Archive for the ‘Beverly Hills, Hollywood, Westwood’ Category
July 9, 2008
ZIP code 90036, an area in L.A. roughly bounded by Fairfax, Melrose, and Highland avenues and Olympic Boulevard, is an area of classic 1920s homes that’s enjoyed a resurgence in the past two decades or so. The area’s central location, plus its low availability of single-family homes in the area, has kept housing values and sales steady during the downturn.
There are 41 single-family homes listed for sale in 90036. In the past three months, 32 homes have sold — many for a million dollars or more. The average listing price of $1,194,250 is only about $100,000 more than the average sold price, which says that folks who price their properties realistically have a good change of selling.
Even though a million bucks is a ton of money for a house, it’s all relative. If you want to own a home on the Westside but can’t afford Beverly Hills or Santa Monica, this area is a great compromise: close to everything, yet comparatively affordable. Also, the houses have tons of character, and they’re built as solidly as bomb shelters.
Here are some recent sales:
812 S. Highland Ave.
Sold for $1,175,000 on June 27
4BR/3B/2,191 square feet
Year built: 1928
History: Last sold for $245,000 in October 1994, this home is on a well-traveled portion of Highland.
631 N. Fuller Ave.
Sold for $1,260,000 on June 24
3BR/3B/1,906 square feet
Year built: 1926
History: Last sold in 2003 for $787,500.
625 N. Mansfield Ave.
Sold for $760,000 on April 16
2BR/1B/1,254 square feet
Year built: 1924
History: Last purchased in 1977 for $35,000.
On the market:
7660 Clinton St.
$799,000
3BR/1.5B/1,233 square feet
Days on market: 26
OPEN HOUSE: Sunday, July 13, 2-5 p.m.
Notes: This is one of those “condo alternatives” — a small, single-story home on an undersize lot. Looks like it’s nicely maintained.
742 S. Citrus Ave.
$999,000
3BR/2B/2,149 square feet
Days on market: 102
Notes: This home was last purchased for $400,000 in 1990, yet it’s listed as a short sale, which says that its owner must have been tapping its equity for a while. Check out the listing photo compared to the Redfin street photo; the listing photo must be old or Photoshopped, because the Redfin photo reveals serious neglect.
327 N. Vista St.
$1,070,000
3BR/2B/1,811 square feet
Days on market: 175
Notes: The listing says this house hasn’t been on the market in 40 years (read: needs renovating). Its price has been reduced four times since January.
June 23, 2008
I don’t know about you, but I’m really digging the second season of “Flipping Out,” the Bravo TV reality show about Los Angeles-based OCD home flipper Jeff Lewis. I was wondering how Jeff and his company would make ends meet with the downturn in the real estate market, and now we have our answer: Jeff is hiring himself out as a remodeler. His project is a Hancock Park mansion that has hosted several U.S. presidents and thus is referred to by some as “the Western White House.”
I can’t find an exact location of the Hancock Park property, but, with help from The Real Estalker, I found the property Jeff and Co. call “Valley Oak” on the show. 
According to Property Shark, Jeff and his partner Ryan Brown purchased the home at 5731 Valley Oak Drive in Los Feliz in March 2007 for $1,710,000. It’s a three-bedroom, three-bath with more than 3,000 square feet on about a third of an acre. After a Jeff-and-Ryan signature remodel, including the addition of another half-bath, it was put up for sale in April for $3,195,000 and reduced to its current $2,995,000 a few weeks later. Here’s the Redfin listing.
It must not bother Jeff that his homes seem to end up being among the most pricey in the area. According to the Redfin database, the most expensive home sold in the last six months was under $2 million.
Sold:
5682 Holly Oak Drive
Sold for $1,999,999 on 5/12/08
3BR/4B/3,164 square feet
Notes: This house, purchased for $880,000 in January 2003, netted the owner a profit that might make Jeff Lewis envious.
2269 Canyon Drive
Sold for $1,500,000 on /23/08
3BR/3B/2,578 square feet
Notes: A good investment for whoever purchased this house for $423,000 in 1997.
