Weekend Opens (7/20-7/21)

This Friday, while running to the brokers' open houses, we tried something different and posted to the MBC Facebook page from each property. You can see those pics and a few comments by going to the page; "like" the page to be part of the next stream when we do it again.

We'll be running an open house this Sunday 2-4pm at 468 34th and Dave will be there. Please drop in to see this cool house and say "hi."

To plan your open-house tours for this week, use MB Confidential's online list of Manhattan Beach open houses (it's mobile-friendly!).

Tree Section

594 33rd (6br/5ba, 3500+ sq. ft.) is new construction that's for sale, but isn't (yet) on the MLS. (Our link there is to – wait for it... Zillow.)

The home has a crowd-pleasing modern, beachy feel and a good layout, with high ceilings, white and bright walls and cabinets, grey/brown-stained wide-plank flooring and a big, open great room in back. That opens to a decent-to-large south-facing, sunny yard with a bonus: A whole guest suite/office over the garage in back. The yard itself uses eco-friendly faux grass.

We liked the accents in the baths and the treetop and Sand Dune views from the master.

This one will call to mind the new construction home at 585 31st that sold back in April for $2.800M. The major differences between the homes is that this one on 33rd has greater lot square footage and the south-facing yard; 585 31st had a whole "disappearing wall" of windows in back opening to a north-facing yard, and probably the slightly better location of these two.

594 33rd starts at $2.949M (according to Zillow and a print ad), and is open Sat. & Sun. 2-4pm.

Next-door neighbor 592 33rd (3br/3ba, 1825 sq. ft.) is a 1950s cottage with a master added on up top.

While modernized in some respects, the kitchen and baths could use another go-round. Besides that, it's a pretty nice, modest family house. There's a decent yard in back on this slightly larger-than-normal 5025 sq. ft. lot, street-to-alley with garage in the rear as well.

Because this home features additions to a 50s original, you start with the 50s layout, with the main living room and kitchen up front. The kitchen remains an alley-style kitchen mostly separated from the living spaces. There's more of a dining nook than a formal dining room, but 90% of homeowners will tell you that is more than enough.

There's a separate common area toward the back, near where the staircase was added to access the master. It's bright and sunny, but a bit narrow, yet the current owners seem to make it work as a family room with TV.

Both of the bedrooms downstairs are of good size; one opens right out to the yard. Each has a bath to call its own. The master suite is upstairs.

We can't skip past the chance to question why they refused to post the address for this property on the internet. This is one of those (now rare) listings with "address undisclosed" showing in the MLS feed. What possible point is served by refusing to distribute the address?

592 33rd St. starts at $1.590M and is open Sat. & Sun. 2-4pm.

1212 Elm (3br/2ba, 1600 sq. ft.) presents a very different way to re-do a 1950s cottage.

There's a somewhat modern vibe, with sleek refinished maple flooring, walls opened up to create bright and open common spaces, and a slick feeling to the remodeling work inside.

Note: This house is on "hold" status as we post this story on MBC. It was listed mid-week, shown on Friday to brokers and has (oddly timed) weekend open houses posted. We don't know more now on the status.

Yard-wise, there is green space up front, behind the gates at the entry, while the backyard is really a paved patio. Bonuses: A build-in BBQ and waterfall.

Since we're not entirely certain about this listing's status or the odd open-house times, we'll just punt after that description.

UPDATE: Right after the (oddly timed) Saturday showing, they popped up a sign saying "in escrow."

1212 Elm is listed at $1.485M and shows open-house times of Sat. & Sun. 11am-1:30pm.

The appeal of 608 27th (5br/4ba, 4200 sq. ft.) is probably not so much from the curb, because the exterior doesn't tell you much. Inside, they've created a very large Spanish with modern flourishes that aspires to sell over $3M.

Given the quality throughout, and the very nice location, reaching for the stars like that just might work out.

It's a lot of house – yes, 4200 sq. ft. is a pre-ZORP number. They didn't completely squeeze out any backyard, as was common pre-ZORP, but they did put in a pool that takes up most of the yard, so there's that. 

608 27th starts at $3.099M and is open Sun. 1-3pm.

East MB

1721 Ruhland (3br/2ba, 1950 sq. ft.) is an adequate, updated and fresh-feeling, single-level home with a very substantial backyard. Put a smallish house on a 7500 sq. ft. lot, and you get to enjoy more of the lot. Good formula.

We actually recall this home from its last run on the market in 2010. Then, while the kitchen had updates, the flooring was dated, the yard wasn't showing off its potential and there was an all-around feeling of dated-ness. Now with new cherry wood flooring and a couple of flourishes – nothing radical – this feels like a much newer home and could really work out for lots of families looking to get into the 90266.

