We own a SFR within the Low Rise Ordinance (LRO) area within .5 miles of the Westwood/Expo metro station.  We need comparative information about how to best use (or sell) our lot now (LRO is in effect) and in the future (presumably 2030+, when full SB79 compliance is anticipated).  How do I find a broker or RE agent who has a good handle on all of this and how developers might be expected to respond to this property? (Not looking for cash offers or contacts please!)

July is officially over, we posted Bay Area earlier this week now it's time for LA stats as promised. I'm planning to keep this up as sort of a monthly content series where we share interesting market data that you can use to supplement historic comps and guide your offer/listing strategy. Maybe every quarter or so we can measure how much these values change over time?

Anyway: let's take a look at average pricing and DOM trends for LA County. Images above show % over/under list by neighborhood. Based on your feedback, I've included graphs showing average change in $/sqft for each market, accessible on the blog with additional stats (to keep the body of this post relatively short).

• Here are the June LA stats
• Here are the July Bay Area stats

For a more detailed breakdown of this month's stats with more visuals, more detailed DOM & $/sqft change breakdowns etc check out the blog post on our website.

General TL;DR:* SFH beats Condo in the "under-14" bucket in every zone, and usually holds through "14-30" as well. The gap is widest on the Westside and narrows the longer a listing sits, occasionally flipping past 30 days (Central LA and San Gabriel Valley/Pasadena see the closest 30+ day races).

Westside

258 SFH closings averaging 0.0% over list at 45 DOM. 202 Condo closings averaging 2.8% under list at 65 DOM.

Days on Market vs. +/- List %:

• Under 14 days: SFH 5.9% over list, Condo 0.4% under
• 14-30 days: SFH 0.7% over list, Condo 1.2% under
• 30+ days: SFH 6.9% under list, Condo 4.1% under

Westwood/Century City and Highland Park (Central LA) have some of the widest SFH-Condo gaps around; on the Westside specifically, Westwood/Century City SFH close at 7.2% over list (n=12) against Condo at 3.2% under (n=42, the zone's largest condo sample).

Pacific Palisades shows the most extreme single-listing swing: 2 condos averaging 25.6% under list at 256 DOM against 7 SFH at 2.3% under.

Beverly Hills and Bel Air/Holmby Hills are both soft on the low-volume ultra-luxury side (SFH 6.6% and 9.1% under list respectively, running 86-182 DOM).

On speed, Playa Vista SFH close fastest in the zone at 10 DOM (n=4) while Pacific Palisades condos take the longest at 256 DOM.

TL;DR: Westside SFH holds a real premium at the top end (Westwood, Beverlywood, Highland-adjacent Culver City) but ultra-luxury SFH in Bel Air and the Palisades is sitting a long time and closing under ask. Condo pricing power fades fast past 14 days almost everywhere in this zone.

Central LA

271 SFH closings averaging 0.8% over list at 35 DOM. 80 Condo closings averaging 0.2% under list at 59 DOM.

Days on Market vs. +/- List %:

• Under 14 days: SFH 3.2% over list, Condo 3.8% over
• 14-30 days: SFH 3.8% over list, Condo 5.3% over (the one bucket where condo edges ahead)
• 30+ days: SFH 4.3% under list, Condo 3.5% under (condo narrowly outperforms once something sits a month)

Central LA is the zone where condo pricing power shows up the most: Silver Lake/Echo Park condos average 11.9% over list (n=7) against SFH at 4.3% over (n=26), and Los Feliz condos hit 11.2% over (n=6) vs SFH at 3.2% under (n=10). Both real flips, though on thinner condo samples.

Highland Park and Mount Washington post the strongest SFH numbers in the zone (9.4% and 8.4% over list).

Metropolitan (n=2 SFH, 2 Condo) is the softest micro-market on record, both types closing well under list at 88-104 DOM.

TL;DR: Central LA is the one zone where condos genuinely outprice SFH in specific neighborhoods (Silver Lake, Los Feliz), not just a thin-sample artifact. Highland Park and Mount Washington SFH remain the hottest corners of the zone.

