One thing I love about LA is the amazing wealth of talent we have here!

This morning I met with Jeff Turner, Dustin Luther and other tech geeks for our first "Doctor's Note" meetup. After that, it was off to lunch and some play time at the Apple Store with Jeff as our guide.

Everyone has their own favorite technology and their own ways of using that technology, so it's great to get together with other tech-oriented people once in a while to see what's new and how people are using existing tools. Check out our video comment on Rain City Guide for an on-the-fly video post courtesy of Director Jeff and the local Apple Store for an example of how videos can be used on blogs. [Yes, they were trying to convert me to Apple, and almost succeeded!]

If you're in or near Los Angeles, be sure to catch Dustin's half-day seminar in Pasadena on May 30. I guarantee you'll pick up some great tips both during and after this seminar, since Dustin includes a free 90-day email-based training program to all in attendance. At this seminar, Dustin will team up with Jim Marks of Virtual Results for 4 hours of hard-hitting, no-sales-pitch training that should keep you on the edge of your seat the entire time. Topics will include websites, social networking, blogging and marketing. Register here, and I'll see you there!

P.S. Be sure to ask Dustin if his wife is ok after her meetup with a sparkling-clean window. Sorry, Dustin, had to put that in! ;-)

Property taxes are one of the biggest expenses of owning a home, other than paying the mortgage, especially if you live in an area with Mello Roos assessments on top of the regular taxes.

Many areas of Santa Clarita do have the Mello Roos assessments (or sometimes called CFD if you bought from Lennar), and thus any changes to your annual property tax bill should be carefully scrutinized.

I started receiving small Supplemental Assessment bills recently, and for a while I was getting a bit of a run-around in resolving these. Persistence pays: When I called the Los Angeles County Assessor's Office yesterday, I finally got routed to the person who could take care of this situation for me.

Here's what happened: A few years ago, I had filed permits for a patio cover, and then decided I didn't like the contractor and didn't move forward with building it. Apparently Los Angeles forwards the information on permitted items to the County Assessor's office, regardless of whether they have proof of whether the item was actually completed or not, so this showed up on my property tax bill as an addition to my home.

The gentleman from the Los Angeles County Assessor's office who called me back yesterday was aleady here this morning to verify that these items had not been completed, and he said he'll get my property tax bill corrected right away.

Lesson learned: If you receive a Supplemental Property Tax bill in the mail, don't assume that it is correct. Call the Los Angeles County Assesor's Office and ask for an explanation of the addition. If you have been charged for items that were permitted but not completed, you'll need to schedule a time for someone from the Assessors Office to verify this. I was lucky - the gentleman I spoke with lives near me, so he stopped by on his way to the office this morning. Problem solved!

This morning marked the first day of the Spring Ant Invasion Season at my house... I woke up to find them streaming through an electrical outlet above my kitchen counter.

Since I'm "going green" as much as possible, using toxic ant sprays, especially in my kitchen, is not an option.

Here are some "green" tips for taking care of ant invasions:

• Keep kitchen counters clean! Make sure there are no food products or food debris left on the counters overnight. Easier said than done with kids in the house, but if you leave your counters clean overnight, you'll have less chance of them being black with ants in the morning.
• Store grain-based products (cereal, crackers, etc) in sealed containers rather than the cardboard boxes they come in. I've found that the ants consider Kashi with Blueberries a special treat, and I'm guaranteed to have an ant invasion when I leave an opened box in the pantry.
• If you find yourself in the middle of an ant invasion, purchase Terro ant baits and put them near the invasion area as well as anywhere you see them entering the house. These are non-toxic ant baits that use a combination of pancake syrup as a lure and borax to kill the ants. You can purchase them at Home Depot and similar stores or online at http://Terro.com.
• Use a damp sponge to wipe up all ants that are running around so they don't start exploring other parts of your kitchen.

Be advised that Terro ant baits do not stop the ants in their tracks - the product is meant for them to bring it back to their nest for others to feast on as well, thus killing off the Queen and preventing further invasions from that source. The ants seem to love the stuff - they'll stream right into the plastic ant traps to feast on that sugary syrup.

Although it is not advisable to have pets eating the traps, the manufacturer says that there is not enough borax in a single trap to cause any concern. Borax is a mineral that is mined in the deserts of California, and is commonly used in soap products like 20 Mule Team Borax.

While I love going out to eat in the Santa Clarita area, I prefer to avoid places that are having troubles with cleanliness. Somehow the thought of having rat doo-doo in my food just doesn't make for a pleasant dining experience.

