Corey Chambers Real Estate Newsletter November 2023 — The California Home

The Giving Back and Paying It Forward Real Estate Newsletter
Thank You!

The month of November brings about an extra opportunity to say Thank You for being a valuable part of our business. As most begin to prepare for the Holiday season, plan Thanksgiving get-togethers and the like, it’s easy to become wrapped up in all that we have to do to ensure a fun, joyful time for all we are responsible for — while overlooking all that we have to be thankful for. Gratitude, though, is a contagious attitude!

Unfortunately, many homeowners are desperate to exit their current homes. Actually, loathing this time of year adds to the frustration of not being settled for the Holidays. You may know someone or a family that fits this description. 

Here is where you and I can HELP! 

AND remember… YOUR referrals help the kids.

Therefore, our Mission is to Go Serve Big!!! Serve you, serve those you refer to us and of course, serve a great cause.

As a result of working with many families over the years, we have developed a unique program to help the homeowners wanting to make a move and Sell Fast, For Top Dollar, and with the Least Hassle! 

For November, we will guarantee, in writing, the sale of a California home for 100% of Market Value, or I Will Pay the Difference. 

I know there is some risk on my part to make such an incredible guarantee like that. Still, we sell just about every home we list for the market value price, sometimes even more. So there is no reason for area homeowners, your friends, and your family to fret about selling right now. 

This is where you can help! 

If you or anyone you know is considering making a move, we offer them a FREE Consultation. We will show them in this No Obligation to Move Consultation how they can make their move. Thus, allowing them to get what they want and do it with the least hassle. 

Just like we are thankful for you and your business, I am confident your referrals will be thanking you for steering them in the right direction on getting their home sold!!! 

AND remember… Your referrals help the kids. 

#CHLA #referralshelpkids

Your Referrals Help the Kids. For every referral I receive, I donate a portion to the Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. With your referrals, you are helping Children’s Hospital ensure that critical life-saving care is available to every child they treat. http://www.ReferralsHelpKids.com

Your referrals help kids!

We are still boldly on a mission to raise $25,000 for Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles this year, and we are getting close! We do this by donating to them a portion of our income from homes we sell. As you know, CHLA does AMAZING work in helping kids fight through and survive life-threatening diseases like cancer, Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, leukemia, and others. They also lead the way in many other fields. 

They can provide this care and keep patient costs to a minimum due in large part to and Donations and Sponsorships. We are proud to be an official sponsor of Children’s!

Why I support Childrenʼs Hospital, Los Angeles

Corey Chambers serving the community thanks to your help.

I grew up in the Greater Los Angeles Area, born in Los Angeles County at St. Francis Hospital. When I first heard about a young person close to our family suffering from a serious disease and getting treated for that at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. It was then that I began to pay closer attention to the work they do at that hospital. Since then, I have learned that it is a collection of hard-working health care professionals, most making their home right here in the Los Angeles area, all coming together for a common cause. That cause is to help young people overcome unfortunate health issues that life sometimes throws our way. Being a Los Angeles Area California native, I take pride in supporting in a way that I can do the good work these people do at Children’s. My team rallies around our annual goal of raising money and donating portions of our income to help Children’s in their quest to heal young people when they need healing. My team and I are committed to providing outstanding results for buyers and sellers referred to us by our past clients. I have discovered that Children’s Hospital Los Angeles shares a similar commitment to their patients. And since their services survive on sponsorships and donations, we are happy to contribute and proud to support them.
Sincerely,

Corey Chambers

*seller and Corey must agree on price and time of possession. Broker, CalDRE#01889449

A real estate company with experience, proven results, and a give-back philosophy! 

Over the years of helping many families sell their homes and/or buy another, we have met some wonderful, loving, caring people. People like you! So your referrals can rest assured that not only will they get the award-winning service we are known for and the guarantee to back it up, but that a solid portion of the income we receive will go toward helping the kids.

Refer your friends, neighbors, associates, or family members considering making a move

You can go to www.ReferralsHelpKids.com and enter their contact info online or forward the link to someone you know considering a move. 

