The Malibu Real Estate Blog

A house on La Costa Beach goes up for sale in Nov. for $17,500,000. The house offers numerous bedrooms on 81 feet of frontage and is an original 1964 beach house in good shape. The house sells 42 days later for $11,300,000! Keep in mind that two blocks up the coast is Carbon Beach where 81 feet of frontage will run almost $20,000,000. Either the listing was drastically overpriced to begin with or someone stepped to the plate and swung with the greatest low ball offer in history.

The rule of thumb in this market is don’t be afraid to write a low offer. You do not know if the sellers must move or just are thinking about it.

To get a low offer accepted you MUST have an agent that is willing do a few things. First, the agent needs to present the offer in person. Faxes are easy to reject. An agent standing in your living room who says that he has buyers that are well qualified and are ready to close speaks volumes. Next, show the owners sale prices that are considerably lower than the original asking price. Lastly, show them the average days on market and let them think about sitting on that adjustable rate mortgage for the next 192 days. One last thing. If your original offer is rejected. Let the clients have a few days to think about the offer. 3 or 4 days later, send a Rejection Of Offer Letter and ask them to sign it making it official that they don’t want to counter. They’ll think twice before signing the rejection letter and may reconsider the offer, especially if that phone hasn’t rang in a few days.

If a buyer can knock $6m off a beach house in Malibu it should give you hope going after that vintage craftsman bungalow in Venice that’s asking $1.9m but you can only afford $1.5m. Heck! Print this out and and use it as ammo to get that deal done!

Over the weekend, several blogs and newspapers were reporting that Nancy Daly Riordan sold her home on Carbon Beach for a price in the vicinity of $62 million dollars.  This would be a record sale for Malibu shattering last year’s record sale of Johnny Carson’s home on Point Dume at $35 million.   The Real Estalker is reporting that the deal may have fallen through and the original Canadian buyers, may possibly be Russian.  The 12,785 sq.ft. house sits on a triple lot on “Billionaires Beach”, aka Carbon Beach, in the heart of Malibu. It may have been in escrow, but even with high end transactions, you might as well translate the word “escrow” to mean “a big maybe.”Even if the deal fails to happen, you can bet everyone else on the beach will assume their beach houses just became worth $10,000,000 more overnight. The very fact that someone even thought of paying that amount sent the smell of money into the salt air and along PCH. I imagine several conversations like this occurred last week. House seller to agent,      ”Yeah……how much did the business manager say to list our house for?”Agent    ”$17,000,000″Seller   “Well, let’s raise it to $27,000,000.” Agent (while calculating the commission)     “Good idea! Sign the fax and I’ll make the changes.”      

While the under $3,000,000 luxury market for homes seems to be slowing down, the growing demand for high-end finished products within the Malibu real estate market continues to be met with new homes such as this one with a listing price of $25,000,000.  This stunning East Coast traditional is situated on the cliffs of Point Dume with a breathtaking view of the Pacific Ocean.  The home sets a new record asking price for this section of ocean view bluff located on Birdview Street and will most likely elevate the value of all the neighboring properties when a sale is finalized. Competing for high-end buyers are two other listings: 7049 Birdview at $19,950,000 and 7307 Birdview at$11,250,000.  The highest sales price achieved on Birdview closed around $13,000,000.
The home was built by Albino Construction, known for building the highest quality homes that are frequently purchased by buyers from the entertainment industry.  It features 7 bedrooms and 11 bathrooms with 8756 Sq. Ft. on little over one acre of prime Malibu soil. There is an infinity edge pool, expansive ocean views, and direct beach access via a private gate with your own path to the sand. If you love the homes in the Hamptons, the weather in Southern California, and can afford to buy a small, private island, then you’ve found your perfect home in highly sought after Malibu. 

 Listed with  Chris Cortazzo of Coldwell Banker Malibu

If you are going to live in a trailer you might as well do it here in Malibu, home of the worlds most expensive trailer park. Chew on this…….There are currently 6 mobile homes for sale in Malibu that are asking over $1,000,000. The highest price coach goes for $1.8m and during the last 3 years there have been almost a dozen sales over $1m! The HOA’s or “space rent” will run almost $2000 per month and you might need to get tags each year with the DMV! What gives you ask! Your green buys blue…………ocean views that is. In these price ranges you are paying for big  180 degree ocean views.