The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health helps us to choose clean restaurants by posting ratings in restaurant windows (those A, B or C signs) and publishing closures and ratings online for the public's review.

Thankfully, most of the restaurant closures in the Santa Clarita area since January 18, 2008 are for gas station quickie stores rather than full-fledged restaurants.

The establishments closed for vermin infestation during the last three months were the following:

• Dr. Donuts on Seco Canyon (Saugus). This is not their first closure due to vermin issues.
• Hasley Liquor and Deli (Castaic)
• Kwik Stop #4 on Seco Canyon (Saugus)
• Mandarin 88 on Valencia Blvd. (Valencia). This location was also cited for vermin harborage, meaning that no live rodents were seen dancing in the food at the time of the inspection, but there were bite marks, etc indicating their presence.
• Mobil Mart #13026 on Valencia Blvd (Valencia)

Juice It Up on Newhall Ranch Rd. in Valencia was also closed recently, apparently for having either no potable water supply or no hot water.

Want to find the cleanest places to eat? Here are the restaurants with recent scores of 100 from the Department of Health. There are plenty of other restaurants with high ratings, but these are the ones with perfect scores. Note that some of these scores date back to 2006, so situations could have changed since then.

• BJ's Restaurant in Valencia (at the mall)
• Burger King #7777 in Castaic
• Dippin Dots on Haskell Canyon Rd in Saugus
• George's Bistro on Newhall Ranch Rd. in Valencia
• Pasta Michi on Wayne Mills Place in Santa Clarita
• Pinkberry in Valencia (at the mall)
• Subway on Rockwell Cyn Rd in Valencia (most Subways score in the high 90's)
• Taco del Mar on San Fernando Rd in Newhall
• Wings Pizza n Things in Castaic

There were only three C-Rated facilities in the Santa Clarita area, including Kwik Stop #4 noted above, Hayk International Market on Cinema Drive in Valencia, and the Chevron on San Fernando Rd in Newhall. No restaurants on the Santa Clarita area had scores that were too low to rate.

Bon appetit!

The Santa Clarita area is well known for being a great place to live in the Los Angeles County area, in part because of its outstanding schools. This year, the California State Board of Education has named five Santa Clarita elementary schools to their list of 2008 California Distinguished Schools.

Valencia's Bridgeport Elementary, NorthPark Elementary, and Charles Helmers Elementary schools were honored with the Distinguished Schools award this year, as well as Saugus' Emblem and Mountanview Elementary schools.

The California Distinguished Schools program was started in 1985 to honor schools with quality educational programs, and alternates each year between awards for elementary and secondary schools.

Charles Helmers school not only met the API (Academic Performance Index) requirement for distinguished schools, it far exceeded the minimum requirements for a Distinguished School with an API score of 907. Mountainview Elementary almost broke the 900 mark as well, with an API score of 893. The other three schools had API scores above 800.

Extracurricular activities are in abundance at these schools to enhance the students' educational experience. Mountainview boasts an accomplished orchestra. Helmers benefits from a unique relationship with the Los Angeles Music Center, which brings visiting artists to the school. Bridgeport and NorthPark have visual and performing arts programs as well.

If you're thinking of relocating within the Los Angeles County area and haven't checked out the Santa Clarita Valley yet, now's the time to take advantage of the family-oriented quality of life and great schools that Santa Clarita has to offer!

On the short sale (pre-foreclosure) front in Santa Clarita, many homes listed as short sales are now receiving multiple offers from buyers. Some of these buyers intend to occupy the homes, and some are investors deciding to take advantage of the lower home prices.

Within the last couple of weeks, virtually every home that I called that was listed as a short sale had at least one offer outstanding. Granted that not all of these offers are anywhere near the asking price, but at least the interest is growing and many Realtors are reporting that they are getting at least one offer at or near the asking price.

Remember that with short sales, the asking price is just a starting point - the bank has generally not approved a sale at this price. And some Realtors are listing these homes with come-on prices that they know are nowhere near what the banks will accept, just to encourage buyers to submit offers at any price.

The good news is that once these homes are sold, they will no longer be competing with regular non-distressed homeowners for buyers. The not-so-good news is that many banks are still very slow to respond, often taking months to respond at all. And often the banks are still responding by rejecting all offers, sending everyone back to the drawing board even though they are very close to the bank's BPO's (Broker Price Opinions) and appraisals.

If you're considering making an offer on a short-sale home, be sure that you have a Realtor who is experienced in handling short sales. Also, be sure to get pre-qualified with a direct lender (not a broker) so you can submit that pre-qualification letter along with your offer. The better qualified you are, the more likely the bank will consider accepting your offer.

