Repping

Recently I was asked if I work with buyers. The short answer is, I do. What I prefer, is a mix of buyers and sellers. Listings are indispensable, because they often lead to buyers, buyers are indispensable because they often lead to listings. I like both.

All the deals are special--really. Because the people are special. I've never disliked a client. If I dislike someone, or vice versa, it doesn't get that far. But the transactions I feel best about, the ones that make me smile in the dead of night, are the improbable negotiations that saved something imperiled. The historic house, stuck in a market niche--or neighborhood, in which continued disintegration or even loss was probable. The houses for whom the next buyer would make the difference, because another ten years of neglect, likely meant the house wasn't recoverable, that the market economics would never incentivize its restoration.

That isn't every transaction, mostly because it doesn't suit every buyer, and also because those opportunities aren't always available.

I get attached to some of the houses. I like coming to them, imagining life within them, picking out their nuances, exhorting their strenghts. When I drive past a house I was involved with, I feel a connection. I usually slow down, examining them like some drivers do their appearances in a vanity mirror, usually with great satisfaction.

I have the clients to thank for that.

Carpet Diem

Playtime at Parag's, layers and layers of floor coverings dissevered. In one bedroom, three layers of carpet sat atop two linoleum rugs.










The fir floors beneath looked worthy of refinishing, most had been covered/protected for over half a century.



Baseboards grew in height, as over an inch of padding and carpeting was rudely escorted to the curb. 'A carpet salesman'll be by any minute', we joked.




Then we began removing the luan (or luaun) panelling, 1/4" wood veneer, tacked in the stairwell, entry, and hall.

The layers theme continued, as the luan revealed de-laminating wall-paper, painted, and finally beautiful sand-finish plaster.









In looking for obscured value, I often counsel clients to consider those things that can be done quickly and easily and therefore cheaply (because most improvement/restoration projects will take long, require money, and impose difficulties). Yes, it will cost to refinish the floors and to patch the scarred plaster, but probably less than it took to cover these surfaces originally, and the psychological return is immediate.

I'm going back for the awnings and security bars.....

Real Estate Agents, Go Figure

In a new twist, some buyers agents are now installing their own post-sale signs. That's right, after the listing agent removes his/her sign, the buyer's agent installs their own, complete with a prominent rider that reads SOLD.


(Remember this beaut, and my dark green signage?)






Self-promotion, I concede, is a necessary evil of the practice, heck I do my own chest-beating now and again, not to mention RecenteringElPueblo; still, this tactic put me a bit off-balance, and it enraged my seller, "the neighbors'll think you lost the listing, and this other person represented me in the sale."
"They might", I answered, considering appearances.
"This other agent has absolutely no presence in this neighborhood", my seller continued, "she's a carpet bagger."
"It is a bit misleading," I agreed, "but most of your neighbors know me."
"All the more reason why", the seller persisted.

Ultimately, my seller called the other agent's office manager, complained, and the sign was removed.

Quickie Details

Hubba, hubba: molded decorative brickwork. This fireplace detail, from a 1910 Craftsman home in Harvard Heights, features an egg-and-dart molding, a widely used pattern of classical origins. The egg-and-dart pattern enriches an ovolo molding or quarter round, a simple convex shape, applied here to a niche or recess, over the firebox. These glazed bricks, a beautiful orange-brown color are freckled with round to irregular shaped brown to black iron spots (some with blister holes).

Barrio Services

As wholesale sections of Los Angeles continue to undergo demographic change, from chiefly African-American to chiefly Hispano-American, commercial corridors are transformed.

Panaderias emerge, wig/braid/curl shops vanish, and Party Suppliers proliferate. Si, fiestas! The Mexican Bureau of Popular Cultures has identified at least 10,000 fiestas that are celebrated by different communities in Mexico. Many are now celebrated here, along with other Latin American festivities, and near-universal social-gatherings like birthdays, sporting events, and religious occasions.










Jumpers or Bouncers (inflatable play structures) are very popular. The word "jumper" hasn't a spanish language equivalent evidently, whereas other items--sillas, mesas, pelotas, are often billed in Spanish.










So prevalent are party rental stores, that more than one may occupy the same block (Vermont and 30th). Some, like the all-purpose pharmacia or versatile cafeteria, reject the specialty model, and operate as a defacto florist or confectionery.

