Flip or Bail on California? *Update 2*

I last featured 2215 California in June.

Previous Purchase: 8/26/10 - $1,395,000

Listing History: 5/31/11 - $1,695,000

Reduced down to - $1,595,000


SOLD: 7/29/11 - $1,560,000


Remember, they spent some money here on a little remodeling. This did not appear to be a flip.

Really Nice Hill House Sells for $100k Over Asking

Address: 1417 Hill - 90405

Details: 3 bed/2.5 bath 2,648 sq ft house on a 7,050 sq ft lot, completely remodeled

Description: Entertainer's dream. 3 bedroom /2.5 bath designed and built with highest quality and attention to detail. Great room/kitchen/dining flooded with natural light flow through french doors to rear deck and garden. Kitchen with 6 burner Viking, wine fridge, custom cabinets and Caesarstone counters. Master with walk-in, vaulted ceilings, private balcony. Master bath with steam shower, spa tub. Wired indoor and out for sound. Double sided fireplace opens to living room and great room. Marvin double-paned windows. Contact listing agent for complete list of features.

Previous Purchase: 11/14/03 - $790,000

Listing History: 5/9/11 - $1,485,000

SOLD: 7/21/11 - $1,585,000

This house went into escrow quickly and sold for $100k more than list price. In this case the property was very nice but it doesn't even take a great property to sell quickly. It just takes knowing what market value is (not that hard) and the resolve to price near or even below market value rather than at some "wishing price" (harder but still not that hard).

Take a look at the photos, this is a really nice house and it is over 2,600 sq ft.

Active Mar Vista Rollback

Address: 3711 Wade - 90066

Details: 3 bed/1.5 bath house + guesthouse, 5,950 sq ft lot, upgraded condition

Description: Who says you can't have it all? Ultra-charming storybook home plus fabulous 2-story guesthouse! Overflowing w/ curb appeal & charisma, the main house features 3 bedrooms & 1.5 bathrooms. Spacious living rm w/ bay window. Formal dining rm. Bright galley kitchen w/ eat-in breakfast nook & tons of cabinets. Improvements include central heat/AC, updated plumbing & electric, dual-pane windows, recessed lighting, tankless H2O heater, alarm system & more! Character touches include hrdwd flrs, plantation shutters, archways & sunny color palette. Secluded behind an electronic gate & privacy hedges lies a tranquil yard & finished 2-car garage. Newly-constructed 2-story guesthouse whose downstairs features wrap-around French doors, flagstone flooring & closet. Upstairs boasts vaulted ceiling, recessed lighting, hrdwd flrs, closet, bathroom & French doors to deck. Located in wonderful neighborhood, close to shopping, restaurants & the beach. Immaculate home plus fantastic guesthouse – a rare find!

Previous Purchase: 6/8/06 - $1,249,000

Listing History: 7/13/11 - $879,000

This asking price is 29.6% lower than the peak of the market purchase in 2006. The sale type is listed as standard which is surprising because there haven't been a lot of folks taking these types of losses...most leveraged themselves into a corner and are going the short sale/REO route. Anyway, this house looks nice and the location seems OK. I would be going to this open house if I were interested in this area. Thanks to the reader who sent this over.

Conduct Your Own Due Diligence

From a reader a few posts ago:

I know this is outside your comfort area, but how would I do research on all the different neighborhoods of Burbank? I've combed through the CityData forums and Redfin comments. Where else can I look?

First of all, my approach should probably work almost anywhere. But before focusing in on a specific area, I would look at a larger area and break it down by city limit, school district (and specific elementary school boundaries), school API scores, zip code, etc. I did some of this for Culver City to familiarize myself. All of this info can be found via a quick Google search. In the case of Culver City, I was able to quickly figure out that there are two zip codes (90230 and 90232) which I wanted to look at. I actually used Zillow to take a wide angle view of the area and surrounding areas. If you zoom out enough you will see all the different towns/cities/areas shaded as separate areas. On Culver City's town website there is a zip code map and you can also then see where the different elementary school areas are. You can use the California API website to see which schools score better than others.

But after you take this wide view you really need to get down on the ground and walk around a bunch and on week days and weekends. Busy streets, airports, freeways, and downtown areas create traffic and noise. But they also offer benefits too. Gotta figure out what works for you.

I would then go to guests.themls.com and do some searching. Go to open houses. Talk to some real estate agents. Ultimately it is your responsibility to do your own homework because nobody is looking out for you. There is no "fiduciary duty" for anyone else to make sure you buy the right property at the right price. So if you are really a nut then you will start copying down MLS #s of properties that you like. An example would be "10-443485". Then you would copy down the MLS website URL and paste in the MLS #s to really track properties...

http://pro.themls.com/All_Searches_Preview_Files/pow_one_client_detail_preview.cfm?se=1&header_title=no_header&chosen=10-443485&property_type=0

Keep a spreadsheet.

Really it all comes down to spending time in an area and walking it a lot. Just looking at different properties should give you enough info to figure out what type of people live there, if an area is getting better, young people moving in, etc.

First Mar Vista Post Ever - Rollback Time

Address: 3368 Cabrillo Blvd. - 90066

Details: 3 bed/3 bath 2,036 sq ft house, 7,200 sq ft lot

Description: Bank Approved Short Sale. First offer $840K gets this amazing deal! 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom English Country Homeincluding hardwood floors, spacious living and separate dining room, Master bedroom suite with large closets and more. Large 2 car separate garage. Agents please read private remarks!!!


Previous Purchase: 6/26/07 - $1,080,000


According to Zillow this house was listed for sale in mid-2009 for $1.175mm, listed again in 2010 and then finally listed this year as a short sale.


SOLD: 3/8/11 - $840,000

This $240,000 decline in value represents a loss of 22.2%.


Believe it or not, I just pulled up Zillow and looked for recently sold houses north of Palms (since one person commented about this area) and this was the first one I clicked on. This decline (in percentage terms) seems a little bigger than what we have seen in Santa Monica but not by much. This house seems pretty decent with good square footage, a good size lot and 3 beds and 3 baths. I don't know the area as well so I would be curious to hear what type of airport noise there is in this specific area. Seems like there should be some but maybe not a ton. I will look at some more 90066 properties but this was just the very first one I clicked on and it seemed like it deserved a blog post.

What Do You Want Now?

The market is a little boring right now but I've tried to keep posting somewhat regularly (although certainly less frequently). Some time ago I decided to allow anonymous comments again so you don't have to sign in to comment now.

So I would like to know what people want to read about and talk about. Have you bought something already? In Santa Monica or elsewhere? Want to see more south side or north side properties?

I have read some commentary on Calculated Risk that the upcoming conforming jumbo loan limit reduction won't have much if any effect on the overall housing market. But I still think that may be a more important issue for pricey "entry level" westside areas such as 90405, Mar Vista, Culver City, etc. All those areas have a lot of houses in the $750-950k range. The loan limit decrease will force people to either put another $100k down or else take a true jumbo loan (with its higher rate and higher down payment requirements). I don't think this will have a huge impact but I think it may impact things on the margin.