Fishing for Luxury? Catch the Schwalbach Residence Coming Up for Auction

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The Schwalbach residence is a one-of-a-kind, oceanfront residence built with no expense spared. So why would owner Roy Schwalbach risk selling his beloved estate at auction with no reserve?

Basically, the jack-of-all-trades and owner of New York’s wildly successful Jack Studios is a busy guy. He doesn’t have time to let his Ocean City, MD, estate linger on the market.

So to avoid letting the listing languish, there’ll be a quick, intense marketing push to well-heeled East Coasters in advance of the auction date of Sept. 10. Once that day comes and goes, the home’s sale will be complete, regardless of whether the highest bid reaches the current $3.9 million listing price.

Aerial view

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Auctions have become popular with owners whose properties have no area comps. A set bidding date pushes buyers interested in these properties to make a decision, instead of hanging around and waiting for the price to drop.

What type of buyers might be interested in this prize property? Well, anyone who wants a luxurious vacation home on the water five hours from New York or three hours from Washington, DC. Or perhaps a competitor in the local White Marlin Open, the “World’s Largest and Richest Billfish Tournament,” with $4.42 million in prize money. Land a big fish, buy a big mansion.

Kitchen

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Schwalbach’s hip home was built by architect David D. Quillin in two phases, one completed in 2003, the other in 2014. It has five bedroom suites and five bathrooms spread over 5,003 square feet of space, but that’s just the beginning of the story.

The owner, who has a luxe modern aesthetic, used mosaic tiles imported from Italy and installed a $45,000 tub in the master bathroom. He selected an Italian Boffi kitchen with Sub-Zero appliances, and had all the floors finished with radiant heating. Almost every room has an exceptional view, including the state-of-the-art gym. And in a nod to the sun, the home is positioned to be solar energy–efficient.

Lush grounds

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The nearly 1-acre grounds include a saltwater pool, a private boat dock, a putting green with a fire pit and seating area, and a stocked koi pond. Schwalbach will even include the furnishings and the fancy red Ferrari in the garage for the right price, which can be negotiated by the property’s winning bidder.

Now lest you think you can simply show up on auction day and score a steal of a deal for $49.95, you need to know that bidders must be pre-qualified by Elite Auctions. The process involves depositing $25,000 in an escrow account before the auction (which will be returned if you’re not the highest bidder), and the ability to part with 10% of the sale price the moment the gavel drops. Only big-game real estate fishers need apply.

Bedroom

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Living room

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Gym

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Discretion Is Not a Problem at These Manhattan and Miami Towers

March

Disgraced former politician Anthony Weiner may be on the lookout for a new place to live after his wife, Huma Abedin, announced their separation following his latest sexting scandal.

Mr. Weiner, who will no doubt want to keep a low profile and stay out of the public eye and away from the paparazzi’s glaring cameras, may want to check out one of a myriad of new buildings where developers have taken privacy to the next level.

Many developers are including the likes of porte-cochères, secured entrances, private elevator banks, and additional levels of staff and cameras so that high net worth buyers (or those more scandal-plagued like Mr. Weiner) will never have to step onto the sidewalk outside their building, or go through their apartment lobby.

Here’s our round-up of some under construction in both Manhattan and Miami:

On the market:

252 East 57th Street, Manhattan

A rendering of the entrance at 252 East 57th Street.

Williams New York

At World Wide Group’s newest building 252 East 57th Street, there will be a gated porte-cochère that achieves a notable level of privacy, as residents will be able to drive straight into it and enter the building without ever being outside. Another bonus is that within the porte-cochère is the largest automated parking garage in New York with four electric car charging stations. The first residents will move into the building in October.

Porsche Design Tower, Miami

A rendering of the Porsche Design Tower’s car elevator, which will transport your automobile into your condo unit.

Metrostudio.com

When it opens in September, not only will the 56-story tower in Sunny Isles Beach be one of the world’s first condominiums where elevators take residents directly to their private apartments while sitting in their cars, it will also have a private residents-only restaurant. Another private perk:  10-by-15-foot individual plunge pools on almost all of its balconies–a first in Miami.

One Thousand Museum, Miami

Designed by Zaha Hadid Architects, the 62-floor residential tower will feature a crystalline façade.

Catapult 13 Creative Studios

This Zaha Hadid-designed tower, set to be completed late next year, has a 24/7 security program focused not just on residents, but also on their guests and personal property. A security consulting firm has worked closely with the developer to address matters ranging from the structure of the building to sophisticated surveillance systems and appropriate security personnel. There is also a bank-quality vault containing an individual safe deposit box for every residence.

1 Great Jones Alley, Manhattan

A rendering of the entrance 1 Great Jones Alley, a 16-unit condominium in Manhattan’s NoHo neighborhood.

March

A unique and standout feature of 1 Great Jones Alley, a boutique condo in NoHo that is due for completion late next year, is the main residential entrance discreetly tucked away at the end of Great Jones Alley, a historic Belgian block alleyway. Residents will enter a gate and head down the alley to the building’s attended lobby, away from the public eye.

One River Point, Miami

A rendering of a condo at One River Point.

Kar Properties

Having seen a rise in demand for the tightest security, One River Point–Rafael Vinoly’s Miami debut on the Miami River–incorporated a multi-level, biometric security program. The cutting-edge biometric identification software will take residents to their specific floors after scanning their faces. The building will also have a 24-hour security room and an on-site vault for residents’ art and valuables.

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Is Chris Brown the Worst Next-Door Neighbor of All Time?

Chelsea Lauren/Getty Images for NYLON

There are bad neighbors, there are worse neighbors, and then there’s Chris Brown. The R&B bad boy hasn’t exactly displayed model community behavior in the past, but after a drawn-out police standoff earlier this week he seems to have redefined the concept of a next-door nightmare. At least, that’s according to his upscale Los Angeles neighbors, who are now begging the bad-tempered, scandal-plagued celeb to get the hell out.

