Owner: Terra Firma LA -- The Los Angeles Real Estate Blog URL:http://terrafirmala.com Join Date: Sun, 07 Sep 2008 16:13:59 -0500 Rating:0 Site Description: An intelligent and unbiased look at real estate in Los Angeles and elsewhere. Site statistics:Click here
Downtown Selling 2008-07-26 15:11:09 After a brief vacation and a few busy weeks, I'm back at things here at TerraFirmaLA!Today, I would like to discuss downtown Los Angeles. Everyone has an opinion about downtown LA: It's great, it's terrible, it's on the verge, it'll never be any good, and on and on. But undeniably downtown LA offers a living experience unlike anywhere else in southern California.Today's LA Times offers a look at t Read more:Downtown
Commercial Real Estate Crashing 2008-06-18 01:25:48 It's not just the housing market that's taken a dive. Things have started going south in commercial real estate, too. Here's an excellent post by a Globe Street blogger about the crash that is slowly going on in commercial real estate: Slow Motion Crash.I source a lot of off-market commercial deals for select investors, and I certainly have seen an increasing difficulty in getting deals done this Read more:Commercial
, Estate
Christopher in Los Angeles Times 2008-06-16 17:08:35 One of the L.A. Times
' columnists, Meghan Daum, featured me in an article she wrote this weekend about the real estate market. I spoke the truth and told her the real estate market probably wasn't going to get better this year. (I tried to be a bit more colorful in my quote.) Of course, I said a lot more than the quote she put in the column. But as a former newspaper reporter myself, I can't compl Read more:Christopher
, Angeles
, Los Angeles
, Los Angeles Times
Is Flipping Time Here Again? 2008-06-14 02:04:49 What a crazy thought!How could anyone think of flipping in this horrible real estate market?Well, in the past few weeks, two investors I work with have asked me to be on the lookout for possible houses to flip in the coming months. They are noticing something that I am noticing: There are some super-cheap houses being dumped on the market by lenders in neighborhoods where prices will never fall th Read more:Flipping
, Again
Off-market commercial real estate 2008-06-14 00:34:36 Many of you who read this blog may not know that I also work with commercial real estate -- particularly connecting investors with off-market commercial properties.I've done more of this in 2008 with the slow housing market.Because I know so many people in real esate and am an aggressive networker, I'm constantly aware of tons of off-market commercial properties. I've also worked to help developer
The greatest Mega-Mansion play 2008-06-14 00:27:54 There was a great story in the L.A. Times this week about the contunied heavy pace of mega-masions being built in Bel-Air Beverly Hills and Homby Hills. The continued strength of the ultra-luxury market in Los Angeles is something that I've talked about repeatedly in this space in the last year as it's been noticed by myself and others that work with luxury homes.If you missed it, here's my previo Read more:Mansion
Record Foreclosures in Los Angeles County 2008-06-05 00:34:14 Los AngelesCounty
had a record number of foreclosure sales scheduled in May, according to propertyshark.com.Not all of these auctions will end up happening. Many homeowners will save their homes from being sold on the courthouse steps. But it is a dire state for a homeowner to have a foreclosure auction scheduled. And in May the number of L.A. county auctions increased 17% over the already high Read more:Los Angeles
, Record
, Foreclosures
Is it possible? Cash flow rentals? 2008-06-02 14:38:58 The declining property values and preponderance of foreclosures in certain areas of Los Angeles have produced an opportunity that has not been available for years: Cash Flow Rentals.In certain parts of town, REOs can be purchased in bulk at levels that allow for homes to be purchased and rented at a price that cash flows – even after subtracting for expenses and professional property management.
