The saga of poor little 11485 Moorpark #17 in Studio City

This semi-charming townhouse was listed by me back in early October and finally sold in December after three, yes, three escrows.  Although it is only a little over 1000 feet and needs some upgrades, it has two bedrooms, two and a half bathrooms, and two balconies.  Best of all, it's in Tujunga Village.  Because of the needed repairs, we listed it at $399k, which was $10,000 the most recent (and smaller) sale in the building.  You'd think it would fly off the shelves, right? Everybody wants to live in Studio City and that's an excellent price, right?

We had lots of activity the first few days and got three offers.  Two were over $400k, and we picked one.  Those buyers backed out after their inspection.  Too much work for them, even though the price was right.   Dang.  Three weeks later, we received another offer.  A brand-new Realtor was the buyer.  I should have had a hunch that she wasn't sincere when she seemed more interested in a lower price than the actual condo.  She danced us around for awhile and finally cancelled after almost three weeks. Ugh.

But -- one of the original of the three would-be buyers noticed that we were back on the market and reinstated her original offer! Her offer had been $390 and the sellers took it.  The escrow went relatively smoothly and she closed just before Xmas for $390.  I hope she'll be very happy in her new home.  I loved working with my sellers, too.  Takeaway: Surprise! Even properties in hot areas at low prices can languish on the market.

The Realtor buys a home: why you need to read the Home Owners Association stuff.

If you’ve reading this blog, you know that my husband and I are in escrow on a Studio City townhouse.  We finally got the home owners association documents and they contained a few surprises.

HOA documents are usually voluminous.  They contain the Articles of Incorporation and the CCRS (covenants, conditions and restrictions).  These documents have a lot of boring legalese about how the “corporation” is formed, who is a member (you), how and when the Board can assess a dues increase, etc., etc. All of this is recorded at the county and legally binds the unit owner. The documents should also contain the yearly HOA budget, and income statement, and the minutes for a year’s worth of HOA meetings. If you’re going through this process, you’ll be so over the paperwork by the time you get these that you’ll be tempted to just glance at them.  Don’t.  There are things there that you really need to know.

By the way, it’s also a good idea to speak with the HOA president.  They will be able to give you the back story on everything and even tell you where the bodies are buried.

Back to the documents.  First, yes, you can lightly review the Articles of Incorporation and the parts about who is a member and who can vote, etc.  However, when you get time or want to put yourself to sleep, please read every word.  But then, turn to the rules pages of the CCRs.  This will tell you how many pets you can have, storage rules, how many cars you can park, and if/under what circumstances you can make changes to the exterior of the unit, among other things.  You cannot disregard these, although you may ask the HOA president if specific rules (like pet rules*) are strictly enforced.

Next, please review the budget, income statements, and minutes.  This will tell you a lot about your new neighbors – do they spend money to keep the place up? How much? Do they spend money frivolously?  Are dues projected to go up? What repairs has the building needed and what is anticipated? Have they done any termite remediation?  Are there disagreements at the HOA meetings? If so, about what?  Remember, you and the other owners are all in this together. These HOA folks will be your neighbors (gasp!) and will have an impact on your life and home while you live in your condo/townhouse.  You’ll want to know as much as possible about them and how they view the HOA.

*Digression re pet rules: The vast majority of HOAs (but not all) allow domestic pets but may limit how many pets you can have.  And some HOAs have breed restrictions.

Okay, back to us.  Our new building does spend a lot on upkeep, and it shows.  The building has had a few special assessments for painting and termites.  And it seems as if the other owners are a convivial bunch.  At least we hope so.  All in all, we think we’re pretty lucky about our new place.

Coming soon: what are condo and townhouse HOA dues for and why they are worth it.

Missed my episode of House Hunters Renovation on HGtv? You have another chance, lucky you.

The House Hunters Renovation episode that I'm in with clients Josh and Mac will run again late night (11 pm) on Tuesday, November 5, so please set your DVRs.  Colleague Amber is in it too.  You'll see mostly the back of my head, which is fine with me.  The episode was filmed mostly in Studio City.  I can't wait to dish on the process, but that will be in the future while the episode is running.

How can we miss you when you won't go away? Or the story of the Studio City condo

This is the story of the Studio City condo that my buyer closed on last month.  The names have been changed to protect the guilty.  Yes, this was one of the bad ones.

My buyer had made several offers already when this condo came on the market in early February.  Our offer on it was immediately accepted. Yay!  It was a short sale, but the short sale was approved in record time – also “yay” and “it’s a miracle” -- and we prepared to close 30 days later in mid-April.

A week before closing, the seller’s dad announced that they had no idea the condo was closing and they not only would not be leaving, they also would not sign the necessary paperwork to close it.  We were incredulous. How could that be? Well, turns out that they just hadn’t found a suitable place to move to yet.  At that point, not only had my buyer made moving plans that were difficult to alter, but his loan documents were ready, and the condo itself was about to go to foreclosure if it didn’t close shortly.

Through the coming days/weeks, the seller’s dad refused to give us a closing date or a move-out date.  Contract? Ha! It meant nothing to the sellers.  Nobody could budge them.  The communications were extensive – I have over 400 emails about this in my file and that’s just me (so much for you guys that think we Realtors just open doors and say, “Here’s the kitchen.”)  The sellers stopped communicating with those of us who they believed to be “against” them.  I pretty much assumed that this was a lost cause.

Where was the listing agent? Missing in action. Why didn’t my buyer client cancel the sale? Because the condo was perfect for him and, sadly, by late April he was already priced out of the Studio City housing market.

Although it is typically discouraged, my buyer reached out to the seller dad.  And seller dad began to communicate directly with the buyer.  They actually got somewhere (by this time the seller dad had pretty much alienated everybody else on the team, and my buyer has the magic touch.) Of course, my buyer had to do the accommodating. The foreclosure was postponed again. Whew!  And a month after it was supposed to close, the seller dad gave my buyer a date for both closing and for possession.  My buyer was able to move his plans around to accommodate the new date.

And the closing finally, finally occurred. The sellers moved out.  As much agony as we went through, my buyer client’s efforts made this happen.  We were thrilled to celebrate on his new patio last week, and toast the buyer’s persistence.