The Pinata, which probably derives from Pre-Columbian Aztec ritual clay pots, is another staple (and one of Mexico's greatest cultural cross-overs). Pinatas, filled with toys and candy--traditionally sugar cane--accompany more than just kiddie fests. In the Mexican Catholic celebration of Christmas a seven-pointed star is featured, representing the seven deadly sins. That which the devil is witholding--the contents of the pinata--are released by striking blindfolded, a display of faith. Neighborhood food markets, like Mercado Uno, sell pinatas as well.



Ellen's Party Supplies operates a virtual compound on King Boulevard with dual storefronts. Ellen's offers vending machines of all kinds, floral materials, and audio gear. An employee said the business depends most on theme-based birthday parties for boys and Quinceaneras, which celebrate a young woman's fifteenth birthday, or coming of age. Because Quinceaneras are such a large event, the celebrant holds a court composed of fourteeen girls (damas) and fifteen boys (chambelanes), with dancing, and props (the throwing of the quince doll), they tend to be the most profitable.

Growing up in Oakland California, I attended plenty of birthday parties, luaus (I have family from Hawaii), and Bar Mitzvahs, but never a Quinceanera. I kind of feel like I missed out on something.

LA Movies

Play it As it Lays

Director Frank Perry's fearless adaptation of Joan Didion's LA opus, stars Tuesday Weld as model-cum-actress-cum-brutalized has been. Often described as a scathing show biz indictment, the numbing monotony of desert landscapes and freeway drivescapes are stunningly juxtaposed in this rich textural work, magnificently photographed by Jordan Cronenweth (previously noted for the Nickel Ride and most celebrated for another dystopian LA flix Blade Runner).

Sidenote: I realized after watching Play it As it Lays, that in just 35 years, L.A. looks utterly different from its freeways: sound walls have been built, connections have been added or altered (like the 105 or the 110 carpool fly lanes), and in some places (along the 405 for example) massive development has taken place.

This Thursday, the Egyptian theatre is screening a good L.A. cop film, The New Centurions (1972, director Richard Fleischer). Chinatown screens at the Aero Saturday night.

Real Estate Agents: Friends or Foes?

Do I count real estate salespersons among my closest friends? No, not really, though I do enjoy close rapport with my boss/broker David Raposa. I make a concerted effort to maintain amicable relations with other agents however; and, often I've used personal capital to give my clients an edge in negotiations. After all, an agent's fiduciary duty to a client is paramount.

It isn't productive to alienate other real estate professionals, because you never know who'll represent the right deal-making property or clientele. Still, in some of my circles, real estate rivalries do exist and bad relations between agents are common.

Even with my peacenik posture, there are a couple of agents I'd rather not enter into a/nother transaction with. Neither fortunately, are currently active in my sphere. One, in our first go-around, failed to disclose known material, value-affecting facts (though I suspect incompetence, not malice). The other, with whom I came closest to real antagonism, was simply unbalanced.

Some agents can be positively unhelpful too. One long time area broker, remains nearly silent whilst exhibiting or viewing properties, and responds to most questions with a shrug.
Another agent, balked at showing his University Hills listing by appointment. "If I have to drive there," he explained, "it's an hour out of my day."

Some agents skip showings altogether, recruiting junior staff to sit open houses, and deploying lock boxes (or electronic key boxes) to allow others entry.

If I can't service a listing personally, I don't take it, and I never use lock boxes.

Quoins

Quoins

Large stones or bricks (or block-like form) used primarily to decorate and accentuate the corners of a building. (In some masonry construction, a quoin can actually serve to reinforce a corner.)









Most often laid in vertical series with, usually, alternately large and small blocks. (Though not always, see image on right.)

Trompe l'oeil: quoins painted near an entryway in Manchester Park. A slightly darkened edge gives the illusion of depth.





Tile has been added atop these quoins in Arlington Heights.

From behind the security door, a resident asked about my picture taking. "The tile," I asked, "why cover the corner accents with tile?" The voice responded, "we love tile, we think it's beautiful."
"Would you tile your car?" I asked.


In Los Angeles, Quoins are found on many apartment buildings of the 1930's, like this Normandie revival in the Fairfax district.

Here the edges are rough, or quarry faced.

Nemo and Machiavelli

Two weeks ago I adopted a fish, now named Nemo. Nemo and his small fresh water tank was left behind in a West Adams Avenues manse. It's not the first time I've accepted post-sale cast-offs, usually kitchen items or outdoor furniture.

