Our listing at 1137 S Ridgeley is so good now! We took the house off the market and we spent time doing market requested upgrades. The kitchen cabinets used to be wood and now, by popular suggestion, they’re fresh white. We bought and installed a brand new stainless steel fridge/freezer and also an LG set of washer & dryer. We painted all the exterior fences around the property, we added a bunch of landscaping, and we uninstalled and reinstalled the backyard pavers to remove roots that grew underneath them so that the surface is smooth now. We painted the garage floor and thoroughly cleaned it so that the garage can be used as flex space. The assessor shows the house as 3,377 square feet, and it has a living room + dining room + den + 2 beds/2 baths downstairs + 3 bedroom suites upstairs.The location is central and quiet, and there’s a sparkling pool in the backyard perfect for summer!  We dropped the price to 2,375,000 post upgrades. I’m excited to meet the lucky buyer soon!
Last call for buyers for 651 Wilcox, which will lease soon if it isn’t sold!  We have 3 offers in hand but none yet that hit the spot and will excite the sellers to sell. The magic number to sell is 1,050,000.  We’re close but not quite there (yet). It’s legitimately hard for many sellers to part with properties that have a locked in interest rate of 3% or below, especially as interest rates keep rising!  The struggle is real and we’re here to help our clients get where they most want to go!
We have a new furnished lease that feels like a romantic treetop hide-away at 6303 Bryn Mawr. It’s a warm character corner lot house in Hollywood Dell with 2 beds, 1.5 baths, so much sunshine, cool views, and charming outdoor space! The living room has a wood burning fireplace and it’s open concept to the dining room, kitchen, and large wood deck off the public living space. The primary suite has floor to ceiling closets and opens to more magical outdoor space. It’s neat that you can walk from the house to the Hollywood Bowl for a show and avoid the gridlock!
Staging companies have had 6 week lead times for a while. Our 6 week wait for staging is finally coming to end and we have 2 new listings getting staged soon.  And 1 listing from the past getting refreshed and coming back to market with added features…and staging. Stagers say they’re super busy and scheduled to stage a house (or two) a day for weeks out into the future. I have a feeling that because houses are taking longer to sell, and staging companies have so much inventory out in the field, they need to push new move-in jobs into the future as move-outs are scheduled so that they have the inventory to stage new houses.
I’m loving working with my buyer clients shopping for houses to buy!!! It’s interesting to compare different lenders and offered rates. This week a buyer got a conditional approval from Morgane Stanley for 6.435% for a 30 year fixed, another buyer got 6.5% from Wells Fargo with a relationship discount for a 30 year fixed, and a private lender is lending to our buyer at 7.1%. Citi Private was at 7 1/8% for a lawyer at O’Melveny who gets preferred rates, with advice to go comparison shop at retail alternatives. Such a short time ago buyers got 5.5% and 6% for 30 year fixed from Citi Private, at a time when other retail banks were at least 3/4 point higher. Everyone is anticipating the time when rates drop and there’s a chance to refinance. Buyers are anticipating that prices will go up then and they’ll be better off buying now and adjusting their rate later. Most popular to buyers always are houses that are entirely move-in ready and designer done in beautiful taste.
In our family, we’re loving everything sourdough!! On a whim, Raizy started a home business leading small group classes she called “Sourdough for Starters” with laminated flowcharts and a container of starter to go. Miriam came up with a recipe for extraordinary sourdough cinnamon buns. I think Chantzy’s homemade sourdough bagels are spectacularly delicious! Raizy loves sourdough ciabatta.  Miriam was making sourdough pitas and now she’s on to serving her homemade gravlax with homemade sourdough crackers! The process of taking a mixture of flour + water + salt from wet to shaggy to smooth & elastic is mesmerizing each and every time and it never gets old!  I guess I love doing the same with houses. It’s the transformation right before your eyes into something extraordinary that completely hits the spot!
Wishing everyone an awesome end of the week!
Xoxoxoxo,
Sheri
