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Friday, June 29, 2012

Happy hour at Caffe Roma

Jam packed at Caffe Roma happy hour.

Lunch at the club, Villa Blanca that is!

Looking for something to do on Sunday evenings? Sunday Movie Nights outdoors on Canon Drive in Beverly Hills, California 90210

Sunday Movie Nights!

New this year will be Sunday Movie Nights. Movies will be shown on a 20-foot inflatable screen. All screenings will start at 8pm. Sunday Movie Nights will be held on: 

July 15
Hugo

July 29
Clueless

August 12
Casablanca

August 26
Mirror, Mirror

September 9
"People's Choice"
(Movie to be decided by patrons coming to the first 3 movies;
ballots will be handed out and patrons will vote for one of
3 or 4 movies listed on a ballot.)

Looking for something to do on Sunday evenings? Sunday Movie Nights outdoors on Canon Drive in Beverly Hills, California 90210

Posted on: Beverly Hills Real Estate-Beverly Hills Homes For Sale

Celebrity Developer Asking $58 Million For His Most Opulent Mansion Yet in Beverly Hills.

Le Belvedere was the most expensive home sale of 2010. The sandstone mansion nestled in the exclusive Bel Air neighborhood of Los Angeles fetched an estimated $50 million. It marked the beginning of a post-recession comeback for ultra luxury real estate. Now, two years later, the developer of that record-breaking manse is again trying his hand at flipping another huge Los Angeles-area home — this time in nearby Beverly Hills.

The Crescent Palace, as the newly listed estate is called, asks $58 million. The price tag  makes it one of America’s most expensive homes currently for sale. It is co-listed with Stacey Gottula and Joyce Rey of Coldwell Banker Previews International.

“This was built for me personally, but I did it with the thought in mind that there is one person out there that would love to have this house for his own use,” says Mohamed Hadid, owner of the newly finished ‘palace’. In real estate circles, Hadid made his name developing Ritz Carlton Hotels, but Bravo reality TV junkies will recognize him from “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills,” as the friend of Lisa Vanderpump.

Hadid says the Crescent Palace took him about 15 months to create. It’s quite the construction feat for a 48,000-square foot limestone mansion touting three levels of rare materials including Iranian marble and an assortment of outrageous amenities. It sits next to the Beverly Hills Hotel, occupying a single acre.

So what does that hefty $58 million price tag fetch?The French chateau-style house has seven bedrooms and 11 interior bathrooms. There’s a formal reception hall, a 90-foot gallery for displaying art work, formal and informal dining rooms, a family room with bar lounge, a leather-paneled library, and an etched-glass front door. The third-floor master suite has a chandelier-bedecked balcony and dual bathrooms — the “hers” touting a fireplace and the “his” touting a secret staircase leading to a 3,800-square foot rooftop garden.

Hadid also carved out a subterranean level boasting a 5,000-bottle wine cellar with dining room, a ballroom with commercial kitchen that can seat up to 200 guests, a full gym, a 40-person screening room and a 12-car garage. Like Le Belvedere, Hadid included touches likely inspired by his Middle Eastern heritage: a  Moroccan-themed lounge and a Turkish hammam with 30-foot indoor pool and steam room with an attached massage area.

Outside, the open air entertaining options abound. There’s a 60-foot infinity pool, a 20-person hot tub, an outdoor kitchen, a dining area for 100 guests, three additional bathrooms, three outdoor fireplaces and two cabanas decorated with beds and sparkling chandeliers. The grounds are also home to four rose gardens, olive and magnolia trees, two fountains and a pond actually inhabited by real-life swans.

“That seems to be his signature on a couple of houses,” says Stacy Gottula, the co-listing agent for Crescent Palace. She admits that the swans have been known to make their way into the swimming pool, striking a “beautiful setting” at night.

“I build castles as homes, but I make sure they are warm,” adds Hadid. He says his favorite room is the kitchen, a communal space that peddles a commercial-sized freezer, a glass walk-in pantry, even a fireplace-bedecked sitting area.

Gottula and her co-listing partner, Joyce Rey, have represented Hadid’s creations before. Including Le Belvedere, the team has sold more than $200 million worth of real estate for the developer. They remain confident the Crescent Palace will lure a moneyed buyer, most likely from abroad. “Foreign buyers love new construction and unique one-of-a-kind construction is particularly appealing to them,” explains Rey, who recently helped sell another opulent Beverly Hills estate called the Wehba Mansion to a Chinese investor for an estimated $35 million.

