New listing-Eagle Rock turn key six units

2200-2212 Las Colinas Ave. Los Angeles CA 90041- Asking $1,175,000

My newest listing is one I would love to buy myself. This is a six unit apartment building well located in my beloved home town of Eagle Rock, CA 90041. Eagle Rock is the 2nd hottest neighborhood in the USA for 2014 according to Redfin and the buzz here is palpable. Buyers have been overbidding each other to snap up residential houses for years now and new restaurants and bars are opening seemingly every month. Eagle Rock and NELA in general are very hot real estate markets and prices are reflecting that.

 This property is near the intersections of Eagle Rock, Colorado and York. It is 4 blocks from Occidental College and within a mile of at least two dozen restaurants in Eagle Rock and Highland Park. All of NELA is very convenient to Downtown LA, Silver Lake, Pasadena and Glendale. With the reemergence of Downtown LA as a regional employment center NELA becomes an ideal city commuter neighborhood that still has rolling lush hills and quirky interesting houses. 

The property has had only had one owner. The family that built it has been living in it and managing it since 1947. They built it to last and lovingly cared for it. The kids who grew up here now have their own kids and have moved out of the area. The units were always well maintained and exceptionally clean. There are new windows on the rear side of the building, new flooring and dishwasher in the owners unit and a new sprinkler system. This is truly a turnkey property with no deferred maintenance. The tenants are friendly and many are long term on month to month leases. There are four one bedroom units at 2200-2208 Las Colinas and another studio unit and one large two bedroom unit at 2210-2212 Las Colinas totaling 4706 square feet of living area. Existing rental income is $5534 monthly. Asking price is $1,175,000 for more information contact Sky Minor.

Classic Craftsman redux in Eagle Rock

1406 Hepner Ave. Los Angeles CA 90041 is my new listing in the 2nd hottest neighborhood in the USA,  Eagle Rock. I've lived in Eagle Rock myself since 2008 and perhaps my opinion is biased, but I would have to say it is one of my favorite places in LA. It has a lush hillside setting, dozens of great restaurants, amazing craftsman homes on every block and excellent schools. Eagle Rock is like a small quiet Americana town nestled amidst the foothills of bustling Los Angeles. This location is prime for the East Side. Five minutes to Pasadena or Glendale, 10 minutes to Downtown LA, Silver Lake or Burbank and 20 minutes to  Hollywood. 

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The house is a gorgeous craftsman specimen of a better time.  Originally built in 1911 everything has been completely remodeled with permits to bring out the original craftsman vibe mixed with 21st century amenities. Play in the expansive backyard or build a second house there-the lot is zoned for two. Garage has an attached workshop/man cave space. Three Bedrooms, two bathrooms. Asking Price is $689,000. Contact Sky Minor at 310-709-8283 for more information. 

2862 Palmer Dr. LA 90065 Mid Century Modern Fixer

2862 Palmer Dr. Los Angeles CA 90065 is my new listing in the hills of Eagle Rock/Glassell Park. This is in red hot NELA and is very close to the exciting things going on in Los Angeles's Greatest Neighborhood According to LA Weekly. Nearby are all the hot spots- York Blvd. Colorado Blvd. Eagle Rock etc. This location is very convenient to Downtown LA, Glendale, Pasadena, Echo Park, Hollywood, Silver Lake and all of the East Side. This house feeds to the esteemed Delevan Dr. Elementary school and Eagle Rock High School.


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The house is a cosmetic fixer. The owner passed away years ago and the estate has finally cleared the sale of the property. It was built in 1959 and has three bedrooms and two bathrooms over 1469 square feet. It also has an enclosed room with a hot tub in it and a nice big deck in the back. This property has great bones and limitless potential. The buyer with vision and elbow grease will be nicely rewarded for their efforts with this property. Asking price is $499,000. To schedule a private showing call listing agent Sky Minor at 310-709-8283

NELA sales data for the statophiles.

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This is Real Estate sales data from March 2011 for Single Family Homes in Eagle Rock, Mt. Washington and Glassell Park, three of the popular communities in NELA.

