Lowest Priced MB Townhome

If you have been waiting to make an offer on the lowest priced ($599,000) townhome in Manhattan Beach, it's time to make a move. 1320 12th St. Unit D (listed by Susan Kaminski - Shorewood Realtors) has recently been posted on Craigslist by the owner for rent beginning October 1. I hosted the open house there today and renter interest is high. I have no inside information, but would not be surprised if it comes off the market for a new tenant. So if you have been thinking you might be interested in buying this one, give me a call - soon.

New Manhattan Beach Weekend Open Houses

Here are a few new listings that are open for your viewing this weekend. The Beach Reporter provides a full list of Manhattan Beach and Manhattan Village open houses.

See this MLS summary link for more information about the homes mentioned below.

424 Marine Ave. Open Sat 2-4 ($1,649,000, 3br/4ba, 1986 sf, listed by Steve Santos – Shorewood Realtors & Steven Heravi – Coldwell Banker).

This attached, two-on-a-lot, 3-level townhome has ocean views from the decks on the 2nd and 3rd floors. It is also possible to see the ocean from inside, if you’re positioned just right. The first floor has a two-car, direct-access garage, bedroom with hall bath, and wine alcove. The second floor (the main entry level) has two more bedrooms, including the master suite. Circular hardwood stairs lead up and down. The top level has the kitchen, great room and powder room. The home also includes a dumbwaiter. It was built in 2006 by Ken Johnson and purchased new for $1,730,000. According to the listing description this was a rarely-used, second home and has no HOA fees. It is an easy walk to the beach from this Sand Section home.

747 26th St. Open Sat & Sun 1-4 ($1,649,000, 4br/3.5ba, 2833 sf, listed by Dave Salzman & Carol Ann Glover – Real Estate West).

This Tree Section home has a reverse floor plan, with 3 bedrooms and laundry room on the first level. The master suite and another bedroom have sliding doors for direct access to the pool/spa area. The second level has a fourth bedroom along with the rest of the living areas. There are views from the living room and front deck that include a sliver of ocean. A rear deck off the family room provides exterior stairs to the pool and barbeque. There is also a small office built into the garage. The home was built in 1978 and the kitchen has been nicely updated with granite counters and stainless steel appliances.

The home next door (751 26th St.) is also available, currently listed at $1,799,000. The home across the street (746 26th St.) has an offer pending. These neighbors were described in a previous Best MB Homes News post from July 23.

1446 19th St. Open Sat & Sun 1-4 ($1,689,000, 4br/3ba, 2975 sf, listed by Ron Werner – South Bay Brokers).

This Manhattan Beach Heights home was built in 1991, but it has been completely updated in the last few years and looks brand new. The entire property is beautifully landscaped. The lot is 7000 sq. ft., which leaves room for the large terraced backyard. The covered front porch is large enough for sitting or playing. The 2-level home has one bedroom on the first level and 3 more upstairs. There are hardwood floors throughout and lots of clever storage nooks. The home is very nicely designed and built. Take a look at the MLS pictures to get a feel for the style, then go see this one in person to see how nice it really is!

2803 Pacific Ave. Open Sat & Sun 1-4 ($2,099,000, 5br/4ba, 4424 sf, listed by Dan & Lorie O’Connor – Shorewood Realtors).

Listings for many homes claim they are spacious, but this Tree Section home really is! The rooms are large, the foyer is large, and the halls are large (some 6+ feet wide). It was built in 1987 on a lot that is large too (8,400 square feet). Even the 3-car garage is large. The rear yard is completely paved, with edge landscaping. The front yard has a grassy area and includes a circular drive, which allows head-first access to Pacific Ave. This home is ready for you to claim it and decorate in your own style.

For additional information about homes in Manhattan Beach or the neighboring cities, contact Janie Sue Nagy.

Manhattan Beach Open vs Manhattan Beach Open Houses

Going back to its classic roots, the Manhattan Beach Open will be celebrating the beach volleyball tournament’s 50th year with long courts and leather volleyballs. If you can tear yourself away from the Manhattan Beach Open action on the sand, here are a few new listings for Manhattan Beach open houses you may want to see.

