A  Seafood Restaurant with Stunning Water Views & Ambiance is Café Del Rey in Marina Del Rey, CA 90292.

My very first Blog Post was about Café Del Rey in Marina Del Rey, CA. a truly great Restaurant(http://actvra.in/bvZ ) Café Del Rey is probably one of the best restaurants in the area.  I said this in August of 2008. Many things have changed in our lives since August 28^th 2008. Some were for the better others for the worse. The Good News is Café Del Rey has gotten better. (http://cafedelreymarina.com) 

It is interesting to see when you like something and you discover that they improved it. I wish I would have taken pictures for my original blog, for a multitude of reasons.  Café Del Rey has done a facelift of the building and their Sign since my original blog posts. They have done a facelift in the kitchen as well. There is a new Executive Chef and a New Pastry Chef since my 2008 blog. The food has improved on all levels from starters to deserts.

The location and the view remained the same. The Restaurant is still catering to the discriminating taste of the locals as well as the visitors who are staying at the Ritz Carlton and can walk from the Hotel to the Restaurant. The rest of the other hotel guests might have to drive or take a cab if they are not up to a leisurely stroll from their hotels. Keep in mind the walk is less than a mile from the Marriott which is the furthest distance in comparison to the other hotels.

I wrote another Blog Post about Café Del Rey around October 2011 (http://actvra.in/kDD ) this time I took pictures and it was with the new Outside Façade.

 During the summer of 2012 one of my Active Rain friends Jeff Dowler from Carlsbad CA asked for a Restaurant recommendation, because he was visiting Marina Del Rey for his Wedding Anniversary. He also knew reading my blogs and getting to know me that I was a foodie as well… check out what he had to say (http://actvra.in/Nqf )

Now with all my reading and reviewing old posts of Café Del Rey I have developed a craving and when Diane comes back from Boston, MA we will have to go here again. Come home soon DianeJ!!

http://cafedelreymarina.com/   4451 Admiralty Way, Marina Del Rey, CA 90292 Call for reservations: 310.823.6395

If you are a consumer who is considering buying or selling a home, investment real estate, vacation homes, or beach properties in Southern California, Los Angeles, Century City, Westwood, West Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Culver City, Playa Vista, Marina Del Rey, Venice or Malibu. Feel Free to give me a call at 310.486.1002 or email me at homes@endrebarath.com or visit one of my websites at http://www.endrebarath.com Your Pet Friendly Realtor. I contribute a portion of my commission to Local Animal Rescue Organizations

Taking Title to Real Property in California: Consult your Tax Accountant & your Attorney

If you are a first time buyer or a move up buyer, chances are you are not familiar, or it has been so long, since you took Title of your property, hence it would be in your best interest to re-familiarize yourself as to what is the best way for you to take Title of your New Purchase.

Taking Title to Real Property in California can and will have significant tax and legal consequences as to how you take title. I would strongly encourage that you contact an attorney and/ or a CPA for how you should take our title.

Just to give you an idea:

A.       There could be “Sole Ownership”: 1. a single man/woman, 2. An Unmarried man/woman 3. A married man/woman, as his/her Sole and Separate Property

B.      Co-Ownership:  1. Community Property, 2. Joint Tenancy, 3. Tenancy in Common, 4. Trust

There are other ways such as Community Property with Right of Survivorship; anyway I could go on and on. There are many more ways to take title to real property. I could spend and provide you with definitions and explanations, but to get proper understanding of the legal and tax consequences you would still need to consult with the appropriate party which would be an attorney and a CPA.

The best advice I can give you is: this part of the purchase process is just as important as getting a physical inspection of the property. So please do not take a shortcut here! This Consultation will save you money in the long run!

If you are a consumer who is considering buying or selling a home, investment real estate, vacation homes, or beach properties in Southern California, Los Angeles, Century City, Westwood, West Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Culver City, Marina Del Rey, Venice or Malibu. Feel Free to give me a call at 310.486.1002 or emails me at homes@endrebarath.com or visit one of my websites at http://www.endrebarath.com Your Pet Friendly Realtor. I contribute a portion of my commission to Local Animal Rescue Organizations.

Did you know October is National Seafood Month?