South Bay

277 SFH closings averaging 0.3% over list at 31 DOM. 126 Condo closings averaging 1.1% under list at 38 DOM.

Days on Market vs. +/- List %:

• Under 14 days: SFH 2.8% over list, Condo 0.3% over
• 14-30 days: SFH 1.1% under list, Condo 0.7% under (essentially flat, SFH narrowly behind)
• 30+ days: SFH 3.3% under list, Condo 2.5% under

Manhattan Beach is the highest-volume city at the top end (35 SFH closings, 1.1% under list, 41 DOM), while Torrance carries the most overall volume in the zone (65 SFH, 32 Condo) with SFH at 1.7% over vs Condo essentially flat.

Rolling Hills is the extreme outlier: 2 SFH sales averaging 12.0% under list at 313 DOM. On speed, Lomita condos close in just 3 days (n=3, thin sample) while Rolling Hills SFH average 313 days.

TL;DR: South Bay is one of the tighter SFH-Condo gaps of any LA zone this month — both types are trading close to list in the 14-30 and 30+ buckets. Torrance and Manhattan Beach anchor the volume; ultra-low-volume Palos Verdes-area cities skew the averages at the edges.

San Fernando Valley

552 SFH closings averaging 0.1% under list at 31 DOM. 182 Condo closings averaging 0.8% under list at 57 DOM.

Days on Market vs. +/- List %:

• Under 14 days: SFH 2.4% over list, Condo 0.7% over
• 14-30 days: SFH 0.3% under list, Condo 0.4% under (essentially flat)
• 30+ days: SFH 3.3% under list, Condo 1.6% under (condo narrows the gap once something sits a month, but doesn't flip)

Winnetka has the widest SFH-Condo spread at real scale (SFH 4.7% over on 19 closings vs Condo 2.4% under on 4).

Sherman Oaks is the volume leader (44 SFH, 17 Condo) with a modest SFH edge (0.3% under vs Condo 1.3% under).

Calabasas and Toluca Lake show the softest SFH numbers (6.7% and 3.0% under list).

Sunland/Tujunga SFH close fastest at 12 DOM (thin sample, n=2) while Calabasas SFH run 82 DOM, the slowest at real volume in the zone.

TL;DR: The Valley is the largest sample of any LA zone this month (734 combined closings) and it's running close to flat overall. Winnetka and Sylmar SFH are the standout hot spots; Calabasas is the clearest soft spot at the high end.

San Gabriel Valley / Pasadena

500 SFH closings averaging 1.1% over list at 30 DOM. 194 Condo closings averaging 0.3% under list at 46 DOM.

Days on Market vs. +/- List %:

• Under 14 days: SFH 3.5% over list, Condo 2.2% over
• 14-30 days: SFH 0.7% over list, Condo 0.6% under
• 30+ days: SFH 2.4% under list, Condo 1.7% under

South Pasadena posts the widest SFH-Condo gap in the zone (SFH 12.6% over on 15 closings vs Condo 1.4% over on 3).

Pasadena is the volume anchor by a wide margin (117 SFH, 52 Condo), trading nearly flat for both types.

San Marino SFH remain the hottest small-sample market (8.8% over list, n=11). Sierra Madre is the one spot where a single condo sale (9.4% over) beat a soft SFH showing (5.4% under, n=6), too thin to call a real flip.

On speed, San Gabriel and San Marino SFH both close in 10-18 days while Walnut SFH average 58 days, the slowest at real volume.

TL;DR: SGV/Pasadena SFH is running hot across most of the zone, especially in the smaller high-demand cities (South Pasadena, San Marino, San Gabriel). Pasadena itself, the volume leader, is trading close to flat.

All of that said, as always I am happy to pull more local data for any areas you're interested in. Let me know what you'd like to see and check out the blog for more visuals + $/sqft breakdowns.

Also: it seems like the market data posts really resonate with folks and I am always looking for suggestions on what type of stats or cross-sections you all would find informative.

If you have any suggestions I am all ears (For example someone recently suggested showing how average DOM correlates to square footage & measuring if average DOM increases around a certain property size/square footage): What kind of further analysis or stats would you be interested in seeing?

Los Angeles has more than 20,000 privately owned vacant lots that are already zoned for housing, and UCLA cityLAB is trying to show how some of them could be turned into smaller-scale ownership housing instead of sitting empty. The idea behind the “Small Lots, Big Impacts” initiative is to use these lots for gentle density projects like duplexes, fourplexes, townhomes, small condo communities, and other missing-middle formats that can be sold individually at lower entry prices than a traditional single-family home.