Let’s face it, not all neighbors are handing out homemade Bundt cakes or offering jump-starts or baby-sitting services to everyone in the hood. No. Some like to throw wild parties and blast loud music, others refuse to mow their lawn or cut down their tree branches that extend over the property line, and still others are just downright unpleasant.

But after the recent standoff, complete with police helicopters circling overhead, even Brown’s neighborhood pals are saying no mas. 

R&B singer Chris Brown neighbors want the bad boy to move out of their Los Angeles neighborhood following a standoff with police on Tuesday.

Google Earth

Los Angeles Lakers player Nick Young captured a video of the hourslong debacle and then pleaded with his friend to go. The video, which was eventually posted online, shows some of the drama after cops showed up to Brown’s Tarzana home on Tuesday in response to a 911 call from a woman who said Brown was threatening her with a gun. They waited for a search warrant to enter the six-bedroom home.

“Chris Brown, you gotta move, man,” Young, who goes by “Swaggy P,” says in the video. “Go on, get away from over here, please. You’re making the block hot, buddy.

“[They] got SWAT teams and helicopters flying over my head, [and] I’m thinking they’re after me. We only have about five or six black people over here anyway. … They’re going to take me [and] you,” he continues. “There’s really only two of us over here, man. And at this rate, you’re gonna make it one.”

During the standoff, Brown allegedly chucked a duffel bag containing two guns and drugs out of his window, TMZ reported. He was arrested on charges of assault with a deadly weapon and then released on $250,000 bail.

His lawyer, Mark Geragos, tweeted that Brown “was out and well” and the “allegations against him are demonstrably false.”

Brown moved into the neighborhood only last summer, but since then his antics have garnered more than a few complaints from those unlucky enough to live nearby. He purchased his home for $4,350,000.

In May, one neighbor went to the cops after Brown and a friend allegedly rode all-terrain vehicles through the community and did several doughnuts on the irate neighbor’s front lawn, according to ABC News. When the property owner asked him to stop, Brown hurled obscenities at him.

In June, the singer was sued for allegedly punching his manager in the neck and face, implicated in threatening a tour manager, and accused of destroying a villa in Ibiza, Spain, leaving knife marks on the walls, urine in a bed, and vomit everywhere, according to the New York Post.

This year Brown was also accused of beating a man during a concert in Cannes, France. In 2014, he served 108 days in jail stemming from a probation violation for getting into a fight outside of a Washington, DC, hotel.

But Brown’s anger issues haven’t stopped TeamBreezy fans (as they’re known) from making Brown’s “Royalty” album, released last year, gold and getting the single “Back to Sleep” on Billboard’s Top 20. They may love his music—but chances are that after this latest neighborhood debacle even the most die-hard fans (with equally large bank accounts) just might think twice before moving onto his block.

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This House Hasn't Been Touched Since The '70s And It's For Sale If You Want It

A delightful time capsule of shag carpet perfection.

If you've ever wondered what it would be like to live in '70s SHAG CARPET HEAVEN, well, check this out.

Matt Duffy/Century 21 Duffy

This yuuuuge house in Framingham, Massachusetts, is a total time capsule of 1970s glory.

Have you ever seen so much lime green in your life?

Matt Duffy/Century 21 Duffy

"The original owner built the house and customized it and did all the decor in the early ‘70s," realtor Matt Duffy told BuzzFeed. And even though the new owners have lived in the house for more than 20 years, they haven't changed a thing.

So much wood paneling!

Matt Duffy/Century 21 Duffy

The curtains match the bedspreads perfectly.

Matt Duffy/Century 21 Duffy

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Here’s where Orlando ranks for housing market recovery

Looks like Orlando's housing market still is crawling its way out of the Great Recession — the area was ranked No. 92 among 100 metros surveyed for home price recovery, according to mortgage market tracker HSH.com. The study compared the median home price now to its peak number since 1991 to determine how well housing markets have recovered since the crash. At $229,900, Orlando remains 25.63 percent below its peak of $288,820. But Orlando Regional Realtor Association president John Lazenby says…

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Pending home sales inch up 1.3% in July but prices still high

Signed contracts to buy existing homes in July rose 1.3 percent to the second highest level in over a decade, say Realtors.

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John Legend and Chrissy Teigen Find a Buyer for Their Manhattan Condo

Steve Granitz/WireImage

It looks like new parents Chrissy Teigen and John Legend have found a buyer for their Broome Street loft in downtown Manhattan.

The sales price is hush-hush because the deal hasn’t closed yet, but the newly renovated loft was listed for just shy of $4 million on agent Jason Walker‘s site.

The two-bedroom, two-bathroom unit is located in the Brewster Carriage House, a 19th-century building on the corner of Broome and Mott in the Nolita neighborhood.

Living room

CORE

Measuring nearly 2,000 square feet, the condo, which made the cover of Architectural Digest in February 2015, features reclaimed wood floors, cast iron columns, and exposed brick walls. Oversize windows surround the main living area graced by a fireplace and an office alcove.

The chef’s kitchen boasts a mosaic tile backsplash beneath cognac-colored cabinets and a massive walk-in pantry that doubles as a laundry room.

Teigen, a model and co-host of Spike TV’s “Lip Sync Battle,” and Legend, an award-winning singer-songwriter, bought the condo in 2012 for $2.5 million, according to the New York Observer. They have a 4-month-old daughter, Luna.

Dining room and kitchen

CORE

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How 3-D Printers Will Lower Prices, Make Fantasies Real, and Transform the Housing Market

Contour Crafting

Printers have come a long way from simply churning out reams of spreadsheets, high school history reports, and cute cat photos. In case you haven’t heard, 3-D printing is rapidly changing, well, everything. The technology is making the unimaginable real, already producing everything from simple plastic toys to edible pizza and even human tissue and body parts (an ear!). Additive technology, as it’s also called, promises to revolutionize the world as we know it.