One of my staple foods is seafood. I love buying, cooking and eating seafood. I can never get enough of it. Diane loves pasta so when she has the craving I try to combine it with seafood this way everyone is happy.

I just received an e-mail from one of my favorite local restaurants Cafe Del Rey (http://cafedelreymarina.com/) they are celebrating it with “Sustainable Seafood Menu” I find this so important. Restaurants and fish sellers need to take the Courageous approach and protect the endangered species. It works. I can recall when “Chilean sea bass” was in danger and the stores and restaurants raised the price of Chilean Sea Bass to $40-$50 a pound it allowed the fish to be taken off the endangered list.

So here is my excuse for this month to cook and eat more Seafood. (Like I need oneJ) If you are not coming over for dinner but have a craving for seafood please visit Cafe Del Rey

Café Del Rey at 4451 Admiralty Way, Marina Del Rey , CA 90292   call for reservations at 310.823.6395 and tell them your local Marina Del Rey Realtor Endre Barath sent you.

If you are a consumer who is considering buying or selling a home, investment real estate, vacation homes, or beach properties in Southern California, Los Angeles, Century City, Westwood, West Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Culver City, Marina Del Rey, Venice or Malibu. Feel Free to give me a call at 310.486.1002 or email me at homes@endrebarath.com or visit one of my websites at http://www.endrebarath.com Your Pet Friendly Realtor. I contribute a portion of my commission to Local Animal Rescue Organizations.

The proper way to boil and eat Lobster!

As some of you who read my blogs know I spent a lot of wonderful years in Boston, MA. I lived in the South End right across from Copley Square the Back Bay. For some of you who are not familiar with Boston, it is comparable to living on the West Side of Los Angeles or Beverly Hills Adjacent.

They were wonderful times for me. I could buy live lobster for about $4.50 a pound and if they were on the high end than $5.99 a pound. Those were the good old days….

Then we relocated to Los Angeles the price of Lobster went to $9.99 on a good day to more like $19.99 a pound. So it became a Tradition when Diane would go visit the East Coast she would bring back Lobsters. If my parents would visit they would order Lobsters. Therefore I was assured that 3-4 times a year I would have Lobsters sent to me one way or another.

Now with that said, there are many ways to cook lobster as well as to eat it. I love to play in the kitchen, Diane on the other hand is more straightforward and like lobster the simple way.  In other words Boil it and eat it.

So with that said. Here are the easy directions:

1.       Boil the water (fill large pot ¾ full of water and about 2-3 table of salt for every quart of water

2.       Place lobster head first into rapidly boiling water and cover the pot

3.       Depending on the size of the lobster ( I prefer 2.5-3.0 lbs) 15-20 minutes should do the job

Easy way to tell the Lobster will turn bright red when done and the large Mustache can be removed easily from the head the lobster is done.

4.       Remove lobster with tongs and place on large serving tray to cool and drain the liquid.

5.        I like to reserve a large portion of the cooking liquid for lobster bisque.(you better have lots of glass jars to reserve liquid)

6.       I also like to save the used shells for the lobster bisque (you better have plenty of freezer bags to do this)

I will also take lots of butter and clarify it (simmer and skim the froth of the butter as you keep doing this you are making a cholesterol free butter at the same times) I also like to add Thyme, Parsley  and Basil to the butter to add an extra level of flavor for the dipping.

7.       While the lobster is boiling I will also boil some Potatoes & Corn on the cob in a separate container.

Once to lobster is done have some extra containers at the table to place the empty shells and the finished corn cobs.  This should provide you with a Four Star Dinner. Do not forget to have fresh lemons. As Julia Child would have said

“Bon Appetite”!

If you are a consumer who is considering buying or selling a home, investment real estate, vacation homes, or beach properties in Southern California, Los Angeles, Century City, Westwood, West Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Culver City, Marina Del Rey, Venice or Malibu, please feel free to give me a call at 310.486.1002, email me at homes@endrebarath.com or visit one of my websites at http://www.endrebarath.com Your Pet Friendly Realtor. I contribute a portion of my commission to Local Animal Rescue Organizations

Marina Del Rey CA Condominium Market Report for the Month of September 2010

Marina Del Rey CA Condominium Market Report for the Month of September 2010

As most of you know Marina Del Rey, CA is a beach community and one can consider it as a Suburb of Los Angeles CA. Depending  where you live the beach can be walking distance of a few feet or furthest around 2-3 miles from the beach. Needless to say depending if you buy a Townhome, or a Single Family Residence, or a Condominium the Value increases if you have an Ocean View Property as well as the distance of the Proximity to the beach. Sellers and buyers are very proud of the size and distance of the Ocean View.

