The Malibu Real Estate Blog

Maybe Carbon Beach should change it’s name to Diamond Beach? A $65,000,000 beach home has become Malibu real estate’s most expensive beach listing. Here is the description…
THE “CROWN” OF CARBON BEACH. THE ULTIMATE BEACH ESTATE ON 150′ OF BEACH-FRONT. THIS HOME HAS IT ALL - THEATER, PANELED OFFICE, MASTER W/ HIS & HERS, GYM, FAMILY ROOM, PUB, 75′ BEACH-FRONT POOL & SPA. IF YOU ARE LOOKING FOR THE FINEST HOME ON THE PREMIER BEACH IN MALIBU, THIS IS WHAT YOU HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR. ALL CLIENTS MUST BE PREQUALIFIED AND APPROVED BY SELLER. NEED 24-HOUR NOTICE TO SHOW.
Can’t afford $65,000,000? Call me for info on the “lower tier”, $20,000,000-$40,000,000 unlisted homes on other beaches. 310 699 8428

The Crown is listed with Stephen Shapiro/WEA

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.”      

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”.