act_realtor

I'm starting a rumor. Much like the Chinese chicken salads that are so famous for causing pregnant women to extrude a baby, I had the mango yogurt at Cherry on Top at 12:30pm on Saturday, October 11th. At 12:30am on the 12th, my water broke and three hours later, Grant Trindle came screaming into the world, three weeks early. The fact that I'd been on restricted activity for a month prior doesn't count; clearly the yogurt was the culprit. The yogurt is quite good, also. We like their business model of paying by the ounce. It makes it easier with a toddler to get the proportions right and if she can't finish, it's not such a big deal.

Monrovia is still experiencing its growing pains. In five years, it will be interesting to see where we are. Do we have a Metro train stop or is that still under construction? Are the shops on Myrtle filled with stable tenants or will we continue to have this round robin of stores in and out? Will the new library anchor the park in the way that the old library did? Will the City be more forthcoming in sharing information or will every missive be completely positive and rather uninformative? Time will tell.

Had fun taking our daughter to trick or treat on Myrtle at Halloween. Was a little disappointed by the merchants who didn't participate or who ran out of candy. She had a wonderful experience, though. It was her first outing to collect candy and while she started out a bit hesitantly, she quickly grasped the concept. Sadly, we didn't get many trick or treaters on our street. Most of the houses were "dark". I don't know if it is an economic issue and people are tightening their belts or it was just one of those things. Anyway, we're left with a ton of Hershey's miniatures. Come on by and help us eat them.

It’s been six long months since I last updated this blog. Part of the delay was simply due to being extraordinarily busy. Even though the real estate market is in a completely different place than in 2005, I’ve worked with a number of buyers and sellers so far this year. The one thing I have noticed as significantly different, aside from falling prices, is that everything is a bit more difficult from start to finish. It’s more difficult to get a buyer ready to make an offer, it’s more difficult to get an offer on a property, the escrow process is more complicated with changing loan requirements and hesitant buyers.

Life is Monrovia has continued, of course. The City and the Monrovia Police Department settled the MPD contract dispute. I think every one is happy. It was an ugly period for our local politics. Personally, I feel that the police department deserves a lot of credit and should be compensated well. A strong police force is a bedrock in the foundation of a community and without it, a City will find it next to impossible to attract homeowners, commercial and retail businesses.

We finally have a Pinkberry. After the wait, I went last week and tried it. I like the green tea swirl with raspberries and blackberries, but Sierra Cup does a good, tart frozen yogurt as well. Hopefully, there is room for both here.

Other changes? The art gallery, Oh My Godard!, is gone. Not a surprise in that the market for Vegas showgirl olive art has to be fairly limited around here. I liked the gallery, though. It was funky and different, and it will be missed. Sir Walter’s Candy is now Sweet Annie’s Chocolate. Frills, the tea parlor, is now The Irish Gardener. The music store is going to be Mediterranean cuisine, oddly named Kettlestone’s. According to the Pasadena Star News, Vroman’s may come into the old Social Security Building at Myrtle and Colorado. The Blind 9 golf store is gone, but that isn’t a shock since they weren’t open on weekends. The two businesses that were supposed to replace the pet store both failed and that retail space is also empty. Wang’s Chinese Palace is now Los Guerros. Wang’s moved to Lemon where the Prudential CA Realty office was. Scoops is no more. The French bistro across from Restaurant Devon has changed names at least twice now. The Canadian Café lost its lease just as we discovered their awesome pea-meal bacon cheeseburgers. Frank and Joe’s Smokehouse is now Merengue Café and thank goodness. Merle Norman decamped back to Pasadena.

I have a feeling that I’m forgetting one or two changes in the past six months. However, I’m allowed to be a bit ditzy since my husband and I are expecting baby number two any minute. He’s really due at the end of October, but I’m on bed rest and have already been to Huntington with contractions. We can agree that perhaps my focus isn’t as sharp as it could be right now. At least when he arrives, he’ll think nothing of all these changes. To him, this will be how the world always has been.

We recently had some unpleasantness in Monrovia. Anyone who lives here should not be surprised by the gang violence. For all our idealism that Monrovia is some blissful little “gem city” in the foothills of the San Gabriels, we live in the greater Los Angeles area and gangs are prevalent everywhere, except perhaps Holmby Hills, which has gangs of a completely different sort.

It was disturbing and sickening that innocent people were targeted and murdered. It was frustrating that our city chose to respond slowly to the rising tide of violence, instead of addressing it directly with the residents. We should never have had to hear about violence from blogs first. This information should have come immediately from the City. The City of Monrovia did come around when it was clear that a response was not only necessary but essential. It seems like the multi-departmental task force is working so far, and this approach is one on the major prongs of attack.

The other major prong comes from residents. Why do we live here? I’ll admit that I had a thirty second flirtation with moving high above Foothill Blvd and “escaping” from danger, but that reaction was immediately tempered with a desire to stay. I’ve lived in parts that had serious and major gang activity that almost makes this look “cute”. Cute, except for the three dead persons and the paralyzed kid and the numerous other folks who have been targeted by idiots. But we don’t have the National Guard camping on our doorsteps the way I did when I lived in inner city DC in the early 1990’s. We don’t have drive-bys every day or gangs permeating the neighborhoods to the point where you can’t leave your house after dark (being afraid to leave and being unable to leave are distinctly two different things).

A few clients have come to me and asked my opinion of whether they should move. My response was that they should stay. Monrovia has so many positive elements to it. We have a diverse community: racially, ethnically and socially. That may not be a positive to some people, but it is to me. It means that there is opportunity here for all comers, whether you want the multi-million dollar spread up in the hills or the cute little two bedroom in the unincorporated part of the City. It means that we have residents who care about this town and want it to grow successfully and succeed. As residents, this is our town. If we don’t want gangs in it, we have to send that message loud and clear. That means agitating with City Hall to keep a strong police presence. It means demanding information from City Hall about crime statistics. It means keeping our own watchful eyes on our neighborhoods and reporting suspicious activity. It means volunteering in the neighborhood to help at-risk kids. It means keeping an eye on your own kids and knowing who their friends are. It means being pro-active.

I’ve heard many long-time residents talk about Monrovia and how it was in the 1960s and 1980s. Apparently, this may be a generational cycle. If so, let’s stop it now. No one benefits from gang activity, not even those involved in the gangs. So, grandparents who had kids in gangs, it is your duty to keep your grandkids out of gangs now. Parents who were in gangs, it is your duty to keep your kids out of gangs now. Older siblings who are active in a gang make certain your younger siblings don’t get involved. Stop it now.

This is OUR TOWN. To keep it the way we want it, we have to stand up, speak out and act with grace.

As much as this blog can be used to issue a public service announcement, a local Realtor is in need of a bone marrow donor. The Pasadena Foothills Association of Realtors is doing a cheek swab for marrow testing and a blood drive tomorrow from 10am-4pm. You can make an appointment by calling 626.795.2455. The check swab costs $50, but if you also donate blood, the test is free. Actually donating marrow is not the painful process that it used to be. Instead of drilling into your hip, they just remove your blood, extract the marrow and then return your blood to you. If Wednesday, January 23rd, is inconvenient, you can also go to the City of Hope and donate directly: http://www.cityofhope.org/BloodDonorCenter/

For any conspiracy theorists among you who dislike the idea of submitting your DNA to a national registry, all I can say is “Have the aliens contacted you yet through your small pox vaccine mark?” Seriously, a simple cheek swab could save someone’s life. The chances of a donor matching are ridiculously small as it is, so the more people who register, the better the odds a patient has of finding a match.

