Available once again - buyers cancelled escrow 48 hours before close because they were no longer getting married.

Beautiful and spacious townhome in upscale gated community of The Laurels in South Coast Metro. This quality townhome built in 2004 features sought after amenities such as granite kitchen counters, stainless steel appliances, plantation shutters, recessed lighting, fireplace, air conditioning, upstairs laundry room, high ceilings, and no mello-roos. The huge master suite features a walk-in closet, double sink vanity, and spacious glass shower. Resort quality association amenities including gorgeous community pool, spa, and BBQ area and a tot-lot. This community is commuter friendly with quick access to both the 405 fwy and John Wayne airport and is just minutes away from world class shopping at South Coast Plaza, popular dining, theaters, the OC Performing Arts Center, distinguished schools, and renowned beaches. 

A few summary details:

1309 Corte Alemano
3 bd | 2.5 ba 
Approx. 1,500 sq. ft.
Gated community
Listed at $515,000

For further details or to schedule a showing, contact Stacey Harmon at 949.885.6497.

I've got a great new listing to announce at 37 Silver Pine in Newport Coast.  For lots of photos, a cool video, and further details about the property, check out the post I've made at my main blog.

A few summary details:

37 Silver Pine
4 bd | 4.5 ba | Bonus room
One of the best ocean views the community of Santa Lucia has to offer
24-hour guard gated community
Listed at $2,349,000

Co-listed with Stephanie Strader Lowe.

The brokerage I'm at is hiring...thought this might be a good place to find some qualified leads!  Job posting is below...

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Surterre Properties is looking for a highly motivated self-starter with solid PC background to assist with daily Help Desk and Network operations. This person will provide support to the network and end-users (Realtors and staff) via telephone, email and in-person.

Required Skills:

- Customer service
- Minimum 2 years experience in a help desk environment.
- Must have excellent interpersonal & communication skills - will interface with users at all levels of the organization.
- The ability to multitask and meet deadlines is an absolute must.
- Thorough knowledge of Windows XP/Vista: Installations, configurations, and troubleshooting.
- Full understanding of TCP/IP protocol: IP addressing, DHCP, DNS and Active Directory
- Proficiency with Microsoft Office suite and Outlook email client.
- Solid hands-on hardware skills: PCs, laptops, printers, scanners, etc.

Desired Skills:

- Any MS Exchange knowledge would be a definite advantage.
- Experience with ShoreTel VoIP solution and or VoIP in general is a major plus.
- MAC OS X

hr@surterreproperties.com

Surterre Properties is an upscale boutique residentail real estate brokerage serving Coastal Orange County with offices in Newport Beach and Laguna Beach and approximately 200 agents.  www.SurterreProperties.com

It is time again for the weekly Surterre Properties Best Buys in Coastal Orange County.  Designed to help you sift through the abundance of listing inventory that is out there these days, the list is comprised of those listings that represent the best value in the Coastal Orange County area.  The property can be listed by any brokerage (it isn't Surterre specific) but must demonstrate true value to a committee made up of 15 Surterre Realtors who meets weekly to select the best buy properties. 

This week, I'm I'm thrilled that one of my listings has made this weeks list - 402 Dahlia.  For more information, see the Best Buy's list below, or check out my blog post with full details on amenities and offers multiple photos.

Also, the Best Buy's program is being met with huge success.  With a 44% success rate for the Best Buy properties since the inception of the program 7 weeks ago, the properties that make the Best Buy list far outpace the MLS listings transaction rate of 1.6%.  Here is a summary of the program since it started:

• 7 weeks of Surterre Best Buys
• 41 Total Listings
• 21 Surterre Listings
• 20 Outside  Listings

# of Surterre Best Buys properties that are:

• In the Offer Stage - 3
• In Escrow - 11
• Sold - 4

If you are interested in further information on any of the Best Buys, please contact Stacey Harmon at 949.885.6497. 