And the greatest potential for transformation and disruption, some believe, may be in housing. If “printed homes” seem like a distant fantasy, you’d better buckle your seat belts. You’re in for quite a ride.

So how exactly is 3-D printing poised to reshape the housing market?

Well, let’s start with price. Three-dimensional printers don’t require laborers, produce much less waste (as materials are fed into the machines), and will be able to erect homes in days instead of months—making them substantially cheaper to build. And that’s expected to extend the American dream to a whole new group of buyers who would otherwise never be able to afford their own abodes.

Gone will be the problems caused by a shortage of highly skilled construction workers, long building times, and wasted materials such as lumber.

And let’s touch on dreams. Three-dimensional printing will eventually help facilitate the creation of radical new housing designs, new shapes, and brand-new architectural ideas. The road from fanciful concept to livable reality will become shorter and more traversable than ever.

This is exciting stuff—and not just for those who are currently priced out of homeownership. Imagine your average accountant or Chipotle manager being able to design their own Frank Gehry–styled, uniquely shaped home on a computer— and a specialized, industrial-size 3-D printer bringing it into existence in a matter of hours or days for just a fraction of the usual price. Then think of what the technology could mean for storm-ravaged communities if residents who lost their homes could have identical replacements easily printed, complete with furniture.

And we’re not talking about a far-distant future. Rudimentary printed structures, mostly made of concrete and resembling stark gray boxes, are already sprouting up around the globe. Now a handful of cutting-edge construction companies are engaged in something like a 3-D printing arms race—each striving to be the first to refine the technology.

A Chinese company even recently printed a two-story, 4,305-square-foot building on-site in just 45 days.

And while such current buildings may not exactly be the “dream home” of your average buyer, experts predict that within five to 25 years (depending on whom you’re talking to), the technology will be advanced enough to print sophisticated and easily customizable dwellings out of wood, metal, and stone. These are places that buyers would be proud to call their own.

How to print a home Three-dimensional printers are expected to transform how homes are built and could lead to lower real estate prices.

Branch Technology

Here’s how it works: Building designs are created in a computer just like in a computer-aided design, or CAD, program and then transmitted to a large, specially made industrial printer, like the one above. The devices vary greatly in size and capabilities, depending on who is making them—but all of them are big. The apparatuses usually have one or more robotic arms tipped with a nozzle that spews out construction materials as the arms make their computer-programmed rotations around the base of the building. (Think of cake icing being squeezed through a piping bag.)

Those liquidlike materials, similar to molten lava, are layered on top of one another to form the walls of the structure. These materials can vary from fiber-reinforced concrete, which doesn’t require steel rebars for support, to steel and even wood, which would require reinforcements.

And eventually, experts predict the technology will print modern-day necessities such as electricity and plumbing at the same time as the home is being constructed.

“It’s still very early,” says Aric Rindfleisch, executive director of the Illinois MakerLab, a 3-D printing lab at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. “We’re probably back to where the computer industry was in 1982.”

The challenges to 3-D printing

So when is it coming, for real?

Opinions vary. Rindfleisch believes the technology is still about 25 years away from creating sophisticated homes that buyers would be vying to live in. Other experts have pegged the timeline closer to just a decade—or even half that.

The challenges lie mostly with the materials fed into the devices—and working around their current-day limitations. Scientists are closely tracking the materials used for construction and how long they take to dry before a new layer can be added, Rindfleisch says.

He says progress is coming at a rapid clip. “About two years ago, all we could print was hard plastic,” he says. “Now we can print soft plastics. We can print wood.” The wood is basically a pulp mixed with plastic that can be fed into the printer.

Home buyers could become home designers WATG Urban Architecture Studio won a 3-D home printing competition with this Curve Appeal design. The home is slated to be printed later this year.

Daniel Caven/WATG Chicago Urban Architecture Studio

The printing process is likely to eventually empower more everyday home buyers without fancy architecture degrees to design their own perfect pad on a computer—and then print it out on a plot of land.

“You can have high design on a budget,” says architect Christopher Hurst at WATG Urban Architecture Studio. “You don’t have to go to a builder and get the same cookie-cutter house next door. … Now you can go to a contractor, and you have a highly customizable house that’s indicative of you and that way you can express yourself in how you live.”

In April, Hurst’s Chicago-based firm won the Freeform House Design Challenge with its sleek Curve Appeal home. Construction on the winning design, which will, of course, be printed three-dimensionally, is slated to begin in November by Branch Technology, the Chattanooga, TN–based builder that sponsored the contest.

The home would go for about $900,000 on the market if it were conventionally built, Hurst says. But he hopes to print the carbon fiber structure at a Chattanooga site at a fraction of the cost.

“The limitations are [that] the arm [of the printer] can only reach so far,” he says of the 15-foot appendage. “If you print large structures, you’d need a much bigger machine. … Eventually, we’ll have multiple arms printing simultaneously.”

Once the technical challenges are solved, a 2,500-square-foot home could go up in less than 24 hours instead of months, predicts 3-D home building pioneer Behrokh Khoshnevis, an engineering professor at the University of California, Los Angeles. He gave a TED Talk on the subject.

And the buildings could be more attractive to buyers than those constructed by human hands, he says.

“In stick frame [i.e., traditional] construction, it’s very hard to use curvature. It’s very hard to bend lumber. It’s very hard to bend drywall,” says Khoshnevis, whose 3-D printer company Contour Crafting has a contract with NASA. But “a computer can build any shape.”

A boon to cities?

The new technology could make its biggest mark, at least initially, in the nation’s urban areas.

