All Blog Entries by Dave Fratello

Buyers and sellers make agreements, but things don't always work out.

Maybe the buyer wasn't really that into the house, after all?

Inspection problems?

Financing didn't work?

Someone couldn't sell a property needed to make the purchase work?

Whatever causes a broken deal, it's bound to be traumatic for everyone. You hate to be inside that maelstrom. But it happens in a percentage of cases, despite the best efforts of agents to make sure it's a good fit to begin with.

Buyers walk away needing to go look and find something new.

Sellers have to come back to market, worried that their property looks challenged. That's a worry, even if it was issues on the buyer's part that caused the deal to fall out of escrow. (That's often the case,…

Oh boy, what we missed last week due to Easter has come flooding to the market this week.

It's all good. We have 13 new listings in our video, definitely worth setting aside the 7+ minutes it will take for the snapshot tours we can offer there. Then make your plans to see any that are open in person.

Not open, but soooo delicious: 2603 Laurel (5br/5ba, 4625 sqft.), a custom corner lot house that boasts not only timeless beachy style, but quite possibly the very best backyard we've encountered in a somewhat typically sized Tree Section lot.

It's hard to tell in the photo, but this home features a swim-up bar. This happens to be one of our favorite phrases of all time: "swim-up bar."

In a backyard with some elevation changes and not all that…

It's been tried, but no one has succeeded before.

Liberty Village, known traditionally as one of the most affordable areas of Manhattan Beach, hasn't previously seen a home sell over $3M.

Now, the future is here.

1900 Lynngrove (5br/6ba, 3600 sqft.) has just closed well past that mark at $3.125M, only $25K below asking.

The corner-lot new-construction home is special, pleasing and boasts a (slightly) oversized lot (about 5800 sqft. instead of the typical ~5400).

It was a must-have product from the start.

(All photos in this post are from 1900 Lynngrove, despite references to other properties.)

Only 9 days tolled on the market while buyers lined up to make it theirs.

Interesting side note: The buyer who just paid more than anyone

The sellers of East Manhattan Beach would like you to know they're doing just fine, thank you.

There's been a little rush of new deals east of the highway. For example:

1846 10th (5br/5ba, 4400 sqft.) is a 2007-built Mediterranean that is just about the furthest east you can get and still be within the city limits.

It's big, a bit faux-glamorous but with one really notable location issue: Next door is a commercial building with a pizza joint, laundromat and liquor store, and across the street is a divey bar that opens at 7am. 

You could say the home is just steps to local amenities, but that would be a bit slippery. (We can't read the listing description at all because IT IS IN ALL CAPS and it makes our ears hurt to have someone scream at us…