Elsewhere, Parag's purchase closed May 3rd, but the house remained shuttered another week. On Thursday I entered, for the purposes of removing some luan panelling from the entry and stairwell. A window had been left open and a cat had come to roost. Not a feral cat, a friendly, slightly emaciated silver tabby, with a pink collar and a beckoning meow.

Firstly, I was grateful he hadn't penetrated during fumigation. It's not unheard of, for cats mostly, to breach the perimeter of a tent, or become trapped in a crawl space, during the house cover process. When a listing of mine is tenting, I advise the closest neighbors to corral their indoor/outdoor kittys.

Had the sellers ditched their pet, I worried. It happens more than you'd care to know, particularly when the sellers move far away, and more often with cats than dogs. Dogs are abandoned too, but they aren't generally left in the yard, nor are they (as in this case) capable of re-entry. Rather, a gate is inducively left ajar after the dog is stripped of identification (though most haven't any to begin with).



Desperately, I called the listing agent. "Might the sellers", I asked, "be missing a feline friend?"
Sure enough they were, and a few hours later all were reunited.

Machiavelli, as he was known, had disappeared a few days before their move. They'd asked a neighbor to keep watch, and were surprised an agent for the buyer would take such an interest.
"It's either that," I explained, "Or Nemo'll have a new housemate."

Rockler

Rockler Woodworking and Hardware is a national chain of 23 stores (and an online business), with five Southern California locations. Sometimes called the router superstore, Rockler is a woodworkers specialty store that carries router accessories, power tools, exotic and furniture grade cuts of wood, finishing supplies, and more.

The two stores closest to LA are in Pasadena at 83 S. Rosemead, and in Torrance at 20725 Hawthorne Blvd.

Rockler is open till 8 pm on weekdays, later than other boutique tool stores. Free product demonstrations are held Saturday and Sunday mornings.

Be sure to get on the mailing list to receive sales notices, coupons, and their nifty monthly flyer.

Household Tips

Before, I had problems in my medicine cabinet.

The vanity door was booby-trapped. Shave cream tubes would launch, like an invading force, toward a fragile, defenseless sink basin. Grain moths would appear (uninvited, harrumph). Dental floss would disappear.

Then I installed a monster.
Now it's like Solla Sollew. Troubles, I haven't any. The cabinet is clean and orderly at all times.

I'm thinking about another monster for the corner unit.

The Alarm Salesperson

As if on cue (please see Crime Part 2)

My conversation with the door-to-door security system salesperson

Him: "Have you lived here long?"
Subtext: You couldn't have lived here long--you're a whitey. Regardless, my fear producing innuendo requires an opener.
Me: "Yes."

Him: "Would you say you get a lot of traffic, that there's a lot of visibility?"
Subtext: Don't you feel open, exposed?
Me: "No, most of the traffic is on Jefferson."














Him: "It [the neighborhood] looks nice enough, but is there crime?"
Me: "Very little."
Subtext: You need to work harder than that junior salesrep.

Him: "Do you have an alarm system?"
Me: "Yes".

Him: "Do you use it?"
Me: "Occasionally".

Him: "Is there an alley here?"
Subtext: You're a sitting duck Mr. Paper Tiger.
Me: "Yes, it makes for a great dog run".
Subtext: In case, you're not really a salesperson and instead you're casing my pad, I've got a German Shepard in the back big enough to eat your grandmother.

LA Movies

711 Ocean Drive

Helmed by Joseph Newman, this 1950 "noir-syndicate" film starring Edmond O'Brien, is packed with location footage: Gilmore Field (then home to the Pacific Coast League Hollywood Stars), beaches, local racetracks, a drive-in restaurant, and driving footage (rear projection plates?) of Santa Barbara (now King Boulevard)! Lastly, the rousing climactic chase/holdout/shoot 'em up is shot--in fine style by Franz Planer--at the Hoover Dam.

Inventory Part One

Sunday, I "previewed" a property in Harvard Heights, a two-story Craftsman North of Venice, not yet included in the multiple listing service, but coming soon.

The listing agent, from Huntington Park, vaguely aware of the idiosyncracies of the West Adams market, courted my opinion.