In general, these are healthy numbers for a estate market. Properties are selling between 97%-102% of their listing prices. In Eagle Rock and Glassell Park, homes are on the market for around 30 days and it's around 60 days on market for Mt. Washington homes. The year over year median sales price has jumped in Mt. Washington from $449,000 in March 2010 to $555,000 in March 2011, a 23.5% increase. Eagle Rock and Glassell Park did not fare as well, both had a reduction in median sales price from 2010-2011.

We appear to be lifted out of the crash of 2009 when banks were giving away properties and inventory was sitting on the market for 120 days+. Keep in mind that roughly 50% of the people out there who want to buy homes cannot because they are self-employed and they do not qualify for mortgages. Self Employed people, who tend to be good with their finances and often are the ones with enough money saved up for a down payment, usually deduct expenses against their income on their tax returns so they have very little net income. Banks are using this net income to qualify people for mortgages so the self-employed person is usually SOL. When this large group of prospective home buyers is given access to mortgage money, I predict the buying market will see quite a bit of upward pressure due to supply and demand.

A startling take on the truth about loan modifications!!!

I just got off the phone with Loss Mitigation at Ocwen. Correction, make that what used to be Loss Mitigation. As of noon-ish today, Ocwen has left the Short Sale playing field.

According to my contact, (a Loss Mitigator) they announced to the department today via email, that they were done.

Ocwen decided to stop negotiating all short sales. Period.

"None at all?", sheepishly I asked.

"Not a single one. Unless it was already approved", says he.

Curiously, yesterday the deal to sell Ocwen collapsed.

Here I am working on negotiating a short sale. I'm pretty sure the borrower did a Stated Income Loan and lied through his teeth about his income. I'm also pretty sure he used someone else for the Social Security Number. (No, I didn't do his loan!). And I'm pretty sure he has a sub sub prime loan (two subs intended).

There's no loan modification in the books for this borrower.

I asked my LM guy, "So this is going to go to foreclosure, become an REO, and Ocwen will take a bigger loss down the road?"

"Yup, That sure appears to be what they are planning!"

Ocwen, who's shares tanked yesterday, is primarily a loan servicer.

As of December 31, 2006, OCN serviced 473,665 loans under 487 servicing agreements for over 40 clients. These clients include Wall Street firms with mortgage securitization platforms, such as Deutsche Bank, Lehman Brothers, Credit Suisse and Morgan Stanley, mortgage originators, such as Delta Funding, and governmental agencies, such as the United States Department of Veterans Affairs. Revenue from this segment comprised 80%, of its consolidated revenue, during the year ended December 31, 2006. (Reuters)

After I got off the phone I started thinking. This is all speculation on my part...

If Ocwen was the holder of the Note, they would have a vested financial interest in minimizing the overall losses. Accepting a short sale would minimize those potential losses. But Ocwen isn't the holder of the Note. Some Investor is.

In a Short Sale there is going to be a loss. Ocwen will negotiate for what they can, and then pass the remaining balance to the Investor. That loss will be absorbed by the investor. The key is not in the loss, but in the fee generation. In a short sale, Ocwen can charge only a small amount of fees.

On a foreclosure, Ocwen can and will charge up the fees. The Admin Fee, Processing Fee, reloading the Stapler Fee, talking to Mueller Fee. Pretty much any fee they can come up with. These are fees they just couldn't generate with a short sale.

After the Auction, when it goes on the market as an REO... Assuming it sells for the same amount it might have had it been a short sale, Ocwen stands to make much more in fees than had they negotiated a short sale.

Following me so far?

Oh yeah, and who pays for all the loss mitigator salary anyway? Ocwen!

So what do you do when the negotiations for your purchase fall through?

I can just see the BOD saying last night, "If we can't sell this pig of a company, we'll fire the Loss Mitigation Department, stop doing negotiations and rack up the fees! "

Of course, the REO probably won't sell for the amount they could have negotiated the short sale for. But who cares? Not Ocwen, They'll get their trumped up fees no matter what it sells for. It's the investor that's taking the hit - not them.

Ocwen is still in business. Are they not worried that by shooting their investors in the foot that they won't be able to attract new investors to service for?

Or since the buyout fell through, is the corporate plan to make as much as they can before closing shop?

2006 Net Income: 206 Million
2007 Net Income: 38 Million
4th Quarter Net LOSS: almost 7 Million!

Just thinking...