Real Estate Business Heats Up as Temperatures Soar

As Southern California on Tuesday sizzled with some spots heating up to triple-digit temperatures, certain businesses were taking advantage of the weather, while other businesses have cooled their heels.

Real estate broker Svetlana Moore said the hot weather sometimes helps agents sell their product.

“If you walk in from a 105 degree temperature to the inside and home is cool, that’s a real sellable point,” Moore said.

She said air conditioning sells. And so does a pool. But in the end, keeping cool is not the best way to make your home a hot ticket item.

“Priority is the price and location,” Moore said. “If they find the right house and the right price, and the market is heating up.”

But if there is no way to cool a home, an after-market air conditioning could run a buyer an additional $5,000 or more, she said.

While real estate may benefit from soaring mercury, it’s not the same for restaurants.

Few braved the heat in Pasadena to sit at outdoor tables in Old Town.

“Maybe one out of 20 will sit outside,” said Cipriano Mota of Barney’s Limited Eatery. “I’m, like, really? You want to sit outside?”

At Barney’s Limited, the air conditioner was blasting.

“I would rather not be outside,” said Pasadena resident Oscar Narro.

Angelenos will start to see cooler weather this week, when NBC4 forecast Fritz Coleman says temperatures will drop by at least 10 degrees across the region.

Source: http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/Weather-Real-Estate-Economy-The-Price-of-Heat-172388591.html

California Estate Valued at $87 Million Sells at Auction

A bankrupt real estate agent’s hilltop mansion, conceived during Southern California’s property boom and once given an estimated value of $87 million, was sold at auction.

The unfinished Italianate villa on 12.5 acres (5.1 hectares) in Newport Beach comes with a man-made lake, horse stables, vineyard, tennis court, 17-car garage and views of the Pacific Ocean and Santa Ana Mountains.

“We have a successful bidder,” Rob Giem, an agent with Sotheby’s International Realty, which had the listing, said in a text message last night.

The highest bid and identity of the winner aren’t being disclosed because the deal is in escrow, Giem said. Last night’s sale was conducted by Irvine, California-based Auction.com after the estate failed to find a buyer on the open market with a $37 million asking price. The minimum bid required for the property to sell at auction wasn’t disclosed.

Originally named Villa del Lago, the estate was conceived by John McMonigle, the No. 1 U.S. sales agent for Coldwell Banker in 2004 and 2005, at a time when Orange County’s real estate market was fueled by wealth from locally based -- and now defunct -- subprime lenders, including Ameriquest Mortgage Co. and New Century Financial Corp. (CYFL)

McMonigle and his investors paid $3.2 million for the land in 2003. Six years later, the property had an expected value of $87 million, according to the Orange County Register, a local newspaper. The estate was first placed on the Multiple Listing Service in May 2010 for $57 million. The asking price dropped to $37 million in January 2011, after OneWest Bank FSB cut off construction funding and as McMonigle tried to avoid bankruptcy.

McMonigle lost the estate, now known as One Pelican Hill Road North, to a group of investors who put $10 million into the project. The property also has a $20 million construction loan held by OneWest, which acquired the debt after the original lender, La Jolla Bank, failed in 2010, according to bankruptcy court documents.

To contact the reporter on this story: John Gittelsohn in Los Angeles at johngitt@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Kara Wetzel at kwetzel@bloomberg.net

Source: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-27/california-estate-valued-at-87-million-sells-at-auction.html