Hollywood Riviera & South Bay Real Estate Blog

We work for Sandra Sanders who is the broker/owner of Re/Max Palos Verdes Realty & Re/Max Execs.  We truly respect her and love how she runs her business.  One of the reasons is because this is the type of message she likes to put out to her agents.  This was part of our “What’s New at Re/Max Palos Verdes/Execs” newsletter this spring.  She sends this out quarterly.  I really liked her “Message from Sandra” this quarter and would like to share it!

“Years ago, a 10 year old boy went to the soda shop and asked the waitress, “What does an ice cream sundae cost?”
“Fifty Cents,” the waitress replied.

The little boy reached into his pocket and carefully counted his change as the waitress became more and more impatient.  She had “bigger” customers to wait on.

“How much for just plain ice cream?” the boy asked.  The waitress noticeably irritated, said “Thirty five cents.”  Again the boy slowly counted his money and then asked for a dish of plain ice cream and paid the correct amount.

Later, the waitress cleared the boy’s dish and there on the counter he had left two nickels and five pennies.  She realized that he had had enough money for the sundae, but had sacrificed so that he could leave her a tip.

The moral of the story: Before passing judgment, first treat others with courtesy, dignity and respect.  

What is the difference between Contingent and Pending?  Well - technically both these descriptions refer to properties that are “in escrow.”  In Escrow refers to a property that is under contract.  Typically the first 17 days of the contract are “contingent” days - contingent on inspections of the property, review of disclosures, appraisal and financing approval, to name a few. 

So does the listing agent put the property into a “contingent” or “pending” status in the MLS?  Agents are required by their Board of Realtors to enter “active” listings into one of these categories after a contract is accepted between the buyer and seller.  Realtors actually have other choices as well - Back Up Offers, First Right of Refusal (this one is new.)  The two most common are Contingent and/or Pending.  If the contract seems pretty “solid” right off the bat there is not much of a decision - it goes into Pending.  Technically a contingent entry is still considered a property to be “available for showing” by realtors.  One good reason for a contingent status: the seller accepted a “contingent on the sale of buyers’ property” contract.  This is typically the reason to put a property into the Contingent Status.  The Board of Realtors considers the Contingent status as one that is still “active” and continues the Days on Market (DOM) Clock still counting.  Many agents don’t know this and put properties into Contingent Status for no real reason - not because they accepted a “contingent offer.”  Only the Pending status stops the DOM clock from counting!  If a property is in Contingent Status the Days Under Contract are included in the “market time.” 

This creates a problem for agents who may be checking comps for properties and using DOM as a statistic…..often if a property is entered in Contingent Status, agents never take it out of that status and the clock ticks on the entire time it’s under contract and it would then appear that is sat on the market for much longer than it really did.  Laura and I for one would like for all agents to know this is how it works and start to use the Pending status if a property is in escrow.  We all know that no one shows contingent status properties.  Maybe you occasionally get a phone call from another agent curious if the escrow is strong or now…but if they want to know they will call on and status. 

Let’s all put properties into Pending from now on unless an escrow truly is contingent on the sale of a buyer’s property.  (Especially when this really doesn’t happen that often anyway.)  That way we can all really know how long a property was really on the market - our DOM can become more accurate that way!

What are some of the requirements to getting your home SOLD in today’s market?
Lights, Camera, Staged - SOLD!

Lights - a seller always wants to make a home feel light and bright.  Open all blinds and turn on all lights during all showings.  Part of this includes cleaning out those dust and bug filled light fixtures.  Light makes everything shine.  Another important showing aspect would be to add music…something soft.  Think about going shopping at Nordstrom’s -the lights are on and often strategically placed and there is always nice music.  Create the right atmosphere!

Camera - Digital Photography is a big part of today’s home sales.  A big part.    We use a great ”real estate camera” the Kodak v570 which has a nice wide angle lens and takes great real estate pictures.  Rooms can look quite a bit larger on film than a regular camera and it doesn’t make that weird “fish eye look.”   We’ve come up with some great Panoramic shots with it as a matter of fact!   Sometimes hiring a professional photographer can be the best thing to do, but whatever it takes - get great photos!  MLS, marketing brochures, & virtual tours are based on these still photos, and any other good marketing pieces.  Over 80% of people begin their search online and many savvy buyers use the internet to base their choices on what homes to go see.

Staged - It is critical today to be the house on the market that shows the best.  You’ve got to stand out in the crowd today.  Not only price, but Look Great!  90% of buyers don’t have the imaginatin to see past clutter or unstylish furnishings.  Nor do they have the ability to see how they would place their furniture in a vacant home, especially if there is a room that may be a bit awkward.   Prospective buyers make a decision on your home within the first few minutes of walking through the front door.  Staging creates a series of good first impressions that will make potential buyers want to linger and move in not move on.

It’s a combination of marketing efforts of course, but we’ve found that Lights, Camera, Staged usually lead to SOLD!

As of today, there are 20 homes for sale in the Hollywood Riviera.  Of those 20, only 8 are in the Redondo Beach P.O. Box area.  The average price of the 20 homes for sale is $1.275K and the average days on market is 76. 

There are 10 homes pending sale right now (or in escrow.)  That’s a good ratio for our area.  The average price of the 10 in escrow is $1.218K and an average of 60 days on market.

There have been 13 sales (homes sold) since January 1st, 2008.  The average price of those homes is $1.189K and the average days on market of those homes was 53.

