August 29, 2008
Welcome Back Road Runners!!
Riviera Elementary - as well as all the Torrance Unified Schools - begin school again on Thursday, September 4th, 2008! Riviera Elementary was honored as a California Distinguished School in 2008! What a wonderful designation for a great school! Riviera Elementary will welcome 690 students for its 2008-2009 school year. 114 of them are incoming Kindergartners. There are also going to be several staff additions to this wonderful place for children to grow and learn.
Class lists will be posted in front of the school office on Wednesday, September 3rd around 5pm. School starts at 8:46 am for 4th & 5th grades and 8:55 am for K-3rd grades. There will be a PTA New Parent Tea the first day of school in the cafeteria starting at 10am. A reminder that Wednesdays are the early dismissal days - school lets out at 2:23 for 1-5th graders and regular time for Kinders (1:55pm.)
Happy School Year!! Hard to believe summer is almost over!
For more information visit the school website at http://www.riviera.tusd.org or call (310) 533-4460
August 26, 2008
Good eating has come to the Hollywood Riviera’s “Riviera Village.” Dolce Vita is a wonderful new addition for the breakfast and lunch crowds. They are actually a german deli and sandwich shoppe with more of an italian name. Ripe w/ european flavors, Dolce Vita offers homemade quiche, flatbreads paired w/ fresh green salads, pasta & veggie salads, sandwiches on baquettes, delicious lattes and cappucino’s to top of the meal. A certain return visit for me - especially since they actually had terrific customer service - a true bonus today. I also enjoyed sitting outdoors - they have a great set-up with plenty of tables & chairs with eye-catching red umbrellas.
Village Pizza has opened and has a super charming feel with table and chairs out on the sidewalk for a little al fresco dining. They also have a nice size indoor eating area complete with flatscreens for those sports fans. They offer beer and wine as well as pizzas, calzones, salads and kids menus! A certain competitor for Pedones.
A fabulous find for dessert after you are done with lunch or dinner in the Riviera Village - head to Crema Dolce…they have been in the Riviera Village for over 5 years now! Talk about a huge number of fresh, homemade gelato & sorbet flavors - it’s unbelievable. And it is not only delicious, but healthy too. They say that “these delicious and flavorful treats are combined with proven Prebiotic benefits that bring you a balance of taste and health.” I got the mango-passionfruit sorbet and it was mouthwateringly tasty! I’m headed back for more soon. They even have “american style” cream flavors such as mint chip and cookies & cream. And “cotton candy” flavor for the little ones. Topped with a waffle cone triangle; this is sure to cure your sweet tooth.
Strolling through the Riviera Village this afternoon - around 2pm on a Tuesday - I found it bustling with activity, which frankly shocked me. I thought it would be much quieter. I walked by the Coffee Cartel (right next to Crema Dolce) and there were several people out enjoying the shaded patio with their coffee drinks. The crepe place - Crema de la Crepe was packed. All sorts of people outside eating delectable little bites…although the dessert crepes I saw drizzled in chocolate and oozing with whip cream didn’t look so little! I wrote about them in March 2008 as a new store to the Riviera - looks like they are doing well! Hennesseys’ was of course crowded - people with their little dogs sitting outside.
I also popped my head into “L’Atelier” a knitting store carrying the most exquisite yarns and samples of gorgeously crafted sweaters, wraps and handbags. The store was standing room only - women sitting on stools at a “knitting bar” clicking away and enjoying the companionship. Very cool! Makes me want to take up knitting one day.
On it’s way, not open yet….Turquoise. The sign indicates a mediterranean grill featuring organic foods. They said they’d be open next month! Somewhere to head to in September.
August 20, 2008
In reading a few great articles this week regarding “loving your house again,” I find myself smiling. Let me share:
Chris Ayres of the LA Times wrote this greatopinion piece about “forgetting the doom and gloom about the tanking market. You made a smart investment.” He makes so many great points for the many of us that bought houses in the last few years during the “real estate boom.” We find ourselves stuck reading so much doom and gloom lately, but here’s someone who has taken the time to break things down and make it all not seem so bad. I’m always looking for some good news in the media…(check my blog from August 6th) He makes great points about what a great investment time period it was - the interest rates most people got during those times are amazing! A good interest rate on a loan can offset many losses in depreciation. Uncle Sam makes owning a home here in the United States a huge financial bonus - giving us the glorious home mortgage interest tax deduction!