Three-dimensional printing will enable developers to put up buildings on previously “unbuildable” sites—such as smaller city plots where it would be near impossible to fit a crane, says K.C. Conway, head of market intelligence for commercial real estate lending at SunTrust Bank in Atlanta. It could turn costly and time-consuming regulatory problems into no big deal as building plans will be redesigned by computers—instead of flesh-and-blood architects.

“It will bring affordability back to urban housing,” says Conway, also a member of Counselors of Real Estate, a Chicago-based group of industry professionals who provide real estate advice. “The later adoption will be in the suburbs.”

Another bonus is that homes will eventually be able to go up a lot quicker—that’s particularly important in natural disaster–ravaged areas, points out Alex Le Roux.

He began designing a 3-D printer while he was still a mechanical engineering major at Baylor University in Waco, TX. Now the 23-year-old is CEO of Vesta Printer, which printed a rudimentary, 120-square-foot building in June in Katy, TX. He’s hoping to soon print larger ones.

His company has received funding from ModEco Development, a Rochester, MI–based builder that has been experimenting with the technology.

“This is where we see the business going,” says ModEco owner Drake Boroja. “The American dream is getting harder and harder to get [as the prices of homes are soaring]. We see these tools as a way to keep this dream going for the next generation.”

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RICS, NAR join hands to train real estate brokers - ETRealty.com

NEW DELHI: Global body for standards in built environment RICS and industry body for real estate agents National Association of Realtors (India) have joined hands to launch a co-branded management development program (MDP) for brokers with over ...

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Who's In Your [Healthcare] Network?

Recently, an old friend heard her colleague's complaint about painful sciatica. "Call my guy," was her quick response to his agony, and my phone rang.

How does one build a healthcare network (distinct from an insurance network)?


It's Who You Know AND What You Know

The principles for building a reliable local healthcare network are the same as finding reliable sources of information: seek resources and providers that inform rather than sell a product or service. Locate practitioners who want you to be independent with your health, instead of dependent on them. Then, consider the following checklist:

Science: Does the information given by the provider comport with principles of biology, physics, chemistry and anatomy? Does the information make sense?
Credibility: Consider the credentials, experience, reputation and success ratio of the healthcare provider being vetted.
Network: Discuss the results of your search with dependable friends who have found successful solutions for their own comparable health issues.
Trust: Rely on your existing skilled and trusted healthcare providers to be a filter in distinguishing among fact, opinion and marketing, and to provide context.

What Are Your Needs?

Keep your network simple. Not everyone needs a nutritionist, OB-GYN, or pediatrician, but you might. A basic network should include:

• a general physician
• 
  
• a physical therapist
• 
  
• a dentist

These three, plus your family, social and professional networks, can help refer to medical specialists, nutritionists, fitness and wellness professionals, orthodontists, and others.

Tech Tools and Referrals


On-line professional listings can be a good place to begin your search, but won't substitute for personal referral and research. Many worthy professionals are not included in on-line listings. Most on-line professional listings lack filters or useful distinctions to match your needs. Ratings systems such as Yelp or GooglePlus may overlook high-quality practitioners who are not engaged with social media. Web search can be more helpful; the more you know about your condition, the use of specific search terms, and the ability to analyze medical research and conference proceedings, the more specific to your needs your results can be.

Starting Fresh In A New Community

If you've recently moved, here are four good sources for building your local healthcare network:

• your relocation specialist and/or realtor
• 
  
• your old, hometown healthcare network -- professional collegiality is now global
• 
  
• family, business and social networks (including digital) in your new community
• 
  
• a local nurse you've met through schools, work, or community. Nurses often reflect the 'oral tradition' in any healthcare scene.

Keep Your Network Fresh

Once you've created or refreshed your healthcare network, keep it strong and vital by referring others into it. Your doctor, nutritionist, specialist, etc., will remember your referral and be grateful for your confidence.

Who's in your healthcare network? Share a good word and send the names (plus town, specialty) of your trusted practitioners to me at t.edelson@montclairphysicaltherapy.com or join in a Facebook group and post your recommendations to Who's In My Network.

Good luck as you develop or re-develop your network, and contact my office if we can be of assistance. We enjoy more than thirty years of healthcare relationships in the New York metro area, and share worldwide relationships with the most highly-skilled McKenzie Method (MDT) pain solution & prevention practitioners.

Next week: developing national healthcare networks.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

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The Smug New Neighbors

Let's consider the empty house on the street where I live.

The house is empty because the owner, Sammy, a guy about 30, suddenly moved out after living in the place for 3 years. I remember the day he moved in. He came with his cars and bikes after his suburban parents bought the house for him. During his first weeks here some of the neighbors went out of their way to say hello but Sammy was aloof. He obviously didn't want to be bothered to get to know the people on the block.

What Sammy did for a living was a mystery, but his pattern was to leave the house everyday around noon and return in the early evening.

Sammy could have been living on a mountain top because he never made eye contact with neighbors. You could pass Sammy in the street and he'd have one of those Village of the Damned 'straight on' stares like he was sleepwalking.

Sammy's house was a large space with interesting room patterns. I know because I used to be friends with the couple, Walter and Betty, who lived there before their move to Washington State. Walter, Betty and I didn't become friends until their last two years on the street. Who knows why it took us so long to strike up a friendship. One day they invited me to dinner so I got to sample Walter's gourmet cooking. On warm summer days, Walter would invite me over for a swim in his pool. The pool was a fairly deep above ground monstrosity with a sturdy wooden deck, set among some of the largest trees I've seen in the neighborhood. After a swim, we'd catch an iced tea during which Walter would talk about his favorite poet, Gary Snyder.

I wasn't happy when Walter and Betty announced that they were moving west. I was getting used to going over there for dinner and swimming in their pool, and then inviting them over to my place for patio parties. Friendships like this don't come easily. You can say hello to neighbors, even chat with them on the street for years and still never be invited over to their place.