After several long years of battling the proposed CEMEX sand and gravel mega-mining project in Santa Clarita's Soledad Canyon area, legislators and local lawmakers have apparently reached an agreement to relocate this facility to the Victorville area instead.

Santa Clarita residents have argued that the proposed CEMEX mining facility would be located too close to existing homes, thus creating a negative effect on the quality of life and home values in that area. The Soledad Canyon mining operation, if approved, would have been located closer to existing homes than any other large-scale mining operation in U.S. history.

The proposed legislation, the Soledad Canyon Mine Act (H.R. 5887), will cancel two ten-year Soledad
Canyon mining contracts that CEMEX has with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM),
thereby ending the possibility of mining at the Soledad Canyon site. CEMEX will be compensated by receiving land near Victorville, California that is comparable in value to the company's investment in the cancelled contracts.

"The City of Victorville is pleased to participate in this agreement that protects community interests and
provides for future economic development," says Victorville Councilman Mike Rothschild.

"Years ago, I made a promise to carry legislation to resolve the mining issue between the City of Santa Clarita and CEMEX if an agreement could be reached," stated Rep. Howard P. "Buck" McKeon (R-Santa Clarita). "Today, I am pleased to report that with the help of our friends from the City of Victorville, we have reached that agreement."

Southern California Edison (SCE) will be hosting one of its Operation Light Exchange events in the Los Angeles Area on May 3-4 in the City of Industry.

This program allows SCE customers to exchange their old energy-hog halogen and incandescent lights (lamps) for the more energy-efficient Energy Star lamps. The exchange is free - just bring in your old lamps (sans shades) and they'll hand you new ones!

This is a great opportunity to get some new lamps, update your decor and save on your electric bill, all at the same time!

The last Operation Light Exchange event was a huge success, with over 10,000 lamps exchanged over a 2-day period.

What's the catch? None, really. You just need to prove that you live in Southern California Edison territory (bring a driver's license or SCE bill), be 18 years or older, and bring in 10 lamps or less.

Click here for more information on this upcoming event.

Getting a home sold in a "buyer's market" can be challenging, especially when there are plenty of bank-owned and short-sale homes to compete with.

With many homes staying on the market in the Santa Clarita area for 6 months or more, why is it that my townhome listing in Valencia sold in only 14 days? It sold based on a combination of price, flexibility, condition,  and location.

Let's take a look at the factors involved in selling a home in a competitive market:

• Price: You must price according to the current market conditions, not according to what you "want" or "need" to get from the sale, or what it sold for last year.
• Flexibility: Buyers want to negotiate, not just on price, but on terms. They may want your fridge or your favorite couch. Be prepared to negotiate, and don't let a deal fall through when you're only $1,000-$2,000 apart - figure out a way to make it work.
• Condition: As a seller, you have full control over the condition of your home. Clean it, de-clutter it, and get it ready for showing. Need some tips? Click here!
• Location: You cannot change the location of your home, but you can reduce the impact of many factors that may not be attractive to most buyers. If you live in an area with traffic noise, you can minimize the effect by using either fountains or soft music. Some buyers will be so sensitive to noise that this won't help, but there will be many that will appreciate the fact that they can have a calm atmosphere in an otherwise busy location.
• Convenience: Make it easy for other realtors to show your home. Lockbox access is best. Don't require an extended period of time (like 24 hours) notice before showing. Many times people change their plans while looking at homes, so a buyer who starts out looking at $400,000 homes may change his mind mid-stream and move up to your price range instead. Don't turn them away just because they didn't call you yesterday morning.

When you're competing against homes that are either short-sales or bank-owned (REO), most likely they haven't been properly prepared for sale. Use this to your advantage, and make your home more inviting than any other home that would be competing against you for the sale. While professional home staging can be a great help, you can make your home more appealing by just using your common sense.

Here's an easy way to check your home's readiness for sale: Walk out your front door, close it, and then walk back in as if you were a buyer seeing the home for the first time. Look at the home as if you were not the owner - look at it as if this was a home that you're thinking of buying. Is there anything that you'd move, remove, or change if you were moving into this home? Does it look clean and ready to sell? Would you need to replace any flooring, or paint any walls? Would you buy your existing furniture today? Do you have to walk in a somewhat random pattern to get from the front door to the kitchen, family room, or bedrooms because there's too much stuff in the way? Are there dirty dishes in the kitchen, stacks of newspapers or mail, or dirty socks on the family room floor?

