Palos Verdes Senior Living

Trumark Homes will be moving forward with their 60 unit, age restricted condo project as the newest Palos Verdes Senior Living project here in Rancho Palos Verdes

The Rancho Palos Verdes City Council this week certified the developer’s environmental impact report for this Palos Verdes Senior Living project and approved the conditional-use permit, grading permit and tentative tract map for the Crestridge Senior Condominium project.

This particular Palos Verdes Senior Living project will have nineteen structures, 18 of which are split-level and two-story buildings constructed on the roughly 10-acre lot. To avoid view impacts and provide a consistent slope throughout the site, crews will move about 147,000 cubic yards of dirt. Most of the soil will be taken off site.

There may be some traffic impact as a result of the construction process for this Palos Verdes Senior Living project. Tentatively, trucks hauling dirt would travel from Crestridge along Highridge Road to Hawthorne Boulevard. An alternative would be from Crestridge to Crenshaw Boulevard to Silver Spur Road to Hawthorne. Councilman Jim Knight, concerned for residents living along Highridge, suggested the less-populated Indian Peak Road as a route.

“If there’s a way to go down Indian Peak, it would impact a lot fewer residents in our city,” Knight said.

Indian Peak had been ruled out as a route during the traffic studies in the EIR. According to RPV’s Public Works Department, the road does not have the capacity to carry the truck traffic.

However, city Senior Planner Eduardo Schonborn said the staff will continue to work with the public works staff to find an appropriate route to alleviate truck traffic through residential neighborhoods.

In addition to traffic and potential view impacts, the institutional zoning of the site has been an issue. The area is dotted with senior housing, an assisted-living facility, a retirement community and houses of worship. See the link below for other Palos Verdes Senior Living projects around the Crestridge area

To meet the institutional zoning, Trumark put an age restriction on the residential units (55 and older) and, once built, will offer supportive services for seniors, such as recreation, education, and health and fitness programs. But in today’s world, former Planning Commissioner Louella White told the City Council, a person at 55 could have children or teenagers.

The age restriction applies to buyers but not to all those living in the homes. “Teenagers in a senior development just are not something most seniors want because of the noise and ambitions of young teenagers,” she said.

A few residents have asked that Trumark raise the age limit to 62 to ensure it will be a senior housing community. “It would put a major constraint on our marketability to go from 55 to 62,” said James O’Malley, executive vice president of Trumark.

Palos Verdes Senior Living Housing

Here’s the website on the city of Rancho Palos Verdes website for this project http://www.palosverdes.com/rpv/planning/crestridge/

The Belmont Village is another Palos Verdes Senior Living project and more can be learned here; Belmont Village Senior Living

Another Palos Verdes Senior Living project is the Mirandela Senior Apartments

Lastly, The Canterbury is a Palos Verdes Senior Living project that offers a continuum of care

For many folks considering transitioning to one of the Palos Verdes Senior Living options, curiosity exists about what they’re home is worth in todays market were they to sell. Scroll to the bottom of this page to use the map platform and view the homes sold in the last 6 months around your location. The map will automatically update, tracking back 6 months as to the time you access this site. If you feel this article is useful, use the social media buttons prominently displayed and share with your friends; thank you.

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George Fotion, HomeIsPalosVerdes.com for Original Content of this article go to http://www.homeispalosverdes.com/palos-verdes-senior-living/

Lunada Bay Homes For Sale

So why would you want to own one of the Lunada Bay Homes For Sale?  Here’s some information that will help you understand more about our unique community here in Palos Verdes Estates: (WEBSITE)

Schools –

Top notch.  High API scores.  Strong parent involvement.  You can use the Lunada Bay homes for sale guide above to investigate Lunada Bay Elementary, Palos Verdes Intermediate and Palos Verdes High School.  At the high school level, parents can have their children attend either of the two high schools serving the Palos Verdes Peninsula.  However, Lunada Bay is the ONLY community on the Palos Verdes Peninsula wherein all grade levels are serviced by school locations no more than 5 minutes away from one another.  This makes for the highest efficiency for Moms and Dads and carpools!  The Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District site is a great source for much more information on the schools around Lunada Bay homes for sale

Weather –

The Palos Verdes Peninsula is “island like” and like near all islands, it has a “wind split”; actually it has two.  One is in the Portuguese Bend area and the other is in Lunada Bay.  These wind splits create the most temperate climates “kissed” not buffeted by ocean winds.  Both Portuguese Bend and the area around Lunada Bay homes for sale are really the “Goldilocks” for weather patterns on the Palos Verdes Peninsula.