When Walter and Betty moved out the house wasn't empty for long. One day I spotted a suburban looking couple talking with the realtor. The couple had driven up in a Lexis, which spelled m-o-n-e-y. A week or two after that a big moving truck appeared, and Sammy appeared with his bushy black hair and an army of friends. The friends, all men, were scruffy in a hip way although they all had the same type of manufactured beard.

They moved in quickly and within days held a massive outdoor party around Walter's old pool. Sammy's friends built a large bonfire and started a barbecue. The party lasted until the wee hours. Then at 4 or 5 am I was awakened by a suburban girl, one of Sammy's party guests, crying under my bedroom window. She was so drunk she found it hard to put together sentences however I tried to make out what she was saying. In the end, I couldn't decipher her drunken valley girl 'up talk' although it seemed that some boy had dumped her.

I was curious about Sammy for a short time but after a while I stopped caring. There was no reason to say hello, especially if his response was going to be something like a smug nod.

Sammy's outdoor parties were becoming more and more frequent. Party guests, driving in from the western Main Line, were double parking on our tiny street. Sammy acquired strings of Japanese party lights and strung them along the tree branches so that from my house his yard looked like a massive house boat in New Orleans. The parties got progressively louder and wilder yet it was fascinating to see how every party began as low key events but as the night wore on, and as more alcohol was consumed, the voices got louder and louder. Eventually the voices became so pitched it sounded like twenty men screaming at one another.

If the screaming prevented me from falling asleep, I assumed that many of my neighbors were experiencing the same thing. I'd turn on the AC or put fans in my bedroom window to muffle the noise but like the racket from a plague of locusts, the voices would always resurface.

And among these voices there would always be the sound of a woman crying. .

"That makes 4 crying women in 30 days," I'd tell friends. 'What do they do to women over there?"

Sammy acquired a succession of roommates to help pay the mortgage. Generally the roommates were in their twenties and never stayed long. At first the roommates were part of Sammy's social circuit but then I noticed a change. They seemed to be living independently, especially the lost looking Irish guy who seemed to be terrified of strangers and whose large dog seemed to be his only friend. He would sit glum faced on Sammy's stoop staring into space. For a time I thought he was hearing impaired.

Some of Sammy's roommates moved out in the middle of the night although they were very quickly replaced with new roommates. At one of the parties, the invited guests double and triple parked on the sidewalk up and down the street, upsetting the neighbors. Somebody called the police, and ten of Sammy's party guests got parking tickets.

"These people have no idea how the city works," I told a friend.

Sammy acquired so many roommates I lost count of them. Prohibitive housing and rental costs were really impacting people in their twenties, and Sammy's house was proof of this. Nobody could afford to live on their own. I called Walter and Betty and told them that their former home had become a gigantic hipster commune complete with dogs, motorcycles, bonfires, and beautiful white women in long dreadlocks. "It's a sight to behold although nobody on the street has made friends with them because they don't seem to want to get to know anybody."

I told Walter and Betty that Sammy had decided to get rid of the pool and chop down the oldest and grandest tree on the property. Walter and Betty were meticulous home owners, but very soon Sammy began to let things slip. After all, it really wasn't his house. His parents found the house for him. They were the ones who appreciated the house but they probably had high hopes that Sammy would come to appreciate it someday.

It wasn't long before the house began to look shabby, although all the women who visited or lived there seemed to be the same type: they were tall and elegant looking with long beautiful hair. They also dressed like fashion models, mostly in long flowing dresses. Even if beautiful women are not your thing, no one could deny the astounding beauty of these creatures. They seemed to go in and out of Sammy's house at all hours.

The men, by contrast, were doughy looking with thick Clark Kent glasses and hairy necks. "This is proof," a comedian friend of mine commented, "that pretty women like money and power."

For a period of a year, especially in winter when there were no leaves on the trees, anyone walking on the sidewalk could look right into Sammy's front window and see somebody watching Homer Simpson.

The parties continued, the beer kept flowing, and the male chorus of voices kept getting louder and louder. Sometimes I could make out what was being said. There were stories about work but more often than not there was no smooth narrative at all, just discombobulated half sentences with long pauses as well as the overuse of the word 'like' (let's not forget beer burps), and finally unexplained yells as if someone had inadvertently sat on a possum.

"Like...I mean, but like....Yeah, you know. What the fuck!"

(Repeat 50 times and you have the party conservation).

A few neighbors, eager to build bridges, continued to attempt to make contact with Sammy, but to no avail.

Two weeks ago in a bizarre replay of 3 years ago, the suburban parents returned in the same Lexis. Standing in front of the house they whispered to one another before knocking on Sammy's door. The parents had to knock a long time before one of the roommates answered although he didn't open the door but talked to them through an open slat.

Some sort of negotiation seemed to be in progress, but what?

The very next day at least two of the roommates moved out and the day after that it was Sammy's turn. Sammy left on his bike, never to be seen again.

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Design Firm Marmol Radziner’s Must-See Modern Marvel in Los Angeles

Sean Garrison of Shooting LA

Design firm Marmol Radziner, known for creating modern masterpieces throughout California, has a new design worth a second (and third) look: a brand-new home up for sale in Los Angeles for $6.5 million.

To enter the angular two-story home, you must first pass through a courtyard set between the gate and the front door. It’s an architectural flourish employed to inspire a sense of reflection and homecoming.

“It allows for a bit more of a progression to the house, allows you to slow down, take one step at a time—like a visual bit of a pause or the first point of decompression as you leave the street,” says Ron Radziner, co-owner of Marmol Radziner.

Peace-creating courtyard

Sean Garrison of Shooting LA

The 4,775-square-foot house, completed in June, incorporates an extensive use of glass, including 11-foot sliding doors in the great room. The walls, which sometimes angle at a sharp 90 degrees, incorporate glass and result in a spectacular feeling of openness. “You really do have a good view anywhere in the house,” Radziner says.