Getting your home ready for buyers is an important first step in listing a home for sale in a competitive market. Show potential buyers that you love your home, and hopefully they'll love it too!

I had the pleasure of meeting Jeff Turner of RealEstateShows for lunch today. It sure is great to have such a great technology "guru" living practically in my own backyard!

Jeff is a super nice guy. We talked about what works and doesn't work for Realtor sites, what blog platforms he uses and prefers, where Realtors are getting and converting the most leads online... we even did an interview with his iPhone that will be posted later today!

Here's the run-down of real estate marketing from Jeff's perspective (non-Realtor, but communicating with a lot of Realtors):

Blogs are where it's at, where you get the most visibility, and ultimately the most qualified leads. Static websites are losing their stature, other than certain targeted neighborhood websites. Add audio and video where you can, but of course don't add anything that's annoying. My editorial comment here is that any website that has audio that auto-plays is not something that I enjoy. I don't care if it's talk or someone's favorite music - I'd prefer to hit play (or not) as I choose. If someone's website is screaming at me (music or otherwise), then I'm clicking off of it as fast as I possibly can!

Jeff Turner's RealEstateShows product has definitely evolved since I first looked at it. If you haven't looked at this product lately, then be sure to look again. It's a great way to add video to your website, and his new editing features make it easy to update shows (as in not showing Christmas lights on a listing that is still active in March). Sign up through his link on ActiveRain for best pricing.

Jeff uses virtually all blog platforms in his business to make sure he's familiar with them, but for his business (non-Realtor, techno-geek kinda guy), he prefers WordPress. He agrees that Blogger doesn't gain any brownie points for natural Google placement, even though it's a Google product.

Jeff is not in favor of anything real estate oriented that needs to be downloaded to an iPod, saying that statistics show that very few people actually download non-music content from iTunes. That goes for both podcasts and video shows. He's definitely a member of the Apple Fan Club, but just not a fan of this use of the Apple products. He parted with his iPhone long enough for me to talk into it during my part of the interview, but something tells me that he's never separated from this new toy for very long!

Most Realtors he's talking with are nixing print ads - newspapers, magazines, whatever, in favor of online activity (including blogging). Of course we already know that to some extent from the recent news reports on revenues declining in the newspaper industry. Here in the Santa Clarita Valley we're subject to the Los Angeles area advertising rates, which tend to be astronomical and thus are budget-breakers for many Realtors anyways.

What about blogging? Jeff is saying the same thing that others have been trying to get us to implement: Whatever you can email, you can blog, and then email a link to the blog post. And remember that people are using your blog posts to "interview" you, so keep it real, and keep it honest. Anything else is like handing out a business card with your picture from 20 years ago, and then showing up at someone's door with them expecting you to look like your picture!

Bottom line? Keep things simple and consistent. New technology is great, but make sure that you're not just using it because it's the latest new toy. Often it's better to learn to use "old" toys like RealEstateShows in new ways instead!

Priced to sell at $499,800. 

This 3-bedroom Valencia NorthPark home is perfect for young families, empty nesters or first-time home buyers.

Located in prime Valencia NorthPark, this home features 3 bedrooms, 3 baths and a loft on the corner lot of a quiet cul-de-sac. With 1579sf of living space and a large 8642sf lot, this home has plenty of elbow room!

This home is absolutely beautiful inside with custom neutral paint, Plantation shutters,  and tile and hardwood floors throughout with carpet in the bedrooms.

The downstairs bedroom is perfect for either a home office or a guest room, and the loft upstairs can be used for additional office space or a play area for the kids.

The Valencia NorthPark area has plenty to offer, with top-rated schools, pools, spas, clubhouse, parks, tennis, basketball and 25 miles of paseos (walking trails) nearby.

Contact Linda Slocum at 661.670.0349 for more information or for a private showing of this home.

There's been a lot of discussion recently about linking to other Realtor websites, as well as some groups set up within the Active Rain community to facilitate linking with each other in hopes of increasing Google rankings.

This is nothing new, and in fact it did work for a while... it just isn't a smart practice any more unless you're a fan of Google Hell!

Click here to see a great article at SOEmoz.org regarding linking realtor-to-realtor. The last item they list in a new realtor's link program (get a site, exchange links, exchange more links, get some better rankings and fall in "link love") is that Matt (Matt Cutts of Google) comes in an ruins this new Realtor's day.

Link exchanges are clearly against Google's guidelines, so then comes the question of whether the link exchanges are valid (as in you really do have a true connection with these other Realtors other than just the link exchange). That's where Google has to start dealing with sheer numbers instead of just the presence of links.