Secondly, we do a lot of staging of seller’s properties and funny enough, we hear the same thing over and over…”Boy, maybe we want to stay now that the house looks so good.” In an article dated in Feb 2008, Beth Teitell from the Boston Globe, writes about “loving your house again” as well. She gets right to the point I just mentioned….love your house. Act like you “like your house” and clear it out, make it someplace you want to live, decorate it! I’m amazed at how some people live in their homes. It’s similar with peoples cars too though. They will drive it around dirty and with tons of dings and dents, bad tires, stained carpets, and soiled interiors. But if those people went to sell their car, they most likely would get that car detailed (and may realize at that point that they may want to keep the car since it looks so good now!)
The third great article bringing us to “Love our house again” - is about the increasingly popular “Staycation.” Debra Alban of CNN brings us “Staycations: An Alternative to Pricey, Stressful Travel.” More and more people are choosing to stay home for vacation instead of paying to stay somewhere else…especially if they have a nice place to call home! If you’ve spent any money at all on “landscaping” the back yard you might as well get some use out of it! In most cases it’s nicer than where you will go (and pay to go.) You can certainly relax more at home and not feel like you have to “go, go, go just to get your money’s worth. Boy, if you live here in the South Bay - Hollywood Riviera, Palos Verdes, Redondo Beach, any of the Beach Cities - it doesn’t get much better than here to have a “staycation!” So enjoy the last few weeks of summer and Love Your House Again!
I guess great minds think alike, here is an article written by a colleague, Elaine Carlson, also of Re/Max Palos Verdes about the same LA Times article - http://palosverdessource.com/2008/08/18/do-you-love-your-house/
Article One - http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/sunday/commentary/la-oe-ayres17-2008aug17,0,1698378.story
Article Two - http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/house/articles/2008/02/14/love_the_one_youre_with/
Article Three - http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/worklife/06/12/balance.staycation/
August 14, 2008
How do man’s best friend & real estate get along? Great until it’s time to sell. In today’s “buyers market” any challenge for a seller becomes even more challenging. Pets can make the sale of a house much harder in so many ways.
1. Pet Smell - yuck! that’s what buyers think too.
2. Special Showing Instructions - if your house is hard to show it will get shown less (and in a buyers market you want as many people through as possible - think “numbers game.̶ 
3. Pet Hair - constant cleaning and you better keep it clean all the time if you’re wanting to sell it.
4. Allergies - if buyers have pet allergies they are going to want new carpeting before they move in, someone has to pay for this and in a buyer’s market, it’s usually the seller.
5. Carpet - hope there aren’t pet stains on it.
6. Fears - hope your buyer isn’t afraid of dogs and the dog gets out or is barking in the backyard - can you say “deal-kill.”
7. Dreaded Neighbor’s Barking Dog - need I say more.
Read this great article for more info - http://realtytimes.com/rtpages/20080627_petsell.htm
August 13, 2008
Hollywood Riviera is a terrific community in the heart of South Torrance….a lot of it has a Redondo Beach P.O. Box address, but it is all part of South Torrance. It butts up to the bottom of the hills of Palos Verdes and sits just south of Redondo Beach. Many of the homes have some of the most magnificent views to be found anywhere…views of the ocean, city, mountains - truly stunning on a clear day. The Hollywood Riviera has a neat little shopping district called the Riviera Village. It is abundant with cute boutiques, salons, coffee shops, Trader Joes, Jamba Juice, etc…
As of today, August 12, 2008, there are only 29 single family homes for sale - they range from $689,000 for a small house on the Torrance side of the Riviera on the Pacific Coast Hwy service street to a newly constructed spanish style villa with a basement, fine finishes and a view for $2,499,000. 11 of the 29 properties are on the Torrance side leaving the other 18 homes for sale in the Hollywood Riviera possessing a Redondo Beach address….typically the more expensive address.
This is quite a change from a month ago when there were 38 homes for sale in the Riviera - check out my blog entry from July 5th.
If you are looking for something smaller there are 3 condo/townhouses for sale ranging in price from $699,000 to $899,995. Two of the townhouses are in the Village Palos Verdes townhouse complex which offers many units with great ocean views, 2 gorgeous pool areas, and a great location within walking distance of the beaches and the Village. The last condo for sale is over in the Cote D’Azur condo complex - just on the border of PV and Torrance Beach. This unit has been completely remodeled and has gorgeous views.
The Hollywood Riviera is truly an amazing place to call home.