I’ll be there tomorrow and will definitely submit to the cheek swab. Hope that you make it or contact City of Hope (or if you’re not the Los Angeles area, I’m sure your local Red Cross could assist).

As the year starts to wind down, I am grateful for getting all my listings into escrow at decent prices. No, Virginia, there is no Santa Claus in real estate this year, so my sellers aren’t getting their asking prices, but they’ve all gotten strong offers at close to asking. Taking the money and running is as good a strategy as any, especially in a market that is trending downwards.

The townhouse in Pasadena had a blue moon effect. I always tell sellers that open houses generally don’t sell the house. The people who come to open houses are generally looky-loos. Or, they’ve just started to look and have no idea what their price range is. Or, they’re already working with a Realtor, who has previewed it first, and were sent by their agent to see the property. The chances that a buyer will walk in cold, say “I love it!” upon crossing the thresh-hold and then ask “How much? Really? Is all cash okay? And by the way, I don’t have a Realtor already. Can you write the offer?” are totally astronomical. Yet, that is exactly what happened to me and Fran a week ago. And that offer was accepted and the property is now in escrow.

I don’t hate holding my listings open. It’s a good way to get a feel for the market and feedback for the property. It’s a good way to meet prospective buyers and sellers. It’s a good way to market the property in a tangible manner that the seller appreciates. But, it is usually less productive use of my time at the end of the day. So, it was gratifying to be proven wrong and to have buyers who actually wanted to buy that property right now.

A note about mortgages: They’re getting tougher in the financing biz. I definitely worry about loans for buyers these days. My sister in law, Christy, also wanted me to mention that your mortgage may not be written in your favor, if you want to pay down the principal early. There are clauses that prevent borrowers from doing this in some mortgages (or trust deeds, as they are known in CA). The point here is that consumers should know what they’re signing and understand all the terms and conditions, whether it’s a pre-payment penalty or a closed end or open end with payments. As always, do your homework, make sure your mortgage comes from a trusted source (not Pete’s Mortgages and Bait Shoppe), and read everything carefully.

In other news, Grace has discovered her nose. And she’s now jamming a finger up it and trying to get a laugh out of mommy and daddy. Daddy thinks it’s hilarious; mommy is less amused. She also has four teeth on the bottom and is finally cutting two on the top. All the better for biting!

I took her to the park yesterday and then walked down Myrtle Avenue through Old Town. Monrovia is all decorated for Christmas and right outside the doll shop, they had a quartet playing Christmas songs and a guy dressed as Santa. Grace was fascinated by Santa, who gave her a candy cane (she never gets candy normally), and she loved listening to the musicians. In fact, I took her out of the stroller so she could “dance” to the carols and smile at every one. She loved it. This is the fun part of having a kid; watching her experience the world for the first time. She was too little to “get” the holidays last year, and she’s still probably a little clueless this year, but she’s determined to enjoy it, especially if she gets candy and free concerts.
One of the things about Monrovia that is wonderful during the holidays is that “Santa” comes through all the neighborhoods on his sleigh before Christmas. I’ve never lived in a town where Santa comes to visit all the boys and girls. It is charming. Monrovia is going through some serious growing pains right now, but it is reassuring that some of the small things that make it a pleasant place to live remain.

There’s a Spanish expression that says, “The cheap comes out expensive.” This corresponds with the English proverb, “Pennywise and pound foolish”, which somehow doesn’t translate so well in America and forces people to ask, “So, you’re calling me fat?”

I’ve jumped down the REO rabbit hole and emerged somewhat unscathed. My buyers bought the property that they wanted and at a very good price. They were lucky about the price. As I’ve been saying for a while, foreclosures aren’t necessarily going to be great deals for buyers if the previous owners were at 100% financing or 103% financing or were in a negative amortization loan. Unlike previous real estate slumps where the foreclosures meant that the former owner had 20% or more equity in the property, so the bank could sell at a discounted price, banks now want their 100% back. If it sold a year ago for $480,000, the banks aren’t going to take $380,000.

There are other hurdles with REO properties. All my tools in my buyer negotiation tool box were useless, except for the threat, once in escrow and within the contingency period, that we’d back out of the deal if we didn’t get what we wanted. Oh, and that contingency period? Not a standard 17 days, as per the California Purchase Agreement…it was ten hard-counted days with no slack. The seller, who is a bank in an REO property, had no patience with dilly-dallying of any sort. There was a hefty penalty ($100 per day) if the buyer couldn’t close of time and it was the buyer’s fault. We were supposed to close on November 6th and were unable to make that deadline. Luckily, it wasn’t the buyer’s fault; it was escrow’s, as they’d failed to pass an addendum on to the buyer’s lender, allowing an additional credit for non-recurring closing costs. Even though the escrow company had screwed up, the seller was fairly heartless about giving an extension of time. They allowed the buyer to have until November 15th, which sounds generous, but really wasn’t. Monday was a holiday and the banks were closed. All the loan docs had to go back to underwriting, get approved and then signed by the buyers and then returned to the lender for funding and then funding had to happen by the 14th. It happened at the last minute on the 15th, which means that my buyers are paying $100 for today, when it closes and records, since you can’t fund and close simultaneously in Los Angeles County. And they’re incredibly lucky because if it had funded today, it would have closed on Monday, which means the buyers would have paid interest over the weekend on a home they didn’t yet own and they would have owed the seller $400 for being four days past the dead-line. Fun, huh?

Their property needed work, too. They’re going to put about $20,000 into it to make it habitable. New plumbing, new floors, new A/C unit. Again, they are lucky that the previous owner had lived there long enough to have equity and that even with these additional expenses, their new unit is cheaper than anything comparable in the area. Other buyers are not so fortunate.

What else is hard about an REO? Well, the seller is a bank. The bank is not here. They’re not an entity that’s lived in the home. They can’t disclose anything. You have to hope that you’re buying into a neighborhood that doesn’t have a known serial killer on the loose because the bank? Ain’t gonna tell you squat in disclosures. We got a decent property inspection and that was worth every penny. The buyer was also stuck paying for a lot of things that are traditionally the seller’s purview such as county and city transfer taxes, natural hazards zone disclosure and termite reports and repairs. Add the fact that we had no say in who the escrow or title company would be and you begin to see how powerless a buyer becomes in this transaction.

Oh, and the price? Don’t think that because it says $369,000 that you’re going to get it for $360,000. The seller doesn’t have time to do counter offers or deal with multiple offers. You make your best pitch from the get-go, which is going to be over asking. And you have to have proof of funds, a pre-approval letter and a sizable deposit ready to go right now, as in when you make the offer. Unlike traditional deals, where you have some time after acceptance to get that paper work together, the seller wants to know you’re a strong buyer before going into escrow with you.

My advice to buyers of prospective REO properties is that they should be prepared for a rough ride and very little control. They should also be prepared to spend a lot more money than they would with a traditional seller. If it still pencils out to be a good deal, go for it. But don’t call me and tell me that the only thing you want is a foreclosed property because you’re going to miss out on some great deals with traditional sellers, who are more willing to negotiate and be accommodating to the nice buyer who is saving them from not being able to sell their home.

