News

  Is now the time to list your home due to lack of competition and an upswing in prices? Current statistics show that good homes are selling for good prices. While the pace of California home sales declined in March, the median home price in the state increased for the first time in 16 months. Sales of existing, single-family detached homes, seasonally adjusted, was 505,360 in March, a 4.5% drop from February and a 2.3% drop from the same month in 2011, according to a survey by the California Assn. of Realtors. Meanwhile, the statewide median price for an existing, single-family...

A recent article on Cisco.com featured Jeff Yarbrough of LA Luxe Group...   A TREND REALTORS ARE JUST BEGINNING TO EMBRACE is using videos to tell a story—a short movie, if you will—with the property serving as the location. In one such video created by an Australian real estate team, a scantily clad woman bound to a chair in a swanky house screams into a nearby smartphone for help. On the other end of the line, as a SWAT team races to the rescue, an emergency operator asks the damsel to describe the property's location and layout—a dramatic pretext for a rapid video tour of the place....

Now that we have entered into 2012 most of the data on the biggest house sales of 2011 have finally hit the public records. Many high-priced properties never have to sully themselves on the MLS, so we missed a few of the best deals. Now here it is finally: the definitive list of the most expensive home sales in LA County in 2011.

  In news guaranteed to make anyone over 22 feel grumpy and confused, pop star Justin Bieber is supposedly buying the crazy Hollywood Hills house that Ashton Kutcher has been renting, according to the Daily Mail. We first noticed the house back in June 2011 when it was pricechopped from $12.5 million to $10.8 million (its current asking price). Bieber is going full-on mini-Kutcher and has also been working on a reboot of the seminal mid-aughts celebrity pranking show Punk'd. Kutcher was seen sniffing around the Lake Hollywood house in December and is reportedly now renting it for $50,000...

                            Last week, Zillow noticed that 2011 closed out with a lot of celebrity house sales. But that got us thinking of the poor, poor celebs who couldn’t sell in 2011 (and there were many). Here are five of the worst cases: The Prince of Darkness and his bride (aka Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne) have been trying to offload this Malibu house since the spring of 2006, according to Trulia. The five bedroom, five bathroom house sits on La Costa Beach and has fireplaces,...

After years of holdups, starts, stops, and restarts, The Avenue (formerly the Madrone) finally opened earlier this month on Hollywood's northwestern front. The condo-turned-rental project was designed by Cuningham Group Architecture and includes 180 apartments with 25 different floorplans, washer/dryers and balconies in every unit, groundfloor retail (to come), a pool, fitness center, dog run, and concierge service. It's also got the pricing to match all those amenities, with rent starting at $2,350 per month. We visited two units on a dreary day last week--apartment 614 has three bedrooms...

Echo Park is—and has been—a magnet community for hipsters of all ages. Its down-and-dirty ‘hoody vibe attracts artists, actors, and waiters who are also artists and actors. Recently, the lake in the actual Echo Park was drained. Some were sure any number of missing persons would be found at the bottom. Alas, no. But…wait for it…an official City list of everything found in the great Echo Park Lake drain of 2011 has been issued. (If you're just tuning in, the Lake is getting a major rehab and will be closed for the next couple years.) Boom-boxes were still having their moment in 1984,...

Occasionally there are random questions that come as a shock…despite having years of experience in the real estate trenches. Here’s an example (and a well-researched answer): Question: A couple of our board directors are alcoholics. Because of their director positions they are able to enter into contracts, negotiate with potential vendors and decide what maintenance projects should take place. They have entered into agreements and signed contracts while inebriated, then not recalled signing the contracts. They don't recall conversations and promises made to certain owners, vendors and management....

Berkeley, Calif., resident Gregory Kloehn is doing good by his left-coast neighbors and waxing nostalgic about what defines a "home": "Is it toilets and a kitchen and a roof, or is it location, or is it a house that expresses yourself? I dunno, I think for everyone it's a little bit different," Kloehn explains in a video made by local filmmaker Kim Aronson. "For me, I'm just trying to deconstruct what a home can be—how can you turn different objects into a home—and see if I can put everything in that a home has inside of a Dumpster, and if I can make it nice enough that perhaps someone...

While a lot of potential homebuyers may think they are doing everything to maintain stellar credit in anticipation of buying a home, some may not realize that they could be putting their credit at risk as they begin their holiday shopping this year. While many consumers may open store credit cards and other lines of credit to make their holiday shopping more manageable, those who are simultaneously touring open houses and applying for mortgages should be careful not to do so. Opening too many lines of credit and having a number of inquiries into credit history in a short period of time can cause...