Of course, you can always call me direct as well at 213-880-9910 

Patient Story: Gene Therapy Saves Greigh From a Paralyzing Muscle Disease

The 3-year-old was CHLA’s first patient identified with spinal muscular atrophy by California’s Newborn Screening Program, setting him on a remarkable path to a normal childhood. | By Jeff Weinstock

At 10 months old, Greigh did the one thing he was not supposed to do—walk. Born with spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), a neuromuscular disease that devastates the body’s ability to move, he was doomed to spend his life in a wheelchair.

Then what was he doing walking? For that, we must back up to events before he was born.

In June 2020, the California Newborn Screening Program expanded to include testing for SMA; 13 months earlier, a gene therapy was approved that could stop the disorder in its tracks.

It was a most fortunate timeline for Greigh, born 2 ½ months after screening of newborns for SMA was introduced. His blood sample flagged the presence of a mutated survival motor neuron (SMN)1 gene, tipping off doctors that he had the disease. A week later, he and his family were in the office of Children’s Hospital Los Angeles neurologist Leigh Maria Ramos-Platt, MD, as CHLA’s first patient with spinal muscular atrophy to have been identified through newborn screening.

Because he was screened at birth, Greigh had hardly a trace of symptoms when he came back positive for SMA. By appearances, “he was a perfect baby,” Dr. Ramos-Platt says. “But knowing the history of spinal muscular atrophy, knowing how tightly that genotype can predict what can happen in the future, there was no option but to treat. If we didn’t, at some point he would lose even the ability to sit.”

‘You have to get it done. There’s no other way’

The red voicemail indicator on her phone signaled to Greigh’s mother, Brittany, that there was a problem. There had to be, since the number attached to it belonged to the pediatrician’s office. She knew that an unscheduled call a week after she had returned home with her newborn son was less of a phone call and more of a siren.

“I knew it meant something,” Brittany says. “When you get a call, that means something’s wrong.”

When the doctor said he was referring Greigh to a neurologist, Brittany sensed “this was not just something he was allergic to. It was something more serious than that.”

Indeed it was. A congenital neuromuscular disorder that occurs in only 1 in 10,000 kids, spinal muscular atrophy attacks the body’s anterior horn cells. Once those cells are stricken, the motor nerves associated with them degenerate, as do all the muscles that those nerves supply—meaning the capacity to walk, sit, breathe, speak, and conduct virtually any movement collapses.

Identifying and then acting on the disease early to spare those anterior horn cells is the only way to rescue a child from death or severe disability, Dr. Ramos-Platt says. “Once an anterior horn cell is lost, that’s it. It cannot come back. There is nothing to save.”

Dr. Ramos-Platt, Medical Director of CHLA’s Neuromuscular Disorders Center in the hospital’s Neurological Institute, presented Brittany and her husband, Gregory, with two possible therapies. One was a medication called Spinraza (nusinersen), which is injected into the fluid that surrounds the spinal cord every four months. The second was Zolgensma (onasemnogene abeparvovec), the gene therapy, delivered by a one-time intravenous infusion that carries a healthy copy of the SMN1 gene into the patient’s bloodstream to replace the defective one.

Brittany and her husband decided on the second option, Zolgensma. The one-time-only infusion appealed to the family, as did Dr. Ramos-Platt’s belief that it could salvage a normal, symptom-free life for Greigh. The gene replacement would keep the disease from advancing any further than it already had, which in Greigh’s case was hardly at all. The lone symptom he showed was a slight jerky movement of his tongue, and the substitute gene would keep it from getting any worse.

Tests predicted that Greigh would develop Type 2 SMA, a less dire form of the disease than Type 1, which untreated is usually fatal within 18-24 months of birth. Having Type 2 was small consolation. It isn’t lethal, but typically patients never walk. The new treatments, in tandem with newborn screening, have toppled those expectations.

At 5 weeks of age, on Oct. 13, 2020, Greigh received a dose of Zolgensma. The infusion itself is pressure packed: No do-overs permitted.

