Yes, I sold this Sherman Oaks home twice in one year. Here's how it happened.

4484 Stansbury, Sherman Oaks just closed for the second time this year.  I was the listing agent both times.  Here's how it happened.  It was a short sale in 2013.  By the time it got a great offer and the (long, long) short sale process was done, it closed at the beginning of May.  The price was $538k and it went out at all cash to an investor (yes, I thought it was low, but that was all the lien holding bank wanted).

The investor rehabbed the house (which was pretty cute to begin with and in good shape) and hired me to list it again.  Hey, I know Sherman Oaks real estate, right?  We put it on the market in July for $799,000.  This is what homes go for in these parts.  And it quickly got an offer like everything else, and sold for $809,000 yesterday.  That's how I came to sell the same home twice in one year.

4484 Stansbury in Sherman Oaks is open Sunday, 2 to 5. Comes complete with its own beer garden.

Please come visit me and check out 4484 Stansbury in Sherman Oaks tomorrow, 7/28, from 2 to 5.  This splendid redo has 3 beds and 2 baths in the main house.  Plus, there's an additional unit above the garage with a full kitchen and 3/4 bathroom, open beam ceiling, and hardwood floors.  If that weren't enough, there's a pool house with 3/4 bathroom, too. It's very close to Westfield Fashion Square, Jinky's, Guitar Center, Boneyard Bistro and more of Sherman Oaks' hotspots. We call this area below the "beer garden."

You can check out more pictures on line and at my site: JudyGraff.com.  The house is listed for $799,000. For those of you who'd rather hang in the house, here's the living room:

Two sales to start the new year off

This week, I closed sales on two homes that were contingent on each other.  If you're not familiar, that means that the close of escrow of one house is dependent upon the close of escrow of another (and the transfer of funds, of course).

Buyers Jessica and Sam owned 2101 N. Rose in Burbank (the yellow house).  They needed to sell it in order to buy 931 N. Orchard in Burbank (the sage house).  The Orchard sellers would not accept our offer until Rose was in escrow.  Yikes!  So Jess and Sam (and their two little kids) worked their fannies off getting Rose ready over Thanksgiving weekend.  I had recently been in several multiple offer situations for buyers with houses of about the same size and price, so I contacted the other agents who also had clients for the multiple-offer deals to tell them about this house.  We had it sold before it officially went on the market the Monday after Thanksgiving.  Whew!

And then we opened escrow on Orchard.  Orchard is a very nice expansion/flip (coincidentally, I had brought an offer on it for other clients when it was a short sale earlier in the year). Of course, we had to compete with other offers, but it all worked out. Thanks, listing agent Desi Kepe, who worked with us throughout to make this happen.  But a really big shout-out to clients Jess and Sam, who performed above and beyond the call of client duty on both transactions.  I hope you're very happy in the new house, guys.

LA Times is a little behind on their front page news re flippers

Today's L.A. Times headline (in the SFV print edition) is Professionals moving into house flipping.  The reporting is spot-on -- and about six months behind.  I reported in this blog some time ago that I'd observed that the pro's were buying up many/most foreclosures.  And what the article only briefly touches on is that many of these professionals are losing money now in a big way.  Prices aren't soaring, loans (especially on condo projects) aren't easy to get, and many of the flippers didn't research the properties they bought.  But I'm sure most professional flippers have calculated their risks/rewards.

If you're thinking of buying a distressed property, rehabbing it, and selling it for a profit, trust me: it's not as easy as it sounds (I've thought about it myself), and nowhere as "easy" as it looks on HGtv.  Leave it to the pros.