LA-area properties priced $20 million and up have enjoyed renewed buyer activity. Sales are up 17% from last year, according to Coldwell Banker Previews International.

Celebrity Developer Asking $58 Million For His Most Opulent Mansion Yet in Beverly Hills.

Posted on: Beverly Hills Real Estate-Beverly Hills Homes For Sale

Take a look at the beautiful Coldwell Banker listings in Beverly Hills & Los Angeles in our View Magazine.

Take a look at the beautiful Coldwell Banker listings in Beverly Hills & Los Angeles in our View Magazine.

Posted on: Beverly Hills Real Estate-Beverly Hills Homes For Sale

Los Angeles is such a vast city with so much cultural diversity.

Los Angeles is such a vast city with so much cultural diversity.

Thursday, June 28, 2012

Overlooking the ocean & downtown from the Hollywood Hills

The former home of Larry King in the flats of Beverly Hills.


Taken at Beverly Hills, CA

Posted on: Beverly Hills Real Estate-Beverly Hills Homes For Sale

Just another beautiful day in Beverly Hills.

Just another beautiful day in Beverly Hills.

Luxury Real Estate Sales Pick Up As Supply Tightens, Signs Of Housing Market Recovery Show.

Luxury Homebuying Turns Up As Wealthy Spot Value

Fri, Jun 22 2012 00:00:00 E A10_OPPEDIT
 Posted 06/21/2012 05:56 PM ET

Wealthy homebuyers are back. In March Forrest International Realty sold this estate in Naples, Fla., for $47.25 million, the area's top sale price.

Wealthy homebuyers are back. In March Forrest International Realty sold this estate in Naples, Fla., for $47.25 million, the area's top sale price. View Enlarged Image

How are luxury home sales looking? Ask real estate agent James Forrest, who hit the jackpot when he sold a Florida beachfront estate for $47.25 million in March.

A cash buyer bought the five-bedroom mansion in sunny, monied Naples two weeks after Forrest began showing it to wealthy contacts.

At 23,000 square feet it's a big place. It's also the biggest sale in Forrest's more than 20 years selling high-end real estate, and he says it's the most expensive home ever sold in Southwest Florida.

Why now? The megasale comes amid a nice uptick in luxury home sales here and in other silken pockets of the U.S., such as Beverly Hills, Calif., and some areas around Washington, D.C. These are places where supply is tight and multiple offers on posh homes have become more common, boosting sale prices.

"Properties have been going up in value and the world's wealthy are looking to place their money here," said Forrest, who owns Forrest International Realty in Naples. "It started about five or six years ago when millionaires and billionaires started buying up numerous properties for an investment."

U.S. sales of houses priced $1 million and up rose 24% year over year in May, surging from a 13.4% year-over-year gain in April. These homes are just 1.9% of the market.

Scattered signs of recovery in U.S. housing have appeared, such as bidding wars and price gains in parts of the country where economies are humming. And consumer confidence, while variable lately, is at least higher than it has been most of the past three years. Against that backdrop, higher-end buyers have started pulling out the checkbook.

The luxury market, which was less affected by the housing recession, has been performing better than the rest of the market a while, says Katie Curnutte, spokeswoman at real estate website Zillow.

"The areas with a lot of high-end homes are the seeds from which this recovery is spreading," Curnutte said. "We're hearing a lot of stories about really tight inventories, especially areas with high-end homes — in Seattle, San Francisco and some of the hard-hit areas like Phoenix and Miami where there's a lot of investor interest."

Price For Posh

The Naples real estate market was also hammered by the housing slump. But it's turning around, says Wes Kunkle, manager of Weichert, Realtors On The Gulf in Naples. He estimates the price of properties selling above $2 million is off 10% to 15% from the top of the market.

Luxury Real Estate Sales Pick Up As Supply Tightens, Signs Of Housing Market Recovery Show.

Posted on: Beverly Hills Real Estate-Beverly Hills Homes For Sale

Dead Listings Live Again in Tight Markets.

Record-low inventory levels are breathing new life into homes that were withdrawn from the market but now are finding buyers in markets across the country.

Relisted properties make up a large part of her business, reported Denver REALTOR® Lydia Lin at the National Association of Real Estate Editors conference last week. Reports around the country indicate that the inventory drought is reducing the number of expired listings and encouraging owners who took their homes off the market to relist them for sale.