We have two mobile home parks in Malibu that are both located on hundreds of acres of prime real estate nestled up to the beach. Both Paradise Cove and The Point Dume Club sit on bluffs directly over the Pacific Ocean. Many of these mobile homes have ocean views that rival the $20m homes along PCH and both have roads or trails right down to the sand. Neither parks have been hit by tornados and there are rules against “changing the tranny” or “swapping an engine” in your driveway.  What would you pay for a home with  2500 sq.ft., high end appliances, the best finishes, a huge ocean view, and a few steps away from a  stroll in the beach? 

Here’s what you get for $1.8m    ” Inspirational ocean views from this architecturally dramatic Malibu Hideaway - Private location overlooking Zuma Beach and Broad Beach coastline - Soaring ceilings and arches - Granite and Marble throughout. Two fireplaces - The finest amenities - Quality construction - office - sun room - sauna - workshop - Steps to beach - Chic, Stunning and Sophisticated for the discriminating client who wants only the BEST!”  

 This deluxe coach is  listed with Chris Cortazzo at Coldwell Banker Malibu.

Yes, there are a lot of foreclosures going on in many parts of California, but the Westside and Malibu seem to be a shelter in the storm. Check out these stats from the  TerraFirmaLA Blog. 

FORECLOSURES – June 1-Dec. 31, 2007

Valley areas not doing so well

• Woodland Hills (91364, 91367) – 100 foreclosures
• Tarzana (91356) – 69 foreclosures
• Encino (91316, 91436) – 54 foreclosures
• Sherman Oaks (91403, 91423) – 43 foreclosures
• Studio City (91604, 91602) – 32 foreclosures
• West Hollywood (90046, 90069) – 27 foreclosures

Areas doing well 

• Miracle Mile (90036, 90048) – 7 foreclosures
• Beverly Hills (90210, 90211, 90212) – 3 foreclosures
• Brentwood (90049) – 6 foreclosures
• Bel Air/Holmby Hills (90077) – 11 foreclosures

Prime areas

• Sawtelle/West L.A. (90025) – 6 foreclosures
• Westwood (90024) – 11 foreclosures
• Cheviot Hills/Rancho Park (90064) – 3 foreclosures
• Pacific Palisades (90272) – 4 foreclosures
• Venice (90291) – 1 foreclosure
• Santa Monica (90401, 90403, 90404, 90405) – 10 foreclosures
• Santa Monica (90402) – not available (north of Montana where there were likely few)

And Malibu (90265) 1 FORECLOSURE So where are you going to invest in real estate?  Click here to find out about foreclosures by zip code.  Here’s a chart where you’d better hope you didn’t buy something recently. Source: RealtyTrac.com 

For $329,000 you can purchase a 1 bed, 1 bath mobile home  with 500 sq. ft. of living space and walk to Paradise Cove beach in about 2 minutes. It has good tires, a strong axle, and current registration. Only 600 yards to the east is another home for sale at $75,000,000. This home boasts an 11,000 sq. ft. main residence, 7 acres of bluff above the sand, 3 guest houses, numerous stables, pool and guess what? It also takes about two minutes to get to the sand. Call me when you are ready to see the second home…I mean either home. 

Here’s what I find so interesting. Can you think of any other place in the world where the price of real estate can be so different in essentially the same neighborhood?  The mobile home park at Paradise Cove sits right along a  section of PCH where most of the estate homes immediately to the east run from $20m-$75m! Only in Malibu.

These price differences can be found all over Malibu. There’s Broad Beach where most home run $10m-$30m. Sharing the same street is a little community of homes, not on the beach, starting at $2m. These homes share the beach with the more expensive homes too. Here’s another example. There are some homes just a block or so off PCH with  ocean views and flat land that may be $6m where they sit. But if you were to take that same property and place it 5 miles up Latigo it might only be worth $3m. That 10 minute drive can save you millions!  Check it out on Google Maps Google maps

Here are the numbers showing what’s happening to land-side homes in Malibu  from Nov. 06 YTD to Nov. 07 YTD. 

• The number of new listings decreased from 444 to 389  or -12.99%  
• The number of  sold units decreased from 177 to 146 or -17.51%
• The median sales price increased from $1,865,000 to $2,197,500 or an increase of +17.83%!

Here are the numbers  for real estate on the beach.

• The number of new listings increased from 106 to 117  or +10.39%   
• The number of sold units increased from 36 to 44 or +22.22%
• The median sales price increased from $4,247,521 to $6,407,531 or an increase of +50.85%!
  

Click here to see the chart.  http://forms.themls.com/forms/la_times_news/12_16_07_LA_Times_Article.pdf