The SEOmoz article implies that having up to 20 link exchanges with your fellow industry members may be ok, but pushing it to 50 or more may spell trouble.

The penalty for being caught with these "spammy" link exchanges is being banned from the search engines altogether. Oh, you may get a link somewhere out there in the wilderness, but once banned, don't expect anyone but your friends to be able to find you by a standard keyword search, and that's only if they're searching for your url or your name.

Thankfully, the folks at SEOmoz have provided a neat roadmap in the form of a flowchart to help you get back on the search engine roadmap once you've been banned. However, as pennace for your prior sins, you do have to remove all link exchanges and promise not to participate in this practice again.

So, I ask once again, is being sent to Google Hell really worth the short-lived thrill you'll have when your site gets temporarily high rankings on the search engines before Matt Cutts finds you and ruins you day? I think not!

It's really quite easy to do a form of a link exchange in a blog format, if you think about it. I can write an article about something going on in my area, and you can relate it to something in your area with a link to my article for more information. Voila! A valid link exchange! And I'm not talking about writing about how great a Realtor site in Timbuktu is, I'm talking real valid content.

Keep your link exchanges clean and write tons of good content. Those are the only sure ways of getting higher search engine rankings!

Seems the Feds are messing with our food supplies once again, and this time it isn't pretty!

New rules for "organic" food labelling will allow up to 38 non-organic "baddies" to be present in a product, yet it can still be labeled as "organic".

In order for a food to be truly organic, it must be grown without chemical fertilizers and pesticides. All animals must be raised without antibiotics and growth hormones and must have some access to the outdoors. However, the new Federal regulations will allow as much as 5 percent non-organic "junk" to be included in food labeled as "organic".

Case in point is Anheuser-Busch's Wild Hop Lager, which the Feds allowed them to call "organic", yet it uses hops grown with chemical fertilizers and sprayed with pesticides. Why? Because the hops are only a small percentage of the finished product, since the beer is mostly water.

The allowable non-organic ingredients may be spices, colorings, and flavorings, so they can affect a broad range of food products.

So how do you get food that is truly organic without growing it yourself? It seems we'll need to rely on the research done by our local organic markets, such as Whole Foods Markets, to make sure that what they stock on their shelves are truly organic products.

Linda Slocum, Santa Clarita Realtor

http://HoneyStartPacking.com

http://SantaClaritaRealEstateBlog.com

Water is once again a hot topic in Southern California these days, with rainfall and snowpack at very low levels, and the recent scare where the water flow from San Franciso Bay/Delta area being shut down for a short period of time recently.

What can be done to help save our most precious resource, water?

First of all, make sure that you're following the standard common sense water conservation practices. Here's a short list from Santa Clarita's Castaic Lake Water Agency.

For Indoors:

• Repair dripping faucets by replacing washers.
• Check for toilet leaks by adding a little food coloring to the tank. If the bowl water has color in it after about 30 minutes, then you have a leak.
• Don't use toilets for disposing Kleenex or other items that can be thrown in the trash instead.
• Take shorter showers, and replace the shower head with low-flow variety.
• Don't run water when washing dishes by hand. Fill one sink with soapy water, and the other with clear water for rinsing.
• For cold drinking water, store some in the fridge instead of running the tap and letting the water cool each time.
• Wash only full loads of clothes or dishes. Or, for clothes set the proper water level if washing a smaller load.
• Consider instant hot water devices for sinks so hot water is readily available without letting the water run.

For Outdoors:

• Don't over-water!
• Water in the early morning to reduce evaporation.
• Don't water streets, driveways or sidewalks. Adjust sprinklers for overspray.
• Install water efficient sprinklers, including drip systems.
• Mulch to retain moisture in the soil.
• Plant native or drought tolerant plants, and group plants based on water needs.
• Don't hose down driveways, patios or sidewalks.
• Visit the water conservatory garden website at http://clwa.org/conservation/cgarden.cfm for more tips and for a complete list of drought-tolerant plants that thrive in the Santa Clarita area.

Other options being explored to increase our water supply are desalination programs. Ocean water is plentiful, but the desalination process can be very expensive. For a great article on the desalination process, visit SCV Talk at http://scvtalk.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=648.