The Beach Reporter provides a full list of Manhattan Beach and Manhattan Village open houses.

See this MLS summary link for more information about the homes mentioned below.

4 Bermuda Ct. Open Sun 1-4 ($788,000, 2br/2ba, 1465 sf, listed by John Chuka – NW Real Estate Brokers). This Manhattan Village Plan 1 townhome has 3 levels. The kitchen and bath on the second level have been upgraded from the original 1987 finishes. Also hardwood floors have been added, including the first two flights of stairs.  In addition to the 2-car garage, there is ample guest parking in the courtyard. This house last sold in 2005 for $905,000. The HOA is $475.

56 Sausalito Cir. E. Open Sat & Sun 1-4 ($1,149,000, 3br/2.5ba, 2042 sf, listed by Nina Michaels – South Bay Brokers). If you are looking for golf course views, go see this Plan 7 townhome in Manhattan Village. It has been remodeled with travertine floors and onyx stone in kitchen and baths. This home last sold in 2006 for $1,270,000. The HOA is $475.

2308 Elm Ave. Open Sun 1-4 ($1,349,000, 3br/2ba, 1664 sf, listed by Sachi Fujita – Shorewood Realtors & Mike Michalski – South Bay Brokers). If you are looking for a one-level home west of Sepulveda, go see this one. The original home was built in 1965 and it has just been remodeled courtesy of Courtland Bascon, from this season’s HGTV Design Star series. The new hardwood floors and paint color choices are very attractive. The kitchen is new, but it’s a bit tight - definitely for one person at a time. It looks like some of the original closets and cabinets have been kept in other parts of the house. The yards are a decent size for the 4,480 square-foot Tree Section lot. You can see the flat front yard in the picture and the back yard has more than a smidgen of real grass too. This home last sold in 2006 for $1,250,000.

8 Stratford Cir. Open Sat & Sun 1-4 ($1,699,000, 4br/2.5 ba, 2972 sf, listed by Julie Lyon & Sheri Fejeran – RE/MAX TBD). This Plan 4 Manhattan Village Estate Home was built in 1987 and still has the original finishes (gold bathroom hardware was big at the time). It has actually been listed since July, but because it was tenant-occupied, it is just now having a public debut. It has mountain views from the two-level master bedroom. It also has a three-car, side-by-side garage. It is competing with 4 Stratford Cir. just a few houses away (see that Best Manhattan Beach Homes review from August 6, 2010). The HOA is $255.

1812 Elm Ave. Open Sun 1-4 ($1,890,000, 4br/3ba, 3066 sf, listed by Sachi Fujita – Shorewood Realtors & Mike Michalski – South Bay Brokers). This beautiful home was designed by Louie Tomaro and custom-built in 2004. Outdoor space consists of three courtyards: the entryway, a side patio and the rear patio. A bedroom on the first floor can also be used as an office. It has just about everything you would expect of a newer, custom home in the trees, including an exhaust fan for the master suite walk-in closet.

515 23rd St. Open Sun 1-4 ($2,149,000, 2br/3 ba, 2556 sf, listed by John Altamura – South Bay Brokers). This home in the Gaslight area of the Sand Section does a great job of incorporating outdoor space. Large sliding doors make the wall between the living room and entry courtyard disappear. There is also a large balcony off the front bedroom that provides another private outdoor area. The oversized two-car garage is accessed from 23rd Place. The two, extra-large master bedrooms are upstairs. The home was designed by Ron Firestone and built in 2001. It includes a two-stop elevator. This home is gorgeous and not what you are used to seeing. Go check it out.

1305 Church St. Open Sun 1-4 ($2,200,000, 4br/4.5 ba, 3095 sf, listed by Ted Dodd – NW Real Estate Brokers). Church St. is only one block long and there are just two houses in Manhattan Beach that have a Church Street address. You can own one of them, if you buy this home. This property last sold as an empty lot (3,150 square feet) in 2005 for $1,125,000. The current home was built in 2008 and incorporates Spanish-style tile throughout. There are mountain views from the front of the house and a bit of ocean/horizon view from the master bedroom. Being so close to the American Martyrs church, you will know the time from the hourly chimes. The home is three levels. Main living spaces are on the entry level. Bedrooms & laundry room are up. Family/media room, office and another bedroom are down. It is an easy walk to downtown and the beach.