All in all, the Riviera is moving along nicely for 2008.  90 homes sold in 2007, and that was an increase over 2006 of +2 homes.  The first quarter of 2008 ends on March 31st - only 2 weeks away.  Typically the first quarter is one of the slowest so, we are not doing too badly at this point.  Strangely, the same date range last year showed the same amount of sales - 13 closed sales happened Jan 1st - March 19th 2007.  We are following along the same path as last year, so considering all the “doom & gloom” news about the real estate market, we aren’t doing too badly.

One of the comments I hear the most when holding open houses in the Hollywood Riviera has to do with the utility poles.  Often the comment comes in the form of a question, “so when are the utility poles going to be undergrounded?” 

My new response is “I used to think they would be undergrounded in “my lifetime”, but now I doubt that.”  The Hollywood Riviera has its own Homeowners Associationthat has a link on their website to the City of Torrance Engineering Dept for further information.  (I just went there though and the link no longer goes anywhere?)  It will be very expensive this proposition.  It would take a vote amongst the Riviera homeowners and for those owners that have been here for 50 years - ask me why they would want to pay an enormous amount of money for something they have been living with for a long time.  It’s the new homeowners moving in today that seem to notice the poles and the wires that hang off of them.  With the cable companies adding their mess of wires to the whole thing, it’s not pretty.  For those homeowners with a view - it is those properties that are most affected by the wires/poles actually - they have the most to gain if the utility poles were to be undergrounded. 

From what I hear, it would take a large majority of the people to agree to the vote - they usually do it street by street.  Then there would be an assessment placed on your property tax bill that would be paid over a certain amount of time.  There are other costs involved though - getting the new undergrounded utilities to your house…..if you have any kind of “hardscape” in the affected area this could be very expensive to re-route.  Then the electrical box on your house would have to be updated to accept the new undergrounded electrical lines and cable lines coming in.  Of course in the end, it sure would look prettier.  One other thing to consider, when there is a “power outage” it is harded to fix from what I hear, then the power companies need to “find” the problem - which they can’t see without digging.  As it is now, they can at least “see” the problem.

On the upside  - if you were to find a positive spin on the utility poles - I have them in my backyard - you get to see all sorts of neat birds and squirrells hanging out on them!  I like that part!

Have you been to the Riviera Village lately?  There are some cool new hot spots there.  Food wise - Creme de la Crepe  just opened near Hennesseys.  It’s a cool french crepe store and the waiters are really french.  The guy who helped us the other day was just learning english, but that didn’t hinder his good spirits - we had great service.  We brought our own wine and they corked it for us…not a bad corkage fee.  We had dinner crepes and dessert crepes.  The dessert crepes were my favorite.  The place was packed - I would recommend a reservation.  They always seem to have a crowd a breakfast time too.  The Riviera Village really needed a place like this.  I am awaiting yet another new eatery that is supposed to be european in nature where the old Redondo Village Sports used to be.  Guess he also owns the Playa store so he’s combining the whole thing into one location.  Bottomline: the crepe store is a “yes, go do it!”

On a completely different note - but also new in the Riviera Village - we have the Ma Me Spa.  Here’s an idea for you if you have children, especially young ones.  Go get a manicure, pedicure, facial or massage and bring the kids and have them watch them for you at the same time!  A true spa get away without the guilt!  What a gorgeous boutique they have as well - fine organic products to take home and pamper yourself there as well as gorgeous baby & mommy gifts!  They also do couples night out - the two of you get a night out or a pampering spa treatment for two and babysitting all in one place..not bad! 

I was out the other night in the Village at Friends of the Vine - they are not new - actually think they’ve been there quite a while now.  What a great place - great atmosphere, great service, great food (hors d’oerves) and of course, great wine!  You can go and buy wonderful wine there as well as wine accessories if you need a nice gift for a wine lover.  Seems like you always run into someone you know there, so head on down and enjoy an evening at Friends of the Vine in the Village!

A good way to figure out what direction we’re headed is to look back.  This time last year - Jan 1, 2007 - Feb 27, 2007 there were 11 homes sold in the Hollywood Riviera.  The average sale price was $1,069K.  Of the 11 sold properties the lowest priced sale was $828K and the highest priced sale was $1,400K.   The average Days on Market was 42 days and average dollar per square foot was $586. 

What’s interesting is to see what the same amount of time - 58 days - both of a first quarter (not typically the “hottest” quarter of the year) held in 2008.   10 homes sold in the 1st 58 days of 2008 with an average price of $1,147K - that is a 6.8% increase - yes - increase in average price.  This is interesting though - the lowest price home to sell in this time period 2008 was $605K and the highest was $2,130K - now there is a spread for you.  The average $ per square foot was similar to last year - $569K, a tiny bit less than last year.  The Days on Market was essentially the same as well, 43 compared to 42.  Of the ten sold, half were under a million and half were over a million dollars.  In 2007, 6 were over a million and 5 were under a million dollars - things haven’t changed much is what I’m seeing here. 

What’s going to happen as we move forward - I don’t have a crystal ball but…if things stay the same like they have so far - the month of March 2007 went like this:  10 homes sold last year in the month of March - 31 days.  (The same amount of homes that sold in 58 days.)   March is when things start to heat up - a good time of year for sellers usually.  The average price was $1.172K  - interesting that the average price doesn’t change much although the parameters to get there sure do - March last year had 10 sales and the lowest was $1 million and the highest was $1.3K - very tight price range.  Average DOM was 44, similar to what we’ve been seeing, so no news there.    If we do this in March 08 - we currently have 24 homes for sale - so almost half of them would be sold by April 1st.  We all know there will be new inventory though…sure hope so - what’s on now sure is getting stale.   We’ve had 22 homes on the market for a while - there were just 2 new listings to hit the market within the last week - one today that looks amazing and one that is pretty decent from last week.  Curious to see what happens…can’t wait to make the report!