Curbed has selected San Pedro as neighborhood of the year!

Every year, Curbed LA runs a neighborhood contest in which their readers select the best livable L.A. neighborhood.  This year, our own little Burbank almost won. (Finally, some recognition for Burbank.)  But at the end, it was beaten out by...San Pedro! Check the link here.

I actually sold a home in San Pedro this year.  Before that, I just thought it was an industrial port with cruise ship berths.  My buyer clients, who knew better than I did, convinced me otherwise.  Once I went down there, I became impressed by the housing stock and the affordability.  Many of the homes, including the one my clients purchased, are on the hill and have views of the harbor.  Yes, it's a bit far away from many attractions, but the Ports of Call development is getting a huge face lift, so new and better entertainment and dining options will be coming very soon.  Good on ya, San Pedro!  And hopefully Burbank will win the Curbed contest next year.
Photo courtesy of Shutterstock.

Glendale is Curbed LA's neighborhood of the year

Our little Glendale is Curbed LA's neighborhood of the year.  Really.  Okay, good.  Apparently, there are 1000's of new apartments/lofts/condos being built there, which kind of scares me but whatever.

3031 N. Lamer and what I learned

3031 N. Lamer, Burbank has finally closed, a little over a week late. That may not sound so bad, but on the 6th I was told that it wouldn't be closing at all because of loan problems.  I really learned a lot with this one (lots of which I can't put into print here).  First, I learned that no matter how much everybody tells me that they love midcentury moderns, location is still more important.  And Burbank seems to be perceived as just...not cool enough...to move to.  I hired a publicist and even with that, couldn't get much press or really even that many showings (thanks for nothing, Curbed L.A.).

I knew this already, but appraisals are still a big issue in our current lending environment.  This home sold over the appraised price.  It went into escrow at $829k, appraised at $805k, but the buyer and seller came to an agreement and settled at $824k.  Even though the buyer was putting a lot down, the loan had to go back through "appraisal review" at the lender's -- twice, apparently.

The third thing I learned was that lenders in Texas have a hard time funding loans in California, no matter how many branches they have here.  This makes sense as the financial industry laws are different state by state.  I won't go into the gory details because I'm not even sure about how many levels of screw-up there were with the lender, but we did get help from the lender's branch manager and regional vp.  From here on, I will only recommend local lenders (see my Local Partners page on my website for four lenders that I do recommend).

Fourth, and I pretty much knew this too: some people need to get off drugs.  And others need to take more.  (I'll let you guess what category I'm in ;).)

Now for a shout-out to Lisa Gaynor and her staff at West Coast Escrow.  Lisa and her team kept their cool although it took them about six times the normal amount of work to get this closed and Lisa must have dealt with over 30 people.  That's about 25 more people than an escrow officer normally has to deal with.

So, does anybody else have to sell an architecturally significant home in an area where nobody cares about such things?  If so, I'm your Realtor!

Avast, ye landlubbers! The backstory on the Burbank backyard pirate ship

Finally, we all get to learn about the builders and owners of the Burbank backyard pirate ship.  I first blogged about the ship, Red Dragon's Revenge, about four years ago and CurbedLa.com picked up the story.  Since then, both this blog and Curbed have republished the photos. And now, Burbank Leader/Glendale News Press has the history! No link as of now, though; you'll have to get a hard copy of the paper.

The builder/owners on Angeleno street are Anne and Richard Lainhart, who "shared a love of all things scalawag and Renaissance." Richard built the ship with friends in the Angeleno street backyard. (You can't see this from the street; my pics were taken from the alley.)  City inspectors and most of the neighbors got onboard.  Richard is quoted in the article as saying that the ship is a work in progress.  It has a 27-foot mast, five sails and a below-deck galley and is dry-docked in concrete 14 feet deep.  It has held as many as 60 people for parties. 

According to the article, the Lainharts enjoy reenacting other historical eras, too, and are members of the L.A. area Sherlock Holmes society.  Lainharts, thanks so much for the delight you've brought us all. Long may the Red Dragon's Revenge sail the backyard seas of Burbank.

Yet another reason to love the east San Fernando Valley: 9 most Doom-y statements about 405 Fwy closure

Unless you've been living under a rock, you know by now that the 405 Freeway will be closed for 56 hours in mid-July.  It's being called carmageddon -- lol.  Curbed.LA has compiled the 9 most doom-y statements from public officials and they're doozies!  Oh, I am so not sorry I live in the un-hip part of our region.

It's just like Malibu to try to steal some of Burbank's thunder

Curbed L.A. has a story about 30065 Morning View, a very special Malibu property that's on the market.  This place was a recording studio for Bob Dylan and the Band. Lots of famous musicians either lived or visited this property at one time or another. This post is not about that.

The story also says that Mr. Ed was stabled on this property.

Not so fast, Malibu.  Mr. Ed was in Burbank in the 1960's, for at least part of them, anyway.  His stable was behind a residential home that was for sale a few years ago although I can't remember the street.  Francis the Talking Mule was stabled there as well.

So Malibu can just quit trying to steal Burbank's talking equines cachet and fame, already.

LALand is defunct

My favorite real estate blog, The L.A. Times' real estate blog, LaLand, is no more. It is moving in with Money & Co., the Times' economic blog. I'm sorry to see it go, but I guess we all should have suspected this would happen -- everybody knows LAT is cutting itself down to the bone.

Peter Viles was the original editor of the blog, then Peter Hong, then Lauren Beale. They all had really good grasps on our local market and its various permutations. Yes, LALand's posters were infuriating more often than not, and I was occasionally a poster target for my perceived pro-real-estate market, anti-bubble posts. But it was stimulating, to say the least.

At least we still have L.A. Curbed.