The owner of adjacent Cape Cod-style homes on Balboa Island recently sold both to separate buyers.
The homes face the water, according to Don Abrams, broker and owner of Abrams Coastal Properties on Balboa Island.
He represented the seller, a past client, on both sales. The seller decided to sell the homes after the death of his wife.
At first the seller was going to sell only one of the homes—the one where he and his wife lived. After the first home sold, he decided to sell the other, a home where their guests stayed.
“Too many memories,” Abrams said.
The seller’s primary home is in the San Fernando Valley.
The first home to sell had four bedrooms and was at 1108 S. Bayfront.
It sold in December for $4.5 million, down 15% from an asking price of $5.2 million. The home had been listed for about six months.
Abrams also represented the buyer.
The three-bedroom guest home at 1106 S. Bayfront sold in May for $5.5 million, down 7% from $5.9 million, after being listed for two months.
Laura Gale, an agent for Hom Real Estate Group, represented the buyer.
The 1106 home was more expensive because it is newer and has a private dock.
“It was a special home, customized with all the bells and whistles,” Abrams said.
It has a roof deck, two master suites on the same floor, hardwood oak floors and shutters for security and weather.
For the local buyer, 1106 S. Bayfront will be a second home.
Abrams describes the coastal market these days as “brisk.”
Many of his sales are on the coast, especially Balboa Island, where his agency is.
“People tend to know me down there,” Abrams said.
On Balboa Island, prices are down about 25% to 30%, which is less than other places, such as Newport Coast, where luxury home prices have fallen 40% or more.
Luxury home prices have stabilized recently but aren’t going up yet, Abrams said.
La Mott Joins Surterre
Newport Beach-based Surterre Properties Inc. recently hired Jerry La Mott, a former top agent for McMonigle Group Inc., also of Newport.
La Mott is set to work out of Surterre’s new Monarch Beach office, which opens later this month.
He brings 40 listings to Surterre.
McMonigle Group gets a percentage of the listing sales for an agreed-upon period of time.
La Mott’s known for his sales at Nellie Gail Ranch, an equestrian neighborhood in Laguna Hills. He’s sold more than 400 homes there.
During La Mott’s 30-plus years in real estate, he’s had $800 million in deals. He started working at McMonigle in 2007.
Surterre Properties and Hom Real Estate Group are among those that have hired former McMonigle agents following John McMonigle’s ongoing personal bankruptcy woes.
McMonigle’s Auction
Meanwhile, McMonigle Group has started its own home auction site, M Luxury.com.
It’s designed for sellers of luxury homes who aren’t in distress, according to McMonigle Group, which is working with Irvine-based Auction.com LLC on the project.
Auction.com has sold more than $7 billion worth of U.S. real estate.
McMonigle Group is the listing agent and Auction.com runs the auction and represents the buyer.
McMonigle is “paid by the seller, we’re paid by the buyer,” said Alex Davis, managing director for Auction.com.
The advantage of an auction for the seller is a quicker sale.
Auctions take potential buyers, who may have been interested in a home, off the fence, Davis said.
Auctions also have a way of selling at fair market value, he said.
Buyers register to bid with a credit card and have to prove their ability to buy the home, Davis said.
The seller sets an undisclosed reserve price—the minimum the seller wants for a house.
M Luxury.com’s first auction, which opened last week, was an 8,200-square-foot estate at Pelican Hill in Newport Coast.
The seven-bedroom home at 28 Fairway Point, owned by a homebuilder, is listed at $6.9 million.
It originally was listed in August for $8.7 million.
“The owner was willing to sell it at an incredible price,” Davis said.
As of last week, the high bid was $4.5 million