That’s “on fire”, if you are only an English speaker.

The fires this year have been particularly intense. My guess is that we feel so inundated because there were so many significant fires that erupted almost simultaneously and in so many different locations. Don’t know any one in San Diego, but you’ve go access to a condo in Big Bear? You’re worried. Know people in San Diego and Santa Clarita? You’re worried. Only care if more celebrities have to evacuate from Malibu? You’re worried.

So far, the San Gabriel Mountains are not on fire. We’ve been fielding some calls from concerned out-of-state relatives and just have to keep explaining that we live on the flat, not the hill, and while we’re about fifteen blocks from a fire hazard zone, we’re not too worried about it at this time. The fires prefer going up the hills into the scrub, not down the hills into the manicured lawns of the flats. We are impressed by the tremendous response in San Diego, which appears to have been well-orchestrated, and those who have lost their homes have our sympathy and concern. As always, we want to give a big hand to the fire fighters who work tirelessly to keep us all safe from ourselves.

My husband facetiously pointed out that maybe now home prices in San Diego would go back up due to a lack of supply for the demand. It is a growth cycle, much like the environmental purpose for fires, which burns off scrub and returns nitrogen-rich ash to the soil as a fertilizer. That said, while I think a flood is more horrible (you get your home back, but it is soggy and snake-infested), a fire means that you don’t get your home back at all. Such a boost to the local economy is clearly a double-edged sword. I do hope that contractors don’t take advantage of those who’ve lost everything. There’s a special place in hell for such opportunists.

The fires have affected us in small ways, though. The air is difficult to breathe, so Grace hasn’t been allowed to play outside. Her birthday party is on Saturday, and I need to do numerous outdoor things to prepare, on the presumption that people will be able to go outside during the festivities. I have to scrub the deck, which has a layer of dirt, but have had to wait until today to do it. There’s no point scrubbing if a fine layer of particulate matter is just going to cover it again in five minutes. And so it goes living in southern California. Our daughter has been alive for almost a year and has see rain only twice. Let’s hope her sunny disposition continues, even if the weather changes.

Thursday, as I pulled up to the Colonnade in Pasadena with my business partner in the car, she said (entirely unprompted), “You know, that’s what I like about Monrovia. The Old Town has all these quaint little shops and the businesses are locally owned.” And I had this weird frisson because I haven’t spoken to Fran about what’s going on in Monrovia. She’s lived in Pasadena since the Kennedy Administration and only comes to Monrovia to see me or eat her favorite pancakes at the Peach Café.

Anyway, Fran has a remarkable sixth sense about her. I always trust it, too, so the fact that she mentioned Monrovia out of the blue, just as things are starting to get “interesting” here was not a huge shock, but it was a small surprise. See, when my husband and I first moved to Monrovia, we fell in love with certain things that we certainly couldn’t find in many other parts of Los Angeles County. We really loved the Old Town, with the afore-mentioned quaint shops and locally owned businesses. But we also liked that along Huntington Drive, there are lots of chain stores and restaurants, so we felt like we had variety, unlike Sierra Madre, which is quaint to an almost annoying extreme(I'll change my opinion if Monrovia keeps going the way of Arcadia). No, Monrovia felt like home then and it still feels like home, but we’re going through some major growing pains.

I was distressed to learn about the city’s plans for Myrtle Avenue. While I understand the importance of having stable businesses in the Old Town area, I’m not in support of having the store du jour setting up shop. I DO NOT WANT a Crate and Barrel. Or a Pottery Barn. Or an Urban Outfitters. Or a Gap. I do not want to see stores that have no roots in this community moving here and then pulling up shop in two or five or ten years when their corporate masters get a bad quarterly earnings report. I DO WANT stores where I might find things that I can’t find anywhere else. I want stores where the owners know who I am and have a friendly smile and handshake for me when I walk in the door.

I can’t complain about Vroman’s. They are a lovely bookstore and they are relatively local, being based in Pasadena. But I can complain about the restaurants that the City of Monrovia would like to emulate or attract. AOC? Puh-leeze. We have perfectly wonderful restaurants already. Why can’t the City be happy with places such as Restaurant Devon, which is superb? Why can’t they be happy with Café Mundial, which is also excellent? What’s wrong with Caffe Opera? Why do we need to have some trendy restaurant here? I’ve been to AOC. It’s amazing. But it isn’t what I want for Monrovia. I don’t want to see valets or crowds standing outside hoping for a table or self-important maitre d’s. This is my home. I want comfort, convenience, pleasant surroundings, good to excellent food, and the ability to toddle home undisturbed after a drink or two.

We’re homeowners and taxpayers. We support the new library. We support the high school renovations and expansion. We support the Metro-Line. We support Colorado Commons (in theory). We just want to keep some of the charm of our small town alive. Is that too much to ask? What next, we have to pay for parking?

Who knows if anyone in the City of Monrovia is paying a a bit of attention to any of this community unrest, but I’ve learned a lot about civic unrest at the local level, thanks to the whole Herkimer Arms issue, and if I have to drag my own year old daughter, kicking and screaming, into City Council meetings to voice my displeasure, I will. Hell, she just had blood drawn for her first year birthday to test for allergies and she bit the lab tech. A few more teeth and I think she’ll be ready to take on the local government with glee.

We’ve gone We-Ho/Beverly Hills/West LA glam up in Monrovia. Last night, while traversing the street fair, I noticed that in what had been Valley Hardware since the 1920s(which sold trains and little red wagons but had closed its doors just when we were thinking a little red wagon would be perfect for our daughter), there was now a sign announcing the arrival of a…Pinkberry. Yes, we’re getting the best yogurt in Los Angeles or something like that.

It’s a mixed blessing. On the one hand, Pinkberry feels that Monrovia meets its criteria for being a good environment to open a new location. We must be the right demographic for frozen yogurt connoisseurs, though I might have been more excited back in 1989, when the frogurt craze reached its initial frenzy, but it feels a bit contrived. It feels like someone came out to Monrovia for some production shoot and then was raving about our small-town charm, our Old Town’s locally owned businesses, our Myrtle Avenue’s reach into the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains. And that some Pinkberry person thought, “Hey, let’s expand to Monrovia. Let’s capitalize on local color and small town values and bring our trendy frozen yogurt chain to town. Those locals will love it.”

And the thing is, we probably will. But it makes me a little sad because in the past year, a lot of long-time businesses have closed on Myrtle due to exorbitant rent increases. Which means that only chains will probably be able to afford the overhead to do business here. Which means that a lot of the charm of Monrovia will be lost. Will Archie at Gem City Jewelers be around to make us rings or will it be Robbins Brothers? Will Rudy’s Mexican Restaurant be around to make some of the best margaritas known to man or will it be Acapulco with their not-so-great drinks that appear to be margaritas? Will Planet Cookie still be making those huge cookies or will we get a Mrs. Fields?

I know what I prefer. I don’t know if I’m going to get what I want here or if I’m even right. Obviously, Monrovia must be doing many things well if major chains want to move here. But will the “here” still be here when the dust settles?

The price of popularity may be higher than we care to admit.