Village Ambiance & Vibe

From the summer concerts to the small and highly personable restaurants and chops, Lunada Bay offers that high level of community.  Let me show you around and I know you will conclude as I have there aren’t too many places better than living in Lunada Bay.  Let me help you pick out one of the Lunada Bay homes for sale right for you.

Lunada Bay Homes For Sale

Here’s more valuable information on Palos Verdes Estates real estate and the area around Lunada Bay homes for sale

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Original Content located at http://www.homeispalosverdes.com/lunada-bay-homes-for-sale/  George Fotion, HomeIsPalosVerdes.com

New search platform for Lunada Bay homes for sale

Find Lunada Bay homes for sale using this innovative search map platform.  Get data on Palos Verdes schools as well as competitive home sale data and home price trends for Lunada Bay homes for sale.

Neighborhood information is easily found for this new website focusing on Lunada Bay Homes for sale. 

Here is a portion showing what the website for Lunada Bay homes for sale looks like. http://www.homeispalosverdes.com/lunada-bay-homes-for-sale/

Lunada Bay Homes For Sale

George Fotion, HomeIsPalosVerdes.com

What to do around Palos Verdes

Just learned about this from my friend Jackie of “South Bay by Jackie” She wrote in her blog

Every Friday, Saturday and select Sundays from 5 to 9 p.m., guests will enjoy live music in Nelson’s brand new Beer Garden overlooking the deep blue.

A special menu offers a variety of items including Nelson’s Sausages, Chunky Avocado Dip with Chips, Market Fruit Cup, Nelsons Giant Soft Pretzel and more. Should you choose to be seated inside, the regular menu will be available.

Delicious food, fabulous music, incomparable vistas – summer is here and this is how it begins.

Terrenea Resort is located at 6610 Palos Verdes Drive South in Rancho Palos Verdes.

Meanwhile, if you’re looking for a home near Terranea, use this map search function

[spatialmatch_map id=3 width=735 height=650]

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Biggest problem selling Palos Verdes real estate and homes around the South Bay today

Do you want to take a guess?  Is it…

a) Buyer not qualifying for the loan on the Palos Verdes real estate
b) Buyer and Seller not being able to settle on post inspection repair requests for that South Bay home
c) Appraisal of the property not coming in at the amount of purchase price for Palos Verdes real estate

Nearly everyone of my deals involving financing these days are experiencing the event of appraisals not being at the purchase price of the home.  What’s frustrating is that Buyers whose agents are not preparing them for this eventuality are too often confusing “value” with the appraisal amount. 

These are NOT one in the same.  How many of you have heard the saying “a property is worth what a buyer is willing to pay”.  This adage has been around for a long time, and it has been because it’s a true dynamic.  In this market where there is not enough inventory to satisfy buyer demand, and you as a buyer have just contracted to purchase a home; should you fail to buy the home because your lender’s appraiser didn’t appraise for the purchase price, there IS a buyer waiting, hoping that you fail to purchase so that they can step in and buy.

Buyers who have been in the market now studying Palos Verdes real estate and other South Bay homes for sale, KNOW VALUE.  They’ve been shopping and comparing.  They’ve observed the sales and in many cases have been out bid and lost out on homes that they offered on.  They know and understand that appraisers can only use old historical data that is not reflective of what the market is doing “today”. 

Palos Verdes Real Estate

Here’s a chart of Palos Verdes real estate prices expressed in Sale $/Sqft and Inventory levels in the 90274 zip code area.  The information is from Altos Research, an independent research company I pay a fee too to bring credible information to my clients.  You can sign up for my Altos Real Estate service here.

You can see then that chances are any appraisal is going to fall short of today’s negotiated purchase prices.

So if you’re a seller, what can you do to prevent your sale from falling through?

1) When you’re selling Palos Verdes real estate, most of the time, your buyer is going to have more than 20% down payment.  But if the buyer is ONLY showing 20% down payment and the lenders are, at best, loaning 80% of the purchase price OR appraised value whichever is LESS, you better make darn sure your agent has the intelligence to probe BEFORE you accept the offer, that the buyer has sufficient additional cash to cover the shortage.  Let’s say you have one of the Palos Verdes homes for sale and are getting an offer of $2,300,000.  And the buyer is showing 20% down.  Obviously that means they’re getting a loan of $1,840,000.  But what if the appraisal comes in at $2,050,000?  That means the lender is going to lend only $1,640,000 and NOT $1,840,000.  Does the buyer have the additional $200,000 to put down?  Better find out!