813 Duncan Ave. Open Sun 2-4 ($2,585,000, 5br/4ba, 4079 sf, listed by Sean Goodsell – Coldwell Banker Residential). You can see Palos Verdes Peninsula and the ocean from the living room and balcony on the top level. All five bedrooms, including the master suite, are on the middle level. The ground level includes the garage as well as huge unfinished spaces. The ground level spaces could be used for a game room or exercise room, or just used as an immense storage area. Top-quality materials were used throughout the home for custom flooring, cabinetry, and counters. It also includes a dumbwaiter and water filtration system. The rear yard has edge landscaping and is mostly paved except for a small patch of grass (just big enough for the discriminating dog). The home was built in 1991 and last sold in 2003 for $1,552,000.

Give me a call, if you'd like to buy one of these or any other South Bay home.
Janie Sue Nagy - 310.707.8762

Scene Around Manhattan Beach #2

Have you seen this scene around Manhattan Beach?

If you can identify the location of this 'comment on life in Manhattan Beach,' post your answer as a comment. There is no prize yet, just the satisfaction of sharing your knowledge as a "local."

Every so often this blog will share an eye-catching Manhattan Beach sight, and ask observant readers to identify the location. Find the answer among comments to this post, within a month.

Manhattan Beach Home Sales - July 2010

Q: How many homes sold in Manhattan Beach during July 2010?

Seems like an easy question. Just to be clear what we’re counting, let’s define “home” as a residential property with a single Tax Assessor’s Parcel Number (APN). So a home could be a condominium, townhome, single family residence, duplex, triplex, or four-plex. We will not count any multifamily properties larger than a four-plex. Next, let’s define “sold” not as the date the offer was accepted, but as the date the transaction completed (that is, the close of escrow or recording date). Now that the terms have been defined, what is the answer?

A: It depends on the accuracy of your information source. What do you want it to be?

Answer A: 34 (really 33). A quick search of the MLS for residential sales with a “COE/End Date” from July 1 through July 31 will get you this answer. But wait, if you look carefully, you’ll notice one home has been listed twice. This is not supposed to happen, but it does. So actually, according to the MLS there were 33 homes sold in July. Other reporting services [Trendgraphix and Clarus Market Metrics, which both rely on data from California Real Estate Technology Services (CARETS)] don’t seem to filter duplicates, so they also report 34 Manhattan Beach homes sold in July. (As an aside, that duplicate listing happens to be for the most expensive home sold in July according to the MLS. Think that will bias July metrics?)

Answer B: 31. Clarus Market Metrics, when using data from our local Multi Regional Multiple Listing Service (MRMLS), reports there were 31 Manhattan Beach homes sold in July. I wonder which 3 sales CARETS knows about that MRMLS does not.

Answer C: 44. Searching the tax assessor database for transactions that were recorded in July yields this answer. Some home sales are never listed in the MLS (12 in July), so it makes sense that this count is higher. But it is not quite that simple. By looking at individual sales, we can see the cause of some of the differences. Here’s a stab at reconciling the numbers:

34 sales reported in the MLS
-1 duplicate listing
-2 listings the assessor says closed in June
+2 listings that needs to be updated to show they sold
+12 "off MLS" sales
-1 questionable MLS listing*

FINAL ANSWER: 44. But don’t hold me to it.

When information is not included in the broadly reported MLS data for over 25% of sales, it calls into question other metrics for the period derived from these sales, for example: average sale price, months of inventory, average days on market (never mind the other problems with accurate DOM).

*I really wanted to count one questionable listing as a closed sale for July, as reported in the MLS, but it could not be reconciled. The street address in the listing did not match the assessor data. The APN in the listing is obviously wrong, since it maps to a property in Santa Monica. The correct assessor data for that property does not show that it sold recently. Given the problems with the MLS data for this listing, I’m going to have to go with the assessor data, though I’ve found inaccuracies there before too. GIGO.