It’s been one of the most exhausting weeks of my life. Fran and I took a new listing in Madison Heights. A listing that we had in escrow fell out due to the buyers’ whims. Our first-time buyers made two radically different offers, withdrawing the first on a “dream home” in upper Hastings Ranch to make a second on a real-estate owned (REO) town-home in Burbank. I had the joy of figuring out how to write a decent REO offer that would be accepted by the bank and thanks to a colleague’s expertise, the offer was not only accepted, the listing agent said she was going to frame it as an example of “how to do it right.” So, thank you, Joe, for taking a few minutes and giving me good insight into the strategy of dealing with a heartless, faceless institution like a bank. In this case, it was all about the Benjamins. I’ve also had requests for three other clients for various comps (comparative market analyses) and I’m almost done. They all got reports, but two of them should get a little more information from me this weekend.

Meanwhile, my husband was in Ohio for most of the week, Fran was out of commission with stomach bug, and the kid decided that she’d pick this week (at eleven months old) to really get a handle on the whole walking thing. Plus, she picked up how to go up steps and is trying to learn how to whistle, which is just about the cutest damned thing I’ve ever seen when she purses her lips and blows…air. Puff, puff, puff. It’s been hard to cope with, though, because I’ve been working eighteen hour days and haven’t seen her much. Her nanny has given me very detailed reports and even made the sad face when I arrived home at 10pm as she explained that she could have just stayed over night, since she was going to be back at 8am the next morning. You don’t want to know about the big check she got for her efforts. And I felt bad for not being home as early as I’d expected (holding clients’ hands takes longer than you ever anticipate, which I should know by now) and for not thinking of the obvious solution, which was to tell her ahead of time to bring an over-night bag. Guilt. It is the backbone of motherhood.

On top of all of this, I’ve been thinking about the Herkimer Arms. The City of Pasadena sent me a letter regarding the zoning appeals meeting that I attended in the middle of September. I’d written a post about that meeting, but am not posting it yet because it was written in anger and disappointment. The appeals board denied Mr. Salcedo’s conditional use permit (CUP) for a bed and breakfast, which was not really a surprise. I had gone to the meeting and spoken on his behalf. My reasoning was this: It’s fine if other buyers, who have money, land and ability to renovate the Herkimer, want to write back-up offers to Fuller Seminary, in case Mr. Salcedo’s purchase doesn’t go through. It isn’t fine if other Realtors try to insert themselves into the contract between Mr. Salcedo and Fuller Seminary such that Mr. Salcedo can’t perform under his contract. A Realtor in my office spoke out against the CUP, and he had some valid points, since he was speaking as a neighbor of the proposed project. I wasn’t speaking in opposition of him, but I was speaking in opposition of others who are ignoring some basic property rights that we, as Realtors, should respect. Private party sellers have the right to sell to whomever they want, and if the buyer can perform, that’s all we should care about. If we get upset as preservationists because we are afraid that the buyer won’t take care of the property, that’s fine, but then we have to take off our Realtor hats. Those are concerns we can address to the buyer or the city or to preservation organizations. But we shouldn’t act in our position as Realtors to oppose the buyer. It makes more sense to try to help him and direct our outrage elsewhere.

Anyway, after the meeting, where the Board of Zoning Appeals commissioners ruled favorably towards the opposition, I went up to my colleague to say that I still respected him as a preservationist and he said to me, “You’ve just committed suicide.” Huh? What? No, I don’t think so. While at this point I’d like to see Mr. Salcedo prove his critics wrong (and he submitted new plans the next day, changing the b&b to a four unit apartment or condo and thus eliminating the need for a CUP), I’m not vested in this project. There’s no glory in it for me. Mr. Salcedo isn’t my client (though he may become my client after all this, who knows?). I don’t have the money to buy the property and move it/restore it myself. I am not soliciting for clients who could do that. I just stood up and spoke about the purchase contract, knowing full good and well that my words wouldn’t make a bit of difference to the BOZA commissioners, who had probably made up their minds before the hearing even took place. Sometimes, you just stand up, speak out and know that you’re going to get slammed for it, but you do it anyway because IT’S THE RIGHT THING TO DO. There’s no gain in this for me, so I didn’t commit suicide, but thank you, colleague, for being ungracious and mean-spirited, especially in victory. I’ll remember what you’ve said. I doubt that you’ll have the decency to apologize to me or even take five seconds to try to understand my position, and I’ll remember that as well.

During a committee meeting this week that I could only attend for about half an hour before the kid melted and we had to vamoose, an architect waxed eloquent on the need to preserve the Herkimer. I agree with him in theory, but I have a feeling that in practice, we’d part ways. He began to sound rather academic about the whole issue, completely ignoring the economic realities attached to the project. It was at this point, in between my child’s shrieks and his condescension, that I decided the whole world had gone insane in regards to this building. I’d like to see it saved. There’s a buyer who can save it. I thought the b&b would be a great use, since it was the original architect’s intended use, but if every one in the neighborhood wants affordable housing, that’s fine too. But if we’re talking about encasing the Herkimer Arms in some sort of preservationist bubble wrap and such, we’re talking about needing tools that so far are not in place and would take years to develop. He sounded like he wanted it to be a museum and such a project would require largesse that is so far not available. We’re talking about an institutional buyer at that point and the days of the robber barons are over, unless Donald Trump wants to buy the Herkimer Arms. If that happened, I’d have to laugh. We may not always get what we want, but to paraphrase the Rolling Stones, we sure as heck get what we deserve.

Oh, well. I am busy planning far smaller, though no less important, projects. My kid’s first birthday is coming up, and it will be a blow out celebration wherein her parents thank the universe for surviving a year and not dropping her (that was my biggest worry, pre-kid). We’ll be serving enchiladas and margaritas, and the kid will be surrounded by her ever-adoring public and her parents will breathe collective sighs of relief.

We’re on escrow number three for our Bungalow Heaven fixer. The first escrow was with a buyer who not only refused to perform, he couldn’t perform. Performance defined in this case being the ability to get a loan, not anything salacious. We finally got rid of him and went on to buyer number two. Things were going swimmingly until the buyer made a request for repairs. Now, on a house being sold “as is” and when making an offer substantially below asking (like $50,000+), it is really unwise to then make a request for repairs. It is insulting to the seller, who was reasonably perturbed and didn’t see why she should comply with the demand. However, these were good, strong buyers who were taking a HELOC out on their home and had the money to purchase the property without too much rigamarole. In this case, giving a few thousand dollars to the buyer to keep the deal together, while not orthodox, would have been prudent. The seller opted for righteousness instead and the buyer promptly cancelled, as was prophesied by all involved.

At this point (actually days prior to the actual cancellation of the second escrow), I warned the seller that cancellation was the next step by this buyer and in the face of cancellation, it would be wise to acquiesce to the request. I even went into my whole Econ 101 spiel about the present value of dollars being worth more than the future value and told her point blank that she wouldn’t get another offer at this price. She said that she had to “win”, and at that point, I backed off and handed her to Fran. She’s been Fran’s long-time client, and it seemed better to allow Fran the privilege of giving her the bad news.