For sale:
2332 Bronson Hill Drive
$1,799,000
3BR/2B/2,655 square feet
Notes: Last sold in 1990 for $500,000, this house hit the market in March at $1,997,000 and has been reduced twice.
1944 Canyon Drive
$1,399,000
3BR/3.5B/2,800 square feet
Notes: Last changed hands in 2001, for $468,000.
June 21, 2008
That was the gist of syndicated real estate expert Lew Sichelman’s Sunday column. In a buyers’ market, people are looking for deals. 
In today’s market, if your place isn’t priced correctly, it probably isn’t going to sell. More than likely, it will languish on the list of unsold inventory until the market adjusts back up to your asking price. And that could be months — or even years in some places.
How will you know what the right price is?
“I have learned that a great strategy for sellers who are serious about getting their homes sold is to price the property ahead of the market,” said Michael Selvaggio, president of the Council of Residential Specialists and a broker in Townsend, Del.
In a seller’s market, Selvaggio said, there’s nothing wrong with setting your price a little higher than the last one because prices are steadily rising. But in a flat or declining market, your price should be a little lower than the last comparable sale.
And not just a few percentage points lower, either. “When was the last time you rushed out to the mall to take advantage of a 2% sale?” asked the 32-year real estate veteran. “You need to have a real sale, so how about 5% to 10% off, for starters?”
That’s exactly what I did when I sold my home in San Diego in 2007. The market had slowed way down, and nothing was selling. Most comparable homes were priced in the low $500s, but there was a foreclosure for $505,000 and a short sale pending for $475,000, and nothing was moving.
I cut the price to $499,000, and then quickly to $489,000, which attracted the attention of the short-sale buyer. She offered $483,000, and I accepted.
Between the real estate commission, improvements and the price reduction, we lost about $70,000 of our $200,000 down payment, which was made possible by a 2005 home sale. But today, the same home is selling for under $400,000.
I was lucky to have the price flexibility to absorb the loss. The folks who bought for little or no money down at the peak of the market are going to have to negotiate a short sale (difficult to do) or face foreclosure.
Take this home at 642 N. Curson Ave. in the Fairfax District. This person paid $1,050,000 for this 3+2 in May 2006, at the height of the market. If the mortgage is a 2/28 adjustable, it just reset, and it’s panic time. The home first came on the market on May 9 for $1,025,000 and is already down to $949,000. The listing doesn’t say “short sale,” but unless the owner is planning to write a six-figure check to escrow, that’s what it is.
Dramatic price cuts recently helped this house at 359 N. Sweetzer Ave. sell. The owner purchased in 2000, so, unless the house was used as an ATM, there was equity there — and thus price flexibility.
June 20, 2008
The guitarist for the rock band Velvet Revolver, whose name is Saul Hudson but who goes by the moniker Slash, is no stranger to lawsuits. Three years ago, he sued his former Guns N’ Roses bandmate Axl Rose over royalties to the group’s songs. That same year, his former publicist sued him for money she said he owed her.
In November, Slash and his wife, Perla, filed a lawsuit against the real estate agent who sold them a house in the Hollywood Hills back in 2005. This week, a judge in the case agreed to allow the case to proceed.
Judge Mel Red Recana denied defense motions to dismiss the portions of the suit alleging fraud, constructive fraud, negative fraud and breach of fiduciary duty, and to strike the claim for punitive damages.
He scheduled a Feb. 17 trial date and urged both sides to consider resolving the case with the help of a mediator.
Here’s what the suit contends:
The couple allege they thought they had found their dream house in December 2005 and believed it was on a private, gated street in the Hollywood Hills. Although the street is gated, it is public and has very little parking, according to their court papers.
The rocker and his wife also say the home was much smaller than 7,800 square feet, as listed, and that there were other issues with the title to the property.
“It’s hard to imagine conduct that is worse than a real estate agent intentionally misleading and/or withholding critical information from a purchaser so that a sale would close and a commission would be paid,” their court papers state.
The other side:
But the defense court papers maintain that Holcomb and Sotheby’s had no way of knowing that the Multiple Listing Service description of the home was incorrect and that it was not actually on a private street.