On the national level, the inventory of single family homes, condominiums, townhouses and co-ops for-sale was 20.07 percent lower last month than it was in May 2011 and declined in all but two of the 146 markets covered by Realtor.com. Since the beginning of the year, the total size of the inventory has averaged about 1.8 to 1.9 million units, the lowest levels observed since Realtor.com began collecting these data in January 2007.

Though no one keeps national data on expired listings and relistings on a national level, market reports from brokers and MLSs around the nation confirm that the environment has improved this year for relisted properties that failed to sell the first time around.

Many agents take a listing for 90 days, when the listing expires. Most MLSs require that expired listings stay off the market for at least 90 days to discourage the practice of relisting slow selling properties to “freshen” them and hide their actual accumulated days on market from buyers. However, in today’s market, fewer properties are expiring and many of those than do are finding buyers when they come back on market. After a home is on the market for 60 to 90 days, it is not unusual for it to sell within five days after coming back on the market as a new listing.

Tallahassee Realtor Joe Manausa calls unsold, expired listings the “forgotten” real estate inventory because the vast majority, as many as 80 percent, will return to the market when flaws that kept them from selling are corrected or the market improves.

“It is the growing group of homeowners who have given up hope of selling their home, but they still want to move. Many of the homes that failed to sell simply re-entered the MLS after failing (sometimes more than once) and eventually sold, but you might be surprised at the number of failures that still remain in the forgotten real estate inventory,” he wrote.

The Forgotten Inventory appears to be on the decline in many areas. In Atlanta, where listings are down 33 percent on the year, one broker offered 25 IPads last spring to agents who brought expired listings from competitors. “Think about this… every single listing is now TWICE as prominent and important as it would have been back in the day of 100,000 available listings. Each listing today is worth 2 listings two years ago,” said Broker Ann Bone.

In Williamsburg, Va., expired listings are down 21 percent from a year ago . In Oakland, they were down 34 percent in May from 2011. In the South Bay area, expired listings peaked at the end of the year. In Austin, one of the hottest markets in the country, the ratio of sold to not sold homes on the MLS was 26 percent in the month of March. Even in good, solid seller’s market about one-third of homes that fail to sell for various reasons.

For more information, visit www.realestateeconomywatch.com.

Dead Listings Live Again in Tight Markets. I had a listing that was not selling for $1,795,000 and took it off market and we then got two offers and sold for $2,010,000. This is certainly the case in Beverly Hills & Los Angeles.

Posted on: Beverly Hills Real Estate-Beverly Hills Homes For Sale

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

I am so ready for dinner but I still have to wait!


Taken at Sur Restaurant and Bar

Posted on: Beverly Hills Real Estate-Beverly Hills Homes For Sale

Sur Lounge one of my favorite spots on Los Angeles.

This new listing in the prestigious Little Holmby area in Westwood will be coming on the MLS next week for $2.6 million.


Taken at Christophe Choo Real Estate Group Coldwell Banker Previews International

Posted on: Beverly Hills Real Estate-Beverly Hills Homes For Sale

Inventory Dwindling As Home Sales Heat Up.

Inventory Dwindling As Home Sales Heat Up

Add one part shrinking inventory, two parts increased home sales, and you’ve got a recipe for a hot housing market. For four years, the housing industry has dragged down the U.S. economy. But now, after ten months of continual rise in housing prices, the housing industry is finally heating up.

 

In states like Wisconsin, increase in sales volume and a higher median sale price herald a revived housing market. Experts’ expectations for the first quarter of 2012 have so far been greatly exceeded. The pace of sales is approaching where it was before the housing market crash in 2008, says Kevin King of the South Central Wisconsin MLS. 

 

Particular sectors of the housing market appear to be improving more rapidly than others. Homes in the $150,000 to $250,000 range, which appeal mostly to two-income families, are seeing much more action than homes on the higher end of the market. Starter homes are also getting a lot of attention, as the numbers of first-time homebuyers are finally financially ready to buy a home. One buyer lost bids against competing buyers three times for homes priced around $200,000. And, as the number of available homes dwindles, prices of those homes will rise. 