Here at the best buys for the week of 4.22.08 (new properties are announced every Tuesday):

Surterre Properties is the first green residential brokerage in Coastal Orange County.  Surterre is also an EcoBroker affiliate and I am the first EcoBroker agent at the company.  We run some beautiful ads and I thought our Happy Earth Day ad that ran in the local paper was pretty enough to post.  So, here is wishing you all a Happy Earth Day! 

For incoming UCI Merage MBA students interested in renting in Coastal Orange County, Jonathan Lasner of the Orange County Register had an interesting blog post reporting on the local rents and vacancy rates in various cities around Orange County.  As excerpted from his post, the average rent in those cities most convenient for Merage MBA students at UC Irvine is as follows:

City                               Average Rent
Irvine                                   $1,908 
Costa Mesa                         $1,656 
Newport Beach                    $1,965 
Aliso Viejo                           $1,741

If you are looking to save a few hundred dollars a month, and will have a car during your time at the Merage School of Business, both Costa Mesa and Aliso Viejo offer more affordable rental options while still being very convenient to campus.  They are definitely cities to consider in your rental search.  Costa Mesa in particular is half way between the Merage School of Business and the beach - hard to get much better than that!  Several of my classmates (myself included) resided in Costa Mesa as graduate students.

For more information or assistance in renting an off-campus apartment or condo during your MBA experience, please contact Stacey Harmon at 949.885.6497.

Curious about the lowest and highest priced listings in Irvine? 

This list covers the 5 lowest, and 5 highest properties in the city of Irvine as of 4.18.08 for both the condo, and single family home categories. 

Lowest Priced

Condos

• $232,500 | 47 Lakepines, 1 bd/1 ba (REO)
• $239,900 | 156 Streamwood, 1 bd/1 ba
• $255,000 | 3210 Watermarke Place, 1 bd/1 ba (Short sale)
• $263,000 | 3415 Watermarke Place, 1 bd/1 ba (REO)
• $275,000 - $300,000 | 2271 Scholarship, 1 bd/1 ba (Short sale)

Single Family Homes

• $399,900 - $429,900 | 100 Orchard, 2 bd, 1 ba
• $429,000 | 87 Orchard, 2 bd/2 ba
• $499,900 | 14952 Greenbrae, 2 bd/1 ba
• $500,000 | 14781 Doncaster Rd, 3 bd/2 ba (Short sale)
• $519,900 | 4472 Robinwood Circle, 3 bd/2 ba

Highest Priced

Condos
This list does not include the extensive high-rise condo options that are currently available in Irvine and can go up to $3.9M for a condo. 

• $1,499,900 | 14 Sirius, 3 bd/3 ba
• $1,325,000 | 26 Sarena, 3 bd/3 ba
• $1,295,000 | 41 Mirador, 3 bd/3 ba
• $1,295,000 | 32 Morning Breeze, 3 bd/3ba
• $1,285,000-$1,299,000 | 32 Shade Tree, 3 bd/4 ba

Single Family Homes
Not surprisingly, all of the highest priced homes are in the exclusive, gated community of Shady Canyon and are all custom built homes.

• $11,800,000 | 89 Canyon Creek, 9 bd/11 ba
• $11,679,000 | 56 Golden Eagle, 5 bd/6 ba
• $9,995,000 | 66 Canyon Creek, 5 bd/8 ba (this really is a spectacular home - one of the best layouts of a custom home in Shady Canyon that I have seen)
• $8,995,000 | 63 Canyon Creek, 5 bd/7 ba
• $8,995,000 | 24 Cactus, 6 bd/9 ba

Have an interest in any of these properties?  For further information, please contact Stacey Harmon at 949.885.6497.

Curious about the lowest and highest priced listings in Newport Beach? 

This list covers the 5 lowest, and 5 highest properties as listed in the MLS for the Newport Beach market as of 4.18.08 in both the condo, and single family home categories.  For this list, the Newport Beach market is defined as the city of Newport Beach and includes the areas of Corona del Mar, Newport Coast, and Crystal Cove.