“We have to be very, very careful, and we have to know what we’re doing,” Dr. Ramos-Platt says. “We get this lifesaving vial and then it goes into an infusion. You cannot drop this thing, you cannot break it, because you only get one chance to give it.”

It’s a monumental effort to get from screening to infusion, she says, from wrangling with the insurance company for authorization to administering the medication without any mishaps.

“There’s a lot. It’s easy to get overwhelmed by how much, but when you look at a baby, you see that you have to get it done. There’s no other way.

“We’re hopeful that if we give the medication to patients before they become symptomatic, particularly those who are identified on the newborn screen, they can live a healthy, happy childhood with minimal, if any, detriment to their physical abilities.”

A confirmed success

That appears to be what has happened with Greigh. Brittany has kept a running document of his development. When he was 3 months old, two months after he received the infusion, she sent a video to Dr. Ramos-Platt that showed Greigh moving around “just like a 3-month-old should,” the doctor says.

In fact, he was doing more than he should have. When the milestone was raising his head, he was pushing his entire body up off the ground.

A video sent three months later displayed more of the same. Greigh was rolling over, chasing his 5-year-old brother, Gianni, and, most notably, laughing and screaming—loudly, one of the rare times a screaming baby is applauded.

“We were very happy to see that,” Dr. Ramos-Platt says. “When they can’t scream that loud, their lungs are weak. It tells us their disease is bad. Hearing babies scream with SMA, it’s a good thing.”

A video at 11 months showed Greigh walking. “Based on his predicted genetic type, he should have never been able to walk,” the doctor says.

At 14 months, he was pushing a chair that appeared to weigh twice as much as he did, confirming that he was a success story.

“That was really exciting to see,” Dr. Ramos-Platt says. “By that time, we knew this had worked.”

Just turned 3, Greigh looks, behaves and misbehaves like any other kid his age. “He’s as tall as a 3-year-old should be,” Brittany says. “He climbs, he argues with his brother—everything a normal 3-year-old would do. He’s very energetic, very strong. When I go to parent-teacher conferences, they’re like, ‘Oh, he’s completely fine. He’s actually pretty advanced for his age.’”

Brittany says the family wonders what exactly was in the vial Greigh received. “The running joke is that he was infused with superpowers.”

Born just in time

So is he cured?

For the sake of answering with a pun, let’s say it’s a Greigh area. Dr. Ramos-Platt says it depends on your definition. Technically, no, since SMA can’t be eliminated, only disarmed. But medicine is a results-oriented business, so practically, yes. He certainly has flown past the designated targets.

“Our goal primarily was to keep Greigh from having to be permanently ventilated and to enable him to sit and sustain being able to sit,” Dr. Ramos-Platt says.

She can’t say absolutely that the disease has been incapacitated for good. The data on Zolgensma doesn’t stretch out far enough.

“I’m hopeful it’s been stopped, but I can’t be 100%. The gene therapy duration has only been studied for so many years. We don’t know if it’s going to last beyond 10-12 years. What I can see right now, it looks like it’s a cure.”

Brittany marvels at the coinciding of Greigh’s birth in September 2020 with the addition of SMA to California’s newborn screening panel the preceding June. “I can’t explain just how lucky I feel,” she says. “If, say, he had been born in May, we wouldn’t have known until it was too late, when he was showing symptoms of not moving, not rolling his head, not sitting up.”

She keeps the videos coming, to the delight of Dr. Ramos-Platt. “When I show them to the pharmacy staff who helped prepare the medication, they’re in tears because it’s just mind-blowing,” she says.

“For those of us who took care of patients with SMA, particularly Type 1, before these treatments were available, it was basically a death sentence you were giving to the family. I can’t believe we are living in an era where SMA does not have to kill kids anymore. It’s really miraculous.”

Learn more about the Neurological Institute at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles.