 

According to the Orange County Register, the listing inventory of homes for sale in California is the lowest it’s been in seven years, with new homes listed having an expected market time of just 47 days. Since June of the previous year, housing inventory has declined 50 percent in Orange County. Such drastically reduced inventory, combined with increased demand and overall economic improvement have stimulated the long-sluggish housing market. 

 

The improving market conditions are expected to continue the upward trend, with the number of distressed properties in the market preventing housing prices from becoming inflated. With a shortage of homes for sale, prices are expected to increase through 2013. Realtors say they are witnessing a cross-country recovery, as home buyers and sellers rally amid favorable market conditions. 

 

Realtors do caution buyers against waiting too long before they take advantage of current bottoming prices and record low mortgage rates. According to a national survey by RE/Max, nearly 70 percent of realtors agree that the housing market is stabilizing and that prices are on their way up.

 

On a final positive note, home buyers are looking more favorably at distressed properties, according to the RE/Max survey. The money saved on an attractive bargain can easily compensate the amount needed to fix up a bank-owned property that may have had little care over recent months.

Inventory Dwindling As Home Sales Heat Up.

Posted on: Beverly Hills Real Estate-Beverly Hills Homes For Sale

What's in a name? Everything. I am proud that my company is part of the international reach of Coldwell Banker.


Taken at Coldwell Banker Previews International

Posted on: Beverly Hills Real Estate-Beverly Hills Homes For Sale

Half of New Ritz-Carlton Condo Buyers Are From Asia - Ritz Carlton LA Live Downtown Los Angeles

2011.07_ritz.jpgFollowing a Chinese couple's purchase last month of that crazy Sunset Boulevard megamansion, the Wall Street Journal looks at the ever-growing Chinese interest in the American real estate market. In Los Angeles, Asians seem very interested in the Ritz-Carlton Residences in South Park--"half of recent buyers for the new Ritz-Carlton Residences, which AEG developed, hail from Asia," according to the paper. (That must mean they're edging out AEG execs.) Perhaps that's because the brokers invite potential Chinese buyers to stay free for two nights at the adjoining hotel, and end their stay with a champagne toast (they do have to pay their own airfare). So who's buying? There's 23 year old USC student Di Meng, who paid $800,000 for his condo because he was "not keen to rent student housing." Then there's Singaporean businessman Steve Loh, who recently bought SIX condos in the building "for about $1 million each." And blind item time: he's "also facilitating a $60 million transaction with several overseas investors to buy more than 50 condos in another Los Angeles development." Loh says "He isn't worried about Americans—he thinks it will be other Asian-based buyers and businesses who drive up prices, so he is courting them now to invest in the deals he's striking."
· Courting the Chinese Buyer [WSJ]
· AEG Execs, Mary Hart Among 32 Buyers at the Ritz-Carlton [Curbed LA]

Half of New Ritz-Carlton Condo Buyers Are From Asia - Ritz Carlton LA Live Downtown Los Angeles

Posted on: Beverly Hills Real Estate-Beverly Hills Homes For Sale

Rising new home sales point to a strengthening housing market - latimes.com

Rising new home sales point to a strengthening housing market

May sales of new single-family houses reached the highest level since April 2010, adding to evidence that the industry is no longer a drag on the broader U.S. recovery.

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Sales of newly built single-family homes rose to their highest level in more than two years last month, adding to evidence that the U.S. housing market is on the mend and no longer dragging down the broader national recovery.

Real estate helped bring the U.S. out of past recessions as interest rates dropped, home sales increased and construction jobs jumped. But perhaps one of the most significant repercussions of the industry's collapse has been that housing hasn't been available to play its traditional role in the recovery.

That appears to be turning. Sales of new single-family houses in May rose 7.6% compared with April and 19.8% from May 2011, the Commerce Department reported Monday. The seasonally adjusted annual rate of sales was 369,000 last month, the highest level since April 2010, when a federal tax incentive for buyers that had been juicing the market expired, sending sales and prices into a renewed decline.

"This is the first time I have heard any kind of pulse in the home building business in the last five years, and I think it is legitimate," said Stuart Hoffman, chief economist for PNC Financial Services Group. "The housing market will be a source of strength to the economy for the first time in years."

Last year, new home sales were so weak they set a record for the most dismal performance on the books. Sales have now rebounded 35% since hitting a low in February 2011. The widely read economics blog Calculated Risk has argued for months that a recovery in housing is underway.

