It was the view that sold a $4.2 million home at 8 Via Avoria in Newport Coast.
The buyer, a businessman from out of the area, had looked at a number of properties online, said Melane Barney, an agent with Newport Beach-based Surterre Properties Inc. who represented the buyer.
“Then it was pounding the pavement looking for the right one,” Barney said.
They spent five days looking at homes and narrowed it down to two in Newport Coast.
The buyer chose the one with the best view.
“You can see the buildings in downtown Los Angeles,” she said.
The 5,400-square-foot home closed in April for about $778 per square foot.
“It was like brand new,” Barney said.
The two-level, five-bedroom, five-bath home has a pool and spa.
It originally was listed in September for $4.6 million.
The price was reduced in February to $4.4 million.
Surterre’s Michael Fawaz represented the seller.
Student Housing Deluxe
Many Chinese buyers snapping up homes in Orange County aren’t buying for themselves.
They’re buying homes for their children attending University of California, Irvine, according to Steve High, an agent for Coldwell Banker Previews International’s office in Newport Beach.
A lot of them are expansive, multimillion dollar homes, so there might be some 20-year-olds living by themselves in 10,000-square-foot, $10 million homes, he said.
“We’re seeing these buyers make a huge investment in their one child,” High said.
Many buyers from Mainland China are subject to a one-child policy.
One buyer told High he hoped the home would help his son attract a great wife.
The purchase of a U.S. home also is viewed by some Chinese as a way to protect their wealth.
“To them, our values are very good,” High said. “They look at our real estate and think it’s inexpensive.”
Chinese buyers often pay cash and almost always buy new homes—one reason why many prefer Newport Coast, High said.
“They like the newness, the size and they like the fact that we have beautiful ocean views,” he said. “It’s kind of a perfect trifecta for many of these buyers,” he said.
Often a Feng Shui expert will screen a home before a purchase.
Feng Shui has to do with the way a home is designed and laid out.
“We’ve all seen several transactions killed by a Feng Shui expert,” High said.
Many Chinese buyers are represented by brokers from areas outside the county, he said, including the San Gabriel Valley, a major center of Southern California’s Chinese-American population.
“It’s very hard for us as agents to market our properties to some of these agents because we don’t know where the broker is going to come from,” High said.
Most buyers begin their hunt online, so Internet marketing is important, he said.
On High’s website, home information can be translated into Chinese.
“We’ve all been learning how to address these buyers in a better, smarter fashion,” he said.
Closing a deal with Chinese buyers also varies from other deals, High said.
“We generally see the buyer once, maybe twice” before an offer is made, High said. During escrow, the money trickles in because the Chinese government has restrictions on transferring money outside the country.
In a typical deal, a buyer will put a deposit down and pay the rest at closing, High said.
He taps a colleague in Coldwell Banker’s San Marino office to help out on the escrows. She speaks Mandarin and Cantonese.
“I found that she helps me understand the process immensely,” High said.
Deal for Dinah’s Place
A Corona del Mar couple bought Dinah Shore’s former home.
Dr. Ben Lipps and his wife Jude recently bought the $4.6 million home in Palm Springs from David Lee, a TV sitcom writer, producer and director of shows such as “Cheers,” and “Everybody Loves Raymond.”
Ben Lipps is chief executive of Waltham, Mass.-based Fresenius Medical Care Holdings Inc., a provider of dialysis services and maker of related medical equipment.
“My buyers weren’t looking for the bargain of the century,” said Rita Kurtz, an agent for Surterre. “They were just looking for something unique.”
The six-bedroom, eight-bath Dinah Shore home is 7,000 square feet and sits on an acre.
The 1960s home—on the market for more than a year—was designed for Shore by architect Donald Wexler.
Wexler has designed a number of buildings in Palm Springs, including the Palm Springs International Airport.
At the time the home was sold, Wexler’s work was being exhibited at the Palm Springs Art Museum, including a model of the home the Lippses bought.
“It’s one of his most popular house designs,” Kurtz said.
Kurtz had shown the Lippses about 15 houses in the Palm Springs area before they decided on the Dinah Shore home.
“Jude’s a wonderful decorator,” Kurtz said. “I know she’s got it all in her head how she’s going to do the house.”
The Lippses primary home remains in Corona del Mar.
The sale was one of Kurtz’s biggest deals this year.
Kurtz lives in Newport Coast. She’s also had a home in Indian Wells for four years.
“I know the desert really well now,” she said.