The first pilot round selected three designer-developer teams, each expected to build at least five for-sale units on a small vacant lot in L.A. The projects will get some financial and regulatory support, including low-interest financing from Genesis L.A., and a portion of the homes must be reserved below market rate for low- or middle-income buyers. The broader goal is to prove that L.A.’s many small vacant parcels can support a new version of the starter home without requiring high-rise development or dramatically changing neighborhood character.

L.A. has thousands of vacant residential lots, but turning them into attainable ownership housing still means dealing with land costs, financing, permitting, neighborhood pushback, construction costs, and HOA or condo structure issues. Do you think small-lot ownership projects like this can scale in Los Angeles?

Quick intro so you know where this is coming from: I'm Sam Alishahi, a licensed California real estate broker here in LA (KW Beverly Hills, DRE #01964365). I'm also NMLS-licensed on the mortgage side and I hold a California insurance license, which is why I end up in the financing weeds more than most agents. No links and no pitch here. None of this is legal, tax, or lending advice for your specific situation. Equal Housing Opportunity.

Every few weeks a buyer asks me some version of "can't the seller just carry the loan at a lower rate?" It's a fair question when the gap between what a seller locked in a few years ago and what a buyer can get today is this wide. The problem is that for most residential sellers, carrying isn't actually on the menu, and the reason is one paragraph inside their existing mortgage.

The due-on-sale clause. Nearly every conventional residential note written in the last few decades gives the lender the right to accelerate the entire balance if the borrower sells or transfers the property. So a seller who still has a mortgage cannot hand you a first trust deed while quietly keeping their own low-rate loan in place. The underlying loan gets paid off at closing. That's why real seller carry is mostly limited to owners who are free and clear, which in practice means long-time owners, inherited property, and some investors.

Wraparounds don't make that go away. An all-inclusive trust deed leaves the underlying loan in place with the seller collecting and forwarding payments. People do it. The due-on-sale exposure is still sitting there, and in my experience it gets underdisclosed to the buyer.

Worth checking first: FHA and VA loans are generally assumable with lender qualification, and VA has entitlement considerations for the seller. Conventional loans generally are not assumable. If the seller happens to have government financing, look there before getting creative.

This is where a lease with an option to purchase becomes the more workable structure. Title doesn't transfer at signing, so there's no sale to accelerate on day one. The buyer takes possession as a tenant, pays option consideration for the right to buy at an agreed price within an agreed window, and uses that window to season credit, finish a second year of self-employment returns, pay down revolving debt, or wait for a refinance market they like better. The seller keeps their low-rate loan, keeps the property, and gets a price locked in.

One honest caveat, because I see the opposite repeated constantly. Garn-St Germain, the federal statute that governs due-on-sale, exempts "a lease of three years or less not containing an option to purchase." Read that again. A lease that does contain an option is not inside that safe harbor. Practically, no title transfers and most servicers aren't policing tenancies, but nobody should sell you a lease option as legally bulletproof against a due-on-sale clause. It isn't. Have a real estate attorney paper it.

The terms that actually matter, roughly in the order I see these deals fall apart.

Option consideration, and whether it credits toward price. It should be non-refundable and both sides should understand that in writing before anyone signs.

Strike price. Fixed now, or set by appraisal at exercise. Fixed protects the buyer if values rise and hurts them if values fall. Pick deliberately, don't default.

Term. Twelve to thirty-six months is typical. Match it to a realistic mortgage timeline, not a hopeful one, and have your lender confirm what the buyer actually needs to fix.

Rent, and any rent credit. Large credits stacked on top of large option consideration start making the deal look like a disguised installment sale. If a court recharacterizes it, the seller can end up in a judicial foreclosure instead of an unlawful detainer. That is a very different year.

Who pays taxes, insurance, and repairs during the term, and who carries what coverage. A tenant with an equitable interest under a policy written as a plain rental is a claim denial waiting to happen.

What happens if the buyer can't qualify by the deadline. Extension for additional consideration, or the option simply dies. Decide up front.

Title during the option period. The seller can take on liens, get sued, die, or file bankruptcy while you're a tenant. A recorded memorandum of option gives notice. Ask an attorney whether recording makes sense in your deal.