How You Can Help

Refer your friends, neighbors, associates, or family members considering making a move: www.ReferralsHelpKids.com or call Corey at 213-880-9910

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At 7 ½ months old, Greigh was bringing himself to a standing position, indicating that the gene infusion had worked. | Story and photos courtesy Children’s Hospital Los Angeles

Copyright © This free information provided courtesy L.A. Loft Blog with the information provided by Corey Chambers, Broker CalDRE 01889449. We are not necessarily associated with the seller, homeowner’s association, or developer. For more information, contact 213-880-9910 or visit LALoftBlog.com, Licensed in California. All information provided is deemed reliable but is not guaranteed and should be independently verified. Properties are subject to prior sale or rental. This is not a solicitation if the buyer or seller is already under contract with another broker.

Corey Chambers Real Estate Newsletter September 2023 | The SoCal Home


The SoCal Home — Your Personal Guide in Shaky Times

Labor Day Approaches—Let’s Reflect

Redefining Labor Day  —  Labor Day has often been a day of rest, but given the current climate of stagflation, high-interest taxes, and union strikes, this year it serves as a call to reflection more than relaxation. You might be among those who are feeling the pinch and questioning what the future holds when it comes to homeownership or selling. I understand the complexity of the decision you’re facing, and it’s why I’m dedicating myself more than ever to guide you through these unpredictable times.

Life throws us into seasons—some of comfort, others of challenge. The one we’re in now can feel like an economic winter, but as we both know, seasons are temporary. What remains constant is our ability to navigate them, learn from them, and emerge more resilient. #CoreyChambers

This is where you come in…

For September, if you or anyone you know is considering making a move to a new home, we will GUARANTEE a minimum of $10,000 Savings for every $200,000 in sales price on the home purchase, or I will pay the difference*. You read it correctly – my labor saves you, and those you know considering making a move, a nice chunk of change. The reason why I can make such a special offer is simply that our long track record of selling homes and specialized knowledge allow us to negotiate the best deal on the best home for our best clients.  #realestate #newsletter

IN THIS ISSUE: 

  •  HAPPY LABOR DAY
  •  How Your Referrals Help Kids
  • And Much More   #realestate #newsletter

Even if YOU are not moving, you can still benefit

Each month in my special SoCal Home Newsletter, I ask, “Who do you know that may be considering a move?”

This is because YOUR referrals help the kids…

Anyone you know considering making a move or wanting to buy or sell their home, please refer them to me without hesitation. They will receive the guarantee I detailed above, and you can rest assured your referrals will help the kids at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles.

With a guarantee like this, you, your friends, neighbors, work associates, and family members who may be considering a move can now do so and avoid the uncertainties in the marketplace.

If you missed last month’s SoCal Home Newsletter, we are on a mission to raise $25,000 for the Children’s Hospital Los Angeles Helping Hands Fund, so we are donating a good portion of our income from home sales to them. As you know, Children’s does a tremendous job of helping kids fight through and survive nasty life-threatening diseases like Cancers, Leukemia, and non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma: stuff that often robs young people’s lives.

Kids under their care are 300% more likely to enter into remission IF they can get into the recovery center. But the Recovery Center survives on Sponsorships and Donations. So YOUR REFERRALS REALLY DO HELP THE KIDS…

Who do you know considering buying or selling a home you could refer to my real estate sales team?

Not only will they benefit from our award-winning service, but we donate a substantial portion of our income on every home sale to Children’s Hospital Los Angeles Helping Hands Fund.

Your Referrals Really Do Help the Kids…

I want to make it easy to refer your friends, neighbors, associates, or family members considering making a move.

You can go to www.ReferralsHelpKids.com and enter their contact info online or forward the link to who you know considering a move.

Over the last two decades of helping thousands of families sell their homes and/or buy another, we have met some wonderful, loving, caring people. People like you! So your referrals, those you know considering a move, that we help – you can rest assured that not only will they get the award-winning service we are known for and the guarantee to back it up, but that a solid portion of the income we receive from the transaction will go toward a very worthy cause.

It’s easy to refer your friends, neighbors, associates, or family members considering making a move. Simply go to www.ReferralsHelpKids.com, or, of course, you can always call me directly at 213-880-9910.

I hope you and your family are well and this Independence Day brings you much joy and happiness. With all my appreciation.

