I’m so excited for our two new listings this week!
321 N Martel is a hedged + gated character Spanish house with 4 beds and 3.5 baths in the main house and a permitted 2 story recreation room in the backyard. It has a large emotional formal entry with beams, Spanish tile stairs, and period doors that open to the living, dining, powder, and downstairs bedroom. The WOW moment of the property is the majestic step-down living room with gas fireplace decorated with Spanish tile and show stopping high pitched beam ceiling with French doors to the front courtyard. There’s an extra spacious dining room with a beamed ceiling. The sleek and clean modern all white kitchen with center island breakfast bar, dual dishwashers, dual ovens, wine fridge and French doors to the backyard is open to the family room with surround sound A/V system. There’s 1 bed + 1.5 baths downstairs and 3 beds + 2 baths upstairs. Outside is a park-like expansive grassy backyard. And the permitted 2 story recreation room backhouse. The house is so well cared for by the owners who keep it in immaculate condition. We’ll be at the property today, Sunday, for showings both 1-2 and 4-5 for those who want to see it in person.
4611 W 18th Street is a fully tenant occupied 1950’s duplex + a single family house (in the back) right in Mid-City. The front 2 units have two bedrooms each and the unit in the back has 1 bedroom. In the front 2 story building, the upstairs apartment rents for 2500/month, the downstairs apartment rents for 2280/month and the stand alone house in the back rents for 2675/month. The tenants shared with me that their community of neighbors saved them during Covid. Their block feels like family and they all look out for each other. The gentleman who lives in the single family house is a handyman and he repairs whatever needs to be addressed at the property. There’s a fresh garden on the front lawn and the harvest is shared with the neighbors who reciprocally share some of their home grown crops. The location is central and a quick shot to Downtown LA or the Westside. It’s a cool offering with nice sellers who are trading up. Our plan is to show all the tenant occupied units on February 6 from 1-4.
For the first time ever, we were in the process of selling a property off market when the seller suddenly and unexpectedly passed away. I really liked the seller and it’s so traumatic that he died. The seller was super excited about the sale. We had signed a listing agreement and staged the house and then a buyer came along before the house went on the market and both buyer and seller happily signed a full price offer and opened escrow. And then one day during the escrow period we got a phone call that the seller suddenly passed away. The buyer wishes to continue with the sale and to close on his purchase. The estate is now in probate court and there’s a judge and lawyers involved. The question for the courts is if a listing agreement and a purchase agreement signed by a seller who is no longer alive survives the seller’s death. It’s always stark and jarring to see how life can change on a dime; people are busy living, in the middle of transacting business, and making all kinds of plans personally and financially, engaged and excited to be immersed in life, and then abruptly they’re not. Life’s precious. And I hope the buyer gets to continue to buy the house.
This week local Jewish schools had winter break and so we took the opportunity to travel to Israel to visit our daughter, Miriam, son-in-law, Danny, and Baby Gavriel. Most fun moments were squishing cheeks with Gavriel while he gurgled and cooed. And when Gavriel laughed every time the horn on the bus went beep beep beep. By mid week, both Gavriel’s face and Grandma’s face lit up when we saw each other!
We were part of living history in Jerusalem for a heavy snow day this week! I went out for a walk with my two daughters and first we happened to bump into a relative who insisted we come into her place and borrow some gloves and umbrellas. And then, as we continued our walk, we approached a total stranger on the street to ask where we could find the nearest restroom and in Hebrew she pointed and said to walk up the hill to her apartment and she’d let her husband know to let us into their tiny home. As we were walking up the hill, her husband was standing out on his porch calling to us that he was there! While we used his tiny bathroom with the mini sink installed sideways so it would fit, and a shower doubling as a portable washing machine drain, the stranger gentleman put up a teapot to boil water, he took out tea and coffee, and he insisted we take a paper cup with a hot drink into the biting cold weather. And then he said we must take pictures on his porch before we go because the views are incredible. And so we did. As we continued our walk, we marveled at all the different creative snowmen lining the streets – with eyes, nose, scarves, hats; one family of kids built a full igloo and they were playing inside. The snow in Jerusalem lasted just one day, Thursday. On Friday the streets were littered with so many half carrots; the snowmen had melted and sadly all the noses fell off.
I asked my daughter what she loves about living in Israel. She said most people in her community don’t have cars and so they live a slower paced life solely on foot. They walk to buy groceries, to do errands, to go to school, to visit neighbors, and to socialize with friends in coffee shops. Living life on foot makes for people who have constant face-to-face interaction with each other and the frequency of seeing each other makes them connect and feel a true sense of community living life together as a group. Of course the slower pace also invites spirituality, religion, kindness and empathy, and focus on their children and their little families. The orientation is more about others and a shared wellness small town experience in stark contrast to a frenzied pursuit of individual needs living in a fast paced big city.
It’s fascinating to travel across the world and to experience different cultures, foods, mindsets, orientations, and ways of life. Traveling inevitably becomes the catalyst for questioning and reflecting. Visiting another country hopefully helps us reinvent ourselves and re-evaluate our values in life after the lessons learned from our experiences abroad. I hope personally that immersing myself in the Israel experience this week teaches me to be more patient, curious, slowed down, deliberate, kind and generous about the world and the people, strangers and non strangers alike, around me.
Wishing everyone an appreciation for our glorious weather as so many parts of the world are blanketed in heavy snow! I’m grateful that we’ll be showing properties in the sunshine all day today! And I’m excited to be back in LA, lessons learned and all!
Have an awesome weekend!
Xoxoxo,
Sheri