Linda Slocum, Santa Clarita Realtor

http://HoneyStartPacking.com

http://SantaClaritaRealEstateBlog.com

Santa Clarita has many hidden gems to explore, and one of them is the Gentle Barn Foundation. The Gentle Barn in Santa Clarita uses innovative approaches to teaching kindness to youths who have been abused, kids recovering from substance abuse, kids on probation, foster kids and children and adults with mental, emotional and physical challenges. The Gentle Barn has a mission statement of: "Teaching people kindness and compassion to animals, each other and our planet."

Featuring 60 rescued farm animals who were previously abused, the Gentle Barn offers programs for at risk youth, people with special needs, and a school and education program. The At Risk program works by bringing inner city kids and at-risk youth to the Gentle Barn facility to build self-esteem, learn positive values, heal their pasts, discover their inner selves, and reach out for bright futures. The Special Needs program recognizes that animals provide unconditional love to everyone, regardless of whether they have come from broken homes, foster homes, or the inner city, or whether they are blind, deaf, or physically or mentally challenged, the animals love them just the same.

On a typical visit to the Gentle Barn, visitors will bathe and groom the horses and cows, plant vegetable gardens, go on nature hikes, prepare food for and feed the animals, visit with ranch staff and complete small upkeep projects around the facility, while also taking to time to get to know the animals and their backgrounds.

Ellie Laks, the founder of the Gentle Barn, says, "The first time they come, they come very defensive, very shut down, very unwilling to talk to us or even look at us. They think that it's a total waste of their time, and they wonder what they're doing there. But when we tell them the stories about the animals we have, and the abuse that they've gone through, (the kids) quietly start paying attention. And after about 20 minutes of us talking to them, they soon realize that the animals are a lot like themselves."

In order to keep the program operating, the Gentle Barn relies on donations from the community. If you'd like to help them out, check out their wish list and see what you can do to provide needed supplies and services.

To visit the Gentle Barn, call them at 661-252-2440 for information and directions. They are open every Sunday from 10am til 2pm. You can also visit them for their annual 4^th of July event.

Linda Slocum, Santa Clarita Realtor

http://HoneyStartPacking.com/

http://SantaClaritaRealEstateBlog.com/

The California Retail Survey recently announced the rankings of the top 100 city retail markets in California, based on 2006 retail sales.

Santa Clarita came in at number 24, outranking the nearby cities of Glendale, Pasadena, Thousand Oaks, Simi Valley and Santa Monica.

The California Retail Survey is considered to be a respected source of market intelligence for corporate and government executives because its analysis and rankings are based on actual sales results from each of the 490,000 retailers in the state. Visit http://californiaretailsurvey.netfirms.com/pr01.htm for the full list of 100 top ranked cities.

Linda Slocum, Santa Clarita Realtor

http://HoneyStartPacking.com

http://SantaClaritaRealEstateBlog.com

Snake season has officially begun in the Santa Clarita area, with one snake bite victim already recovering from a bite from a venomous Mojave green rattlesnake.

According to The Signal, Chris Bolewski of Saugus was clearing brush for mountain biking in the Haskell Canyon area when he was bitten on the leg by this highly venomous snake. He was rushed to Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital for treatment, and then was helicoptered to Loma Linda University Medical Center to be cared for by a snake bite specialist there.

New Leash on Life Animal Rescue held a rattlesnake awareness program recently, where Rattlesnake wrangler Hugo Heerman warned that the recent dry weather could bring a very busy rattlesnake season. Heerman says that rattlesnakes typically enter residents' yards in search of food and water, and may even enter backyard swimming pools.

According to Heerman, the best way to protect your yard from rattlesnakes is to attach fine wire mesh to fencing since snakes can easily sneak through most types of fences. He also encouraged residents to clear debris, such as woodpiles, from their yards.

If bitten by a rattlesnake, Heerman suggests immediately seeking medical attention instead of attempting remedy the bite with a snake bite kit. He says that the snake bite kit can actually make things worse.

Linda Slocum, Santa Clarita Realtor

http://HoneyStartPacking.com

http://SantaClaritaRealEstateBlog.com

Six Flags Magic Mountain is going to kick off its summer concert series with a Radio Disney concert on June 2.

Six Flags invites you to jam out with today's hotter than hot musical acts at the Radio Disney Concert! 

Featured will be a full day of fun and music with performances by Jonas Brothers, T-Squad, Everlife and J. McCoy at the Golden Bear Theatre. Here's the concert schedule:

Everlife & J. McCoy - 2:00pm
Jonas Brothers & T-Squad - 6:00pm

A concert seating pass is required for each show. Get your concert seating pass from the Theatre Staff after 11:00 a.m.

For more Six Flags Magic Mountain concerts and summer events, check out http://www.sixflags.com/magicMountain/events/CalendarEvents.aspx.

