Stewart Penn - Los Angeles Condo Specialist

I have been responding to a Blog - The New Real Estate Agent by Ralph Odierna - and decided I'd like to moderate this subject at further length, hence this Blog.

I've operated as a Realtor out of some of the biggest National Real Estate offices in Los Angeles. After carefully considering the benefits of remaining with a corporate-branded brokerage, I concluded it would be in my best interests to obtain my Brokers License and operate independently.

I fully appreciate that being an independent is not for everyone (we all have different needs and methodologies and I respect that), but I can't help questioning the real and practical benefits to the Realtor, and ultimately the clients, of working with a large brokerage.

While I totally agree that agents need to interact with each other in order to learn and grow, I believe that an office isn't essential for this to occur. There are many other forums where this can take place. (ActiveRain being a perfect example). It's interesting that office managers don't have all their agents join and participate in ActiveRain.

I would far rather agents visit other Broker's Opens and interact that way, being able to discuss real situations and issues. But look at how attendance by agents at these Opens has dropped.

Relatively few large offices have really dynamic Managers and Leaders who motivate, educate and inspire their team of agents. In my mind, ideally a large office should be a place where an agent goes to get recharged, encouraged, nurtured and energized. But in reality, most of the large offices are places filled with internal politics.

Floor time now yields extremely limited results (as clients can obtain the information they want online), corporate advertising is decreasing as the corporate offices try to reduce overheads, so the real benefit of an agent belonging to a large company is diminishing.

When I moved to Los Angeles I joined a large "Big Name Company" a number of years ago - only to realize that I generated very little business that was directly attributable to the large corporate office.

Eventually I decided I was able to do less business, make more money, become more profitable and have more fun as an "Independent Brokerage" - And my clients seem to prefer the personal and preferential treatment I can offer them.

LA Pride 2008 - West Hollywood, CA

West Hollywood is proud of its dynamic gay and lesbian population and it shows at the annual Christopher Street West LGBT Pride Parade and Festival. The two-day festival celebrates diversity and culture with booths, food, exhibits, and performances. The parade on Sunday draws over 300,000 to The Boulevard. Visit www.lapride.org for more information.

The 38th annual parade and festival, which happens along Santa Monica Boulevard and throughout West Hollywood Park, celebrates the culmination of its three-year theme, "Our Agenda: Love. Equality. PRIDE."

LA Pride's 2008 message is about taking pride in who you are, your family, your community, and the world around you. During Pride weekend, locals and visitors can expect to enjoy a parade, vendor booths, food, exhibits, dance pavilions and live entertainment.

Street and Facilities Closures:

- Friday, June 6, Vendor Load-in 1PM - 10PM, Melrose Ave., San Vicente Blvd. to Robertson (parking lane)

- West Hollywood Park - 8:00AM, Tues., June 3th to 5PM, Wednesday, June 11th, 2008

- San Vicente Blvd. between Santa Monica Blvd. and Melrose - Thursday, 7:00PM, June 5th to Monday 7:00AM, June 9, 2008.

- Santa Monica Blvd. from Fairfax to Doheny- 6:00AM - 5:00PM, Sunday June 8, 2008. (varies by area)

- Streets one block north and south of SMB (Fairfax to LaPeer) 6:00AM - 5:00PM, Sunday June 8, 2008. (varies by area)

- Crescent Heights - Romaine Street to Fountain Ave. 6:00AM - 5:00PM (varies by area), Sunday June 8, 2008.

I was recently invited to a friend's house for an "Emergency Preparedness" evening.

The guest speaker was Cari Butler from Emergency Cafe - an Emergency Preparedness Consultant based in Los Angeles. It all began when her daughter started pre-school and was required to have a personal emergency kit. That raised the question: "Why shouldn't everyone have an emergency kit?" And why not at an affordable price? Her concern led her to thoroughly research the subject. She now provides consultation services for families and businesses, as well as offering the Emergency Café line of kits.

I now keep a kit in my home and the trunk of my car and like any Insurance, I don't ever want to use it - but it's good to know it's there.

Effective July 1st, 2008, it will become illegal to drive a vehicle in the state of California while using a hand held cell phone.

Drivers who violate the law will face a base fine of $20 for a first offense and $50 for each subsequent offense. The law allows drivers to use a handheld cell phone for emergency purposes, drivers of commercial vehicles to use push-to-talk phones until July 1, 2011, and allow drivers of emergency response vehicles to use a cell phone without a hands-free device.

Now we need to get drivers to stop sipping their Starbucks, stop shaving or applying make-up and concentrate on the job at hand:)

Winston Churchill was one of the greatest orators of all time. With just a few carefully chosen words he made profound statements. So the words one uses obviously matter. I remember a Rabbi who once said: "Keep your words soft and sweet, because one day you may have to eat them". How profound was that?

I believe that each day we can all learn something new. We grow from what we learn, and we teach by what we say and what we do. We develop social skills from an early age, and this enables us to interact and communicate with others. The process of learning these skills is what is known as "socialization".

An integral part of socialization involves "tolerance" - this being the term used to describe attitudes and practices that prohibit discrimination against those practices or group memberships that may be disapproved of by those in the majority.

If people would open their minds, learn tolerance, respect diversity and think about what they say, I believe a lot of animosity and ill-feelings could be avoided.