Posts Tagged ‘Flip’
2923 Asbury St In Cypress Park
2923 Asbury St
Los Angeles, CA 90065
3 BR, 2 BA
$399,000
It’s always exciting when a new bettershelter flip comes on the market. For first time homebuyers looking for a deal in an up and coming area, bettershelter consistently delivers the goods. Bought in June of this year for $190,000 and now listed for $399,000, the house has gone through an extensive transformation with an addition of an extra bedroom and bathroom.
As always, the attention to detail is what really makes Steve and Peter’s houses stand out. Check out the before and afters of the kitchen:
And the exterior:
There’s an open house this Sunday, January 3rd from 2 to 4pm. See you there!
For more photos and info click here.
3239 Atwater Ave In Atwater Village
3239 Atwater Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90039
2 BR, 2BA
$499,000
It’s bettershelter week here at Take Sunset! Well, not quite, but after interviewing Steve Jones on Tuesday he told me about this great new project of theirs that hits the market this week. This craftsman cottage located in a prime Atwater Village location is a great example of what bettershelter does so well – taking something old and making it fresh, new, and most importantly, affordable.
This compound is totally enclosed and is perfect for a small family. It has a victory garden – one of Steve’s favorite new trends. I love the French doors on the master bedroom, the long walkway up to the front door and the spacious living area. Can’t wait to see it in person this Sunday at the open house (2-4pm).
What do you think of this flip? Will you be there to check it out? If you’d like to see this house with a licensed Realtor (me!), send me an email.
More photos here.
Interview With Steve Jones Of bettershelter
If you keep your eye on the local real estate market or simply like to check out open houses on Sundays, chances are good you’ve come across the work of bettershelter. The brainchild of Steve Jones and Peter Zehnder, bettershelter’s goal has been to fill a void in Southern California’s housing market by providing affordable housing with a design aesthetic set in SoCal modernism (see their 1.7 Ocean homes in Costa Mesa for example).
The boutique real estate company based in Newport Beach first popped up on my radar when I read about this flip. Since then I checked out some of their other projects and they all impressed me just as much. Jones took some time out to answer a few questions about design, affordable housing and some of his local faves:
Take Sunset: What made you want to start bettershelter?
Steve Jones: We started bettershelter because we didn’t like what we saw in the market place and thought we could do better, most homes for sale were ugly! bettershelter started in Orange County, where most new homes are master planned communities with little character. A whole audience of home-buyers were being completely ignored.
Flip It: 2310 Brier Ave In Silver Lake
Curbed LA recently spotlighted a great house flip in Silver Lake. But before you look at the outcome, read this description of the house pre-flip via Curbed reader “MidtownLA” from the comments:
“First of all, wow – great flip. A really nice, tasteful renovation. Second of all, holy mother of god – I saw this house when it was for sale for $199k in the fall (when I was looking) and it WAS a tear down. The ad said that it had to be torn down – perhaps this person paid cash and didn’t need to get a mortgage.
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Copyright 2009 Take Sunset. Designed by Curt Ziegler.
The house is 701 sq ft and was initially a 1 bedroom, 1 bath. This is the house that had eleventy-billion feral cats living in and around it, and there’s a huge sign on the wall outside Gingergrass assuring the ‘hood that the cats had been relocated and saved. Rumor is that the house was owned by a crazy vietnam vet who never went anywhere and let the cats have the run of the place. If you ever walked past it, you could smell the cat piss from one house away. Word is that he passed away INSIDE the house (which I imagine the agent has to disclose – not sure about LA County regulations) and that his family who lived in another state was just trying to sell of the property without trying to spiff it up first. I saw a dumpster outside that place for a while and peeked through the fence. That place was ssscccarry! Wonder how they got rid of the cat piss smell…”
Wow! I wish I had read that first because it would have made looking at the pics all the more impressive…have a look for yourself:
Not too shabby, huh? The house was listed for $399,000 and sold for $550,000. The agent got 16 offers. Better Shelter did fantastic job staging the house and also helped with some of the interior work. Overall, it’s amazing to think that the house described above could be transformed this way.
Apparently the new owners didn’t mind the history of the house and jumped at the chance to get a beautiful home at an affordable price in a very desirable neighborhood. So my question is – just how important is a house’s history when deciding whether to buy it? Personally, I’d be a little weary of buying a house that someone may have died in, but I have yet to enter the competitive world of buying a home in Silver Lake. So maybe I could look past that? What do you think?
(photos courtesy of Better Shelter – for more pics click here)