The fabulous Real Estalker has covered this case from the beginning.
Shortly after purchasing the property for $6,250,000, the Slashers decided they didn’t want the 5 bedroom and 6.5 bathroom mini manse after all. So they dropped it back on the market for $6,995,000. Despite several price reductions, the house languished on the market and the asking price was eventually brought down to $5,995,999, a number significantly less than the sue happy homeowners paid for the property.
Here’s the Redfin listing for the property, showing that the house (just over 5,500 square feet; quite a bit less than the 7,800 Slash says was represented) was purchased in December for $5,725,000 (by San Diego Padres pitcher Randy Wolf, incidentally, apparently unfazed by the parking and size challenges).
Given Slash’s somewhat litigious past, it might be easy to dismiss this lawsuit as yet another disgruntled buyer trying to blame his real estate agent for his own lack of due diligence. After all, wasn’t actual square footage revealed by the appraiser during the escrow process? Shouldn’t Slash have done his homework regarding the street’s status?
But the judge allowed the case to proceed and refused to dismiss allegations of fraud or strike the punitive-damages claim. Maybe that means something; maybe it doesn’t. However, the defense is admitting that the MLS listing contained inaccurate information and that they had no way of verifying it. Well, SOMEONE clearly put that info up there — perhaps the seller? Is the seller named in the suit?
Many questions and few answers at this point. One thing is certain, though: This case will be closely watched.
Recent Redfin posts:
Is California On Its Way to a Housing Recovery?
Curbed Prices in the Valley: Slow-Bursting Bubbles Back to Back?
June 18, 2008
It’s been less than a month since I wrote about the state of home sales in Westwood ZIP 90024. At that time, 11 single-family homes had sold in the last three months, compared to 23 homes for sale.
Just for kicks, I decided to check in with 90024 today to see how things were going. Answer: Not well. In the last three months, Redfin shows that three single-family home sales were recorded in Westwood, with 28 homes on the market.
Why is this happening? Credit is tight; the economy is tenuous; and many of the people buying homes are looking for deals. Homes in Westwood are pricey.
Maybe it would be instructive to take a look at the three homes that sold.
1427 Warnall Ave.
Sold for $1,599,000 on March 21
3BR/3B/2,178 square feet
Notes: This house last changed hands in 1968, for $55,000.
10743 Lindbrook Dr.
Sold for $2,075,000 on May 2
4BR/4B/2,761 square feet
Notes: This house was last sold in 2004, for $1,940,000.
615 Warner Ave.
Sold for $1,750,000 on May 14
1BR/2B/1,743 square feet
Notes: This seems a bit pricey for one bedroom, doesn’t it? But, as real estate agents are fond of saying, “it only takes one.”
Nope — no apparent rhyme or reason to what’s selling. In this market, maybe it comes down to pure luck.
June 17, 2008
Back in January, I blogged about a massive price reduction on a single-family home at 359 N. Sweetzer Ave., Los Angeles (pictured above), a three-bedroom, two-bath, 1, 746-foot home in a highly desirable area of L.A. But the seller was overly optimistic when the house first hit the market: It was listed for a whopping $1,499,000.
In January, the seller wised up and slashed the price $200,000, to $1,299,000. A potential buyer smelled blood and swooped in with a lowball offer, and guess what: Our seller took it. The house closed in March for $1,050,000.
Clearly the house was overpriced to begin with, but that’s more than 40 percent lower than the original asking price. Did our buyer get a deal? Let’s look at comps:
Sold:
353 N. Sweetzer Ave.
Sold for $950,000 on Jan. 18
3BR/2B/1,784 square feet
Notes: This house was part of the same blog post. A sale was recorded in November for the telltale oddball price of a lender purchase: $951,446. However, someone with inside knowledge must have immediately put in an offer directly to the lender, because less than two months later, another sale was recorded, this time for $950,000. This is $100,000 less than its aforementioned neighbor down the street, for nearly identical square footage.