The Real Story on Luxury Housing in L.A. – Part 2 2008-05-30 14:47:32 In Part 1, I looked at the flawed criteria of a recent report on luxury housing that showed price declines in L.A. “luxury housing.” I explained why the criteria in the study included many non-“luxury homes,” while excluding many true “luxury” homes. The study was released by First Republic Bank, and the company’s press release almost seemed to acknowledge its flaws. The release Read more:Luxury
, Housing
Off-market Mansions in L.A. 2008-05-24 18:51:15 With a busy week I haven't had much time to write. However, I wanted to follow up on my series on the best homes for sale in Beverly Hills and Bel Air on the market with a discussion about those available off the market.I definitely can't give a specific list on this one!Properties available off-the-market are kept from the market for very good reasons. Confidentiality for buyers and/or sellers i
The Real Story on Luxury Housing in L.A. – Part 1 2008-05-24 18:20:40 This week, news broke in The L.A. Times and across the country about the decline in values of luxury homes in California, specifically in Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Diego. I wanted to look deeper into the numbers on this story because both myself and many of the luxury home agents I encounter still see a strong market at the upper end of the spectrum here in L.A. I also want to emp Read more:Luxury
, Housing
Worst foreclosure areas in Los Angeles County 2008-05-20 15:22:43 According to the people over at propertyshark.com, these were the areas
in Los AngelesCounty
with the most newly scheduled foreclosures as of May 1. Again, these are nowhere near the prime areas of town: ZIP CODE CITY # OF NEW TRUSTEE SALES 93550 Palmdale 168 93535 Lancaster 158 93536 Quartz Hil Read more:Los Angeles
European buyers in L.A. 2008-04-24 01:06:27 One of the trends we’ve seen lately – particularly with high-end properties – is increasing interest from foreigners in buying California real estate. In the last month alone, my office has been working with serious high-end buyers from Switzerland, England, Germany, Croatia and Greece. With the weak dollar, falling prices and many American buyers and investors keeping their money away from Read more:European
Scheduled Foreclosures – Where are the continuing problems in L.A.? 2008-04-22 01:52:30 Back in January, I did a breakdown by zip code of where the foreclosures were happening – and where they weren’t. At that time, the numbers clearly showed that while many areas of Los Angeles were drowning in foreclosures, the area broadly defined as L.A.’s Westside was not hit as hard with foreclosures as other parts of Los Angeles. Since then, there’s been a number of reports talking abo Read more:Foreclosures
, problems
Off-market Commercial Property 2008-04-21 21:39:24 Many of my clients know me as a residential real estate agent.But many others know me for something I've never previously discussed on this blog -- a source for amazing off-market commercial real estate.I've previously worked for both residential and commercial agencies. And in my previous life as a journalist I wrote about both residential and commercial real estate. I have great contacts on both Read more:Commercial
Land Trusts: Privacy and Protection of Your Property 2008-04-20 13:46:54 A land trust is a little-known but highly effective way to shield your property from lawsuits and provide the utmost privacy.One of my good friends and business associates, Ramon M. Gonzalez, Esq., is an expert on this subject.So few people know about the possibility of holding property in land trusts that I wanted to help get the word out about -- especially in a town like this where there's such Read more:Privacy
, Protection
Christopher featured in BusinessWeek 2008-04-20 13:46:18 BusinessWeek recently did a special report on the state of luxury housing in the U.S. There were several articles in the report, and I was interviewed for and quoted in two of them.Here are links to the full articles as well as the excerpts wherein I was quoted:Where the Home Price Gaps Are Biggest Christopher
Hain, a real estate agent with Ramsey-Shilling Associates in the Hollywood Hills, says h Read more:BusinessWeek
Terra Firma LA featured on Curbed LA 2008-03-15 15:47:55 For the second time in recent weeks, the excellent Curbed LA blog has featured Terra Firma LA in their broker blog wrap. This time it was about my thoughts on loan limits and duplexes. Last time, it was about my thoughts on the market on the Westside. With the previous post they chose to make fun of it and suggest I was ignoring the facts. However, since then the facts have reflected exactly what
Terra Firma LA featured on Sweet Digs 2008-03-15 15:31:33 Redfin's outstanding residential real estate blog about Los Angeles, Sweet