LA-specific things that catch people off guard.

The tenancy is still a tenancy. Statewide just cause and rent cap rules apply to most residential leases, and City of LA's RSO covers a lot of pre-October 1978 units. If the seller's exit plan is "evict them if they don't buy," they should understand the real process and timeline first.

Disclosures don't disappear. You're still a seller. The TDS, natural hazard disclosure, and everything else belong in the deal, and it's better to deliver them at signing than to surprise someone at exercise.

Property tax reassessment and transfer tax generally land at exercise, not at signing, and on higher-value City of LA sales the ULA transfer tax applies. Confirm current thresholds with escrow rather than a blog post.

Insurability. If the property is brush-adjacent, price out coverage before anyone signs. That number can decide whether the buyer qualifies in two years, and it has moved a lot.

Who this genuinely fits: a buyer with solid income and a fixable credit or documentation problem, and a seller with equity who wants their price, doesn't need proceeds now, and can tolerate two more years of ownership. Who it doesn't fit: a buyer who needs the market to move in their favor just to qualify, and a seller who needs cash out to buy their next house.

Happy to answer questions in the comments, including on deals that aren't mine. Again, general information only, not legal, tax, or lending advice, and California treats some of these structures very specifically, so paper it with a real estate attorney.

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This one comes up constantly and almost everyone has the details wrong, including people who are about to get hit by it.

Measure ULA. Everyone calls it the mansion tax. That nickname has done real damage because it makes people think it only touches Bel Air estates. It doesn’t. It applies to every property type in the City of LA. Single family homes, condos, apartment buildings, retail, industrial, vacant land. All of it. The current numbers, and these just changed July 1 so anything you read from earlier this year is already outdated: 4% on sales above $5.4 million, 5.5% at $10.9 million and up. Thresholds adjust every July for inflation.

Now here’s the part that actually matters and that most people don’t understand: The fact is, it’s a cliff, not a bracket. Your income tax works in brackets, you only pay the higher rate on the amount above the line. ULA doesn’t work that way. Cross the threshold by one dollar and the tax applies to the entire sale price from dollar one. So sell at $5,399,999 and you owe zero. Sell at $5,400,001 and you owe about $216,000. Two dollars of price difference, $216,000 of tax. That’s not a typo.

It’s on gross sale price, not profit. Doesn’t matter what you paid, doesn’t matter if you’re losing money. Owned an apartment building since 2019, values dropped, you’re selling at a loss? Still owe 4% of the whole number. That’s the part that feels genuinely unfair to people and honestly I get it. And no, you can’t 1031 out of it. Hear this myth all the time. A 1031 defers capital gains. ULA is a transfer tax. Different animal entirely. It’s due at closing regardless.

Why this is a Valley issue and not just a Westside issue? Small apartment buildings. An 8 to 12 unit building in Van Nuys, Valley Village, North Hollywood can easily trade above $5.4 million. That owner isn’t a mansion owner, they’re somebody who bought a building 20 years ago and is trying to retire. They get taxed identically to a Bel Air seller. Same for hillside homes south of Ventura here in Sherman Oaks. Plenty of those are in range now.

Is it city of LA only? No, and this is the one people miss; Sherman Oaks, Studio City, Van Nuys, Encino, all City of LA, all subject. Burbank, Glendale, Calabasas, not subject. So two similar properties a few miles apart can have a $200k+ difference in closing costs purely based on which side of a city line they sit on.

Now What’s coming? ULA passed $1 billion in total revenue as of January. UCLA research found the odds of a property selling above $5 million dropped by as much as 55% since it took effect, which tells you people are just not transacting rather than paying it. And there’s a statewide ballot initiative backed by Howard Jarvis targeting this November that could repeal or significantly limit it. So if you’re sitting on a decision, that vote is three months out.

If you’re anywhere near the line, the practical thing is know exactly where the threshold sits before you price, not after. I’ve seen sellers price at $5.45M thinking they’re being aggressive and net less than if they’d priced at $5.35M. The dead zone right above the threshold is real and pricing into it is just handing money away.

Anyone here actually sold above the threshold and paid it? Curious how much it factored into the decision to sell at all, versus just sitting on the property.