Lowest Priced

Condos

• $249,900 | 1100 Rutland Road, #11, 1 bd/1 ba  (REO Property - currently has in 3 offers - not surprising as this is an unheard of price in Newport Beach!)
• $325,000 | 200 McNeil Lane, #5  1 bd/1 ba
• $389,000 | 102 Scholz Plaza, 1 bd/1 ba
• $399,900 | 1256 Rutland Road, #2, 2 bd/2 ba 
• $415,000 | 200 McNeil Lane, #7  1 bd/1 ba

Single Family Homes

• $789,000 | 20462 Santa Ana Ave, 2 bd/2 ba
• $789,000 | 41 Egret Court, 2 bd/2 ba
• $795,000 | 74 Pelican Court, 2 bd/2 ba
• $799,000 | 1561 Indus Street, 5 bd/3 ba
• $849,900 | 338 Cherry Tree Lane, 3 bd/2 ba

Highest Priced

Condos

• $2,995,000 | 9 Rue Cannes, 3 bd/3 ba
• $2,994,900 | 146 Sidney Bay, 4 bd/4 ba (just went into escrow this week)
• $2,899,000 | 118 Sidney Bay, 3 bd/4 ba
• $2,850,000 | 81 Monterey Pine, 5 bd/5 ba
• $2,850,000 | 106 Sidney Bay, 4 bd/4 ba

Single Family Homes

• $75,000,000 | 4627 Brighton Road, 8 bd/15 ba (was featured on Oprah - has been listed for 718 days as of today - maybe a tad overpriced?)
• $26,900,000 | 18 Shoreline, 9 bd/20 ba
• $24,900,000 | 21 Pelican Vista, 4 bd/20 ba
• $20,995,000 | 12 Skyridge, 5 bd/7 ba
• $18,800,000 | 42 Pelican Point, 4 bd/6 ba

Have an interest in any of these properties?  For further information, please contact Stacey Harmon at 949.885.6497.

Want some help sifting through the abundance of listing inventory that is out there these days?  Want to know which listings are truly the best buys?  Look no further than my new weekly post of best buys! 

The list is comprised of those listings that represent the best valuein the local area.  The property can be listed by any brokerage (it isn't Surterre specific) but must demonstrate true value to a committee made up of 15 Surterre Realtors who meets weekly to select the best buy properties. 

Our local paper, the Daily Pilot, recently featured the program under their "Business Watch" category and noted how it is "a public service to home shoppers, which means spotlighting all the best deals in central Orange County - even ones from other firms for which Surterre won't make a penny."

If you are interested in further information on any of the Best Buys, please contact Stacey Harmon at 949.885.6497. 

Here at the best buys for the week of 4.15.08 (new properties are announced every Tuesday):

Note:  516 Bolsa clearly was a best buy...it is already in escrow!

At a recent presentation made by GU Krueger, Senior VP of IHP Capital Partners (and former Deputy Chief Economist of the California Association of Realtors), Mr. Krueger presented a summary of the Orange County custom lots and custom home market.  I found his summary very interesting and have reformatted it to post here:

ORANGE COUNTY CUSTOM LOT CHOICES:

ORANGE COUNTY CUSTOM HOME CHOICES:

Mr Kruegar was speaking to a group affiliated with the Convenant Hills sales project (Surterre Properties is the exclusive broker for the lot sales).  He made the point that Covenant Hills offers a strong lot value, but that value is less apparent in the Custom Home choices category. 

After seeing the project myself, I would have to agree.  Having sold a custom home in Shady Canyon last year that was listed for $8.5M, I am hard pressed to see the benefits that the custom homes in Covenant Hills have over Shady Canyon custom homes or the production homes at Crystal Cove.  For the same price as a high end Covenant Hills custom home, you can get a comparable product with more land ("the luxury of space" as it was tagged in Irvine Company Advertising) in Shady Canyon, a community with higher perceived prestige and a more coastal location (South of the 405), or you can get a similar sized house possibly with an ocean view and better coastal resale location in Crystal Cove.  It will be interesting to watch the sales progress of the Covenant Hills custom homes.  From my perspective, it will be a challenge.