Buying a luxury home would seem easy these days.
There are plenty of them for sale, some priced as much as 50% off their recent peaks. But one local banker and his wife kept getting beat on offers.
The undisclosed couple had looked at several homes and made offers on three, according to Gary Legrand, chief executive of Newport Beach-based Surterre Properties Inc.
Each time they were bested by a cash offer.
“That tells you a lot right there—the market is changing,” Legrand said.
Surterre agent Jody Chapman represented the family.
Things turned around for the buyers after the wife—on her way to Gelson’s—saw an open house sign for a Corona del Mar home listed by another Surterre agent, Rick McIntire. The multimillion dollar home had been on the market for more than a year.
The couple looked at the home on a Thursday and made an offer the next day. They wanted a response from the seller by Saturday.
The hitch: The seller was vacationing at Big Bear, without a computer or fax, and wouldn’t be home until Tuesday.
That meant a long drive up the mountain for McIntire. He met the seller at Onyx Summit, a mountain pass 8,500 feet up the San Bernardino Mountains.
“We signed the contract on top of the car,” McIntire said.
The deal is set to close in April.
Newport Market
Newport Coast and Crystal Cove have a handful of newly listed homes priced at $5 million and up.
During the boom, Newport Coast drew many of the new wealthy who couldn’t sustain large mortgage payments once the downturn hit.
The area has seen a number of short sales.
Out of 38 homes listed at Chicago-based National Association of Realtors’ Realtor.com, five are new listings:
• A $16.9 million, 11,505-square-foot home at 20 Sunset Harbor
• A $13.8 million, 10,800-square-foot home at 9 Shell Beach
• A $10.9 million, 9,800-square-foot home at 2 Premiere Point
• A $6.5 million, 7,182-square-foot home at 27 Offshore
• A $6.4 million, 7,171-square-foot home at 25 Offshore
The priciest listing in Newport Coast: The much publicized Villa del Lago, developed and listed by John McMonigle of Newport Beach’s McMonigle Group Inc.
The house is listed at $37 million, down from $57 million a year ago and $87 million two years ago. The 12.5-acre estate faces financial issues and is the subject of a dispute between McMonigle and lender OneWest Bank.
The lowest priced listing is a $5.3 million, 5,000-square-foot home at 26 Cruisers Bluff listed by Surterre. It has been listed for about six months.
The lowest priced home per square foot is a $6.4 million house at 3 Canyon Pointe, priced at $804 a square foot. It’s been listed for about two months and is a short sale.
The most expensive per square foot is an $18.8 million ocean view home at 42 Pelican Point Drive, priced at $2,136 per square foot. It is listed by Surterre and has been on the market for more than two years.
Out of 85 listings in all of Newport Beach, including Newport Coast, Corona del Mar and other neighborhoods, 16 homes have been listed for fewer than 30 days, according to Redfin. The average length of time on the market for the 85 homes is about six months.
The highest priced home in Balboa Peninsula is $19.5 million and has been listed for six months. In the East Bluff and Harbor View neighborhoods, the highest priced home is $22.8 million, listed for 18 months.
In West Newport and Lido, a $22.9 million home has been listed for nearly six months. In Corona del Mar and Spyglass, a $27.9 million home has been listed for two months.
In the Lower Newport Bay and Balboa Island neighborhood, a $28.5 million home has been listed for nearly a year.
Second Bask
The second issue of Bask—a glossy luxury lifestyle magazine from Surterre—is in the works.
The brokerage is looking to the quarterly magazine to help market its homes.
Jolie Adams, formerly of Riviera magazine, heads up the magazine for Surterre.
Bask has stories on fashion, food and life in Orange County. There is a variety of ads, but only one from a luxury home brokerage.
It’s not hard to guess which one.
“We’re the only real estate company in it because it’s ours,” Chief Executive Legrand said.
Surterre’s properties in Shady Canyon, Laguna Beach and other areas are prominently featured.
The magazine hasn’t made any money.
“We’d love it to be a profit center,” Legrand said.
New Managers
Coldwell Banker Real Estate LLC named new branch managers at two of its Newport Beach offices.
Greg Bingham will head up the residential brokerage Fashion Island office in Newport Beach. Cas Pinkowski will head up the office of Previews International Newport Center.
Both have worked in real estate since the 1990s.