"It might be hard to believe, but earlier this year there was a debate on whether housing had bottomed," the blog's chief author, Bill McBride, wrote Monday, following the release of the new home sales statistics. "That debate is over — clearly new home sales have bottomed — and the debate is now about the strength of the recovery."

New home sales statistics are often unreliable, and many economists caution about placing too much weight on one month's report. IHS Global Insight economists Patrick Newport and Michele Valverde wrote in an analysis that a three-month moving average of new home sales data shows the numbers are "inching up nationally."

Real estate investment has contributed to economic growth, albeit meagerly, for the last four quarters, according to real gross domestic product data from the Commerce Department's Bureau of Economic Analysis. With the steady rate of improvement in sales, housing will probably continue to be a moderate boost to the shaky economic recovery rather than a drag.

Although sales of newly built homes account for only a slice of the overall housing market, economists keep a close watch on them to get a read on consumer sentiment and job creation, particularly in the construction industry.

The new data add another layer to the ongoing debate over the strength of the recovery. Last week, research showed builders breaking ground on fewer homes in May but requesting the most permits in nearly four years. Home-builder confidence is still weak but home prices are turning around. Mortgage rates are at record lows.

Michael D. Larson, a housing and interest rate analyst for Weiss Research, said he was skeptical that recent improvements in housing data would translate into a strong rebound. The turnaround, Larson said, probably reflects low interest rates making housing relatively affordable and increased confidence following the moderate jobs recovery this year. Those steps forward could be easily threatened by another economic downturn or even sluggish growth, he said.

"The question is whether we are going to be able to sustain this," Larson said. "You have to be a little concerned about the economy."

The housing market this year has been squeezed by tight supply, helping stabilize prices. The data on new home sales released Monday showed inventory of new homes rising for the first time in more than a year, to 145,000. That works out to about 4.7 months of supply, well below the six months that economists consider a healthy inventory.

The median sales price of new houses also improved last month, up 5.6% from the same month last year, to $234,500. That median price was also substantially higher than May's $182,900 median sales price for previously owned homes, as published by the National Assn. of Realtors.

"The implication appears to be that Americans are becoming more willing to splash out on the extra cost of a new home," Paul Diggle, an economist with Capital Economics, wrote in a report.

Christopher Low, chief economist for FTN Financial, said the recovery for new home sales and construction remains isolated to regions where there was no major boom during the go-go years. The suburbs of cities such as New York, Los Angeles and Chicago continue to see little growth.

"We are seeing quite a bit of demand in housing in North Dakota, Montana and Pennsylvania, where thousands of new oil and gas industry jobs have been created," Low said. "We are seeing demand in part of the old industrial Midwest, in Ohio and Michigan, outside of Detroit, where manufacturing jobs are making a comeback."

Throughout Southern California, sales of newly built homes and condominiums have improved slightly over the last year, according to real estate research firm DataQuick of San Diego. Sales increased 5.5% in May from the same month last year, and the median price rose 3.2% to $373,000.

Rising new home sales point to a strengthening housing market - latimes.com

Posted on: Beverly Hills Real Estate-Beverly Hills Homes For Sale

Danny Thomas' former Beverly Hills estate sells for $5.764 million - latimes.com

Danny Thomas' former Beverly Hills estate sells for $5.764 million

The two-story traditional-style house sits on a corner lot of nearly half an acre.

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The former Danny Thomas estate in Beverly Hills sold for slightly less than the asking price. (Jeff Ong / Postrain Productions)

The former Danny Thomas estate in Beverly Hills has sold for $5.764 million.

Built in 1924, the two-story traditional-style house sits on a corner lot of nearly half an acre with a swimming pool, a guest unit, a sports court, a cabana, lawns and a detached four-car garage. The master bedroom suite features a fireplace, two walk-in closets and dual bathrooms for a total of five bedrooms and 51/2 bathrooms.

Thomas gained a following as the star of "The Danny Thomas Show," originally called "Make Room for Daddy," from 1953 to 1965. He continued to work on television until his death in 1991 at 79.

Times archives reference a meeting of the St. Jude Hospital Foundation held at the comedian's home in 1955. His dream for the hospital began in Detroit, where the down-on-his-luck night-club emcee found a pamphlet on St. Jude at a church into which he had wandered. "He walked to the poor box, dropped his remaining $7 into it and prayed for it to be returned sevenfold," The Times story said. Upon returning home, Thomas learned he had landed a job doing washing-machine commercials. The pay was $75.