Back on the market the house went with a price reduction to $479,500. And just like that, we got an offer. Two offers in fact, though one was so low ($330,000) that it was easy to ignore it entirely. Our third escrow was going well again. This time we had all the reports for the second buyer’s inspections and every one was on a level field of information. Last week, just as we were about to have the buyer remove all contingencies, life got difficult again. The buyer’s bank, Washington Mutual, appraised the property at the purchase price. So, yay!? Wrong! Even though it was appraising at the purchase price and even though the buyer was putting down a solid 25% and even though the buyer had other loans through WaMu, the bank wouldn’t write the loan because…the house needed too much work. Welcome to the new reality in lending, wherein banks no longer want to make loans and will find any reason at all to deny the borrower. My favorite excuse of the week? A borrower (not one of mine!) had failed to provide the second and third pages of his bank statements, only giving the first pages…the first pages being the ones that have the pertinent facts such as account balances and whatnot.

So, where are we? We’re in SELLER FINANCING territory, which is unmapped ground for me. The buyer is asking the seller to carry back a loan and we’re combing through his financials and determining how to structure the mortgage. I think it’s ultimately a good deal for my seller. The effective sales price will be higher for her, due to the interest payments. And she gets the house sold. If the condition of the house is now a reason to deny a buyer’s loan, that condition isn’t going to improve any with time. The irony being that the appraiser was tweaked about the foundation damage on the south side, which was actually caused by the second buyer’s foundation inspector. We all knew that the foundation would have to be replaced. We didn’t expect the obvious to be a reason to deny a loan.

We live in interesting times, people. I hope that we can get this escrow closed with the seller financing. If not, we’re looking at the all cash offers we got back in April, which were for substantially less than asking and are still below the current amount we’re in on escrow number three. I feel bad for my seller, who has been through a wringer, but at least she doesn’t have a mortgage on the house already. That’s a small consolation, but when you think of people who are selling for what they paid or for less than they paid, any small gift becomes worth noting.

As my best friend said, “Think how much you’re learning!” True words, Jestine, but this deal has made me tighten up the reins on future buyers, whether they’re my own or they’re bringing an offer for my sellers. The moats are filled and the drawbridges are raised. What’s the password?

With all respect to Eliot, August is the cruelest month, at least in real estate. Typically it is a true wasteland. Listings seem stale, every one would rather be on vacation, a sense of inertia overflows into every aspect of one’s life. Even in the hottest of markets and the hottest of months, August becomes something of a mirage, glistening in the distance yet never quite coming to fruition. Turn a hot market into a cooling one, and August shimmers and beckons even more lazily.

This month had the makings of an epic disaster when the mortgage market froze like a herd of deer facing the world’s biggest Klieg light. What had me worried was the forty-eight hour period where even A-paper clients couldn’t get loans funded. Even in the worst financial disasters, buyers with 800+ credit scores and twenty percent down have generally had no problem getting loans, so when the world halted and then panicked, I definitely took notice. Luckily, the Fed stepped in and calmed down the rabble with a decrease on the discount rate. Credit crunch crisis narrowly averted, though we’re still wary.

Of course, those pesky sub-prime loans are going the way of the dodo, as expected. And we’re hearing rumblings that mortgage brokers need to be more ethical and better trained. You think? The first escrow on the Wilson listing was made especially miserable by a (in my opinion) predatory mortgage broker. We’re on our third escrow. Lower price, different buyer. The house is looking even worse now that it’s been on the market since April and has had many hands combing over it, removing bits of foundation and clapboard siding. This buyer is downstream on a 1031 exchange. We can only hope he’s serious.

On a brighter note, Fran and I got another new listing, this time in Sierra Madre Villa. This has been marketed as a “fantastic development opportunity”, and it is. 20,000+ square feet of flat lot in a neighborhood where 3/2 houses that are gussied up sell for $1.2+mm. We’ve got a 2/1 rustic cabin built in the mid-fifties. It’s only had one owner and has been beautifully maintained in its original condition, so it’s only a light cosmetic fixer. Before you get your pocket books out to write a check for the $795,000 listing price, you should know that it’s in escrow too, just eight days after going on the market. I don’t know exactly what the new owners plan to do, but it has to be something different, since they have four boys and all those kids won’t fit in the current 950 square foot house.

At home, I get to watch Grace cruising around. We have to buy her some shoes. We went to Tar-jay this evening to attempt such a thing, but the selection was poor. Besides, shoes are important and I think a baby’s first pair should be not just cute, not just supportive, not just functional…they should be expensive. Later, when she’s in college, she can go to Pay-Less or whatever to buy the ubiquitous SoCal flipflops, but now she needs shoes that can take whatever she dishes out. I think I’m going to start asking that my commission checks be gift cards to babyGap and Gymboree. “Will work for kid’s shoes.”

My husband, daughter and I are in Sonoma for the week. We are staying at a fabulous resort/spa with the rest of his family, and it is relaxing enough. Tomorrow we get the place to ourselves for a day when every one else clears out in the morning. Meanwhile, we've gone on two fascinating winery tours, I've luxuriated in the spa and we've had several memorable meals (including one that opened a bottle of Opus '98. Quite good indeed!).

I needed to get away. Last week was horrendous. The kid was sick and running a high fever for most of it, due to a vaccine gone evil. A guy hit my parked car at the kid's pediatrician. It's the smallest of dents, but thanks to its Jaguarosity, the repair bill is $2400. He admits that it was his fault (I wasn't even in the car at the time as I was in an exam room, facilitating the evil vaccination), but his insurance is still trying to make a liability decision. As a former claims adjuster with an Associate in Claims (silly designation but it made my boss at the time happy), I'm trying to figure out just how this incident could possibility be my fault. Oh, right...I should have known not to park in the same lot as someone who was going to back into my car. Duh.

We got the cancellation notice signed by the first buyer on the Wilson property, which was no small feat. Even though the buyer had no chance of getting a loan (the lender was all "I don't care if he puts Bill Gates as his co-borrower, he can't get a loan"), he still felt that he had a chance. We managed to get his so-called representatives to see that the jig was up and in lieu of using that new-fangled contraption, the fax machine, the buyer's agent dropped the cancellation notice to escrow at 4pm on Friday. Which was good, as 5pm Friday was the contingency deadline for the back-up offer to end their escrow if we didn't get a cancellation notice from the unable-to-perform-even-if-he-won-the-lottery buyer. So, new buyers, different deal. We'll see. Obviously, it's for less money. The market has changed since April, thanks to higher interest rates and tighter money supplies. Plus, the area has some newer listings on the market for less money. We aren't getting asking anymore, Dorothy.

Fran and I are working on a new listing in her neighborhood in Sierra Madre Villa. It's too soon to say if we'll get it. We would do a lovely job with it and already have a multi-pronged marketing approach in place, but the sellers are concerned with Fran's physical safety. Personally, I think that it is a difficult property for anyone to enter and we'll do our best to keep every one safe. There's not much else we can do at this point. And if they choose another listing agent, there's absolutely no guarantee that every one who goes on that property will get around without injury. We shall see.

And in the middle of all this, the Herkimer Arms issue has gotten even more heated. IS THAT POSSIBLE? Why, yes, it is. Apparently there's an appeal this evening. I can't be at that hearing, since it's an eight hour drive away and dinner beckons, but we'll see how it goes. As I've said before, I understand the concerns regarding Mr. Salcedo's purchase of the property, but it is my understanding that he already owns it. I'm not privy to every clause in the purchase contract Between Fuller Seminary and Mr. Salcedo, so perhaps there's some legal out I'm unaware of, but as someone who respects property rights, I don't know what the opponents propose to do at this point. Force him to sell it to someone else? If so, who? Leave the Herkimer in place until another buyer appears? I doubt Fuller will go for that. They want the building off their land so they can build their chapel.

