cost of their facilities on their taxes over seven years. Auto track owners are simply trying to get out of paying more taxes. Again, what relevance does this have to the Rescue Plan?

Sec 502. Provisions related to film and television productions:In an effort to keep film and television productions in the U.S, they would be eligible for a tax incentive program. Under this program, the cost of production of qualifying films would be permitted to be immediately expensed. The cost is estimated at $478 million over 10 years. Why does this provision need to be included in the Rescue Plan?

Politicians are still playing politics during this urgent crisis. It appears they are not focusing on the immediate subject at hand, but are pursuing their independant agendas and using this Bill as a negotiating tool to get what they want. Spending priorities need to be scrutinized and explained.

We need this Bill to pass, but once the dust settles I believe that each and every politician who was instrumental in adding provisions like the ones I referred to above, needs to be held fully accountable to the taxpaying public. Politicians (from both parties) need to stop this unacceptable conduct and one-and-for-all take care of all Americans and not a handful of protected interest groups.