It helps that the original floorplan made sense. This already has an open kitchen coming out to a family room, opening in back to that big yard. This is what more and more buyers demand – a family space that connects to where the kids are (or should be) playing outside.

The kids' bedrooms are of decent size, and they share a hallway bath that's fresh if not 21st-century modern. The master in back feels like it ought to open out to the backyard via french doors, but doesn't yet. More of a concern: The master bath is shared with common areas and is right along the laundry room. Over time you might recognfigure the space there to create a bigger/better master, and perhaps to close off the laundry room.

Also, the exterior's rough stucco is a dated feature, but revamping the outside is purely discretionary and can be viewed as a longer-term project.

It's Summer: go play outside.

1721 Ruhland starts at $1.285M and is open Sun. 1-4pm.

Sand Section

468 34th (4br/5ba, 3525 sq. ft.) is Dave's listing in the North End of the Sand Section.

With a price cut recently, it's at $2.575M.

MBC doesn't offer "neutral" reviews of Dave's listings, so here's part of the official description:

Your family will enjoy this lovely, newer Cape Cod... with [s]pacious common rooms on the first floor...

All four bedrooms are on one level, including master suite with fireplace and separate "his and hers" walk-in closets.

Upstairs, a family/game room opens to great deck with ocean peeks where you're sure to spend a lot of time...

This whole home has been refreshed with new paint and carpet and looks terrific...

Once you see this home, it's easy to feel the lifestyle pluses of a short walk to school, the beach and MB's "second downtown" in the North End.

The photos look great full-screen at the dedicated property website:

www.468-34th.com

After a cut, 468 34th is at $2.575M and is open Sun. 2-4pm.

3601 Crest (3br/3ba, 2430 sq. ft.) ain't huge, or particularly well-located, except for one thing: the pretty notable ocean views made possible by being at this high point on the hill. (What's that word? Oh, yes: crest.)

And if you can get over the feeling of being in a somewhat noisy urban environment, you can focus on those views and being just steps to El Tarasco, or whatever local joint you might call your fave.

The home is on a 2/3rds size lot, so the floorplan benefits by not being scrunched onto a half-lot space. You don't have the typical TH-type layout here – on the entry level, there's just a media room (with very low ceiling, perhaps 7'), then one bedroom along with the living areas on the midlevel (that bedroom's lime green, for whatever reason), and then two full-bedroom suites up on the top level. One of those top-floor suites is a little more "master-y" than the other, but hey, who wouldn't love panoramic ocean views from the "secondary" bedroom up there?

You can feel the fairly recent remodeling work here, nothing extreme, but it's warm and feels homey (engineered wood flooring, updated kitchen, etc.).

Note: This one was listed for a month by a different agent at $2.150M, then re-booted 5 days ago in mid-July with a new agent and at a lower price. The new agent's listing reset the DOM clock, since it's a bona fide different broker and agent, but buyers should still be aware that this is not the property's first week of exposure.

3601 Crest is priced at $1.975M and is open Sun. 2-4pm.

Hill Section

1012 10th (3br/3ba, 2600 sq. ft.) is an odd bird on a fairly busy street. But it packs a few nice surprises on its bigger-than-normal 7500 sq. ft. lot, like a paradisical master suite with high ceilings and a swimming pool in an upper tier way back in the backyard – complete with "changing cabanas." And did we mention the sauna in the master suite?

This one's really different as you find it now, and will need some kind of reworking or reboot to update it from the 70s feel and/or fix some layout issues, like the smallish/isolated kitchen. (That's not just our opinion; the listing itself touts the "entry level pricing" [$1.700M] which allows for "a budget to customize to suit personal tastes.")

The first floor has 2br and all the common spaces, including a big den in back, an enclosed sun porch and true library with built-in bookshelves. Behind a trick bookshelf is a wine cellar, and in one wall is a big aquarium. (Yes, it's a custom house.) That library is technically a 4th bedroom (which is mentioned in the listing) but we're counting 3br as you see the house today.

Most of the flooring is a faux-wood Pergo type material, and while the downstairs bath has some newer cabinets, you could see redoing that, too. The master up top is a very big room with high cathedral ceilings, and if "paradisical" (above) was a bit of an overstatement, it is a sweet room with potential. The bath – that's all potential. It's very dated. Bonus: A private office on the master level.

This is one of those homes that you either rule out right away, or it gets your wheels spinning as to the possibilities from looking past the current condition. 

We mentioned above that 10th is a "fairly busy" street. That's mainly because of post office/delivery traffic; this block draws more traffic to and from Sepulveda than any other nearby Hill Section street before 2nd. On the plus side, it's just steps to ice cream, El Gringo and Barsha.

1012 10th St. is priced at $1.700M and is open Sat. & Sun. 2-5pm.