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Tips to help keep your car running properly in the summer heat

This summer, drivers in the U.S. are taking more long trips than they were before the pandemic, according to the Maryland Transportation Institute. While the high temperatures of summer—on their own—can pose a threat to your vehicle’s working condition, hazards are heightened when more vehicles ...

Leaving Your Home During Fire Season

There's plenty of articles discussing how to avoid fires during your summer travel plans, but what about for those of us that live in these fire prone regions? How can we feel comfortable leaving our home, full of our belongings, during fire season? 1. Bring the absolute essentials with you. ...

How to Avoid the Leading Cause of Home Damage

For most of us, when we think about the causes of severe water damage to our homes, we think about extreme weather like a hurricane or torrential rains. But the unfortunate reality is that extensive damage is often the result of ordinary household plumbing systems and appliances that fail – and ...

Sonoma County is Recipient of $37 million grant for wildfire mitigation

President Joe Biden announced this week that the County of Sonoma will receive a $37 million grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency designed to help local, state and tribal agencies in California receive reimbursement for certain costs related to wildfire risk reduction. Biden made the announcement Wednesday at a White ...

Gender and Your Car Insurance Rates

From the FAQ vault...How does gender affect your car insurance rates? We've all heard the trope - young boys in flashy red cars are going to pay the most. But is this still true? Not entirely! As of 2019, gender is no longer a factor ...

Fire Damage Restoration

Something to keep in mind, especially as "fire season" is already well underway. Restoration companies are your friend in the aftermath of fire damage. They're set up to work directly with your insurance, making the process of restoring damage to your home as smooth as possible.   When a fire ...

Rear Ending FAQs

A lot of our blog topics are generated by our community of clients. Some are particularly close to home, though. This week's blog is a summary of a recent event from a friend of our office family.

The Quandary:

Proper BBQ ash disposal can prevent a house fire

On the tail end of a warm three-day Memorial Weekend, "the Santa Rosa Fire Department received multiple calls for a house on fire. The first engine arrived in 4 minutes and found smoke visible from the roof vents and rear of a one-story home. The fire started on the exterior ...

Sonoma County Releases Evacuation Zone Maps for Unincorporated Areas

Shared from North Bay Biz! The County of Sonoma has released official evacuation zone maps designed to help residents be ready for an emergency that may require them to evacuate their homes, the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office announced today. The County is establishing standardized evacuation zones for Sonoma County. ...

How will you cut back water use by 20%?

The latest headline in the Press Democrat claims, "Santa Rosa asks residents to cut water use by 20%" 20%...of what? Today's we aim to make that goal more palatable. According to California's Legislative Analyst's Office (LAO), the average California resident used approximately 85 gallons, per person, per ...

Santa Rosa's Cash for Grass

Header image courtesy of local landscaping company and Barber Insurance client, Zen Gardens Santa Rosa homeowners! The city of Santa Rosa has all sorts of rebates and incentives to encourage residents to pursue water-concious landscapes, appliances, accessories and more. Their newest addition to the ever-growing list is their "Cash ...

The Consequences of a Seller's Market

The current California housing market has a low-inventory of existing homes for sale. This is enables a lot of homes to be offered in “as-is” condition where they are sold without repairs being made prior to the sale. It seem that in a “hot” housing market like this, buyers ...