Manhattan Beach Weekend Open Houses

Here are a few new listings that are open for your viewing this weekend. The Beach Reporter provides a full list of Manhattan Beach and Manhattan Village open houses.

See this MLS summary link for more information about the homes mentioned below.

1605 Pine Ave. Open Sat & Sun 2-4 ($959,000, 3br/2ba, 1040 sf, listed by Kevin Pratt – Shorewood Realtors). Built in 1941, this home has been remodeled over the years. It is on a 4,256 sf lot in a great part of the Tree Section. Compare this to 1504 Pine (with the same lot size), which listed at $949,000 less than a month ago and had an accepted offer within a week.

644 12th St. Open Sun 1-4 ($1,199,000, 2br/1 ba, 1001sf, listed by Steve Goddard – RE/MAX Beach Cities). This home is in the Martyrs Hill Area of the Tree Section, which offers a view from the deck and an easy walk to the beach or downtown. The home was built in 1997 and it is move-in ready. If you are looking for a large(ish) back yard close to the beach go see this one. It is rare to find this much back yard on a 3,000 square-foot lot.

While I’m not a big fan of using Price Per Square Foot (ppsf) as an isolated metric, at $1,198 it stands out. For a home this size and age, most of the value is in the land. Recently it has been Sand Section properties or large lots that hit this ppsf mark. Perhaps they are looking back to 2005, when the home at 645 12th St. sold to a builder for $1,245,000. Or maybe the price for 1204 Fisher, when it sold a year ago for lot value at $1,375,000 was a guide. Or it could be that 717 12th St., a little farther up the block, gave hope when it went pending last month with an asking price of $1,199,999. But that is a bigger house with a lower ppsf.

2105 Lynngrove Dr. Open Sun 1-4 ($1,425,000, 4br/3ba, 2830 sf, listed by Tony Barberi – RE/MAX Beach Cities). Don’t wait too long to visit this home. Similar ones are selling quickly in Liberty Village. The original home was built in 1950, but it was rebuilt in 1997. The rear of the 5,400 square-foot lot backs to Redondo Ave. and is elevated from the street. That makes the pool area feel more private. Garage access is also off Redondo Ave. In addition to all room inside, there is an outdoor kitchen to complement the pool and spa. If that is not enough, there is also a very nice tree house in the front yard (you can see the floor of the tree house in the photo).

742 33rd St. Open Sun 1-4 ($2,449,000, 5br/5.5ba, 3973 sf, listed by Jack Gillespie – South Bay Brokers). This house was built in 2007 and sold two years ago for $2,700,000. It was built by DeVico Development in a beautiful Cape Cod style. The 40’ x 125’ lot runs street-to-alley and has access to the attached 3-car garage from 31st Place. If you are looking for a newer home in the Tree Section go check out this one.

Contact Janie Sue Nagy to buy or sell your Manhattan Beach home.

Manhattan Beach Open Houses This Weekend

Here are a few new listings that are open for your viewing this weekend. The Beach Reporter provides a full list of Manhattan Beach and Manhattan Village open houses.
See this MLS summary link for more information about the homes mentioned below.

507 S. Aviation Blvd. Open Sun 1-4 ($829,000, 3br/2ba, 2002 sf, listed by Chuck Stajer & Alexis Akleh-Soof – Shorewood Realtors). You cannot get much farther east than this Mira Costa Section home and still live in Manhattan Beach. The traditional ranch style home was built in 1975 and offers single-level living. It has a wood-burning fireplace (which is getting harder to find in Manhattan Beach) and 3-car garage. The home has been spruced up and is move-in ready. The yard is what you see in front, but there is also a private patio.

622 Rosecrans Ave. Open Sun 1-4 ($1,095,000, 3br/2ba, 1495 sf, listed by Dianne Reppucci – Seaside Realty). This cute and compact 1967 home has been nicely upgraded with solid stone and high-end kitchen appliances. It sits on a street to alley lot, with access to the 2-car garage from 36th Place. The front patio is like a little oasis behind the fence that shields the home from Rosecrans traffic. It is a two-level home. On the lower (garage) level are two bedrooms that share a Jack-and-Jill bath and a laundry area. The upper floor, which is level with Rosecrans Ave., has the living room, dining area, kitchen and master bedroom. The upstairs bath has entries to both the hall and master bedroom.