"It's grossly over-priced", I offered finally without the appropriate restraint.
"But there's comps", she countered.
"Yes", I responded, "I know. I'm responsible for some of the comps. Would you like me to tell you about those other properties?"

After some back-and-forth she concluded, "the sellers want to try it at this price. Anyone can make an offer. I'd love to do a deal with you."

Fat chance, I thought, exiting. How do I convince buyers to look and write offers on a property two hundred thousand dollars over market? Another garbage listing.

Inventory is growing, so says the media, citing the foreclosure rate, the pending home sales index, and whatever Data Quick measure they have at the ready.

I'm not seeing it in "my neighborhoods".

There's a little more inventory perhaps at the southern edge of my beat, along the Slauson rim, where a few foreclosures, and bank short sales have popped up. Mostly just garbage listings. Every neighborhood has two or three garbage listings, astronomically priced, interminably active.

Even the bullest bull market has garbage too, or false inventory. Three years ago however, if an overpriced property stayed active long enough, the market might rise to meet it. Now, the garbage sits and accumulates.

To be continued.....

When the Price Isn't the Price

Home sales data may be like sports statistics: the numbers don't lie, but they don't tell the truth either.

I've written about this before, with regard to Zillow (and recorded sales). Consider, did the seller offer credits or make repairs? Did the seller pay the buyer's escrow costs? What about the allocation of other costs? Termite? Retrofit items?

Escrow length is important to many sellers and buyers. Did the seller take less money in order to procure a longer or shorter escrow length? Did a lower price produce a quicker sale and reduce carrying costs? Was personal property included? Appliances?

Income property has even more variables. Were the units delivered vacant or occupied? If occupied, for how long, how many, and at what rental amount?

Instead, all most of us have access to is a number, a single sales figure. A more interesting number, at least for some, would be: Estimated Seller's Proceeds. Seller's Expenses, might be another useful measure. It still wouldn't tell the whole story, but at least we'd get past the foreword.

More Pilasters

At 42nd and Flower.

"This Property is Not Open to the Public", reads a sign affixed to the tall construction fence. A neon signing flashing, squatters welcome, might be more instructive.

Imperiled, as such postings sometimes presage, despite its august pilasters and mighty pediment? If so, no one cares.

Who has time to care? Not the politicians, though the character of a city depends of the survival of intriguing vestiges of the past.

This building brought a smile to my face, the same way a vintage automobile does.

Accordingly, I'm grateful to old car owners, for maintaining and displaying their increasingly different means of transport. I'd grant old cars an HOV exemption too, like the hybrid drivers. Who'd mind really, sharing the car pool lane with a Nash Rambler?

Things I Found in March and April

I often find tools. The hammer and screwdrivers were scattered about, at the intersection of Hoover and Jefferson. I resisted laziness, scrambling from the car whilst stopped in the left-hand turn lane.




I'm keeping the screwdrivers in the pickup--for what else--salvage opportunities.







Front door hardware.




Art nouveau influenced. Found near Washington and 4th.
Douglas Company bowl. Found near LaFayette Park Place. The Douglas motto was "cheapest is best".

There's nothing I'd rather salvage than plumbing. Maybe lighting, which I almost never find, chiefly because most fixtures fit quite easily into the black collection can.

If only the city would switch to clear plastic refuse containers!

West Adams Tunnel

It can be hard for would-be home buyers to reconcile the dramatic contrasts in the West Adams area, between stately residential streets, and commercial strips most resembling a flood control channel.

If I could just whisk clients into and out of the larger North South Central Lower Mid City--what in the blazes am I going on about--area, by means other than the main surface streets: Washington, Western, Vermont, Jefferson, Hoover, you name it--I'd sell three times the number of houses. I'd sell five to six times as many houses. I'd just stand out on the sidewalk taking orders. I could afford a flat screen plasma.

These two photos were taken a block apart: Craftsman extravaganza in Western Heights, and (insert your own dyspeptic smart-ass adjective here) auto parts business on Washington.

That's where the tunnel comes in. Like the levees around New Orleans, walls would get built up around the neighborhoods (oh that's already happening, anyway....), shielding them from the aesthetic pall, bande a part. The tunnel would emerge, I dunno, in the parking lot of the Clark Library, in some green-ified West Adams terrace alley, in LaFayette Square? Hmmmm, we need multiple portals.

I know, it's unworkable. Instead, I'll intercept clients on Larchmont Boulevard, and blindfold them..........