August 12, 2008
Went out to see some property today in Palos Verdes during our Broker Tour Tuesday - this is the day agents hold broker’s open houses in Palos Verdes area. There weren’t that many to see today, about 10 in all. We always play a little game if you will when we go out to determine which house is the “deal of the day!” We had one picked out but then saw one more and had to re-allocate the “deal of the day” to the house listed in Rolling Hills Estates right off of Silver Spur and Willow Wood - address is 5105 Elmdale. What a deal - it’s only $949,000 and has 3 bedrooms/2bathrooms on a huge panoramic view lot. This lot has so much going for it…it’s over 13,000 sq ft, very private and the house is situated well on the lot to take advantage of the amazing queen’s necklace, city and ocean views! The house itself is over 1700 sq ft and totally retro! It’s a step back in time - has so much potential to be a killer house. 2 of the 3 bedrooms are a super size. There is a neat family room off the living room that has walls of glass to be dazzled by the city lights at night while kicking back in front of the cool fireplace. This was the “deal of the day in Palos Verdes!” Here’s a sampling of the view!
August 8, 2008
It is a tough market for sellers right now. They aren’t sales people in most cases and are not used to all the rejection lately. My gosh, first of all, buyers and their agents really, call at the last minute and expect to get into a house that is perfectly staged and ready for their last minute arrival. Then the buyers quickly whiz through and leave. That makes the seller feel terrible inside. Wondering why they didn’t like their house. Here’s the good strategy part - for everyone involved this is a good strategy. “The seller needs to leave the house when the buyers come.”
How much heartache this could solve. There are many reasons…here are a few that come to mind.
1. Buyers are not comfortable walking into someone’s house - especially when it’s last minute. The feel a bit guilty and don’t actually want anyone to see who these last minute, non-planning people are.
2. Buyers won’t linger as long in a house they are uncomfortable in. They won’t open the closets or cupboards or the garage door or etc…. We want the buyers to look in these places - this means they are interested - or might get interested.
3. Sellers won’t be there to answer questions from the buyers - which typically shouldn’t be answered by sellers. Agents typically do the talking for fear the seller says the wrong thing to the buyer. A buyer’s agent knows what a buyer wants and what a buyer is looking for in a home and will ask the right questions and get the right answers to those questions. A seller may feel uncomfortable answering questions from buyers - why are you selling? where are you going? these may be personal questions better left unknown in some cases.
4. Sellers won’t feel as dejected when they are there and the buyer “whizzes through the house.” If they aren’t there they won’t know. Sometimes what we don’t know won’t hurt us.
5. A house starts to feel small if people are moving around and shuffling to get out of people’s way. Sellers - you want your house to feel and present itself as roomy as possible.
6. Most buyers’ agents don’t want the listing agent there either. This again makes people feel wary of why they have to be there. If I am asked to be there when a buyer and their agent are looking at a house, I usually wait outside and tell the agent to let me know if they have any questions. That I am there merely to answer any questions they might have about the house. Again…that makes the buyers’ agent not feel like they are doing their job. Like they are being watched if you will. No one wants to feel watched - it’s uncomfortable.
August 6, 2008
Sure seems like there is a lot of bad news in the press - constantly! It sure would be nice if there were some good news about the real estate/mortgage industry lately. People are sick of hearing bad news on all fronts. So what is some of the good news.
“Of the 120 million homes in the US, over 33% of them are completely paid for - no mortgage (that would be nice.) 40 million of the remaining 80 million homes were bought before the year 2000 meaning that even in a ”fire sale” they have at least 30% equity in them. 94% of the mortgages today are not in arears at all. Of the 120 million homes in the entire U.S. today, only 4 million are “at risk” with less than 2% of all homes actually in foreclosure. I think Congress is about to spend $300 billion (yes, that’s billion, with a capital “B”) of your tax dollars to bail out those 2% of home buyers who made bad decisions. Yet the talking heads would have us believe that, like Chicken Little, the sky is falling and we all have to run for cover or risk getting smacked by falling houses.” (courtesy of RisMedia Commentary by Phil Cantrell)
People still need to buy and sell homes and this too shall pass as they say. The mortgage companies will need to get it all figured out - and they will - and things will start to go back to “normal” again. And I mean normal - not the frenetic market we had from 2002-2006. That was not a normal market…mortgage companies gave away money then to anyone with a pulse. Their underwriting today has gone 180 degrees the other direction which is what’s hurting us all right now…but eventually it will swing back. It’s cyclical - always has been. Let’s all just hold tight and know we live in a beautiful neighborhood that has held it’s value relatively well. At least we don’t have foreclosure signs dotted up and down the streets like some neighborhoods. We are lucky!
I found a couple websites that feature good news if you are sick of the bad all the time!
http://www.happynews.com/
http://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/