“In a contemporary home, the goal is not to feel cold, but warm and natural,” Radziner explains. “We tried to maximize that sense of indoor-outdoor space inside the home. The exterior light flows in and bounces off the walls. It makes the interior feel open and inviting.” Radziner notes the firm chose a “light palette of materials” throughout the home to create warmth.

Tranquil living

Sean Garrison of Shooting LA

The floor plan is similarly designed with openness in mind. On the main floor, the open kitchen is set in at the end of an L-shaped design, which places it “right at the heart of the house,” Radziner says. A dining area extends outside to a covered patio with fireplace. It’s situated near the rectangle pool and is designed to make you feel like you’re still inside.

Upstairs, the home’s five bedrooms connect to a lounge, a “semiprivate transition space” that “gives opportunities for a family to be together,” Radziner says. The whole house is designed with this concept in mind—an informal architecture with open spaces and a multitude of windows where a family “can be in different parts but still be visually connected,” he says.

All that remains is for a buyer to connect with this sublime modern vision in Los Angeles.

Neutral backdrop

Sean Garrison of Shooting LA

The post Design Firm Marmol Radziner’s Must-See Modern Marvel in Los Angeles appeared first on Real Estate News and Advice - realtor.com.

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What a Deal! Howie Mandel Loves Loft-Style Living in Santa Monica

Jason LaVeris/FilmMagic

“America’s Got Talent” judge Howie Mandel is now the owner of three condos in the same downtown Santa Monica building, according to the Los Angeles Times.

The larger of his two recent purchases measures 1,900 square feet and features three levels with steel beams, high ceilings, a galley-style kitchen, and south-facing windows. The upper floor has two bedrooms, two bathrooms, and a media room. Mandel scored this unit in January for $2.5 million.

Staying in the same building, he closed on a smaller $1.5 million unit in late July. The apartment is 1,450 square feet and has two bedrooms, two bathrooms, mahogany wood floors, and raised ceilings. This unit last sold for $760,000 in January 2011.

After these two deals, the comedian now owns three units in the loft-style William Dale Brantley–designed building, including a two-story residence he bought last year for $5.3 million. All the purchases have been off-market.

Mandel, who has openly discussed his pathological fear of germs, regained career momentum when he hosted NBC’s game show “Deal or No Deal” from 2005 to 2009. Now he’s best known as part of the judging panel on “America’s Got Talent,” NBC’s annual summer competition show now in its 11th season.

The post What a Deal! Howie Mandel Loves Loft-Style Living in Santa Monica appeared first on Real Estate News and Advice - realtor.com.

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Why You Can’t See Kim and Kanye’s Home on Google Street View

Ernesto Ruscio/Getty Images; Peter Meißner/ullstein bild via Getty Images

Who doesn’t like snooping, in a nonstalker way, on the rich and fabulous—and maybe an ex-flame or two—through photos of their real estate? God bless you, Google Street View! It allows anyone with a reliable internet connection and an address to zoom in on the curbside views of properties. It’s almost like standing right in front of them—and taking a stroll in their hood!

Except, as it turns out, not every home in purportedly “covered areas” of large U.S. cities is viewable on this free service of Google Maps. Not one of the 648 homes in the appropriately named, swanky community of Hidden Hills—a Los Angeles enclave of A-list celebrities and the one-percenters—appears on Google Street View, according to a recent Financial Times article. Not one!

Inhabitants of these multimillion-dollar homes reportedly include the likes of Kim Kardashian, Kanye West, Miley Cyrus, Justin Bieber, and Jennifer Lopez. The median list price of a home in the gated community is a cool $1.9 million, according to realtor.com®.

And Hidden Hills is far from the only pricey community that’s photographically MIA. Bradbury, CA, also in Los Angeles, and Bell Canyon, CA, about an hour outside of the city, aren’t on Street View either. And apparently the more you look for cool panoramic views of some of the nation’s truly exclusive über-priced real estate, the more you might come up with nothing but internet static

That’s because these communities have reportedly banned Google’s distinctive photography vehicles from entering their gates, according to the Times. Most of the Street View pictures come from Google’s tricked-out cars, but the company reportedly also uses pedestrians, bikes, boats, and even snowmobiles to get its shots.

All of those have probably been banned, too.

Those intent on eyeballing the luxe mansions in such communities can still check out the “God’s eye view” aerial shots of Google Earth. But if you want to check out what kind of front door knobs are favored by Kimye, you’re straight out of luck.

The anti-Street View measures are purportedly taken to protect the privacy of these communities’ affluent residents. It helps keep crazed fans and paparazzi at bay—as well as potential criminals. Anyone remember the Bling Ring, a group of young adults who broke into the homes of celebrities like Paris Hilton and stole their stuff?

“Out of sight [means] out of mind—and out of the reach of burglars,” Geoff Manaugh, author of “A Burglar’s Guide to the City,” told the Times.

But that could make selling one of the luxury properties in such communities a bit harder. Buyers, for example, can’t get a street-side view of the Hidden Hills six-bedroom home with a chef’s kitchen and pizza oven, dog kennel, and pools with cascading waterfalls for sale at $6,895,000. Or the $4,890,000, four-bedroom, French estate that comes with a wine room, outdoor kitchen and pavilion, and fruit orchard.

Many wealthy individuals are so worried about unwanted attention that they use shell companies and other methods to buy property to make it harder to trace the purchases back to them. They’re also spending more on security.

“There are always people who want what’s known as curb appeal, but there are many others who don’t want anyone to know where they live. They want to be discreet,” David Forbes, head of private office at estate agent Savills, told the Times.

The post Why You Can’t See Kim and Kanye’s Home on Google Street View appeared first on Real Estate News and Advice - realtor.com.