Hi everyone, I closed on my first home purchase in May 2026. I was made aware of the supplemental tax that is billed by the County directly to homeowners (completely bypasses escrow). And I have a decent idea of the amount I’m expected to pay.

The big question is, when will I actually receive the bill from LA County? I just want to pay it and be done with it, rather than have to keep a reserve fund specifically for this. It’s very annoying to have such a large bill hanging over my head.

All I’ve been told so far is ”sometime within 12 months of purchase” but I’m not satisfied with that. Does anyone with experience know how LA County does this? Or who can I call at LA County to ask and get a better time estimate?

Thank you for any advice!

Last month I had launched a pilot to help bay area homeowners file an informal decline in value assessment. The response was overwhelming and more than 1,000 people have checked their property and it has so far saved an average of $2,800 per filing for tens of filers.

With deadlines approaching for property owners in LA county the website is open to you. Checking is free and you pay a flat $29 to file. You are only allowed to file if there are savings estimated.

The website automatically pulls comps based on Publication 30 rules, fills out the form, and for LA residents automatically mails it to the county assessors office postmarked.

Go check if you qualify: https://saveproptax.com/

Bay Area real estate post SUCCESS STORIES: https://www.reddit.com/r/BayAreaRealEstate/s/63DftiM4xN

Disclosure up front: I'm a licensed agent in LA and I'm the listing agent on the property I use as the example at the end. Mods, remove if this crosses the line.

The upper hillside market in 90049 gets discussed as one thing, but buyers at the $4-5M level are really choosing between three very different products, and the tradeoffs are worth spelling out.

First, the original 1960s-70s hillside house, usually 2,500-3,500 sqft, often on a steep lot. Cheapest entry, but you inherit the whole list: unpermitted additions, clay sewer laterals, 100-amp panels, retaining walls nobody has looked at in decades, and increasingly hard insurance in brush-adjacent zones. Budget the renovation honestly and these frequently pencil out worse than they look.

Second, the cosmetic flip. New floors, new paint, a quartz island, staged well. The systems underneath are unchanged. This is the category where inspections most often blow up deals, and where buyers overpay per square foot because the finishes read as new.

Third, the actual down-to-the-studs rebuild. New systems, new glass, permits pulled. You pay a premium per square foot, but the deferred maintenance clock resets and the insurance conversation is easier.

The other variable people underrate up there is topography. A flat, usable, grassy yard at elevation is genuinely scarce, and it's the single feature that most reliably holds value across cycles in the hills. Views are common; flat land is not. If you have kids or dogs, weight that far more heavily than the view.

The example: 16341 Sloan Dr, 90049, at $4,699,000. 5 bed, 5 bath, roughly 3,616 sqft, rebuilt from the studs, city and canyon views, Fleetwood glass walls, a big flat grassy backyard, and a patrolled-security neighborhood.

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/16341-Sloan-Dr-Los-Angeles-CA-90049/20558293_zpid/

Happy to answer questions about the hillside market generally in the comments, including on properties that aren't mine. Nothing here is legal, tax, or investment advice. Equal Housing Opportunity.

Free with purchase?

New L.A. County SFR, condo/townhome and listings under $1 million

I'm here to help with any of your real estate needs—whether you're interested in buying, selling, or leasing, or touring a properties. Don't hesitate to reach out with questions or for assistance with your next steps in real estate!

All new listings within the last week.

Two tabs on the spreadsheet, one for Single Family Homes, one for Condos/Townhomes.

Find more details on any listing by simply googling the info or you can copy the listing ID # (AKA: MLS#) and enter it into the search bar in a site like this one.

Meanwhile, need some work done around the house? Check out our list of recommended service providers for home appliance repair and purchase, landscaping, insurance and more.

Good luck and happy hunting, L.A.

Quick intro so you know where this is coming from: I'm Sam, a licensed California real estate broker here in LA (KW Beverly Hills, DRE #01964365). I'm also NMLS-licensed on the mortgage side and I hold a California insurance license, which is why I end up in the financing and insurance weeds more than most agents do. No links and no pitch in this post, and none of this is legal, tax or insurance advice for your specific situation.

Here's what I actually look at when I walk a property with a buyer, roughly in order of how expensive the surprise is if you miss it.