454 N. Flores St.
Sold for $910,000 on Feb. 27
2BR/1B/1,344 square feet
Notes: This is the comp agents will point to when trying to sell overpriced listings. This may be a lovely property, but why would anyone pay nearly a million dollars for a two-bedroom, one-bath house?
520 N. Flores St.
Sold for $890,000 on Feb. 22
2BR/2B/1,431 square feet
Notes: At least this one has two bathrooms.
For sale:
336 N. Flores St.
$1,185,000
2BR/2B/1,539 square feet
Days on market: 94
Notes: This listing touts a “$115,000 REDUCTION!!!” Looks like at least one more of similar size is in order.
321 N. Sweetzer Ave.
$1,049,000
3BR/2B/1,916 square feet
Days on market: 129
Notes: This fixer-upper came on the market in February at $1,165,000 and has been reduced three times.
June 10, 2008
My DVR is already set for the Season 2 premiere of Bravo TV’s “Flipping Out,” starring L.A. home flipper Jeff Lewis, on Tuesday, June 17. I have to say, I wondered whether Bravo would bring back the show, given the state of the real estate market. But it IS back, which means Jeff, an admitted obsessive-compulsive with flair for drama, will probably be even more crazed than last year as he tries to unload his properties.
Meanwhile, if you’ll recall, Season 1 featured a number of L.A. properties Jeff was trying to flip. He refers to them by their street names. I blogged several times about “Ben Lomond,” which is this Los Feliz house at 3427 Ben Lomond Place.
As you can see from the Redfin listing, Ben Lomond finally sold on April 1, 2008, for $1,250,000. Piecing together previous posts, we can trace the price reductions:
June 2006: Purchased house for $975,000 and remodeled it extensively. Put it back on the market sometime in 2007 with an asking price of $1,525,000.
August 2007: Asking price reduced to $1,485,000.
September 2007: Price reduced again, to $1,449,000.
October 2007: The house is taken off the market.
October 2007: The house is back on the market, priced at $1,399,000.
April 2008: Sold for $1,250,000.
It doesn’t take a financial genius to surmise that Jeff didn’t do very well on this house. He probably put at least $200K into it (he said it was in terrible shape when he bought it), then carried the loan for close to two years. (Click here to see pictures of the redone house from a post on The Real Estalker.) On the other hand, to get $1,250,000 in this market for a two-bedroom, two-bath isn’t so awful. At least the place did sell, unlike many others.
I think I’m beginning to see why the show came back: Jeff needs the money!
Anyway, the protracted sale of Ben Lomond should make for great T.V.
June 10, 2008
This Westwood listing — 1333 S. Beverly Glen Blvd., #801 – just fell out of escrow and is back on the market with a dramatic price reduction. 
This 2,000-square-foot, two-bedroom, three-bath unit arrived on the market Feb. 29 at $1,049,000. In April, it went down to $949,000. At some point an offer was made and it went into escrow, but over the weekend it came back on the market, with a brand-new price: $799,000.
Sure, it was probably overvalued to begin with, but a quarter-million price reduction — nearly 25 percent — does make one take notice.
Condo sales have been soft in Westwood: There are nearly 10 times as many condos for sale as have been sold in the last three months. That means anyone who has to sell must be aggressive on price. We’ll have to see whether this latest reduction does the trick.
Meanwhile, here are a few recent Westwood condo sales:
1414 S. Beverly Glen Blvd., #403
Sold for $850,000 on 2/12/08
2BR/3B/1,714 square feet
1277 S. Beverly Glen Blvd., #108
Sold for $417,000 on 5/14/08
2BR/3B/1,624 square feet
10490 Wilshire Blvd., Apt. 1002
Sold for $801,724 on 5/21/08
2BR/3B/1,682 square feet
Notes: The oddball price says this one is bank-owned.
June 9, 2008
The L.A. Times’ Hot Property reported this week that Canadian rocker Avril Lavigne received a cash offer on her Beverly Hills mansion after 36 days on the market.
