Dear Friends and Neighbors,
Real estate remained busy and active the first half of the year. No matter what happens in the rest of the country, real estate on the west side of Los Angeles remains lively, to say the least. August, however, seems to be quiet, and I get to work on my “need” and “want” items.
Need to do: Cleaning up my database.
Updating the software, review each and every entry, writing down names as they come to my memory to make sure they’re in the database, cross referencing my database with lists we have in everyone’s computer, and adding agent emails every day as they come into my laptop.
Want to do: Reading a book a week.
Currently just started “Once We were Brothers” and just finished “A Nazi Officer’s Wife”, “A Higher Loyalty” by James Comey, “Killing the Rising Sun” by Bill O’Reilly and “Our Towns” by James and Deborah Fallows. This last book turns out to be written by the parents of a client, which I didn’t know when I started reading it, nor did my daughter (she knows the client) when she bought it for me as a Father’s Day present. There are few things in life that match the pure pleasure of lying down on a couch and allowing yourself to get lost in a book for hours and hours, finally falling asleep for that cherished afternoon nap.
Property and Real Estate News.
We have signed listing agreements for a small 1 Bedroom unit on Montana Ave in Brentwood ($479,000), and a 2 Bedroom unit on Oakhurst in Beverly Hills (approx. $1.5M). Both condos are positioned in particular ways that promise to generate multiple offers and leverage our seller’s position in a seller’s market. (Go ahead – try and find ANYTHING under $500,000 in Brentwood!) We still also have listed our 2 Bedroom + Den condo on Palms Drive in Beverly Hills for $1,795,000 as well as our 4 unit income property on Patricia and Pico Blvd for $2.5M. And we have several pockets along the Wilshire Corridor in the $2.0 to $3.0M range. This is a very low backlog for us.
Team Rogo
Numbers and rankings are in for the first half of the year. For Top Small Teams based on Gross Commission Income, we are #8 in the Greater Los Angeles area among all Coldwell Banker agents. I’m not so sure the second half will be as busy..
Let’s look at some real numbers to compare the first half of 2018 compared to 2016 and 2017. This data is as reported in The MLS for areas 01 (Beverly Hills), 06 (Brentwood) and 05 (Westwood and Century City), condos only.
Number of Units Sold.
Westwood, has far more condos than both Brentwood and Beverly Hills combined.
And how about Total Volume? Take a look!
How does this stack up against “SFR” (single family residence) sales in those three communities? This is a more realistic picture of real estate sales. Check all three below.
You have to love this business because it just doesn’t follow a set pattern at all. Different areas show different results, and you are constantly challenged by the shape and scope of the ever-changing real estate market on the west side of Los Angeles.
By the way, did you see the adverse relationship of condo sales versus SFR sales in Westwood/Century City against Beverly Hills and Brentwood. Lynn and I remain the condo experts in Westwood, and it’s lucky we choose to live here, because so many more of the homes sold are condos rather than houses.
Enjoy the rest of August. It all starts back up after Labor Day.
