Brinette Holdren - Residential Licensed Broker

Manhattan Beach Hill Section

This section of town is known for its large lots and mansion like homes. The lots here sit atop a hill providing some of the best views of Palos Verdes to Malibu and even downtown LA. While there are homes here that have not been recently developed and maintain their 1950's charm, many of the homes here boast square footages over 4,000sf and prices of $3 million and up.

Square footage values rival those of the Strand properties that sit ocean front. Why? Well, for those who want a large lot and a yard and a large house, this is the place to be. Newer homes in the neighborhood range in price from $4 million to $10 million.

Bordered by Manhattan Beach Boulevard, Sepulveda, Boundary and Ardmore, this is a great location for walking to the beach, downtown and even Hermosa's Pier Avenue.

If you want to know who lives here, try http://www.blockshopper.com/ and search the neighborhood. You'll find there's no lack of professional athletes, lawyers and busy professionals who want to enjoy the beach lifestyle with Beverly Hills-like homes.

There are very few commercial lots within the Hill Section. Along Manhattan Beach Boulevard and along Sepulveda and backing up to Larsson Street there are commercial buildings and businesses that face those streets. There are few parks and no schools directly included in this section of town. The elementary school slated for the residents of this area can be seen in a map of schools located on the Manhattan Beach School District website.

Sound like your kind of place? If so, contact me for more information and a housing tour.

Ahhhh glorious Manhattan Beach! When the sun is out, andthe wind dies down, you can findeveryone in Los Angeles at this beach (it seems). The area surrounding the bay in Manhattan is called the Sand Section. As is typical with many beach cities, homes are small, tall and built to see a view of the water...at least that was the original intent.

The Manhattan Sand Section and El Porto are located just at the north end 42nd Street, to the west is the beach, to the south is 1st (Homer actually) and to the east is Valley/Ardmore and the chip path. This dividing line runs through Manhattan Beach and Hermosa Beach andseparates the sand section from other sections of both towns. It is a nice walking/jogging path maintained by the Cities of Manhattan and Hermosa.

The Homes

The sand section is also an area in transition. It is common to have a brand new home sitting next to a spanish cottage built in the 1930's. Many of the older cottages are being or have been torn down by developers and typically replaced by two townhomeson the same lot. There are not a lot of condo developments that plague many other beach towns. Here you will findhouses from 700 square feet to over 6000 square feet. Pricing recently has ranged between $575,000 for a condo on a busy street to over $10,000,000 for a house on The Strand. The typical sand section newer townhomesells for around $1,500,000 to $2,000,000. In some areas of town, you will see streets with no car access. These are called "Walk Streets". In these neighborhoods, the houses face each other across a wide sidewalk. Their garages are entered through an alley street in the back.

The homes on these streets are highly desireable. You really can't get into one for much less than $2,000,000. That is a start. Many are much more pricey than this. Why? Because families like the idea that their children can play out front without a car driving by. This is a huge benefit. In fact, you'll notice kids toys and bikes left out on these streets at all times.

The flip side of town is El Porto. Once on its own, now a part of Manhattan Beach proper. This is the most dense area of Manhattan Beach. Many homes sit on lots that are just over 1,100 square feet. This is a major surf locale. If you have been wanting to check it out, there's a parking lot entered from 42nd Street. Check on Surfline.com for your daily surf update on El Porto! The north end of Manhattan Beach also has many great restaurants, stores and bars to choose from. Some of my favorites are: North End Caffe, Panchos, Beach Hut and Upper Manhattan.

Once you get downtown there are also many great stores, restaurants and pubs. It's not uncommon to run into a group of cruisers on a pub crawl any given weekend!

Manhattan Beach is the home of AVP! Manhattan Beach hosts the AVP Crocs Tour July 16-19 this year.

There are many fine hotels around Manhattan Beach. Only a couple are downtown where you can walk straight down to the beach and get into the water within minutes of leaving your room. In North Manhattan you have the quaint Sea View Inn. Downtown you have the newly built boutique hotel called Shade. Both are lovely. They are very different types of hotels.

There is soooo much more to tell you about the Sand Section of Manhattan Beach. Events, news and homes for sale. Contact me direct and we can help you with your needs!

I thought I would do a little diary type post with photos and notes about the local areas. It may surprise you to know how many little dedicated areas there are in these little beach towns. There are those who will argue their area of town is the best area to live in. I won't do this. I will remain unbiased, except to state that ALL of the south bay is great! There is not one particular spot that has it all over another.

Just as we are all unique, so are the areas of town. I Hope you enjoy my review of the Tree Section in Manhattan Beach.

