Malibu Showcase Homes

New listing this week! I just listed a truly awesome Paradise Cove mobile home for sale  located in the lower section of the Paradise Cove Trailer Park. It is one of the larger models in the area with a very unique, but open layout. It has it’s own driveway (rare), a small yard with spa, and is completely remodeled with designer finishes. The space rent will be around $1600 per month but keep in mind there are no property taxes, your water and sewer is included, and maintenance costs are minimal compared to a regular home. The home features 2 bedrooms with the master being surprisingly large. There is a small office that could easily be used as a bunk room to accommodate weekend guests with little ones. Mutiple skylights and sliding glass doors let in tons of natural light. Two side by side outdoor showers are waiting to rinse the sand off you before hitting the spa.

It is very easy to see that a lot of money went in to the finishes on this home. While it technically is a mobile home….I think of it more as a hip pre fab or modular home. There is nothing about this place that makes it feel “mobile”…..there are no wheels visible and I cant think of the last time a tornado was spotted in the area.

One of my favorite features is the open kitchen with numerous high end appliances including a gas range. A Bosch dishwasher sits next to a Kohler sink wrapped in chopping block wood countertops. The cabinets feature tons of storage and the drawers are the self closing types. The kitchen is open to the living room so passing the blended margarita’s should be easy.

This mobile home is ready to be used as a primary residence or as a weekend beach house. All residents have access to a private beach that you can drive a golf cart to. There is a club house, tennis court, playground, and two restaurants are located just minutes away.

The mobile home is listed for sale at $565,000. Call for showings or questions about this Paradise Cove mobile home for sale.  1-310-699-8428
Check out the Paradise cove mobile home for sale on the Pinterest board we put together.

You just can’t make this stuff up! As mentioned in the caravan food menu post from this morning, the Rock and Roll Snack House on caravan lived up to its name. The house, which was previously vacant, was recently staged by Kathy Kurasch and was done with all sorts of music industry memorabilia, guitars and a fake recording studio. It was an impressive transformation and really did look like a very neat, but ready-for-a-party-at-any-moment kind of recording artist lived in the house. Check out these pics of the staged recording studio complete with a bong to get in the mood to write great lyrics. Nothing makes a staged house look more authentic and lived in than a small bong and a plate of brownies!

The next house I went to was held open by a Russian agent who was advertising that she was serving a Russian breakfast. I spent a good part of the morning trying to fathom what exactly Russians eat in the morning, but couldn’t help hoping it was going to be some sort of caviar spread and prayed to St. Petersburg it wasn’t some bowl of potato porridge. I hit the gastronomic jackpot on this caravan viewing! Fresh lox with capers and onions, some special dark tea with mysterious amber chunks of sweetener, some berry and poppy seed cakes, and some really good caviar on freshly made blinis. I love my job!

Check out the menu that was offered before I set out on caravan here.

So what do you all think…should I do a once a month post about the food on caravan with who went big and who failed?

It’s 8:30 am and my wife just asked me what I’d like for breakfast. To be honest, the first thought that came into my mind was, “What’s being served on caravan today?” because the answer to that will tell me how to answer my wife. A quick scan of the food being offered, and the homes being shown, revealed some pretty great offerings. Check out this morning’s fine selections from the progressive real estate buffet, aka, caravan, and my candid thoughts! Below are the exact terms the agents used to entice other agents to their listings. Oh yeah, I told my wife I wasn’t hungry.

Beach Blanket Brunch….This is a bit of a wild card but I’ll go. It could be great or just a snack served on an old blanket on the beach. Brunch is a pretty strong word, almost up there with buffet in terms of quantity, so I’m expecting a lot.

Update! No beach blankets to be found, but a nice spread of French cheeses, cookies and orange juice. The blue cheese was high grade…I  applaud the effort. Maybe I was supposed to bring my own blanket?