Now with that said, let's see how the Real Estate Activity fared in the Marina for the month of September.

There 163 Active Condominium listing for Sale on the Market in Marina Del Rey for the month of September. This is a slight drop from the previous month of 169. All in all this is relatively negligible

There was a decrease in the Accepting Back up Offer category as well. From the previous month's 23 this decrease was to 18. This would not seem much provided you add in the Pending Sales and they are favorable. Otherwise it becomes noteworthy to watch. In this instance no reason for concern, since the Pending Sales increased from 38 of the previous month to 47 for the month of September.

The Sold Condominiums dropped from 26 to 14. Now this is a huge drop. The good news is that there was a respectable increase in the Pending Sales; hence I attribute the drop in sales to delayed Mortgage Closings due to slowness of the paperwork moving thru the bank's channels.

If you are a consumer  who is considering buying  or selling  a home, investment real estate, vacation homes, or beach properties in Southern California, Los Angeles, Century City, Westwood, West Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Culver City, Marina Del Rey, Venice or Malibu. Feel Free to give me a call at 310.486.1002 (USA) or email me at homes@endrebarath.com  or visit one of my websites at http://www.endrebarath.com  Your Pet Friendly Realtor. I contribute a portion of my commission to Local Animal Rescue Organizations.

Seller's Agent Should always be present at a home inspection. Period!I have just  read a post which was featured from Chandler Arizona. Instead of writing a long comment I felt it deserved a post as a rebuttal.

I disagree with the concept of not having the Listing Agent Present due to a number of reasons; I will just mention the most important ones:

•1.       The protection of the home is still the Listing Agents' Responsibility i.e.: legally

•2.       The seller's agent is more familiar with the property and many times home inspectors have questions where certain things are located. Age, size, etc.

•3.       The seller's agent should just be physically present and if needed he or she can answer the questions and if not, then the agent can contact the seller via phone or e-mail and get answers immediately for the inspector's convenience.

•4.       It is not about being defensive at all, it is about providing a resource if needed.

•5.       Maybe in Arizona things are done differently; herein the greater Los Angeles area the best Listing Agents will be present at the inspections.

•6.       Good buyer's Agents also provide the Seller's Agent a copy of the inspection. The benefit is when the buyer comes back with a Request for Repair, the seller has been prepared mentally by the listing agent and jointly reviewed the physical inspection, and hence the negotiation can go based on the agent's observation combined with the factual report.

•7.       In today's Real Estate Transaction the physical inspection is just one part of the process that buyers and sellers need to rely on their trusted advisor the buyers and seller agents, hence if they are not present,  nor they do not get an out brief at the minimum it is harder to give good advice.

•8.       The purpose is not to be adversarial or defensive rather to gather factual information.

 If you are a consumer  who is considering buying  or selling  a home, investment real estate, vacation homes, or beach properties in Southern California, Los Angeles, Century City, Westwood, West Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Culver City, Marina Del Rey, Venice or Malibu. Feel Free to give me a call at 310.486.1002 (USA) or email me at homes@endrebarath.com  or visit one of my websites at http://www.endrebarath.com  Your Pet Friendly Realtor. I contribute a portion of my commission to Local Animal Rescue Organizations.

Drive up the Marina del Rey Peninsula from the Venice Pier to to the Marina boat channel followed by a quick walk on the beach with Los Angeles beach cities agent & Realtor Andrew Jones. 25 blocks of luxury ocean view houses and condos on the sand, from classic surf homes to striking shoreline contemporary properties. This is what Los Angeles coastal real estate is all about! Live the Life.

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Andrew Jones is a Los Angeles native and resident of Venice Beach who is a real estate agent in both California & Nevada.