Corey

Supporting_CHLA_logo

Corey Chambers, Broker   213-880-9910

 

P.S. We love honoring our past clients like you. Read all about that at www.ReferralsHelpKids.com

It’s easy to refer those you know considering buying or selling a home. You can go to www.ReferralsHelpKids.com and enter their contact info online or forward the link to who you know considering a move. You can also call me direct or pass my number on 213-880-9910.

Why I Support Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles

I grew up right here in Los Angeles. Born right nearby at St. Francis Hospital. I remember hearing about a young person close to our family suffering from a nasty disease and getting treated for that at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. Then, I began to pay more immediate attention to their work at that hospital. Since then, I have learned that it is a collection of hard-working health care professionals, most making their homes right here in the Los Angeles area, all coming together for a common cause. That cause is to help young people overcome unfortunate health issues that life sometimes throws our way. Being a Los Angeles area, California native, I take pride in supporting in any way that I can the good work these people do at Children’s. My team rallies around our annual goal of raising money and donating portions of our income to help Children in their quest to heal young people when they need healing. My team and I are committed to providing outstanding results for buyers and sellers referred to us by our past clients. I have discovered that Children’s Hospital Los Angeles shares similar commitments to its patients. And since their services survive sponsorships and donations, we are happy to contribute and proud to support them.

Sincerely,

Corey Chambers 213-880-9910

Below is the story of a young patient whose life was turned around by Children’s Hospital Los Angeles.

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Caden, a Former Patient, Now Supporting Children’s Hospital Los Angeles

by Eunice Wallace

After receiving lifesaving care at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, Caden was determined to give back. He’s now raising funds for the hospital as a Junior Ambassador—and hopes to inspire others. 

On Oct. 22, 2022, Caden McMullin walked up to the podium at the Witherbee Auditorium on the grounds of the Los Angeles Zoo. He was there to give the keynote speech at the Children’s Hospital Los Angeles Junior Ambassadors Conference, reflecting on a period of his life he doesn’t remember, because he was too young.

The story he shared was a remarkable one: Had Caden, as a fetus and newborn, not received treatment at the hospital, it’s unlikely he would have been standing there that day.

Before he was born, Caden was diagnosed with a fast-growing tumor called a cervical teratoma on his neck. At birth, the tumor was larger than his head and weighed one-third of his small 6-pound frame. But experts at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles were ready for him. While Caden was in utero, a multidisciplinary team of specialists had created a highly orchestrated plan to safely and swiftly move Caden from the nearby hospital where he was born to CHLA.

“There were probably no less than 20 providers in the operating room, ready to handle any contingency or emergency that could happen,” recalls Caden’s mom, Candace. “It was a very well thought out plan.”

A roller coaster of emotions

Candace and her husband, Eric, had several months to prepare for that moment. During a routine 20-week ultrasound, the technician noticed something unusual and urged the couple to see a specialist. They started asking around for recommendations and chose the Fetal-Maternal Center at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, where a team led by Director David Miller, MD, diagnosed the teratoma and began to oversee and coordinate Candace’s prenatal care.

With the due date approaching and the tumor rapidly growing, it became clear Candace would need a special Caesarean section called a modified exit procedure. Two days before the Fourth of July in 2007, Caden was removed from the womb with the umbilical cord still attached to the placenta, which allowed oxygen to continue to flow as neonatology, respiratory therapy, and ear, nose and throat experts worked quickly to open the airway that was being compressed by the tumor.

“This type of multidisciplinary collaboration is something done at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles all the time. You have to plan for every possible scenario and be ready to act on a solution just right for that patient,” says Philippe Friedlich, MD, MSEpi, MBA, Chief of the Division of Neonatology and co-Director of the Fetal and Neonatal Institute, who was part of Caden’s care team. “It’s what we do best.”

Once an airway was secured, the umbilical cord was cut, and Caden was transported to Children’s Hospital Los Angeles to undergo surgery. The procedure to excise the tumor went smoothly, and a sample of the cells was sent to the laboratory for testing. Then, the pathology results came back.

“We were told it’s rare to have this type of tumor in the first place but then to find out it was cancerous? It was unexpected and just a roller coaster of emotions,” says Caden’s dad, Eric.