Public records show the property previously sold in 1998 for $2.4 million. It had been listed at $5.895 million.

Danny Thomas' former Beverly Hills estate sells for $5.764 million - latimes.com

Posted on: Beverly Hills Real Estate-Beverly Hills Homes For Sale

Swimming Pools: Everything You Need to Know From Style, Safety & Cost.

An in-ground pool is the ultimate in backyard upgrades. If you’ve always wanted one, now may be the time. Prices have fallen during the recession by up to 30 percent. Nevertheless, it remains a big investment, so it’s important to make smart choices with regard to size, shape, site selection, and type.

Size and shape depend upon your needs, budget, available area, and design wishes. Swim spas are small pools (some only 10 to 14 feet long) that produce a manmade current against which you can swim in place. Lap pools are typically narrow but require a sizeable yard. Some are as long as an Olympic pool (25 meters) and are meant for training or exercise. Recreational pools are usually shallow at one end and deep enough for diving (9 to 11 ft.) at the other. Typically rectangular, they come in many sizes. Freeform shapes are also available and are often preferred because they blend well into the backyard landscape.

Many pool owners prefer to install their pool close to the kitchen or family room. That provides ready access to the house and makes it easier to bring food and drinks out and to clean up afterwards. It’s also easier to keep an eye on the pool from the house. That said, a somewhat secluded pool has the feel of a vacation getaway — without ever pulling out of the driveway. As long as the pool is connected to the house with a smooth, well-lit path and has a sizable pool deck around it for outdoor furniture and a grill, no one will complain. A pool cabana, of course, allows for nearby dressing and showering.

Pool Construction Methods

The majority of today’s pools are built of vinyl, fiberglass, or concrete (called either wet shotcrete or Gunite, depending upon how it’s mixed and applied). Poured concrete pools and concrete block pools have fallen out of favor. A plaster finish is troweled over shotcrete or Gunite surfaces.

Vinyl is the least expensive option. Inside a suitable excavation, a frame of wood, plastic or metal is erected. The most stable systems are set in a concrete footing. Wall panels are then fastened to the framing, plumbing is installed, and a sand base is laid. A heavy-duty vinyl liner is fastened to the top of the frame and what remains of the hole is backfilled. Masonry coping is installed over the top of the wall.

Fiberglass pools are pre-molded in a variety of shapes and sizes. They are manufactured with steps, benches, and swimouts already in place (not the case with vinyl). After the hole has been dug, plumbing installed, and sand base laid, it is lowered into the hole and leveled. To avoid bowing, filling the pool with water and backfilling with sand must be done simultaneously. No framing is required.

Shotcrete pools are made by shooting a mix of cement, sand, water, and aggregate from a pneumatic applicator at high speeds against the earthen walls and base of the pool excavation and around a grid woven of steel rebar (reinforcing bar). Multiple passes are necessary to build the mixture to the desired thickness. The concrete must be troweled smooth before it sets, and afterwards a coat of plaster is applied.

There are two types of shotcrete, wet and dry. Wet shotcrete is delivered premixed with water in a truck. Dry shotcrete, commonly known as Gunite, is a mix of sand and cement and sometimes small aggregate. It remains dry until it reaches the nozzle of the applicator and doesn’t really mix with water until impact on the pool walls and floor. There is some debate about which approach is stronger and longer lasting, but both processes produce durable pools. Gunite, however, demands a more highly skilled nozzle man to maintain the correct water-to-cement ratio.

Pool Decking

Decking around a pool can be poured concrete, stone, brick, tile, or any of a variety of pavers. Wood may also be used, but it will demand more maintenance, can be slippery when wet, and is prone to causing splinters. Don’t skimp on area. The pool deck, which will be used for lounging, sunbathing, and dining, is likely to get more use than the pool!

Pool Costs

Pool costs vary by type of pool and region. For example, in many parts of the country a fiberglass pool costs less than a concrete pool—but not everywhere. Size is probably a more important indicator of price. Small pools will cost roughly between $20,000 and $30,000. Medium-size pools will run between $30,000 and $40,000. Large pools begin at $40,000 and go up from there. Add in the extras—diving boards, slides, decking, lighting, and automatic cleaners—and the costs can easily rise by another 10 to 20 percent. Some pool contractors may be able to give you a more accurate estimate based upon the pool volume. For example, concrete pools in many parts of the country cost about $10 per cubic foot. As with any home improvement, request several quotes from reputable contractors along with as many references as possible.

