Steady Sales Since March

Twenty single-family homes and condominiums have sold and closed escrow in the Malibu area (everything in the 90265 ZIP code) since March 23. This is up from 19 closing escrow in the previous month.  Thirteen were listed as standard sales, two were REOs/bank-owned properties, four were short sales and one was was an auction. Fourteen of the closed sales were for single-family homes and seven were for condominiums. The full report per the CLAW/MLS is attached to this article.

There are 201 properties listed as pre-foreclosure or foreclosure in the 90265 ZIP code, so expect some of these properties to be listed for sale within the year. This number is a significant increase from 168 listed in March, and may be an indication that an abundance of distressed properties will hit the Malibu real estate market later this year.

The auction listing in the Malibu Colony is interesting to follow. A home on the landside sold in August 2002 for $2.1 million, and was listed for $8.4 million just 12 months later. It stayed on the market consistently after that with some time off for specific lease segments. It was listed for $6.5 million until it was withdrawn in December 2010.

The property was then listed as an auction. It was consistently marketed to buyers and the real estate community. The auction company procured an accepted offer of $4.7 million at the auction event in December 2010. The auction company required that the buyer pay an additional 8 percent premium over the auctioned price to pay the fees for marketing and selling the property. This property eventually closed escrow last month at $5,184,000.

This home has a unique history and is not consistent with the listing history of other Malibu properties. It is an example of how a property can be sold in Malibu. While I am not an advocate of auction sales, the auction company in this case succeeded at getting the property sold and closed with a tremendous amount of advertising dollars.

It is my belief that if a property owner lists the property at an appropriate price from the start based on a comparative market analysis prepared by a licensed real estate sales agent, the property should sell without the additional time and expense required with auctioning.

The attached sales charts outline the single-family and condominium sales since March 23. If you see a home that sold on your street in this report, it’s a good indicator of the current value of your home. As we begin the May/spring selling season, it’s reasonable to expect some increased activity in the area. Look for my next market update report in this column on May 27.

Beverly Taki is a California-licensed real estate broker who has represented clients in Malibu for 22 years. She is a Malibu resident and president/broker of Seabreeze Estates Realty. Taki can be reached at beverly@beverlytaki.com or 310-456-4843. Her website is beverlytaki.com.