As I stated before, this issue is complex and rather heart-breaking and again, I blame the City of Pasadena for failing to set up a more responsible approach to the sale of this historic building. But the building HAS BEEN SOLD. And I do believe that Mr. Salcedo is serious about restoring it properly and having it be a viable bed and breakfast for the community. He doesn't want it to be a junky property and he's spending too much money to treat the building flippantly. This community protest isn't constructive; it's merely a lot of noise. Instead of opposing Mr. Salcedo, why don't these protesters instead try to work with him so that they can help him achieve the restoration of this building and this community that they desire? If they'd been involved two years before he purchased the property, all of this might be different, but at this point, their anger is misplaced. If they are unable to succeed in whatever their current plan of attack is, I do hope that they'll be able to extend an olive branch to Mr. Salcedo. Good neighbors are a balm to any community.

Oh, well. Off to dinner. Hope the wine tonight is another Opus. Perhaps a '97?

The public hearing for zoning on Herkimer Arms is tomorrow at 6pm. Due to the continuance granted from the July hearing, the Herkimer Arms issue is going to be last on the agenda. Since my last post, I've learned a lot more about this issue and really, it keeps becoming both more interesting and more heart-breaking.

At the Pasadena Foothills Association of Realtors, the local board to which I belong, I am an active member of two committees: Cultural Heritage and Housing Opportunities. Of all the Realtors and affiliates who belong to PFAR, I am the only person who belongs to both of these committees (who isn't a PFAR employee or executive board member), and as such, I often sit in on meetings where opinions are diametrically opposed. For example, the Cultural Heritage Committee at one point was unhappy that some older homes might be rehabbed and turned into affordable housing units. The concern was that the character of these homes wouldn't be preserved and that the spirit of the neighborhood would be ruined. A few days later, I sat in on a Housing Opportunities Committee meeting wherein I learned how great the potential for new affordable homes would be, if this rehab project was completed.

Back in June, Grace and I flew to Cincinnati specifically to attend Homearama, the home builders’ annual showcase of new designs. You may wonder why I felt the need to go back to Ohio to see new homes, but the fact is that I’m always fascinated to see what is selling where. Plus, it was another opportunity to visit family, and while my ideal vacation does not include the Ohio River Valley when it is 95 degrees and 95% humidity, at least that new-fangled air-conditioning has made it to the sticks.

With great anticipation, my mother-in-law, mom and I drove out to the new development north and east of the city. My father-in-law, dad and husband had opted out at the last minute, as the paternal parents wanted to look at classic cars and my husband conveniently had a sinus infection and was running a fever. And Grace managed to wrangle my in-law’s housekeeper into baby-sitting, so it was just some avid design fiends hitting the new home showcase.

I wish we’d stayed home.

Speaking as someone who believes quite strongly that a person should have whatever home that they can afford and that they have the right to do what they please to said home, as long as those changes are in compliance with any building, development or preservation codes or deed restrictions, Homearama made me ill. The best way to describe what I saw is “wretched excess.” Unmitigated false opulence. Flatulent and unfriendly design.

The first home was simply called “The Courtyard”. At $2.295mm and boasting 9,000 square feet of living area, it had some standard features: a large master suite that had a huge fish tank separating the soaking tub from the party shower (“Party shower” a trademark of my husband, who was rather appalled at the number of people who could potentially fit into the multi-head shower stalls in the master baths in last year’s showcase of homes), an open gourmet kitchen with a “hearth room”, plus two very small bedrooms that were clearly after-thoughts and were tucked away off the kitchen. What “The Courtyard” also had was a media room with stadium style seating (apparently this is a standard feature with Homearama builders, as my in-laws have good friends who own a Homearama home built twelve years ago and it has the same type of room as well), a large courtyard that created a Palladian effect, and a full pub. No, not a bar in a game room. Not even a small side library with a wet bar. An actual could-be-in-Ireland-except-that-the-Irish-would-scoff-at-something-so-hideous pub. I like having a well-stocked bar as much as anyone else who enjoys a good drink and who entertains, but a pub? The thing is, if I want a pub, I’ll go OUT to one. There is only one day out of the year where the media room and pub with the billiards room to one side could ever be used in my home at that’s Super Bowl Sunday. Otherwise, it’s a hideous waste of space.

The rest of the homes were all in the same vein. One even had a gun closet on prominent display in the library, which was the first room you saw when you entered the house. I will give that house snaps for having a nifty outdoor shower that could be access from either the master bath (complete with requisite soaking tub and party shower) or the master sitting room. That house, like many of the others, had the master suite on the first floor, and the tiny additional bedrooms tucked about a quarter of a mile away on the second floor. I wondered if the people who buy these houses even have kids and if they do, are they living at home? I suppose that some of the prospective buyers must not be childless, as one of the houses had an actual soccer room. It wasn’t a regulation field, but it was about an eighth of a field and was carpeted in astro-turf and had two goals. In the basement.

I did like the outdoor living rooms, as they were well-appointed with ceiling fans, fireplaces, remote-controlled screens, outdoor grills and stoves, fridges and other furniture for lazing away a hot summer’s evening. Of course, this being Ohio, you can only use the outdoor living space for maybe five months out of twelve, but who’s counting?

So, my objections to these homes were many. Unlike my mom and mother-in-law, I do not foresee a “fall of the Roman Empire” scenario in the horrid excess that these homes have. I do wonder if people really think that 9,000 square feet, complete with pubs, soccer rooms and gun closets is going to make them feel better at the end of the day. It seems to me that a home should be a retreat from the world, but it should also not bring the world to it. Go play outside. Go meet your friends at an actual bar (can you imagine the liability of serving your friends at your in-home pub and then having them swerve home?). Hide your guns somewhere other than in plain sight. Make the non-master suite bedrooms just as inviting as the master suite. Don’t put the other bedrooms in an entirely different zip code.

If my design objections aren’t enough for you, let’s talk about the environmental impact of heating and cooling 9000 square feet of space. The “carbon footprint”, as those tree-huggers like to remind us, is fairly significant in a home of that size. Especially when a lot of the home is wasted space. I want to make it clear that I’m not against large homes. In fact, I prefer them. But they require a certain amount of thought and care in the design. And every room has to have some purpose, some sense of adding more than just space to the floorplan.

I came away from Homearama grateful that land is so expensive in southern California. I have seen absolutely fabulous, luxurious, gracious homes that were 2500-5000 square feet here. These were homes where every detail was carefully considered, and the result was purposeful serenity. I’m not even opposed to some of the houses I’ve seen that are 6000+ square feet, as they are often older homes and were graciously designed and meticulously built.

The world isn’t going to end because these homes are being built and our civilization is just as sturdy as it ever was, but I remain somewhat depressed and disillusioned. Bigger isn’t always better, and a home should be more than a collection of marketing afterthoughts. It should be a place where people can live, not hide. It should be a place of refuge and solace, but it should also welcome and invite. In short, Homearama isn’t home. Now, if you don’t mind, allow me to click my heels three times because I’m not in Kansas anymore.