Sending your teens to Magic Mountain this summer? Check out their new prepaid meal vouchers that help to make sure that their lunch money is spend on food and not games. New food offerings include Panda Express, Cold Stone Creamery and Papa John's Pizza.

Linda Slocum, Santa Clarita Realtor

http://HoneyStartPacking.com

http://SantaClaritaRealEstateBlog.com

Santa Clarita Transit riders will see a fare increase as of July 1, 2007 for the METRO Buses and METRO Rail system. This increase is part of an overall increase in the fares for the EZ Transit Pass Program.

The EZ Transit Pass Program is a zone-based regional monthly pass that allows for a free transfer between 25 other participating bus operators in the Los Angeles County, including METRO.

For Zones 4 and 5 (Santa Clarita's zones), the incrases will be from $118 to $142 for Zone 4 and from $133 to $160 for Zone 5 for regular riders. For seniors and the disabled, the fares will move from $59 to $73 in Zone 4 and from $66.50 to $82.50 in Zone 5. Seniors are defined as 62 and older for purposes of this program.

For more information, see http://SantaClaritaTransit.com.

Linda Slocum, Santa Clarita Realtor

http://HoneyStartPacking.com

http://SantaClaritaRealEstateBlog.com

Once again, utility companies are trying to curb energy-saving incentive programs in order to protect their revenues.

This is nothing new, but in a time where natural resources are becoming more and more scarce, you'd think that there would be more incentives to save on these valuable resources. This goes back to the old days, where devices and fuels developed to increase automobile gas efficiency were bought out by the major auto manufacturers and then immediately put in mothballs.

However, in the age of Hybrid cars and incentives for builders to produce more energy-efficient homes, it's time to bring these savings down to the level where the average consumer can take advantage of them.

The California state Assembly's Appropriation Committee is expected to pass a bill aimed at making solar water heating systems widely available by providing incentives that would reduce the cost of acquiring these systems. The bill would offer $250 million in incentives to build 200,000 solar water systems statewide over the next 10 years.

This would provide savings in natural gas usage overall and would be funded in part by adding a surcharge to both residential and commercial gas bills. The surcharge for residential customers is expected to be about $0.13 per month, so we're not talking a big chunk of change on the residential front.

Avis Kowalewski, vice president for Western Regulatory Affairs at Calpine Corp. (they own 22 gas-fueled power plants in the state) is against this new bill, along with San Francisco-based Pacific Gas & Electric and San Diego-based Sempra Energy, which owns Southern California Gas Co. and San Diego Gas & Electric Co. Kowalewski stated, "But this bill could cost our company alone between $14 million and $18 million over 10 years." What Kowalewski doesn't state is that at least part of this cost would be covered by the surcharges to their customers.

Although solar water heaters aren't widely used yet, Bernadette Del Chiaro, an energy expert for the advocacy group Environment California said, "the legislation will create a large enough market that prices will drop and it will become cost-effective in time." The group Environment California helped draft this new bill.

Assemblyman Jared Huffman (D-San Rafael), the bill's author, says that studies show that using solar systems in California homes and businesses with access to sunlight could cut the use of residential natural gas by about 24% and reduce total statewide consumption by more than 5%.

The monthly gas bill for most California residences is their lowest utility charge, with water and electric being much higher, but any savings would certainly be welcome. And as solar water heater usage is increased over time, the energy savings should increase and our dependence on fossil fuels should decrease. It's not the only step that can be taken to reduce our dependency on fossil fuels, but at least it's a start!

Linda Slocum, Santa Clarita Realtor

http://honeystartpacking.com/

http://santaclaritarealestateblog.com/

Santa Clarita's Summer Beach Bus program starts on May 28, just in time for the summer weather and the Memorial Day weekend.

Bus service will be provided from the Valencia transfer station at the corner of McBean Parkway and Valencia Blvd, Val Verde Park, and from Richard Rioux Memorial Park in Stevenson Ranch. The bus will leeave the Santa Monica beach at 3pm. Service will be on Wednesdays and Saturdays only.

This beach bus service is courtesy of a joint partnership between the City of Santa Clarita and Los Angeles County, with each providing half of the operational costs of this service. Other areas served by the Summer Beach Bus program are La Canada - Flintridge and East Los Angeles.

Round trip tickets will be $4 for adults and children and $2 for seniors over 60 and people with disabilities.

April numbers look very promising for the Santa Clarita Valley, with many homes selling close to list price and the average days on market (DOM) dropping to under 60 days in many areas.