Espresso & Russian Breakfast….Are we talking poor Russian farmer’s breakfast or what the newly minted tycoons eat? I’m praying for the latter and hoping for caviar and not old potatoes.

Update! Holy Russian Saints Of All Things Tasty! This was the real deal and not any food patrols in sight to tell me not to eat every bit of caviar on the table! See this post above for more about the caviar!

Rock and Roll Snacks including Brownies….I need to be careful on this one. I know the parties involved with the serving of the brownies and will be looking for small green bits of plant life lurking in the rich chocolate squares. I’m not buying the story if they try to tell me it’s kale.

Update! It’s been a few hours and I feel normal so the brownies were safe. There were jokes about the white powdered sugar sprinkled on top.

Lily’s Burritos….Lord, bless that agent with a full price cash offer. If they have carne asada, let it be multiple, all cash offers with the contingencies removed sight unseen with a 3-day escrow.

Update! He deserves at least one good offer. Breakfast burritos and he remembered the hot sauce. Good job, Lenny.

Refreshments….Too vague and it could be water.

Update! Ran short on time, had to skip it. Do you blame me?

Monus’s Bonuses….The safe bet for my sweet tooth if I have to skip the questionable brownies.

Update! Really good, but Im not kidding when I say I’ve become such a connoisseur of Susan’s cookies that I can tell if she baked them the night before or that morning. I’d hike on foot for a mile up a rattlesnake infested road if I knew she was baking them at the open house.

A new listing hit Point Dume last night and trust me, I’ve already been hitting the phones letting some priority buyers know the details about the house. The Point Dume home for sale at 6738 Wildlife Road is asking $3,250,000 and comes with a tennis court, pool, is behind gates, and is very close to the beach. I’ve got clients just finishing up their lease in the home now and the reason why I’ve been able to visit the home on several occasions. It needs a bit of updating but the bones are great and it’s rare to find a tennis court and pool together.

From the MLS…..”POINT DUME ARCHITECTURAL WITH DEEDED BEACH RIGHTS, PRIVATE TENNIS COURT, POOL AND SPA AND LOCATED DOWN A PRIVATE GATED DRIVE. REMODELED HOME OFFERING HIGH CEILINGS, WALLS OF WINDOWS AND AN OPEN FLOOR PLAN PERFECT FOR ENTERTAINING. GOURMET KITCHEN WITH PROFESSIONAL WOLF RANGE, DINING ROOM, STEP DOWN LIVING ROOM WITH FIREPLACE OPENS TO EXPANSIVE PATIO WITH COVERED EATING AREA, BBQ AND PIZZA OVEN. MASTER SUITE PLUS 3 ADDITIONAL BEDROOMS, OFFICE AND LARGE MEDIA/GAME ROOM WITH CUSTOM BUILT-INS.”

Call for details as there are no pics in the MLS yet.

Now that April has arrived, my phone is starting to ring with inquiries about summer rentals in Malibu. I just completed my first lease of the year on Carbon Beach at $55k per month with a nice couple from New Jersey who needed to be near LA while their son completes his internship over the hill.

There were a few things that were new to them as we went thru the process of securing the summer lease. For one, they were pleasantly surprised that the asking price was negotiable and that I was able to save them a fair amount of money in the final lease agreement. Clients always ask “Do you think there is room in that asking price for the lease?”….Same answer, for even more unusual request in the offers, “Everything is negotiable in real estate.”

They also need to understand that Malibu is on septic systems and that explained why in my offer I included language that stated the landlord was to be responsible for maintaining a working system. Sometime I’ll even request that it be pumped prior to the tenant moving in especially if the house or system is older…most systems were designed to last about 30 years.

The last item to be dealt with was the security deposit. Landlords can ask for the first month’s rent plus an additional month’s rent if it’s furnished. This can lead to a bit of sticker shock when the tenant is presented with move in costs. I’m always asked “Why so much?” and I explain how quickly an over flowing bath on a second floor can ruin a lot of really nice stuff….wood floors, art work on walls, and ruined electrical systems. Does it happen? Rarely, but I do have stories!

