San Fernando Valley Real Estate Blog

Update #1

Leigh Court and her husband Timm Woolley just listed their Malibu estate for around $3 million. The wonderful 3500 square foot estate has 3 bedrooms, views from most rooms, family room and a gated courtyard. Leigh is a romance novelist and Tim is a music tour producer and director. Tim has recently finished a tour with the Rolling Stones.

Frankie Muniz, 22, lists his home in the Sunset Strip for almost $3.9 million. Muniz was an actor up until 2006 when he took a break to become a professional race car driver. His beautiful remodeled view home has 5 bedrooms 4 baths, 2000 square feet apprx and pool/spa. He is recently noted for his roles in CBS’s “Criminal Minds” and the film “My Sexiest Year” which just debuted at New York Hampton’s International Film Festival.

A Hollywood Hills home formerly owned by comedian, Paul Lynde, was recently put on the market for almost $3 million. The beautiful villa was designed by John Woolf and was built in 1926. The home has 3 bedrooms 3.5 baths, pool, gated motor court and guest house. Paul was a well known comedian whose resume consisted of various film, T.V. and Broadway works. He was also featured on the “Hollywood Squares” as the center square for many years.

M.J. Diebold, bought a villa in Beverly Hills for almost $3 million. Diebold is moving from Louisville, Kentucky where she is noted for creating a popular diet and exercise program. The villa is centrally located behind Neiman Marcus. The fabulous Mediterranean was built in 1926 and has 3000 square feet, 4 bedrooms 4.5 baths, family room and pool.

Update #2

Coldwell Banker has just listed the Shavelson estate in Studio City for almost $4.8 million. Director, producer and writer Melville Shavelson was 90 when he passed away in August. The beautiful estate was 3497 square feet with 4 bedrooms 3 baths, fruit orchard and pool. The traditional style home was situated on 2.6 acres. Shavelson was noted for his work on Emmy award winning series “Make Room For Daddy” and “My World and Welcome To It”. He was a former president of Writer’s Guild of America and worked on several films with big movies stars such as Frank Sinatra, James Cagney, and Lucille Ball.

Rachel Zoe and her husband Rodger Berman list their Hollywood Hills home for almost $3 million. Zoe is known for being one of the top stylists who makes over starlets in Hollywood. Berman is a wealthy entrepreneur. Their beautiful home has 2 bedrooms 3 baths, 2742 square feet, family room, pool. The Mid-Century remodeled home was built in 1956. Zoe is noted for the book she co-wrote “Style A to Zoe: The Art of Fashion, Beauty and Everything Glamour”. She has made over several stars including Kate Hudson, Demi Moore, Anne Hathaway and Nicole Richie. She has made a few appearances on shows as herself such as “The Simple Life” and “Project Runway”.

Jeff Lewis just sold a Los Feliz home for almost $4.5 million. The beautiful 5,000 square feet Spanish style home built in the 1920’s had 4 bedrooms 6 baths with guest house. Lewis also just listed another home in the same area for more than $1.8 million. This smaller gated modern home has 3 bedrooms 2.5 baths with 2,000 square feet and was redone. Lewis is a professional home flipper and is noted for starring on Bravo’s reality show “Flipping Out”. He has also recently appeared on “20/20”, “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” and “Nightline”.

Legendary 49ers wide receiver, Jerry Rice and his wife Jackie have put the estate in Atherton, CA on the market for $22 million. Their California French style home has 15,000 square feet and was built 3 years ago. It features 6 bedrooms, family room, library, office, home theater, gym, game room, underground seven car garage, pool/spa and guesthouse. This amazing gated property sits on 14 acres. Rice is 45 years old and retired from football in 2005 breaking numerous NFL records.

Information obtained from Los Angeles Times Hot Property for Update #1 and Update #2.

On December 6 the federal government announced an interest rate freeze program to offer sub-prime borrowers. The freeze would be for five years. The requirements that determine whether someone qualifies have not been talked about much in the media. The general criteria by which lenders decide who qualifies is as follows:

a) Your FICO score had to be under a score of 660 when you originally applied for the loan.

b) You must be current for your mortgage payments. “Current” is defined as you are not more than 30 days behind and haven’t been behind more than 60 days within the last year.

c) The residence must be occupied as your “primary residence”.

d) The future reset of the loan must be more than 10% of your current monthly payment.

e) The equity in the home cannot exceed 3%.

The House voted to extend the deductibility of Private Mortgage Insurance for new home loans until December 31, 2009. This new bill will assist potential home buyers and home owners in finding an affordable mortgage. The Senate passed it last week with a unanimous vote.

Private Mortgage Insurance (PMI) is usually a requirement for homebuyers that do not have least 20% to put down. The interest rate on a loan with mortgage insurance is fixed and does not reset in the future to a higher rate.

“This is an important step forward as Congress seeks solutions to the current housing and mortgage crisis. Many potential buyers can’t make a 20% down payment, and a loan with tax deductible mortgage insurance may make the difference in their ability to become homeowners safely,” said Kevin Schneider president of Genworth Financial.