The numbers shown below are combined for condos, townhomes and single family homes in each area.

City	New Listings	In Escrow	Sold	%LP/SP	DOM
Castaic	60	8	21	98.28%	87
Canyon Country	166	25	35	99.92%	78
Saugus	132	34	36	98.66%	90
Stevenson Ranch	40	6	20	98.63%	50
Tesoro del Valle	15	4	6	97.58%	58
Valencia	206	47	89	98.59%	55

Information obtained from SoCalMLS and is believed to be accurate but not guaranteed.

To search for homes in the Santa Clarita area, visit HoneyStartPacking.com, where you'll find a quick and easy home search tool and loads of community info.

Linda Slocum

HoneyStartPacking.com

SantaClaritaRealEstateBlog.com

"Honey, Start Packing!" Three simple words, one memorable real estate experience.

Supporters of the Santa Clarita Open Space Initiative have created an informative website to help make it easier to find information on this important initiative at http://www.scvsaveopenspace.org/.

The Open Space Initiative would allow the City of Santa Clarita to buy up open space land within a 3-mile radius of the City limits to preserve as open space territory. This would in effect stop the bulldozing of the ridgelines around the Santa Clarita Valley in areas where the City is able to buy up these open spaces.

The cost to the residents is $25 per year for the next 30 years, with a maximum increase of $1 per year for the typical homeowner. After 30 years, the initiative must again be presented to the residents for a vote. This cost will be added to the annual property tax bill.

Some people are questioning why there isn't some way for private contributions to be made, rather than taxing the whole Santa Clarita Valley area for this. The answer is simple: With the tax base approved, the City will be able to BORROW funds immediately to start buying up land parcels, instead of waiting for the taxes to be collected and turned over to the City of Santa Clarita.

Read more on this important Open Space Initiative before making any decisions. http://www.scvsaveopenspace.org has links to all of the City engineering reports and more for your reference.

Linda Slocum

HoneyStartPacking.com

SantaClaritaRealEstateBlog.com

If you're looking to buy a new home, one of the first things to do is to make sure that you have your credit score under control. Your credit score (or FICO) can mean a great loan, a high-interest loan, or no loan at all!

Money has a great article on 6 Ways to Kill Your Credit Score, with great tips on what your FICO score means as ways to maximize that score. Some tips include:

• Don't do anything with your credit for 60 days prior to applying for a loan. And of course don't do anything with your credit during the actual loan process either! This means no new charges, and no new credit (credit cards or other loans).
• Keep your balance to 30% of your credit limit (or less) for each credit card.
• Make payments on time! Send in at least the minimum payment by the due date. Better yet, pay off the entire balance as soon as the statement arrives.
• Don't close unused accounts, even if you've paid them off or transferred the debt elsewhere.
• Check your credit report regularly to make sure there are no errors, and correct any errors that do appear.
• Don't hide debt from your spouse! It will show up when your lender pulls your credit anyways.

Linda Slocum

HoneyStartPacking.com

SantaClaritaRealEstateBlog.com

Think you're getting the fish you ordered at the sushi bar? Or are they charging you for one fish, and serving a cheaper fish instead?

David Goldstein at CBS2.com recently did a study of several sushi restaurants in the Los Angeles area and came up with some surprising results.

Of the 7 restaurants tested, 6 switched out the "red snapper" for the less expensive tilapia. All of the bait-and-switchers claimed that it was a "translation" problem, saying that the Japanase word for tilapia was easily translated to "red snapper". Yeah, right!

Sugiura Toshi, who runs a local sushi school, says of the pawning off of tilapia for the more expensive red snapper, "It's about $20 and this one from the package...its $4.50 a pound," Toshi says. "They have to know it. The chef has to know. That's what you expect from the chef right?"

The testers took take-out sushi from several restaurants, asking for tuna and red snapper. They then iced the takeout packages and took them to a nearby lab for DNA testing to determine exactly what fish had been served. The restaurants substituting tilapia for red snapper included Todai in Sherman Oaks, California Roll and Sush Fish in Larchmont, Kabuki in Hollywood, GuGu Sushi in Hermosa Beach, Shogun Sushi in Northridge and Benihana in Newport Beach. All of the tuna tested was really tuna.

Needless to say, it's illegal to replace red snapper with tilapia - the customers should get exactly what they ordered. I'd expect the Los Angeles County Department of Health to start doing more thorough testing of the local sushi restaurants!

Linda Slocum

SantaClaritaRealEstateBlog.com

HoneyStartPacking.com