An 11% Chop on Anderson

Maybe it was a hot cup of coffee. Or a cold splash of ocean water to the face.

222 Anderson

Whatever it was, something woke up the sellers of 222 Anderson to give them this idea: We're never getting $4.5m for this house.

So they cut big: $500k (-11%) before hitting 2 full months on the market.

We had almost forgotten what it was like to see sellers cut prices or hang around 2 months, hadn't you?

222 Anderson (5br/5ba, 4625 sq. ft.) is a gorgeous, custom, ocean-view house boasting all sorts of exquisite touches and special craftsmanship. (See our review from early June.)

It's right down the middle as an example of a certain kind of Manhattan Beach Hill Section home... more than big enough, 2000s vintage (2001 in this case), Mediterranean style, upside-down layout to capture views. Then it's got its special pluses, not least the climate-controlled wine cellar built under the outdoor stairwell.

Some recent sales of similar homes include:

504 Poinsettia

504 Poinsettia (5br/4ba, 4600 sq. ft., $3.5m), which sold off-market in April with a few offers.

510 Poinsettia (5br/5ba, 4300 sq. ft., $3.425m), which required 7 months of market exposure before cutting a deal this May; it closed in late June.

504 John (5br/5ba, 4800 sq. ft. $4.4m), which first hit the market last October and sold in 2 weeks ago. John, we've said, bore "some resemblance to 222 Anderson in terms of opulence and craftsmanship."

Clearly, 222 Anderson was aspiring toward the heights hit at 504 John. Right now, at $4m, it's somewhere between the 2 Poinsettia sales and John.

As a street, Anderson is clearly the least busy of these three, but if you want to evaluate relative positions on the hill, Anderson feels like a hike to school, town and the beach, while John just seems close. (These things may not matter if you have one of those zippy little electric carts.)

222 Anderson was always going to be influenced somehow by the sale next door at 230 Anderson, which closed in late June at $3.950m.

Now, you could say, hey, 222 is 1500 sq. ft. smaller than 230, why is it priced $49k higher than the neighbor? An appraiser may wind up asking a similar question some day, so watch out for that.

But that question would just mean you don't know 230 Anderson.

In our last reference, we called it "a luxurious (maybe too luxurious) custom home... dripping with an elaborate 'French Riviera' style." That one is entirely too formal for the typical buyer, and the 4 listed bedrooms include a room upstairs off the kitchen that is hardly ideal as a sleeping room or guest room. As currently set up, it was functionally an enormous 3br house with an atypically humungous garage, basement, workshop complex. Listing agents have tried to coax MBC to recognize the potential to "add back" various bedrooms that were in the original plans – they said plumbing, etc., was ready behind the walls. But yikes: $4m, then go to work?

Suffice it to say, 230 Anderson had a narrow market, as its many, many DOM over the past 3+ years attested.

222 Anderson has none of those liabilities. It just needs a $4m buyer and a little more time.