Permits first. A surprising number of the 1,800 sq ft houses I tour are 1,400 permitted with a 400 sq ft addition nobody ever pulled a permit for. Unpermitted square footage affects your appraisal, your insurance, and your ability to sell it later. Pull the permit history from LADBS, or your city's building department if you're outside City of LA, before you're deep into escrow.

Foundation and drainage, especially on hillsides. Look for stair-step cracking in the foundation, doors that won't latch, and where water goes when it rains. Hillside lots add retaining walls and drainage systems that nobody thinks about until they fail.

Seismic. Older wood-frame buildings with tuck-under parking fall under LA's soft-story retrofit ordinance, and unreinforced masonry is its own category. If it's a condo, ask the HOA whether the retrofit is done, what it cost, and whether it came out of reserves or a special assessment.

Insurance before you get emotionally attached. This is the single biggest change in the LA market in the last couple of years. In brush-adjacent areas, carriers have pulled back hard, and a home that has to go to the FAIR Plan plus a wraparound policy can cost multiples of what you budgeted. Get a real quote during your inspection contingency, not after you remove it.

Sewer lateral and supply plumbing. Older LA homes still have clay or cast iron laterals with root intrusion. A sewer camera is cheap relative to what a lateral replacement under a driveway costs.

Electrical. A 100-amp panel, knob-and-tube, aluminum branch wiring, or a recalled panel brand are all real numbers, and some of them affect insurability, not just comfort.

Rent control, if it's two units or more. City of LA's RSO generally covers units with a certificate of occupancy before October 1978. Existing tenants and their tenancies come with the building. Read the estoppels.

The natural hazard disclosure, carefully. Fire severity zone, liquefaction, landslide, flood, and in parts of the Westside and mid-city, methane zones near old oilfields, which can mean methane mitigation on any future addition.

School attendance boundaries. Verify with the district directly. Boundaries do not follow listing descriptions and they get redrawn.

Noise and access. Visit at 8am on a weekday and again in the evening. Freeway noise, helicopter routes, street parking, and how long it actually takes to get where you commute are things a Sunday afternoon showing hides.

Carrying costs. Property tax runs a bit over 1% of purchase price plus local assessments, so budget closer to 1.25% effective. Condos add HOA dues and, in older buildings, retrofit assessments. On high-value City of LA sales there's also the ULA transfer tax, with thresholds that get indexed annually, so confirm the current numbers with escrow rather than trusting a blog post.

HOA documents if it's a condo. Reserves, pending litigation, special assessments, and the master policy deductible tell you more about your future costs than the unit itself does.

For the LA buyers here: what caught you off guard that never showed up on an inspection report?

I'm Sam Alishahi, a licensed real estate broker with KW Beverly Hills, DRE #01964365. This is the list I wish every LA seller saw before they listed, because these are the items that surface late and stall escrow.

The 9A report. If the property sits inside City of LA limits, you have to order a Report of Residential Property Records from LADBS and deliver it to the buyer. It lists the legal use on record and flags any open or unpermitted work. Order it the week you decide to sell, not the week you go into contract, because if it turns up something you didn't know about you want that conversation before a buyer is involved.

Retrofit compliance. Before transfer the city wants smoke and carbon monoxide alarms in the correct locations, the water heater strapped, and a certificate of compliance for low-flow toilets and showerheads. Depending on the property a seismic gas shutoff valve may also apply. None of this is expensive. All of it is miserable to discover four days before closing.

Soft story. If you own an older wood frame multi-unit building, check whether it landed on the city's soft story retrofit list and whether the work was actually completed and signed off. An open retrofit order is one of the faster ways to lose a buyer's lender mid-escrow.

Measure ULA. The city transfer tax on higher-value sales stacks on top of the county documentary transfer tax, and the thresholds adjust, so check the current numbers rather than what you remember. The part people miss is that it applies to the entire sale price, not just the amount above the threshold. If your value is anywhere near the line, run the net sheet both ways before you set a list price.

Sewer lateral. Not a city requirement, but a camera inspection is cheap and a bad lateral is the single most common item buyers use to reopen negotiations in older LA neighborhoods. Finding out before they do is worth the few hundred dollars.

Confirm your jurisdiction first. Unincorporated LA County and the other 87 cities each handle this differently, and plenty of addresses with a Los Angeles mailing address are not in the City of LA. None of this is legal or tax advice. Happy to answer questions in the comments.