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Airbnb Income: How It Can Mess With Your Mortgage ‘Refi’

BRIAN SMALE FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

Room-rental services such as Airbnb Inc. are blurring the line between residential and commercial property. That is causing problems for some homeowners looking to refinance mortgages. (Read what Airbnb hosts need to know.)

Big banks including Bank of America Corp. and Wells Fargo & Co. are subjecting some refinance customers who rent rooms to additional scrutiny. Some borrowers have been told they were no longer eligible for certain kinds of loans or would have to pay higher interest rates, according to the customers.

“This is kind of novel,” said Jeffrey Naimon, a consumer-finance attorney and partner at law firm BuckleySandler LLP. “I don’t think the market has gotten its arms around it.”

The issue for lenders is how to classify loans in the Airbnb age. Historically, that has been easy: A house usually was either a principal residence or an investment property. Mortgages on the latter are often viewed as riskier because owners had less of a personal connection to the house and rental income isn’t always reliable.

Now, the distinction isn’t so clear-cut. Online-rental services are spreading rapidly; Airbnb’s website had 455,223 active listings in the U.S. as of July, up 80% from a year earlier, according to research firm YipitData. That is posing challenges to lenders and frustrating some customers, illustrating how fast-paced technological change can reverberate in unexpected ways.

Brad Severtson says he earned about $30,000 last year from renting out a cottage in his Seattle home’s backyard.

BRIAN SMALE FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

The issue comes up when borrowers report income from services such as Airbnb when applying for a new loan, often in hope of improving their credit profile. That, they hope, can lead to a better interest rate on a loan.

Brad Severtson, a resident of Seattle’s Ballard neighborhood, earned roughly $30,000 last year from renting out a cottage in his Victorian home’s backyard. He thought that would work in his favor when he applied in early 2016 to refinance a home-equity line of credit at Bank of America.

The bank turned him down, saying it didn’t allow home-equity lines of credit on properties in which the homeowner is operating a business, including Airbnb. Mr. Severtson, a 61-year-old data scientist and former Rhodes scholar, was taken aback.

“Here’s a bank I’ve had a relationship with for 30 years,” he said. “The assumption to me was the more your income is, the less risk to them. That assumption was wrong.”

Mr. Severtson ultimately refinanced with Umpqua Holdings Corp., a Portland, Ore.-based bank.

A Bank of America spokesman said the bank doesn’t provide home-equity lines of credit on investment properties.

He said the bank would consider a customer’s primary residence an investment property if there was a “material amount of commercial activity,” but that “incremental renting” wouldn’t be an issue.

A spokesman for Airbnb said such incidents “are incredibly rare.”

Mortgage lenders typically apply tougher underwriting standards, including larger down payments and higher rates, to second homes or investment properties that owners don’t live in for most of the year.

For mortgages made this past April that went toward the purchase of a home, lenders on average were willing to finance 84% of a property’s value if the borrower intended to live there, according to data from real-estate analytics firm CoreLogic Inc. The average interest rate was 3.76%. For investment properties, lenders only financed 72% of the home’s value, on average, and charged an average interest rate of 4.29%.

That is because borrowers have shown a greater propensity to default on investment-property loans. Cumulative losses on investment-property loans included in private-label mortgage bonds issued in the four years before the financial crisis reached nearly 20% in early 2016, according to data from Moody’s Investors Service and ABSNet Loan. For owner-occupied mortgages, the loss rate was about 14%.

An additional worry: Defaults can trigger requests from mortgage investors and government agencies for a lender to repurchase the loan. So, many lenders proceed with caution when a loan doesn’t fit neatly into a predefined category, although that is less true for “jumbo” mortgages on high-price homes that often stay on bank balance sheets.

For mainstream lenders in the postcrisis mortgage world, “the last thing they want is someone coming back to them later” with a request to repurchase soured loans, said Christopher Mayer, a professor of real estate at Columbia Business School.

That, though, can cause issues for some borrowers. Stephen Labovsky this spring applied to Wells Fargo to refinance the mortgage on his home in San Francisco’s Glen Park neighborhood.

Mr. Labovsky, 72, and his wife were active Airbnb hosts and had registered their property with the city government. That permits them to rent space for an unlimited number of nights a year while they reside in the home and for no more than 90 nights when they aren’t on the premises.

But because the couple were operating short-term rentals for much of the year, Mr. Labovsky said, Wells Fargo recommended he apply for a mortgage as if his home were an investment property. That would have increased the interest rate by up to 0.5 percentage point, he said. Mr. Labovsky, a retired filmmaker, stuck with his existing mortgage.

Greg Gwizdz, national sales manager for Wells Fargo’s mortgage division, said the bank has no policy of restricting short-term rentals on its borrowers’ properties.

He said that services like Airbnb haven’t caused changes in the bank’s position on what constitutes a primary residence or an investment property.

Still, he acknowledges there may be confusion within the industry offering hosts free, primary liability coverage. Similar questions were raised a few years ago about whether homeowners’ traditional insurance policies would also apply to their Airbnb activity. The startup eventually responded by offering hosts free, primary liability coverage up to $1 million per incident.

In the case of mortgage refinancing, though, banks will likely have to gain more experience with Airbnb hosts.

“Some of the programs that are new that allow people to rent out their properties short term or in different ways that may not have existed 10 years ago may not be fully understood by every lender across America,” Mr. Gwizdz said.

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$1 million Ponte Vedra house for sale

A 4,480-square-foot house is for sale in Ponte Vedra for $975,000. The property, 52 Bermuda Greens Avenue, has five bedrooms and four baths and includes a four-car garage. The house has a split floor plan with the master bedroom and guest suite on the first floor. Secondary bedroom are on the second floor. There's also a large pool, Summer kitchen and outdoor fireplace. Anita Vining, a Realtor with Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Florida Network Realty, listed the property. She can be reached…

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10 Terrific Homes in the End of Summer’s Hottest Markets

realtor.com

Home purchases kept up a furious pace as the days of August melted away. In the words of realtor.com®‘s chief economist, Jonathan Smoke, the sizzling market helped keep the median list price in the country at a balmy $250,000 in August.