‘Overcoming cancer’

Head and neck teratomas occur in 1 out of every 40,000 to 50,000 births. “Only a small percentage of them are malignant,” says Leo Mascarenhas, MD, MS, Deputy Director of the Cancer and Blood Disease Institute at CHLA. “What made Caden’s case highly unusual was the tumor’s large size, its location and the dramatic way that he had to be delivered. Furthermore, targeting cancer in a newborn comes with extraordinary challenges of its own.”

Teenager with light skin tone and dark hair wearing a blue hoodie stands next to lush green fern and dark brown tree trunk
”I basically owe my life and overall good health to CHLA,” says Caden.
Dr. Mascarenhas started Caden on chemotherapy right away, developing a treatment plan that was strong enough to destroy the cancer but one that a tiny baby could tolerate.

Caden completed two rounds of chemo in the hospital—handling the treatment better than anyone expected—and was able to go home for the first time in his life shortly before Halloween.

To completely wipe out the cancer cells, two more outpatient rounds of chemotherapy followed before the lab work came back clean.

For years, the McMullins visited Children’s Hospital Los Angeles for Caden’s annual checkups. A decade went by without any complications, and when he was 10 years old, Caden was officially in remission.

Candace and Eric marvel at how far their son, now 16, has come. He’s an active high school sophomore at Loyola High School—just a few miles south from CHLA’s Sunset campus—who loves all sports, especially baseball, skiing and hiking. And they’re especially proud that he’s giving back to the hospital by raising funds and awareness in his community through the CHLA Junior Ambassadors program.

“The best part is representing Children’s Hospital Los Angeles and sharing my story to show what a special place it is,” says Caden. “I hope people will appreciate the one-of-a-kind care that results from so many different specialists working together, plus the cutting-edge research that happens at the same time.

“For me personally,” he adds, “I basically owe my life and overall good health to CHLA.”

Where amazing things happen

Supporting CHLA is a family affair for the McMullins. In 2022, they participated in the hospital’s community fundraiser Walk and Play L.A., and before Caden became a Junior Ambassador, Candace was a member of the hospital’s Spiritual Care Guild for several years. These days, she and Eric donate to two areas that hold a special place in their hearts: neonatology and oncology.

Family of four sit in front of bicycle on paving stone road
”To help an institution like this in your city … is a fairly easy thing to do,” Eric says of CHLA.
“To help an institution like this in your city, where these amazing things can happen, is a fairly easy thing to do,” says Eric.

“Had we not gone to Children’s Hospital,” says Candace, “I believe that would have diminished Caden’s chance at survival.”

Even after all these years and treating hundreds, if not thousands, of patients since then, doctors still remember Caden and light up at the mention of his name. Working at a pediatric medical institution means clinicians often watch families go home with their child, but they don’t always know how that patient is doing later on in life.

Seeing Caden in his purple Junior Ambassador shirt and out in the community on behalf of Children’s Hospital Los Angeles has been tremendously gratifying for his care team.

“It doesn’t get any better than that,” says Dr. Friedlich, who holds the Teresa and Byron Pollitt Family Chair in Fetal and Neonatal Medicine. “His family had so much courage during this frightening ordeal, and to know that Caden is now healthy and has a bright future, that is a true message of hope.”  

This article is featured in the Summer 2023 issue of Imagine magazine.

—  Story and photos courtesy Children’s Hospital Los Angeles

How you can help:

Refer your friends, neighbors, associates or family members who are considering making a move:

www.ReferralsHelpKids.com or call Corey at 213-880-9910

 

Copyright © This free information is provided courtesy of L.A. Loft Blog and LAcondoInfo.com with the information provided by Corey Chambers, Broker, BRE#01889449. We are not associated with the homeowner’s association or developer. For more information, contact (213) 880-9910 or visit CoreyChambers.com, Licensed in California. All information provided is deemed reliable but is not guaranteed and should be independently verified. Properties are subject to prior sale or rental. This is not a solicitation if the buyer or seller is already under contract with another broker.

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