In addition to initial cost, plan for ongoing maintenance expenses. Vinyl liners, for example, last about 5 to 10 years, at which time they need to be replaced at a cost of about $4,000. Concrete pools need to be resurfaced every 10 years or so, a job that can cost even more. Fiberglass pools have a life expectancy of 25 years, making them a low-cost option in the long term. In addition, fiberglass is less likely to stain or support the growth of algae, thereby reducing maintenance hassle and expense.

Pool Maintenance

The cost of a new pool doesn’t end with its construction. Depending upon how much of it you hire out, maintenance, supplies and electrical costs can run between $1,000 and $3,000 a year. There’s opening and closing, cleaning, checking connections, adjusting pH, adding algaecide, surface repairs, and liner replacements. Cost-saving green alternatives are available. Before deciding upon chlorine as your primary sanitizer (it’s a major pollutant), consider some of the natural water purifiers. They include saltwater, ionization, oxidation, sonic waves, and certain types of plants. And if you’re thinking about heating your pool to extend its use into the cooler seasons, consider solar thermal heating. Of all the solar technologies, its payback is the fastest.

Pool Safety

The Consumer Safety Protection Commission (CPSC) recommends taking measures to prevent children from accessing the water when there is no adult supervision. When planning a pool, include a fence around the perimeter in your plans. (Your municipality may demand it — and it’s a good idea in any case.) Gates should be self-closing, self-latching, and lockable. Door, gate and pool alarms should be installed along with anti-entrapment drain covers and securable pool covers. Everyone using the pool should be taught to swim, and someone in the family should be trained in CPR, first aid, and emergency response.

Related:

Bob Vila is the home improvement expert widely known as host of TV’s This Old House, Bob Vila’s Home Again, and Bob Vila. Today, Bob continues his mission to help people upgrade their homes and improve their lives with advice online at BobVila.com. His video-rich site offers a full range of fresh, authoritative content – practical tips, inspirational ideas, and more than 1,000 videos fromBob Vila television.

Note: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinion or position of Zillow.

 

Swimming Pools: Everything You Need to Know From Style, Safety & Cost.

Posted on: Beverly Hills Real Estate-Beverly Hills Homes For Sale

Overlooking Century City, the Westside of Los Angeles and the ocean.


Taken at Christophe Choo Real Estate Group Coldwell Banker Previews International

Posted on: Beverly Hills Real Estate-Beverly Hills Homes For Sale

Overlooking Century City, the Westside of Los Angeles and the ocean.


Taken at Christophe Choo Real Estate Group Coldwell Banker Previews International

Posted on: Beverly Hills Real Estate-Beverly Hills Homes For Sale

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Danny Thomas' former Beverly Hills estate sells for $5.764 million.

Danny Thomas' former Beverly Hills estate sells for $5.764 million

The two-story traditional-style house sits on a corner lot of nearly half an acre.

  • Danny Thomas

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Hot Property

The former Danny Thomas estate in Beverly Hills sold for slightly less than the asking price. (Jeff Ong / Postrain Productions)

The former Danny Thomas estate in Beverly Hills has sold for $5.764 million.

Built in 1924, the two-story traditional-style house sits on a corner lot of nearly half an acre with a swimming pool, a guest unit, a sports court, a cabana, lawns and a detached four-car garage. The master bedroom suite features a fireplace, two walk-in closets and dual bathrooms for a total of five bedrooms and 51/2 bathrooms.

Thomas gained a following as the star of "The Danny Thomas Show," originally called "Make Room for Daddy," from 1953 to 1965. He continued to work on television until his death in 1991 at 79.

Times archives reference a meeting of the St. Jude Hospital Foundation held at the comedian's home in 1955. His dream for the hospital began in Detroit, where the down-on-his-luck night-club emcee found a pamphlet on St. Jude at a church into which he had wandered. "He walked to the poor box, dropped his remaining $7 into it and prayed for it to be returned sevenfold," The Times story said. Upon returning home, Thomas learned he had landed a job doing washing-machine commercials. The pay was $75.

Public records show the property previously sold in 1998 for $2.4 million. It had been listed at $5.895 million.

Danny Thomas' former Beverly Hills estate sells for $5.764 million.

Posted on: Beverly Hills Real Estate-Beverly Hills Homes For Sale