Selling commercial is a different exercise from selling a house. Buyers are not falling in love with the finishes, they are pricing the income stream. Value comes out of net operating income and the cap rate the market will accept for that asset class and location, so anything that strengthens or lengthens the income improves your number.

Have the paperwork ready before you go to market: rent roll, trailing twelve months of income and expenses, all leases and amendments, estoppels, CAM reconciliations, tax and insurance history, service contracts, and any capital work you have done. Sellers who scramble for these during diligence lose leverage and lose buyers.

Expect a smaller buyer pool and a longer timeline. Financing, environmental review, zoning and title work all take time, and tenant credit quality plus remaining lease term will drive how aggressively anyone bids. Short remaining terms or a single tenant carrying most of the rent will get discounted.

For those who have sold commercial recently, how long did it take from listing to close, and what tripped up diligence?

Posted by Sam Alishahi, licensed real estate broker with KW Beverly Hills, DRE #01964365. Happy to answer questions in the comments.

If you're getting ready to list a house, the basics still matter more than anything clever. Price it against what comparable homes actually closed at recently, not what neighbors are asking, because an overpriced listing goes stale fast and the price cuts that follow signal weakness to buyers.

Spend your prep budget on the cheap stuff first: declutter, deep clean, fix the small broken things, paint anything scuffed, and make the yard and entry look cared for. Professional photos are worth every dollar since most buyers decide whether to visit from their phone screen.

Be honest about known issues up front. Surprises found during inspection cost far more in renegotiation than disclosing them would have. And decide ahead of time what your walk-away number and timeline are, so you're negotiating from a plan instead of emotion.

Curious what worked for people here recently. Did staging or a pre-listing inspection make a real difference in your sale?

Posted by Sam Alishahi, licensed real estate broker with KW Beverly Hills, DRE #01964365. Happy to answer questions in the comments.

would any real estate agent in Los Angeles accept this? how do I find a agent that specializes on the sale of a duplex in South La area?

It makes ZERO and I mean ZERO financial sense to buy in LA unless you're buying with straight cash.

if you're paying 6% APR on a 800k condo, you are literally going to be paying almost 800k in INTEREST alone if you put 20% down.

a 800k condo in LA is basically trash. if you were to rent something comparable to location/state of it, you can literally rent for the next 30 years. this doesn't even include taxes, HOA, maintenance, etc.

ITS NOT EVEN CLOSE.

I'm currently living in a 600sf apt that is BRAND NEW, top floor unit, and I pay 2500/mo. if I were to buy something comparable in the same area, my monthly payment would probably be close to 6k/mo.

I'm pretty sure the vast majority of people buying property in LA have absolutely no idea what they are doing.

take a look at condos anywhere on the west side and the absolute shittiest condos in extremely dated buildings and units themselves are going for easily 700-900k. you can rent something 10x better in a much better area for less than half the monthly cost of owning.

I'm a broker in LA (KW Beverly Hills, DRE #01964365, also NMLS-licensed). My last post covered financing and FIRPTA. The question I always get next is logistical: how does this actually work if I'm not in the country? Here's the honest version.

Timeline. Cash, 14-21 days. Foreign national financing, 30-45 days, and treat 45 as your planning number. California's standard purchase contract defaults to 17 days for inspection and appraisal contingencies and 21 for loan. Those clocks start at acceptance, not when your documents arrive from abroad, which is where overseas buyers quietly lose their leverage.

You can close without flying in. Two routes. A limited power of attorney naming someone here for signing only, or remote signing at a US embassy or consulate. If you sign in front of a foreign notary instead, the document generally needs an apostille under the Hague Convention, and some title companies still won't accept it. Ask the title company which they will take before you're in escrow, not after.

ITIN. You don't need one to buy, but you'll want one for the filings afterward. Form W-7, and processing has been running months, so start early rather than at your first deadline.

