Best Buys In Ojai/Team Deckert – Our daily blog spotlighting the best in Ojai Valley real estate!

August 13, 2026

Quote of the Day

Don’t look forward to the day when you stop suffering, because when it comes you’ll know that you’re dead.

~ Tennessee Williams

This Day in History

August 13, 1995: Yankee great Mickey Mantle succumbs to cancer. Former New York Yankees star Mickey Mantle dies of liver cancer at the age of 63. While “The Mick” patrolled center field and batted clean-up between 1951 and 1968, the Yankees won 12 American League pennants and seven World Series championships.

Mantle’s father and son both died in their 30s, the result of Hodgkin’s disease. Mantle was sure the same fate would befall him, and joked he would have taken better care of himself if he knew he would live. In 1994, after years of alcoholism, Mantle was diagnosed with liver cancer, and urged his fans to take care of their health, saying “Don’t be like me.” Although he received a liver transplant, by then the cancer had spread to his lungs, and he died at just after 2 a.m. on August 13, 1995, at the Baylor University Cancer Center in Dallas.

At the time of his death Mantle held many of the records for World Series play, including most home runs (18), most RBIs (40) and most runs (42).

Ojai Weather

Mostly sunny – High 81 / Low 60

Lake Casitas water capacity – 96.7%

Thursday, August 13, 2026

10:00 a.m.

There is a new “coming soon” listing on the market:

125 Oak Drive – $835,000 (coming soon, 8/14)

Pic of the Day

Actual listing photo – what kind of orgy house is this?

Wednesday, August 12, 2026

10:55 a.m.

One new listing hit the market in the last five days, but it’s already a pending sale:

11374 Oakcrest Avenue – $850,000 (already under contract)

I just returned from a 10 day trip to visit my family in Chicago. It was a combination of sadness and joy – the sadness consisted of saying “goodbye” to our family home that the Deckerts had owned for 52 years. My younger brother – who bought the home from my father 15 years ago – made the move to a new home just 20 minutes away. We went through the last of the older family photos, letters, notes, and other memorabilia between my mother and father, combined their ashes and put them in smaller urns that all the kids could take with them (I received a minor inquisition from the O’hare TSA when I carried it with my on-board luggage), held a vinyl album lottery of my dad’s 1,500 or so records; sawed open an old safe that belonged to my younger sister (with her approval, of course) – hoping for a more exciting reveal than that of Al Capone’s vault; and my brother’s mother-in-law made throw pillows out of several of my father’s old work uniforms – complete with his name patch, as well as the company’s logo. Indeed, tears were shed.

But there was much joy as well: The six of my younger siblings and myself, goofing on each other during the album lottery; the last Deckert family baseball game to be held in the side yard; one of my younger brothers – who stopped playing sports by the time he was 10 years old – hitting a home run over the house; seeing my little sister, who only a year ago first signed up with the School of Rock adult band in order to learn to sing, then watching her perform live in front of a room of 200 people and absolutely nailing “You Got Today” (by Maggie Rose) – causing me to get the chills and tears to form in my eyes; watching my sister’s kids also perform live on that same stage; stopping at Portllo’s twice to get the famous Chicago-style hot dog (which I would pick over steak and lobster any day); and staying up until 2:00 a.m. just shootin’ the breeze with my brother.

All great and cherished memories of my former home – but it’s good to be back home in Ojai, my “forever” place to be!