However, the Big Time Listings blog reports that Lavigne’s house has actually been on the market on and off for more than a year: It first appeared on the market in March 2007 at a listing price of $6.9 million. Then it went off the market and reappeared for $6.2 million in November. It recently had been reduced again, to $5.8 million. According to The Real Estalker, several deals have fallen through on the house.
The cash offer, according to Hot Property, was $5.2 million. Lavigne purchased the five-bedroom, six-bath, 6,864-foot house in 2004 for $4,550,000, reports Big Time Listings.
Lavigne is lucky, assuming the sale goes through, because according to the Redfin database, nothing nearby in that price range has sold in the last six months. There are, however, plenty of active listings, and the sellers are holding firm to their prices, despite, in some cases, protracted periods on the market. Examples:
3335 Clerendon Rd., Beverly Hills
$5,495,000
5BR/6.5B/6,916 square feet
Days on market: 33
History: This Mulholland Estates house, down the street from Lavigne’s, was purchased in 1994 for $2,400,000.
13890 Mulholland Dr., Beverly Hills
$3,995,000
5BR/7B/5,107 square feet
Days on market: 182
History: Is this owner hoping to flip? The house was purchased less than two years ago for $2,780,000.
3337 Beverly Ranch Rd., Beverly Hills
$4,250,000
5BR/4.5B/5,003 square feet
Days on market: 11
History: Weird. Sold in June 2006 for $3,100,000 and again in July 2007 for $2,600,000. Now it’s back — for a lot more money. What gives?
14372 Mulholland Dr., Beverly Hills
$4,999,000
4BR/9B/9,564 square feet
Days on market: 85
History: Last changed hands in 2000 for $2,575,000. First listed for $4,499,000, then upped a few days later to its current price. (P.S. — What’s with all the bathrooms?)
June 6, 2008
In mid-March, we took a look at ZIP code 90028 (approximate boundaries: Western, Fountain, La Brea and Franklin avenues). This is an area with lots of rental units. At the time, we found shockingly few condo sales — three, to be exact — but single-family homes inventory was low. Let’s see how the picture has changed. (March figures are listed in parentheses.)
ZIP Code 90028: Hollywood
Single-Family Homes
For sale: 9 (5)
Average listing price: $1,099,000 ($789,000)
Average days on market: 89 (62)
Sold in last three months: 4 (16)
Average sold price: $1,025,000 ($862,500)
Condos
For sale: 56 (61)
Average listing price: $780,000 ($776,000)
Average days on market: 140 (113)
Sold in last three months: 1 (3)
Average sold price: $288,000 ($522,000)
Yikes — one condo sale in the last three months? Looks that way. Here’s the listing. It’s a one-bedroom, one-bath, 589-square-foot unit on North Orange Drive. The seller purchased it in 2001 for $120,000 and apparently had enough price flexibility to let it go at a bargain price.
As for the other condos for sale, a lot of them are brand-new ones, built at the height of the market, that are supposed to signify Hollywood’s revival. Examples:
1645 N. Vine St., #407
$949,000
1BR/1B/1,286 square feet
Notes: This unit in “Historic Broadway Lofts” was once priced at $999,000. If you don’t want to buy it, it’s also available for lease for $4,750. There are no similar sales listed for this building for the past six months, and there are a total of 10 units from this building on the MLS.
1633 N. La Brea Ave., #530/C4
$651,900
1BR/1.5B/1,120 square feet
Notes: This is John Laing Homes’ “Madrone” new luxury high-rise. There are five listings total at this address, with none shown as sold in the last six months.
6735 Yucca St., #106
$745,000
2BR/2.5B/1,422 square feet
Notes: Described as “award-winning Architect Steven Kanner’s latest Modernest masterpiece, The Hollywood” (bad grammar cleaned up). Eight units from this luxury 54-unit complex are on the MLS, with no recent sales listed.
6253 Hollywood Blvd., #802
$879,000
1BR/1B/1,255 square feet
Notes: This is the lovely old Equitable building at Hollywood and Vine; it’s been rehabbed into 60 condos. There are about a dozen units from this building on the MLS, with no recent sales listed.
How long will the developers of these units hold on before they cave to price pressure? Stay tuned.