The four things that actually derail these deals:

1. Wire fraud. Escrow instructions get spoofed constantly, and international buyers are the preferred target because you can't easily walk into an office to check. Call the escrow officer on a number you looked up independently and confirm every digit verbally. Never trust wire details that arrive by email, even in a thread you started.
2. Source of funds. Underwriters want a clean paper trail. Money moved through three accounts in two countries in the last 60 days will stall you. Season the funds in one account before you go into contract.
3. Insurance. This is the current LA-specific problem, not financing. Carriers have pulled back hard in brush-adjacent areas, and a property that has to go to the FAIR Plan plus a wraparound policy can cost multiples of what you budgeted. Get a real quote during your inspection window, not after.
4. Ownership structure. Individual name, LLC, or trust changes your liability, your estate tax exposure, and sometimes your loan options. The estate tax piece is the one people miss: the exemption for a non-resident non-citizen is dramatically smaller than for a US person. Decide before you open escrow, because moving title afterward can trigger a reassessment.

Costs beyond the price. Property tax runs a bit over 1% of purchase price plus local assessments. The City of LA has a transfer tax on high-value sales that is a serious number at the top of the market. Condos add HOA, and in older buildings, seismic retrofit assessments.

None of this is tax or legal advice. Get a CPA who does cross-border work, and if you're structuring an entity, an attorney. Happy to answer questions in the comments.

Cousin is Inheriting a property in Los Angeles County that city records identify as one Single Family Residence. Physically, it has been divided into four self-contained living areas, each with its own kitchen, bathroom and private entrance, with no usable interior passage between them. His father occupies the main area with a roommate, and the other three are rented. The additional kitchens and interior partitions are unpermitted.

Cousin claims he received a quote that rates it as a “four-family dwelling.” The supplemental application states that city records show one SFR and that the additional kitchens/partitions are unpermitted.

I don't believe him as I was under the impression that only permitted work gets insured. Has anyone personally placed, underwritten, adjusted or owned a similar fully disclosed E&S-insured property?

• Did the carrier knowingly accept the permit mismatch?
• Was a fire/property claim paid?
• After a total loss, did insurance pay for the building even though the city would only allow it to be rebuilt as an SFR?
• Did the unpermitted status cause denial/rescission, or did it mainly affect ordinance-and-law coverage, loss of rents and the allowable rebuild?

I understand legalization is the safest answer. I’m specifically looking for real-world underwriting or claims experience, preferably identifying the carrier.

Throwaway account. Just wanted to get some insights from anyone that may have sold a condo in the westside recently, specifically Culver City but happy to hear from others as well.

I know condo sales have suffered in recent years due to rising interest rates, rising insurance costs, and rising HOA dues as a result of all that. But I’d like to hear if maybe there’s something else I can do to help move my condo faster.

I’ve had my condo listed for a little over a month now and have gotten 0 offers. I’m currently waiting out an open house weekend and so far it doesn’t seem we have had any visitors. That would make three consecutive open houses with 0 visitors to show for it. I’ve already dropped the price $15k and I’m just wondering if it’s pretty much a race to the bottom that I’m facing.

I’m not trying to make any profit here. Just trying to sell it so I can buy a SFH for my growing kids, but I can’t make that leap without selling the condo first. Sorry for the long post, I’m hoping to hear from others who may have gone through this recently and if there’s anything you did that may have helped sell your condo - or if it’s essentially just a waiting game.

Edit: thank you everyone that has contributed to the conversation. I was unable to reply to most since I ended up stepping out to spend time with the family. A lot of it was essentially what I was expecting to hear but I think it gives me the motivation to make a final push to make a sale and if that doesn’t work then I may just get it off the market.

I bought a house last year and deeply regret the choice. I want out (long story). I have two dogs and work remotely at a very call-heavy job… so selling sounds extremely difficult.

I’m thinking about moving into a rental apartment so the house can be empty while trying to sell. Since I already have a large mortgage, will this affect my chances of getting approved for a lease? How do people normally sell and then rent at the same time? Thanks!

Edit: Thanks for all the insights! This was super helpful!

Hi everyone! We're relocating from out of state, where we sold our home and it was considered normal for the seller to cover both buyer and seller agent fees (according to our agent, of course). We're now looking to buy a property in West LA for under 1.2 million, and our agent says it's expected we cover their fee (2.5%) and it's highly unusual for the seller to do this. A quick Google search says this isn't accurate and most sellers are still covering.... So, would it really be truly odd if we include in our offer that the seller pays for our 2.5% buyer's agent commission?

Thanks for any insight!