Smoke said the season was “an extended summer with unprecedented interest in buying.” But there’s welcome news on the horizon for those who missed out on scoring a home this summer—less competition! Now that school’s started, home buyers don’t have to deal with buyers who wanted to end up in the right district before the first bell rang.

So, we’re saying you have a chance. But your chances are somewhat slimmer if you want to buy in one of the country’s hottest markets. Vallejo, CA, tops the countdown for the fourth month in a row, but in a delightful development, California accounts for only half of this month’s 10 hottest metros. Columbus, OH, Denver, and Dallas are familiar hot options, but we’d like to extend a warm welcome to Waco, TX, and a salute to the discounts of Detroit.

We picked a home in each of August’s 10 hottest markets. Only one of the homes is priced over a million bucks, meaning there are some cool homes in hot markets that aren’t out of reach pricewise. Take a look at these terrific 10…

1. Vallejo, CA

417 Washington St
Price: $399,975
Hot note: “So much has been done to update this lovely home and yet keep the character of yesteryear.”

Vallejo, CA

realtor.com

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2. Dallas, TX

8431 Craighill Ave
Price: $815,000
Hot note: “Luxurious new construction in West Bluffview.”

Dallas, TX

realtor.com

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3. Denver, CO

2081 S Grant St
Price: $439,000
Hot note: “Beautiful vintage Victorian style home freshly painted inside and out.”

Denver, CO

realtor.com

———

4. San Francisco, CA

90 Entrada Ct
Price: $1,175,000
Hot note: “Handsome Spanish Mediterranean home tucked away on wonderful cul-de-sac.”

San Francisco, CA

realtor.com

———

5. Stockton, CA

2444 Oregon Ave
Price: $240,000
Hot note: “Located near Country Club Golf Course for leisure and the freeway for commuting.”

Stockton, CA

realtor.com

———

6. San Diego, CA

7580 Melotte St
Price: $719,000
Hot note: “This thoughtful home lives big and is ideal for modern lifestyles.”

San Diego, CA

realtor.com

———

7. Columbus, OH

50 W Kenworth Rd
Price: $374,900
Hot note: “Visually stunning—from the classic design to the rich woodwork of the Craftsman style built-ins.”

Columbus, OH

realtor.com

———

8. Waco, TX

412 Meadow Mountain Dr
Price: $229,900
Hot note: “Terrific three bedroom on beautiful tree covered lot.”

Waco, TX

realtor.com

———

9. Detroit, MI

14919 Rosemont Ave
Price: $109,900
Hot note: “Meticulously maintained brick bungalow on a wonderful tree lined street.”

Detroit, MI

realtor.com

———

10. Sacramento, CA

211 Meister Way
Price: $689,900
Hot note: “This home cleverly uses its horizontal lines and exterior courtyards to create generous expanses of light and space within.”

Sacramento, CA

realtor.com

The post 10 Terrific Homes in the End of Summer’s Hottest Markets appeared first on Real Estate News and Advice - realtor.com.

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On the Dock of the Bay: Luxury Waterfront Home for Sale in Point Richmond

realtor.com

With apologies to Otis Redding, you could totally sit on the dock of the bay and watch the ships roll in with this Point Richmond home, which is on the market for $2,150,000.

“It has completely unobstructed views of San Francisco, of the bay, and Brickyard Cove,” listing agent Rick Richetta says. “You’re surrounded by all these huge sailboats.”

The 4,500-square-foot waterfront property also comes with a 50-foot private dock. You’re welcome to join the boating activity, or you could simply take in the water views from pretty much anywhere in the house. The home’s many decks are perfect vantage points, or you could set up shop on the back patio, which includes a fire pit and a front-row seat to nautical nirvana.

The luxury home, built in 2005, was originally the house of the developer of the exclusive community called Sandpiper Spit, and it’s a primo perch at the end of the spit. The deluxe domicile features three floors, an open layout designed for entertaining, and four en suite bedrooms, including a huge master.

Open floor plan

realtor.com

The third floor features a chef’s kitchen with stainless-steel appliances and poured concrete counters. The area opens to an expansive dining and living space with floor-to-ceiling windows, as well as a large, light-filled master suite.

Chef’s kitchen

realtor.com

The floors are connected by an eye-popping concrete-and-steel spiral staircase. Other levels include a family room large enough for a grand piano, the other en suite bedrooms, a wine room, and a two-car garage.

Spiral staircase

realtor.com

Luxe details include an elevator, arched and beamed ceilings, radiant floor heating, solar panels, and custom lighting.

Not familiar with Point Richmond? It’s an elite enclave of Richmond, CA, that sits on a peninsula near the eastern end of the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge. The historic small town includes a quaint pub, a hotel, restaurants, shops, parks, and museums.

The area offers easy access to San Francisco by car, mass transit, and ferry service, which will be offered directly from Point Richmond next year, according to the agent.

Sandpiper Spit is an upscale development that has attracted a mix of commuters, boaters, and celebrities, including retired NFL player Marshawn Lynch, who grabbed headlines when he bought an “over-the top-mansion” across the street from this home in 2012.

The high-end community is separated by a freeway and the waterfront in Richmond, a troubled city that has since become an in-demand place to live, in part due to the booming San Francisco Bay Area real estate market, the agent notes.

Back patio with fire pit

realtor.com

You may forget you’re anywhere near a city when you settle into this standout spot. “It’s like being on a luxury boat,” Richetta says. “You have panorama water views and skyline views. You’ve got all the boats around you. It feels like a luxury liner. It doesn’t look like a standard home. It’s a really unique style.”

Spectacular views

realtor.com

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