1542 Manhattan Beach Blvd. Open Sun 1-4 ($1,149,000, 4br/4ba, 2380 sf, listed by Gary Richardson – Shorewood Realtors). Built in 2006, the rear unit of this two-on-a-lot development is for sale. The front unit sold in 2006 for $1,190,000 and recently leased for $4350 per month. There are tree-top views of Manhattan Beach from the wrap-around deck on the upper level. The townhome has hardwood floors, soapstone counters and top-of-the-line stainless appliances. It includes a 3-stop dumbwaiter to get your groceries from the two-car garage on the lower level up to the kitchen on the third level. Association dues are $125.

532 24th St. Open Sun 1-4 ($1,379,000, 3br/3ba, 2210 sf, listed by Darrin O’Hanlon – NW Real Estate Brokers). This home has that classic beach vibe. The kitchen and baths for the original 2-bedroom home were upgraded before 2005. In 2006 the master bedroom suite was added upstairs at the rear of the home. It is well located on a street-to-alley lot one-half block into the Sand Section. Garage access is off 23rd Place. Yard maintenance is minimal. The front yard is paved and the rear yard is mostly koi pond.

2005 N. Meadows Ave. Open Sat & Sun 2-5 ($1,578,800, 4br/3.5ba, 3510 sf, listed by Wendy Stewart – Beach City Brokers). This split-level home was built in 1990 on a 6000 square-foot lot. It is a beautiful home with some unusual features. The family room includes a 7-channel surround sound system and motorized blackout shades to enhance viewing of the 100-inch screen. The rear yard has a rock-edged pool and spa. A closet off the family room has been outfitted as a hide-away office. Not every home comes with a urinal, but this one does – in the upstairs hall bathroom. This home last sold in 2007 for $1,799,000. Go see this one.

4 Stratford Open Sat 2-4 & Sun 1-4 ($1,649,000, 3br/2.5ba, 2924 sf, listed by Nina Michaels – South Bay Brokers). This Plan 3 estate home in Manhattan Village was built in 1987. If you are looking for a comfortable, open, move-in ready home in a gated, guarded community, go see this home. There is an office on the first floor with built in bookcases, which could be converted to a fourth bedroom. The rear patio yard provides a private place to relax outdoors. Manhattan Village has community amenities like pools and spas and this home has association dues of $255 to help pay for them.

1720 1st St. Open Sat & Sun 2-5 ($1,849,000, 5br/5ba, 3596 sf, listed by Steven Rime & Kim Schneider – Keller-Williams Realty). This fabulous home in the Mira Costa Section was custom built by Mike Davis in 2008. The home is full of high quality finishes: floors, woodwork, tile, and ceiling details. A first floor bedroom has an exterior door and could be used as an office. The outdoor shower is convenient to the saltwater pool and spa area. A spiral staircase provides direct access between the deck off the master bedroom and the back yard. Even with a pool there is still plenty of room in the back yard of this 7,500 square-foot lot. Go see this home.

861 10th St Open Sat & Sun 1-4 ($2,699,000, 5br/5.5ba, 4497 sf, listed by Ed Kaminsky – Shorewood Realtors). Yes it did just sell in June for $2,635,000 – but it is back on the market. You can't get a better comparable sale! Check out the discussion about it on Manhattan Beach Confidential then go see it this weekend. It is an impressive Craftsman style home by Schaar Homes and Buildings.

If you would like help to buy or sell your Manhattan Beach home, contact Janie Sue Nagy.

Buying a home with unpermitted changes?

Are you thinking about buying a home that has been remodeled without permits?

In his recent article, Buyer beware when when home lacks permits [sic], Paul Bianchina suggests how to protect your purchase from potential pitfalls of unpermitted work.

If you intend to tear it down or perform a major remodel yourself perhaps it doesn't matter. But if you are counting on the home continuing to stand and want your insurance to cover it, read Paul's article to understand your risks and how you can mitigate them.