It was such an honor to work together with Berel representing Mai and Chris on the purchase of their beautiful new home at 246 S Irving. I love that the house has such a great floor plan; there’s a living room on one side and dining room on the other, kitchen with an adjacent breakfast area that overlooks the yard and opens to a big family room, 4 bedrooms upstairs, including a primary suite. The backyard has a neat outdoor kitchen with a built-in bbq grill, sink, wood fire pizza oven, and bar. The street is quiet and beautiful and right around the block from our clients Betsy and John, who referred Mai and Chris to work with us. I feel so lucky that we get to work with the best people in the world!
Nechama did an expert job representing her clients, Eric and Lauren, on the purchase of 7724 Lexington Ave and I wish them the world in their new home! The house was on the market since June 3, 2022 so pretty much one whole year! Nechama’s specialty is navigating difficult situations and our clients were great as they hurdled through each difficulty (on the other side).
I’m excited that with Nechama’s lead, we leased the house at 461 N Highland for $10,000 a month. The new tenants are a lovely family moving here from NY. They’re going to love swimming in their new pool in the California sunshine. Houses on busy streets very often end up going to people from big cities where people are accustomed to and perfectly fine with living on busy streets.
I’m excited for Josephine that she co-represented her friend purchasing a beautiful house at 900 Westholme. Jo has the best friends…and one by one with the most beautiful houses. I’m excited for Devin that he sold 6087 Montecito Circle #3, representing the seller, with very few days on market, in a smooth seamless transaction. It was super fun to work with Christian, as always, guiding Cindy and Brent through purchasing 11424 Mississippi Ave. They’re super excited about their new home and I love that!
Our listing at 244 N Rossmore closed before the end of March to extremely qualified buyers. But when the property was just listed, there was a gentleman who expressed serious interest in buying the house. He called and he came back multiple times, on facetime with family and friends, so enthusiastic about each part of the property. When he presented proof of funds in advance of writing an offer, something looked funny to me about it. I sent it to a mortgage guy we know at his bank, who confirmed immediately that the shared document was fake. Weeks later, an agent called, introducing herself as this gentleman’s representative, and speaking of an offer she was planning to write on 244 N Rossmore on this gentleman’s behalf. I asked the agent if she verified that her client was qualified to purchase and she hadn’t. He was definitely not qualified to purchase.
This week, a gentleman applied to lease our listing for 12,000 a month. He submitted proof of funds as screenshots of a bank account that said “today” for the date and had no name identifying an account holder. References he provided could only talk in general terms but couldn’t answer anything too specific, like addresses, dates, names, etc. The guy is obviously not qualified to rent.
In today’s climate and the current market, closing deals means working more diligently and thoughtfully than ever before. The stakes are higher for buyers with sudden higher interest rates and unusually tight inventory, and sellers need hyper vigilant agents to make sure their properties sell for top dollar in a market where sales are far from automatic but are rather curated and painstakingly strategically procured. As a company that prides itself on white glove representation, it’s our honor to show up wholeheartedly as a collaborative team and to passionately do the work every day.
Seth and I have missed our kids and grandkids terribly since Passover ended, and so we took the opportunity of the holiday weekend to fly to Israel for a very short visit. I’m good at cooking, freezing, packing a whole holiday of home cooked food, and transporting it across the world. I’m terrible at jet lag and adjusting to a totally different time zone. I love to be a mom, mom-in-law, grandma. It was an experience before the holiday to walk with the kids on the narrow hilly cobblestone streets flanked by Jerusalem stone houses with colorful flowers hanging out of window boxes and to pick up a bouquet of pink peonies, bottles of local wine + spirits, artisan handmade treats, crunchy dark green Israeli cucumbers + succulent bright red ripe tomatoes on the vine. There’s an anticipatory excited frenzy of all the local people preparing for the holiday and all the “Chag Sameach” wishes in the air, starting with the pilot on the El Al flight when our plane touched down in Israel. On Shavuot afternoon, it was whimsical to see the local neighborhood park packed with kids speaking all different languages, each one dressed in their holiday finest, playing and sharing snacks with random mini strangers. The people we bumped into were so chatty and friendly; a random teenager asked Seth if he could join us for a holiday meal. My favorite moments were just hanging – at meals, on the couch, on long walks, singing songs with Gavriel. Being with family is Being Home. Family and Homes are my two most favorite things in the world!
Wishing all an awesome week ahead!
Xoxoxo,
Sheri
