The Malibu Real Estate Blog

It appears someone’s spec project has hit the skids in the hills of Malibu. What’s unusual about this one is that it’s a large, nice, ocean view project in a neighborhood of homes in the $4-$7 million dollar range. The partially framed project came on the market last month at $3,950,000 and got a whopper of a price slash this week to $2,900,000 with an MLS description saying “will consider all serious offers.”  

I personally like the price cut (that’s one motivated seller!) and it may very well be worth a look if you’d like to avoid most of the headaches involved with building a house in Malibu. Maybe one of the execs over at Toll Brothers needs something to do!
Call for a showing 310 699 8428 .
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Here is the MLS description.

EXCELLENT PROJECT, PARTIALLY FRAMED WITH STEEL BEAMS. 6000+ SQ. FT. PLANS FOR A SLEEK MODERN RESIDENCE WITH/AN INFINITY POOL. SWEEPING OCEAN, QUEENS NECKLACE AND LITTLE DUME VIEWS. THE DESIGN CAN BE WARMED UP TO SUIT THE BUYER’S PERSONAL STYLE. GREAT OPPURTUNITY FOR A DEVELOPER OR SOMEONE LOOKING TO FINISH A CUSTOM HOME. WILL CONSIDER ALL SERIOUS OFFERS.

Listed with  Anthony Barsocchini/ WEA

Currently Malibu has 78 condos on the market and roughly half of them have had a price reduction since being listed. Only one has sold in the last 90 days and many agents are claiming the phone just ain’t ringing for condo’s right now. That’s a serious flat spell! The highest price unit on the market is $3.6m for a swanky new pad across the street from Billionaires Beach. Yes, it’s on the land side of PCH at that price, not on the beach. You’ll need another $20m to live on the other side of PCH 50 feet closer towards the sand. The lowest price condo is something many realtors thought they wouldn’t see….a unit under $500k. The complex, which is known as Malibu Gardens, lies between Kanan and Cavalleri on PCH and  has a new listing at $499,000 for a 2 bedroom unit. A few weeks ago it was $559,000…a drop of more than 10 percent. It wasn’t long ago that the lowest price condo in this complex was closer to $575,000. With this many condos being on the market sellers are having to fiercely compete with other sellers to get their untis sold.  I would venture to say than in the $1.5m and under category prices are down 10-15 percent off last years prices and could be heading to a 20 percent  or more price drop. 

Condo Search

Click this link to be taken to an MLS search for all condos in Malibu. The user id is x55032 and the password is condo 

This unit is listed with Terry Lucoff of Coldwell Banker and you can find  the sushi at Nobu

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!

A lesson for Sellers. There is  a really great house for sale in Malibu that went on the market in Feb. of 2007 at $4,775,000. A few months later the owners dropped the price to $4,575,000. On Jan. 24, 2008 the owners went for the big  chop and dropped the price almost $800,000! It soon had buyers swarming and the offers came in. That’s a million dollar price reduction in a years time. (There was a sale pending but it is showing as active in the MLS)  Bottom Line. If you want to sell and you don’t have offer’s in the first month or two, get aggressive and start chopping.   

 The home is listed with Wendy Jensen at the Coldwell Banker Malibu. It’s one of the best deals I’ve seen if you want a ~4000 sq. ft.  private house with an easy walk to the beach.