The Malibu Real Estate Blog

Deals are to be had once again in Malibu, even on the beach. Here is a home that hit the market in late 07 for $6,000,000. The home is located in the guard-gated enclave knows as the Malibu Cove Colony near Geoffrey’s restaurant. The home needed some work but has great views of Point Dume, is in the Paradise Cove Bay where it lies protected from the afternoon northwesterlies,  and is in a neighborhood of $5-6 mil. homes that rent for $40-60k per month in the summer. Over the course of 11 months, the home had 5  major price reductions and has just closed at $3,500,000. 

Check out the listing history below.The home was listed with Sandra Miller

I’ve only been at this “blogging” thing for a few months but I finally can say I feel like I’m making some progress. I’m just about to hit 15,000 page views with my best day being 548 views. For weeks I was landing on the second page on Google when you typed in the words “Malibu Real Estate”. These are coveted words with many agents paying thousands each month to get hits when searches are run with those exact words. Today I was surprised to see my blog coming up in the number 4 spot in the unpaid search results. It seems to change daily as a few days ago I was at 6 and then this morning back on the second page. I’m still learning about what Google likes but know that content is important. Watch out number one!

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!

No, you can’t buy a home, condo, or trailer but you will get a one-month lease on a prestigious beach with neighbors who are on the paparazzi hit list. Yes, spring in near and Malibu Mega Beach House leases are just about to go up on the auction block for the who’s who to fight over.March Madness in Malibu has nothing to do with sports and more to do with people scrambling to secure the best beach leases.

“Players,” not on the ball, who don’t secure a lease early may be forced to “slum it” on lesser “$50k per month” beaches where your neighbor’s private 4th of July firework show may only last a paltry 30 minutes instead of an hour and the caviar might be California paddlefish not Russian Sevruga. Life’s tough ain’t it?

I predict that this year will have more demand than any previous year and we’ll see numerous listings above $100k per month. There currently 5 listings between $80k and $90k per month located in the Malibu Colony and on Malibu Road and most will require a three-month minimum and a hefty deposit. Previous  years saw 4 homes break the $100k per month mark with one topping out at $120k on Broad Beach.

 Even celebrities are cashing in on the rental action. There are reports that  Cindy Crawford   and Rande Gerber recently put their own house up for lease at $35k per month. The property is fairly priced considering that just a few miles to the south is Broad Beach where rents run $50-$120k per month.

Click Here to do a search for Malibu Summer Beach Leasesenter x55032 for ID and Malibu for password 

If you thought Malibu real estate prices were sky high how about a 18000 Sq. Ft. town house on the Upper East Side for $64 million! The pricey abode has 30 rooms, 15 bedrooms, 17 bathrooms, 17-foot ceilings, and a rooftop garden with grand views.  If it sells it will break the previous record high sales price set  by the sale of the $53 million dollar Harkness Mansion on East 75th Street. Malibu’s highest price listing comes in at $75 million. The recent sale of a Carbon Beach home in the $55 million dollar range sets a new beach-side sales record.There are two large projects being built now that could turn in to Malibu’s first $100 million dollar listings if the gilded age continues. New York real estate companies are claiming that they haven’t seen this kind of sales frenzy since the dot-com days of 2000.  The number of apartments the sold above $10 million have more than tripled since 2006.  What could this mean for Malibu? Well my guess is that if you can afford a  Manhattan condo for $10 million, then a Malibu Road beach house for the same price might be pretty tempting, especially during a 70 degree California “winter”.