2) Consider negotiating, up front, for the removal of the appraisal contingency

3) If you’ve priced your property really, really well, it’s likely you’re going to get multiple offers anyway in today’s market.  Place emphasis on the buyer that has the most down payment.  I’ve often counseled a seller, and let’s use the example of the Palos Verdes real estate in #1 above, with multiple offers at $2,300,000 and $2,350,000 and $2,315,000 wherein the 2.3 offer has 50% down, and the other two offers have only 20% down, consider taking the lower priced higher down payment offer.  Even if the appraisal comes in short, the buyer has the cash to cover the gap.  It’s not always JUST about money, it’s about the peace of mind you get as a seller choosing the most likely to close buyer. 

If you’re a buyer of Palos Verdes real estate or a home for sale in the South Bay area, just understand this is the market dynamic we’re working in.  Appraisers are telling me that it’s not about “value”; they know the homes are worth what they’re being sold for, it’s just a technical issue brought about by over regulation of appraisal rules forcing appraisers to not take into account many factors they were able to in the past.  What these “well intentioned” pencil necked bureaucrat idiots don’t get is that with their Draconian rules, they are hurting the very people they are trying to protect.

Find Palos Verdes Real Estate for sale here:

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Palos Verdes Estates homes “Ambassador Program”

Yesterday, I attended my first class in the Palos Verdes Specialist program offered through our local Board of Realtors. Many of you might wonder and have already asked, “… you’re kidding right, you’ve been here since 1968 [I was 12 years old then, so you do the math], shouldn’t you be teaching the class?!…”

And in fact, I was asked to teach the class and I just may. However, the class is being taught currently by a guy I have a lot of respect for and before he retires, I wanted to learn as much as I could. We never stop learning, right? Guess what, I did learn some things yesterday that I did not know and you’ll find me over the next few weeks posting little snippets on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+ I promise, you will find them interesting. For example, do you know WHY Portuguese Bend and Lunada Bay have the most temperate climate zones in all of the Peninsula? Send me an email or text me and I will let you know.

So one of the really interesting things I learned concerns Palos Verdes Estates homes. The “Ambassador Program” started in December of last year. I’ve excerpted the below (screen shot) from the Palos Verdes Estates newsletter

Palos Verdes Estates Homes Ambassador Program

The Ambassador Program for Palos Verdes Estates homes is spearheaded by Allan Rigg who is in the Planning & Building, Public Works department for the city of Palos Verdes Estates. He can be reached at (310) 378-0388 x2216.

I do have some concerns over this program however. Here’s how it’s being rolled out for Palos Verdes Estates homes. Every few months, the city goes into the public property tax records and collects the list of Palos Verdes Estates homes recently sold. They then send out a letter to the new homeowners inviting them to take advantage of this program. Allen visits the property and educates the new homeowner on various issues concerning owning Palos Verdes Estates homes. Some of the more contentious issues he’s had to deal with in his job are issues about drainage, property lines, encroachments etc. So if he observes violations or areas of concerns then he will let the new homeowner know. This is a good thing!

My worry however is that if these possible areas of concerns that Allen brings up weren’t properly disclosed to the buyer during the course of the sale, well you can imagine what will happen next if you were one of the owners of Palos Verdes Estates homes just sold.

So, what do you do if you’re an owner of one of the Palos Verdes Estates homes for sale now or if you’re planning on selling your Palos Verdes Estates home? I asked Allen during the seminar yesterday, within the context of my liability concern and it was clear that he was somewhat uncomfortable with question and my suggestion that current homeowners who are either now selling their home or planning to, that they be encouraged to contact him to take advantage of this Ambassador Program “preemptively” so as to be in a position to properly disclose to a buyer OR fix an issue before it’s a problem! His response was that he was going to ask the city attorney about that and then get back to me.

Personally, were I planning to sell one of the Palos Verdes Estates homes, I would want Allen to come out and educate me, as the Seller, not as the New Owner, so that I can have the opportunity to mitigate my liability in the sale and deliver a good product to the Buyer. Doing so would even help me get a higher price for the home! Stay tuned and I will update as I learn things or if you’re interested in considering selling your Palos Verdes Estates home, contact me and/or take advantage of the free research tools on my main page such as “What’s My Home Worth” tools.

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As originally published here: http://www.homeispalosverdes.com/ambassador-program-for-palos-verdes-estates-homes/

George Fotion, HomeIsPalosVerdes.com