Here is a quick video talking a little more about the Malibu summer rental market. Watch as I give tips to both Malibu landlords and tenants that can help make renting a beach home in Malibu a bit easier.

I wish I could tell you that these video’s were done in one take. Try more like 20 or 30 takes! Regardless, I’m committed to try and make one of these a week about anything interesting within the Malibu Real Estate market.

Here I talk a little bit about what a commodity information can be and how the little pieces of information I absorb every day help make me a better agent. I explain that as inventories shrink we will see a more competitive market place where getting the information first about a property can be a serious advantage to a client.

I’m a data hound and just a few minutes ago a real estate transaction that had a lot of talk and speculation just made more sense. After reading an update from title showing what has quietly transferred in the last few months  the rumors of a large deal could be explained with reality.

There were a bunch of $1m and $2m items but at the bottom of the title doc  was a whopper of a grant deed transfer at $74,500,000 and that could only be one property….the Howard Marks (formally Verna Harrah) property on the Encinal Bluffs.

Rumors about a $100m sale blew thru Malibu last month like a wild Santa Ana wind. Almost as much gossip as hearing about how Beyonce recently purchased Cher’s Malibu compound….I had my doubts from day one. Title reports show the real story. Looks like on 1/4/2013 the deal was put to rest and one seriously huge commission check was made out to a really lucky agent. Rumor has it he had both sides too. Think about this….the commission check was large enough to buy a Malibu house and a condo to boot.

Here is the original story about this Malibu property for sale.

I started the Malibu Real Estate blog about 5 years ago with the idea of just trying to get some interesting news out there about our unique market. I look back on my very first post and remember just how difficult it was trying to come up with something to say that people would find interesting. My first paragraph was small but it took forever to write as I finger poked the keys on my MacBook.

I’m still finger poking but at a much higher rate with almost 5 years of blogging under my belt. I recently passed the 500,000 page view mark and will be throwing a serious party when I hit 1,000,000 in about 4 more years.

The site was built on WordPress and I’ll be the first to admit that the design is far from professional. The word “clunky” comes to mind but I was proud of the fact that I learned how to edit some html, CSS, and install all sorts of widgets that made it a functional place to deliver real estate related content.

After 500,000 page views I decided it was time to hand the site over to some WordPress developers and let them have a crack at taking the blog to the next level. It’s been a six month process with over 19 revisions to the website design that will host the new site in less than a week.

Thank you to everyone who is a regular reader, RSS subscriber, and to anyone who has ever left a comment!

Here is a sneak peek of the upper header image.

Rumors have been swirling for months now about what will become of the vacant restaurant next to the Nobu on Carbon Beach, but now those rumors may soon translate into a reservation at a new Wolfgang Puck restaurant.

In a recent interview with Haute Living, restauranteur and legendary chef Wolfgang Puck hints that he may be taking a run at establishing a new eatery in Malibu. His last venture in Malibu, Granita, has been closed since 2005 when he and his wife shuttered the underwater themed restaurant.

I often hear people speculating about why Larry Ellison wants to be in the restaurant biz and I say he doesn’t…..He wants to be sure he has a reliably great place to eat when he’s in town. Some people put a few extra bags of Pirate Booty in the pantry, Larry sprinkles a few restaurants on the beach where he needs them!

Thank you Larry! May your appetite guide you to many more great ventures in Malibu!.

There are many great reasons to use a local Malibu real estate agent, but the main reason you are best served by choosing a local agent is because they are more tuned in and will be aware of the many unique features that exist in this zip code. We have disclosures in certain neighborhoods about geological issues, homes that carry beach rights, and areas of the Malibu that are outside the jurisdiction of the California Coastal Commission zone. One of the most costly items that “outside the area” agents don’t seem to know too much about has to do with our septic systems. Here, I explain a little bit about what you need to know about septic issues when buying a home in Malibu.