Pasadena, which is known for creating historic landmark districts and being home of Greene and Greene, the premier architects of the California Craftsman movement, is now doing one of the most bone-headed, least sensible things ever. They are planning to allow the Fuller Seminary to demolish the Herkimer Arms, which is the only Greene and Greene designed apartment building.

Fuller Seminary wants to build a new chapel. The city put a 360 day stay-of-execution on the demolition in order to see if they could find a buyer for the building. That's fine, as there's a preservationist who wants to buy Herkimer Arms and move in to another location in Pasadena and probably turn it into a bed and breakfast. Now, inexplicably, the city is trying to prevent this buyer from moving the building and restoring it. Some on the planning commission are citing the lack of original details in the building, as if that's an excuse for tearing it down. Preservationist and Realtors who've seen it say that many original features are still there and it would not be difficult to replicate what Greene and Greene did where there have been modifications.

To read more about it:

http://www.preservela.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=75&Itemid=37

The last commission meeting was canceled on the 12th of July. I intend to go and support the buyer, Fil Salcedo, at the next meeting. If any readers would like more information on how you can help, please contact me. 626.243.4230.

First, an apology. I’ve had plenty to write about in the past six weeks, but my difficulty has been in finding the time to express my outrage in a constructive manner. In fair warning, the next three blog posts are going to be rants. This one is about unscrupulous representatives in the real estate industry. Then expect to hear about Pasadena’s incredibly short-sighted view of preservation in regards to Herkimer Arms and finally, I will describe the depressing debacle that was Homearama.

So, Fran and I have had our listing in Bungalow Heaven in escrow since May. The original close date was May 31st. I want to state from the outset that our spidey sense was tingling with the buyer’s real estate agent and mortgage broker, but in the absence of any evidence, we advised our client to accept the offer, since it was the highest and the best.

Trouble began immediately because the buyer’s agent refused to provide any information about the buyer to escrow. Now, that would have been a great time for us to cancel escrow, but escrow is never canceled unilaterally. And for a seller, cancellation of escrow is even trickier, as a seller’s hands are tied more than a buyer’s. A buyer can say (within any contingency period) “I don’t like this house. I don’t like this seller. I’m outta here. Give me back my deposit.” And generally the seller will comply because if the buyer doesn’t want the house, there isn’t going to be a deal. Plus, the buyer has the legal right to opt out in the contingency period.

A seller, on the other hand, has to wait for a buyer to screw up. Then the seller has to issue a notice to the buyer to perform. If the buyer performs, the seller has to grit her teeth and continue on with the transaction. If the buyer fails to perform, the seller can issue a cancellation notice, but both the buyer and the seller have to sign off on the cancellation. If the buyer still wants the house, the seller may be stuck and will have to consider other alternatives to cancel the escrow.

I’m leaving a lot of fiddly details out, but this is the basic scenario in any escrow. What do we have with our current escrow? A real estate agent who left the country for almost two weeks and failed to notify anyone of his absence. A real estate agent who failed to tell his client material facts about the property until after getting into escrow and thus annoyed his client so much the client refused to speak with him. A real estate agent who failed to provide documents in a timely fashion. A real estate agent who when asked to provide contact information for his client said that his client didn’t speak English. That’s okay, as the escrow company speaks the buyer’s native tongue as well.

After issuing notices for the buyer to perform and having the mortgage lender step in and become proactive because he saw the cancellation notice looming ahead, we thought the deal might go well. The buyer signed off on his contingencies, we informed our back up offers that the escrow was now fully pending and we were told by the mortgage broker that everything was fine.

Until he left the country for over a week with the file just as we were supposed to close. And he also failed to inform anyone as to his whereabouts or how to handle the file in his absence. When he returned, he assured me that we’d be able to close within two weeks and he apologized profusely. Two weeks have come and gone. We’ve issued a notice to the buyer that cancellation is imminent and we’re canceling tonight.

There’s a lot more to this story. The buyer doesn’t know what’s going on because his representatives are negligent and incompetent. The seller was affected by the mortgage broker several years ago when he failed to file their change of title properly with the county (apparently, he’s distantly related to the seller and her family). He doesn’t even have the decency to be ashamed of the fact that he’s basically hurt the seller twice in all this. He’s made numerous promises and has failed to keep most of them. The real shame is that the buyer is going to be shocked by the notice of cancellation, but as I’ve already told both the agent and the lender, when the escrow gets canceled, I will not be in an agency relationship with the buyer and will not be bound by any code of ethics that precludes me from telling the buyer exactly how his representatives hurt him.

I am always a strong advocate for my clients, but I can only be as good as my clients allow me to be. Our seller has chosen to give the buyer many chances in this escrow. In part, she was motivated by the sales price, but she's also a fair and reasonable woman. She didn't want to prematurely cancel and not be better off for it. She's the one who ultimately makes the decisions and it's my job to advise her and then carry out her wishes.

To say that I’m furious is an under-statement. Both Fran and I have marveled at our seller’s patience, even as we advised her to end this. We are annoyed that good offers fell by the wayside while we gave this buyer an opportunity. We are baffled as to how people who claim to be professionals can have such abysmal and practically criminal lack of responsibility toward their client. We hope to move forward with a strong and competent buyer. And this time, we’ll remember what happens when we lie down with dogs.

It’s an occupational hazard that every once in a while, I’ll walk into a house and fall in love. The object of my affection doesn’t even have to be a home that I’d necessarily want for myself, either. That Janes’ cottage in Altadena with the two bedrooms and one bath is never a house that I would buy, unless there were some radical and unhappy changes in my life. Nine hundred square feet is fine for just me, but for each addition to the family, there has to be a corresponding addition in square footage. Living all cramped up is not my idea of fun. Nor would the architectural mid-century modern on a hilltop overlooking Linda Vista work for me, no matter how much I drooled through it. For one thing, even though it has three bedrooms, two of the bedrooms are stand alone and aren’t attached to the house. Who wants to turn off the house alarm, put on shoes and socks and traipse across the yard at three am to comfort the crying child? There is a guest house, but it’s about an eighth of a mile down a steep hill. Let’s hope the guests are in good shape, though keeping them there would ensure a short visit, I suppose.

So, I’ve fallen in love with many homes in my career. Impractical? Yes. Capable of making my heart stand still when I cross the threshold? Absolutely. The heart isn’t always rational when it chooses a dwelling.

Last week on caravan, I made a point of seeing a home in the Upper Rancho area of Arcadia. While I may rant about Arcadia’s lack of center and claim that there’s no there there, I’m extremely fond of the Upper Rancho portion. It’s north of Foothill Blvd and the 210 but isn’t as high up in the hills as Sierra Madre. The lots are large, generally about ¾ of an acre or more. Most of the homes are mid-century traditional or modern and have over four thousand square feet. The streets are quiet, the houses are beautifully maintained, and the school district is superb. What’s not to love?

This particular home was a $2.5mm fixer with six bedrooms, five baths, a pool and pool house. The agent, whom I’ve met before, stated that all it needs is “a little paint” to restore it to its former glory. That’s a wee bit optimistic, but she’s related to the seller and I think she’s looking at the home with more sentimental eyes.