Digs, has written a lengthy post featuring me and my advice about how to sell your home fast in this market. To check it out, CLICK HERE
Top 10 Beverly Hills homes for sale 2008-03-10 18:11:29 OK, so here’s my BeverlyHills
list. Location gets a big premium for me in Beverly Hills
, because there’s lots of places that aren’t as nice – even north of Sunset. That said, there’s enough great homes in the best parts of BH, that eventually it becomes all about the houses.1) $25 MILLION – 5 Beds, 12 Baths – Super English Tudor home that is just a joy to be in and around, whether y
Duplex Mania!!! 2008-03-08 16:35:05 The big news in local real estate today is that the federal Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO) announced it has temporarily increased limits on conforming loans offered by government-sponsored enterprises, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Conforming loans are those that the government will buy from lenders, so the interest rates are lower sometimes as much as a full percent lower.Mu Read more:Duplex
, Mania
Is the Westside different? 2008-03-06 00:54:02 Some others are starting to take notice of a trend that's becoming apparent with Westside
L.A. real estate and that I began to chronicle in January. That is, Westside real estate is weathering the storm much better than the rest of L.A. This is not to say that things are totally rosy on the Westside. If you bought a condo in 2005, it's probably worth about the same as it was then. But the flood of Read more:different
Top 10 Homes for sale in Bel Air 2008-03-05 22:11:56 The Best of Bel Air
. Here are my current Top 10 homes currently for sale in Bel Air. This is obviously personal preference. But they are evaluated for what you get for the money, including interior, exterior, location, and more. Obviously, with an $85 million home you’re getting much more than an $8.5 million home. But are you getting 10 times more. Sometimes you are. But sometimes you aren’t. Read more:Homes
Selling Fast in a Down Market 2008-03-03 13:33:03 Selling quickly in this market can be very difficult. But it can be done. I did it this week once again. 3 weeks -- and we got nearly full price. The key is to know your competition in the neighborhood and value your comps differently. Right now, the inventory is so large, and there's so few buyers. To sell QUICKLY, your home must stand out. The No. 1 way to make it stand out is price. When there' Read more:Market
, Down Market
New Los Feliz listing 2008-09-23 20:13:49 Here's some information about my new Los Feliz
listing:2131 CEDARHURST DR., LOS ANGELES, CA 90027A cosmetic upgrade will make this English Tudor a premium Los Feliz estate. Reduced $300k from previous listing, this historic home was built by a foundry owner with exquisite details. It's within 2 blocks of Hillhurst shops yet is perched behind gates on a secluded hill offering gorgeous downtown view
Best and Worst Foreclosure Areas in "Prime" Los Angeles 2008-09-14 16:52:05 Today, I'm taking an in-depth look at the best and worst foreclosure areas within "prime Los Angeles
."I've written at length about how little foreclosures are affecting some of the prime areas of Los Angeles
. And I've written about the worst foreclosure areas in Los Angeles County.But today I'm going to show you some of the numbers I look at regularly. I generally work with buyers and sellers from Read more:Foreclosure
Los Angeles foreclosures decline 2008-09-11 13:28:33 Foreclosures in the Los Angeles
area dropped 18 percent in August, the second time in three months that foreclosure numbers in L.A. have declined after hitting record highs, according to Property Shark.No doubt, many in the real estate industry will use this information to predict that we are at or near the bottom of the market. And truthfully, there have been several other signs that a bottom may Read more:Los Angeles
Housing Inventory in Los Angeles by Zip Code 2008-09-10 22:46:43 There's been a lot of talk lately -- by agents, buyers, sellers, agents and even pundits on CNBC -- about when the housing market will hit bottom. And everyone wants to know how to tell when we've hit bottom.One of the most-discussed indicators is the excess housing inventory. Housing
inventory has swollen as buyers have retreated and bank-owned properties have flooded the market. The thinking is Read more:Angeles
, Los Angeles
, Inventory
, Housing Inventory
Sorting through recovery predictions 2008-09-08 16:10:00 There's been a ton of predictions flying around lately (aren't there always?) about when the housing market will recover.I'm going to sort through a few of them and offer my thoughts.First, the excellently researched doomsday blog, Dr. Housing Bubble, predicts we won't see a bottom in California until 2011. And in this post he gives 10 good reasons why this could be true. Second, Robert Shiller sa Read more:Sorting
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