Buyers can avoid the possible dangers that come with combination loans by paying for mortgage insurance. Today we are seeing many problems with combination loans out there. The annual tax savings on average amounts to around $350 per taxpayer. Once the equity in a home rises to 20% a homeowner is able to cancel the mortgage insurance.

The Senate and House of Representatives have passed two bills to modernize Federal Housing Administration loans. The bills would be wonderful alternatives for financing of a first home purchase or for people who are facing foreclosure. The first bill passed by the Senate “the FHA Modernization Act” would increase limits of FHA insured loans from $362,790 to $417,000 to match the limit of conforming loans as well reduce the minimum required down payment to 1.5 percent versus 3 percent. President Bush is also a supporter of this bill.

The second FHA bill passed by the House would increase the FHA loan limits to $729,750 from $362,900 as well as lower the required minimum down payment from 3% to zero percent.

It is predicted that the Federal Reserve will adopt some new mortgage regulations to help regulate abusive lending practices. These proposed rules would include:

1) Prohibiting lenders from enforcing unreasonable pre-pay penalties with clients who have poor credit or low incomes.

2) Lenders would be required to set up impound accounts to pay for property tax and insurance monthly.

3) Lenders would have to eliminate “stated income” or “no document” loans when borrowers could not provide documentation to prove their actual income.

4) Require lenders to consider whether the borrower could actually afford to make the monthly payments for the entire loan term.

5) It would require lenders to disclose actual loan terms and costs early on in the process before any fees other than for a credit report can be collected.

6) Mortgage brokers would be prohibited from collecting fees or commission from a lender that were more than the amount stated up front in their “Good Faith Estimate”.

A Hollywood Hills home, where character actress Alice Backes lived was just put on the market for $1.4 million. The beautiful view home had 3 bedrooms and was around 2,000 square feet. Backes died at age 83 and best known for her work on “Barnaby Jones”, “Alfred Hitchcock Presents” and “Columbo-A Trace Murder” in 1997.

Stan Winston, 61, an Oscar winning Special Effects Producer has listed his home in Malibu fully furnished for almost $12 million. The remodeled home is about 3500 square feet and is situated on the beach in the La Costa Beach area. Stan is most noted for being awarded Oscars for his work on “Terminator 2-Judgement Day”, “Jurassic Park” and “Aliens”.

Luke Walton, 27, recently signed on with the Lakers just sold his townhouse in Manhattan Beach to buy a larger new construction home in the same area. Luke’s townhouse was located in a gated community called Manhattan Village and sold for $1.24 million. The remodeled unit featured 3 bedrooms 3 baths and had 1820 square feet. Jack Johnson, a hockey player with the Kings, bought Luke’s townhouse. The home that Luke purchased was a Mediterranean with 4 bedrooms 2 baths 2700 sq ft for $2.75 million. Luke’s father was basketball star Bill Walton.

Coldwell Banker represented the sellers in the sale of the “Bette Davis Estate” in Palm Springs for $5 million. The compound was around 6,000 square feet with five bedrooms was situated more than an acre lot and featured a guesthouse, tennis court and a pool. The desert estate received it’s name because Davis rented the guesthouse in the 1950’s and 1960’s. Davis passed away in 1989.

Information obtained from the LA Times Hot Properties

You can turn your home equity into an investment within the family! Here are three ideas worth considering when investing your equity which will give you a good return and at the same time make it easier for your child to get into their own home.

First, it is not uncommon for parents to assist with a portion or gift of the down payment for their child’s first home purchase. The child (buyer) would pay a rate of interest to the parent that is similar to what they would make if the funds were invested in a similar type of investment. Utilizing the parent’s equity this way can take the place of making an investment in a retirement account because it provides for an adequate rate of return because they are investing in a reasonably safe investment. The guarantee the parents have that the money will be repaid would be that it would take the form of a note secured by a deed of trust on title.

Second, you can possibly assist in purchasing a home with co-ownership. The parent and child would purchase the property together. They would then create an appropriate agreement in writing of how the costs, expenses, maintenance and improvements are handled. If the property is co-occupied by both parties then in creating a proper financial agreement you would need to consider what percentage of the property each occupies, what percentage each party contributed to the initial cost of the home and whether the parent also provides assistance in making the monthly payments. A termination date should be added to the agreement because like any good investment there is a time to enter and a time to exit.

Third, the parent may elect to purchase the property out right for their child. In this case, the arrangement would probably work best if the child is treated as a renter for purposes of the investment. The child would pay an amount monthly to the parent that would equal fair market rental value, prorated monthly amount of what taxes, insurance and routine maintenance would cost.

The good news is that in the end you help get your child into a home and at the same time you provide yourself with a reasonably safe investment opportunity with a good return.

Some information to write this article was obtained from the Los Angeles Times and Inman News.