The Trees

The area known as the "Tree Section" is known for ...well its trees. In fact, there is a city ordinance in this area regarding restrictions for removing trees and the fine for doing so. The majority of the trees fall into three types: Coral Tree, Carrotwood Tree and Eucalyptus Tree. This neighborhood is flanked by Pacific Coast Highway (PCH, Sepulveda Highway 1- All the same here) to the east, Manhattan Beach Boulevard to the south, Bell and Valley to the west and Rosecrans Blvd. to the north.

The Homes

Homes here vary in size from around 700sf cottages to huge 3400sf new construction. This neighborhood offers a variety of home styles because it is in transformation. In other words, most of the small cottages over the last few years have been purchased off the market by developers and builders, only to be torn down and rebuilt as a newer bigger home. The style in this area for newer homes has been traditional, Cape Cod (Nantucket also works - see photo), Spanish and Tuscan (which vary on tile styles and fixtures mostly) and a couple of unique one-off custom homes. The prices can vary here from $680,000 to $4,000,000 plus. Mostly this depends upon location and house size and age.

The Land

The lots in the tree section can vary in size. A smaller lot is still more land than you will get closer to the beach in the sand section (we'll talk about this area later). The smallest tree section lot size is 2,100sf. This would be in some smaller lots near downtown where the homes are tall and narrow. The largest lots are around 9,000sf and very rare. Most lots are either 4,480 or 4,640 or 4,800 sf. This means most newer homes will be in the 3,000 sf range.

The Neighborhood

The tree section is a well known family type neighborhood. This is the kind of place you would expect to see kids riding their bikes and families walking their dogs at night. Over holidays, it isn't unusual to see streets blocked off from traffic for neighborhood parties. From this area, you can walk to downtown, the beach and many shopping destinations east of PCH within a mile or so. Unaffected by weekenders and holiday traffic, this is a quieter area of the city to live in and much less congested. There really isn't commercial activity here until you get near to downtown. This is just one of the lovely areas we call home here in Manhattan Beach.

Is this house gorgeous or what? Well, maybe until you get a little closer. It's a sad state for the newly constructed home. It's built by a very reputable builder. In fact, one that would have sold quickly except for a few quirks. The worst of it being that THE NEXT DOOR NEIGHBOR HAS ROOSTERS!

SOOO how do you sell a home with roosters next door? Well, the agent doing open houses is telling visitors that "The kids of the old guy with the roosters is just waiting for him to die and then they will sell the house for development". How sad is that?

While this property would have normally brought about $2.m even in this tough market as it is located in Manhattan's tree section, it is now down from its original price of $2.449.000 to $1.895.000. That's a drop of over $550.000 folks!

Something tells me it's not just the roosters. Here are a few other factors:

1) The insane Manhattan Beach tree ordinanace meant that this builder had to build the driveway around an enormous tree. Thus, no two car driveway and if someone is in the driveway, it would have to be moved to pull out of the garage.

2) Long narrow lot. In order to maximize square footage inside the home, the builder used up every square inch of beautiful outdoor space. The back patio and a patch of grass is all you get. There is a bit of lawn in the front, but it's no yard you could imagine your kids playing in.

3) This home is built so narrowly that you feel like you have nowhere to go when you walk inside. You enter right into a stairwell and then the house splits off into rooms. Very claustrophobic for most.

I wish them luck. Especially with the roosters. Maybe the old guy will die. Roosters will go away. Someone may get this place for $1.6m. What a steal that would be!

I had a startling conversation today with a new client. Although I do not have a written commitment from them, they have assured me that they are working only with me and that they have no reason to go to anyone else.

These new clients are great. We're not old friends, we met at an open house. I love open houses! I meet great people and neighbors and basically just stay in the loop.

I am taking my client around to look at homes today when she tells me of a colleague of mine whom she met at an open house. He asked her to sign in and give her name and email. When she did, she used the name she regularly goes by, but not her legal first name. She also told him that she was not looking for an agent and that they were working with someone else. What happened next is beyond strange.

The following Monday she receives an email from my colleague Mr. Toupe. He says "Hi Kristy and Ralph" and goes on to offer his services as an agent. She never told him her name and wonders how he knows this. She responds to his email with a cute comment like "Gee, you already did a background check and found me on Google :-)" (Smily face included) He never responds.

Okay. I know we're all hungry and trying to gain new clients, but this goes too far. First of all, they did NOT want you to contact them. Be respectful and DO NOT CONTACT THEM! Second, don't do a creepy thing like googling people and then writing them emails with information you shouldn't know. Ew.

People have some respect. For the customers and for yourself and for the rest of us.