If I had unlimited funds, I’d offer $2.1mm all cash and then take out a HELOC after the sale to do the $400-500,000 in renovations and remodeling that are necessary. I’d gut and update the kitchen, change the two bedrooms upstairs into a master suite with a den, walk-in his/hers closet and large bath, re-wire and re-plumb, update all the bathrooms, change the windows and doors, turn the pool house into a one bedroom guest house, landscape, put on a new roof and of course, paint. Sounds like a lot of work, but when I was done, I’d have a showplace that would be the perfect family home for the next twenty-five years or so.

Insanity? Not really. If I had truly unlimited funds, I could buy a vacant lot and build the home of my dreams, but that’s really difficult in a part of California where land is at a premium or protected from development. So, I’m stuck imagining a re-do in Arcadia. At least I’m not turning it into a testosterone-fueled, over-blown McMansion, like so many of the remodels in the area. We’ll see who buys it and what they do, but I am in love with this house and I hope that whoever buys it loves it as much as I do.

UPDATE: Our contingencies were signed off by the buyer. We’re now a “pending” sale and not a back-up offer sale. This escrow has been difficult because the buyer’s agent lost control of his buyer and then refused to communicate with anyone else. Dude, you’re making a nice 3%. Suck it up, be an adult, do your job. Sheesh.

As a parent, one of the first things you're supposed to learn is that if you make a statement, you have to be prepared to back it up. Consistency is key, and empty threats quickly lose effect. Well, the same thing applies in real estate.

In escrow, I often tell buyers and sellers that nothing happens unilaterally. A buyer can't suddenly change an agreed to term or condition without the seller's approval and vice versa. However, what is a party to do when the other side isn't honoring the contract? Clearly there comes a point where getting both parties to agree isn't going to happen, at least not without a gentle shove into the corner. Escrow addresses this in several ways. One of the ways is called a "Notice To Buyer To Perform". Since most of the actions are on the buyer's side once a property is in escrow, there is no corresponding form to the seller. If a seller isn't performing, the buyer simply cancels escrow. Basically, this notice to the buyer says,"Hey, you agreed to do X under the contract, and you haven't fulfilled your promise yet. What gives? Let me know in 24 hours or I'm cancelling this deal." That's pretty powerful language, considering that the seller is pretty much locked into an escrow once he signs the contract, but a buyer has multiple avenues for exiting an escrow if she's unhappy.

For our property in Bungalow Heaven, the buyer agreed to a ten day contingency period across the board. What this means is that the buyer had ten days in order to complete all inspections, get an appraisal and loan approval. We asked the buyer to these terms in the counter and the buyer said, "Sure, no problem" and signed on the dotted line. Under the contract, the standard contingency periods are 17 days for all of these items, so we were pushing the time frame a bit, but we weren't being unreasonable. Sellers have asked buyers to drop contingency periods entirely before, which I feel is rather draconian and counter-productive, but it illustrates that these time-lines are fluid and negotiable.

Well, ten days came and went. I was in Ohio and the seller was in no hurry at the time to push the issue. We gave the buyer about 17 days and then said, "Um...about those contingencies, you're going to sign off on them, right? Here's the paperwork." And what did the buyer do? Nothing. Nada. Zip. Zero. Zilch.

I called the other agent and left voice mails and heard back...nothing. I called the lender, who said that the buyer was being difficult. You think? Look, if he wants to back out of the deal, go ahead. We've got four back up offers. It's no skin off our noses, though we'd like this deal to go through, if only because we've invested so much time already. But if the buyer is serious about purchasing this property, he has to make the effort to the seller and sign off on the contingencies, which will remove his exits for getting out of the deal. It has to happen at every point in any escrow, and we've given him plenty of extra time beyond the contract period.

The seller signed the NBP yesterday afternoon. It was faxed to the buyer's agent. Still nothing. Sad to say, but if the buyer doesn't respond by 5pm today, we're going to cancel escrow. Maybe that's what he wants but when he's maintaining radio silence, it's hard for us to know for certain. We'll move on to the next buyer, who desperately wants this house and see what happens.

Tough love isn't fun, but it is necessary to deploy.

We did not go to market to buy a fat pig, though. We went to Ohio and were feted and treated liked the prodigal sons and daughters that we are, especially when we arrive with a cute grandbaby, who continued her world tour of sunny dominion. The kid is charming, for which her parents are grateful since it saves us the effort.

Ohio put on a show. It was beautiful. We arrived Saturday evening to rain, but aside from one thunderstormy night and a few overcast days, we had two weeks of warm weather and sunshine. Cincinnati was about two or three weeks ahead of Toledo in terms of things blooming. Apparently my sinuses seized up at the pollen count in northwest Ohio, as I'm still feeling the effects of blowing my nose incessantly and having no voice.

I'd forgotten how green Ohio is. Where my in-laws live, it is reminiscent of where I grew up in rural southeastern Ohio. The back of their house faces a hollow and is filled with trees. In the morning, all you see is a wall of variegated green, back lit by the sun. I prefer the hills of southern Ohio to the flat of northwestern Ohio, where my parents are now, but there is still a serene and bucolic beauty to the sight of the wind running flat over the grasses, unabated by the earth's hilly topography. And the wind never seems to end there. It felt like being at the beach. I expected to see the tide rolling in, but all that shimmered across was a wheat field.

The architecture is different there, also. Hyde Park, where my in-laws live, has plenty of homes built by industrialists in the 1920s and '30s. It looks a little like Hancock Park, except that the lots are larger and the homes are better suited to their environment. A Tudor in Ohio looks far more appealing than one in southern California.

Then there are the farm houses in northwest Ohio, large brick manses built over a hundred years ago by prosperous farmers. They are sturdy and rather plain in contrast to their southern sisters, but they are beautiful in their symmetry and starkness. Plus, the old barns that are still standing are a sight to behold. It's a shame when homeowners allow these grand structures to fall into disrepair, but it is also an economic reality. Maintaining a large wooden barn, especially if you don't use it, is a vanity, not a necessity. And vanity doesn't survive easily in rural America.

Meanwhile, aside from missing Monrovia Days, a fashion show/ fundraiser and a Mothers' Day home tour, I also missed my best friend, Jestine's, trip to Cedars-Sinai where she gave birth to her son, Ethan, on Monday, May 7th. Ethan arrived three weeks early. Perhaps he can school Grace in the benefits of not being tardy. Congratulations to Jestine and Mike and welcome Ethan!

Now I'm home again and back to work. I didn't stop working while I was in Ohio, though not having a voice for a week made my cell phone conversations fun. We're still in escrow on the house in Bungalow Heaven, and we may even close early. There are the four back up offers waiting in the wings and I'm glad for them. I'm also somewhat sorry for the buyer who is in escrow, as I'm not sure he's getting zealous representation from his agent. Certainly, I was surprised by the home inspection report, which was very short and basically said, "This house needs a lot of work." It didn't detail the problems with the house and wasn't as thorough as I would like, but if the buyer is happy with it, then what more can I say? He isn't my client. We've disclosed everything we know about, and my fiduciary duty is to my client. But, once again, it is important for buyers to have an agent who is going to look out for their best interests at every step in the process. This is a major transaction and having an agent who isn't motivated or is improperly motivated can hurt a buyer.

A good realtor is worth her weight in gold.