June 13, 2008

One Good Flip, Despite the Price

Cindy Allen recently wrote about Bravo TV’s Jeff Lewis selling his Los Feliz home. As she notes, he purchased the house in 2006 with the intent to redo it and flip it, but things didn’t work out. Instead, he put it on the market in 2007 for $1.525, but didn’t sell it until April 2008—for $1.250.

Cindy points out—very rightly—that $1.250 isn’t so bad for a 2/2 in this market. Well, I’m going to go even farther and say Lewis is a great salesman if he got that price for the place, no matter how nice his redo is. For me, it goes back to that over-used but oh, so accurate real estate mantra, “location, location, location.”

This place on Ben Lomond is location-challenged in my opinion. It’s near some really great streets, close to some exceptional properties, but just not quite there. If you look at the map on the Redfin listing, you’ll see this property is almost right across the street from a very large apartment building. This street is also a fairly busy cut-through at certain times of day - notably when the high school about 2 blocks away lets out. Don’t get me wrong—it’s a good area, just not great.

And most important, what else can you get for $1.25 million in the neighborhood? Lots! Really lovely homes in the nearby Moreno Highlands are going for about that….and you get a reservoir view and the Ivanhoe School District, two very desirable assets.

A few blocks from Ben Lomond, you could pick up this 4/3 with a pool on Tracy for $1.199- a busy street, but the house sits high up and is well maintained.

This 3/3 on Holly Knoll will get you up in the Franklin Hills, and it’s a cute traditional house. It’s listed at $1.149.

So I say kudos to Jeff. It may not be the price he wanted, but it’s a good price.