Monday Mish Mash: Rod Stewart

Still touring senior citizen rock star Rod Stewart and his long-time lady-wife Penny Lancaster have reportedly shelled out around £4,650,000* for Durrington House, a hulking, Grade II listed Palladian-style pile about 30 miles north-east of London on 46 bucolic acres near Epping Forest on the Essex/Hertfordshire border.

According to information Your Mama dug up on the internets, the country estate includes a substantial main house with four reception rooms, a paneled formal dining room plus a separate morning room, a billiard room, 10 principal bedrooms, five bathrooms, three fireplaces with carved wood mantels, and a wine cellar in the basement. The oldest part of the house dates back to the early 18th century with later additions from the 19th century.

The property's numerous outbuildings four cottages, a stable block and a carriage house with an 18th-century clock tower. The estate's grounds include vast lawns, formal and informal gardens, a rose garden, an orchard, a greenhouse and potting sheds, a croquet lawn, tennis court and alfresco dining terraces.

Mister Stewart's property portfolio includes another country estate just about 30 minutes from Durrington House plus a nearly 13,000 square foot house in Palm Beach (FL) and an almost 19,000 square foot behemoth in the famously steroidal Beverly Park community in Beverly Hills (CA).

*As far as we can tell, £4,650,000 is the last known asking price for the property. A few quick clicks and clacks on Your Mama's handy-dandy currency conversion contraption shows that amount equals $7,239,820 at today's rates. It's not known—or at least it's not yet been revealed—what amount Mister Steward and Miz Lancaster have agreed to pay for the property.

listing photo: Savills (via the Financial Times)

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Monday Mish Mash: Caroline Kennedy

The real estate news out of Boston is that former first daughter Caroline Kennedy—recently selected by President Obama to be the ambassador to Japan—has heaved two separate and undeveloped parcels on the blue-blooded resort island of Martha's Vineyardon the market for a total of $45,000,000.

The smaller parcel—39.1 acres with more than 1,000 feet of frontage on Squibnocket Pond and over-the-dunes view of the Atlantic Ocean—has an asking price of $20,000,000. The larger, nearly 54 acre beach front parcel carries a $25,000,000 price tag.

The two parcels were originally purchased by Miz Kennedy's mother Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis as part of a 366 acre purchase she made back in 1978. According to The Martha's Vineyard Times, in 2006 the original 31 separate parcels acquired by the former first lady were combined and reconfigured into seven sprawling parcels, the largest being 106 acres and the site of Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg's pond-front compound. Three equal-sized lots were reserved for the three Kennedy-Schlossberg children, a fifth was "declared forever non-buildable, to preserve the coast environment," and the remaining two, those that are now for sale, set aside and allowable for sale to pay taxes and/or other expenses.

aerial image: Bing

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Monday Mish Mash: L.A. Reid

The property peeps at The Real Deal revealed that music industry honcho L.A. Reid has hoisted his sprawling condo-crib on New York City's posh Park Avenue on the market with a sizable $18,900,000 price tag.

The three-time Grammy winning record exec, producer and songwriter acquired 5,003 square foot, full-floor spread back in 2000 for $9.43 million.

A quick scan of the floor plan included with online marketing materials shows the apartment has an art-friendly foyer, a nearly 600 square foot corner living room with two walls  of over-sized windows, an adjoining formal dining room, and an eat-in kitchen and roomy laundry/service wing that could easily be remade into a prison cell-sized staff suite.

There are four dedicated bedrooms, each with a private attached bathroom, plus a library—also with private attached bathroom—that's quickly and easily converted to a proper bedroom. In addition to the two spacious walk-in closets in the master bedroom, the floor plan shows a separate, windowless walk-in closet/dressing room located down the hall.

Listing details indicate the four-exposure apartment is offered with a separate studio apartment (with kitchenette) located on a lower floor. Building amenities include: full-time doormen; concierge and valet services; a state-of-the-art residents only gym; a residents only dining room; private storage rooms; and private climate-controlled wine cellars. Monthly common charges and property taxes come to $14,806 per month according to listing details.

Mr. Reid also owns a substantial residence on 3.27 acres in the Hamptons, Sagaponack to be more specific. Property records she he purchased the swimming pool-, tennis court- and private pond-equipped estate in February 2006 for exactly $10,000,000.

Mr. Reid has long maintained a home in Atlanta and property records show that since 2008 he's owned a modest, 1,326 square foot townhouse residence in a gated community about 8.5 miles northwest of downtown that he picked up for $239,200.

listing photo and floor plan: Brown Harris Stevens

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Reese Witherspoon Buys House Next Door

BUYER: Reese Witherspoon
LOCATION: Los Angeles, CA
PRICE: $3,000,000
SIZE: 3,053 square feet, 4 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: As pearl clutchingly scandalicious as the tabloid storm over the recent arrests of otherwise wholesome Oscar winning actress Reese Witherspoon and her talent agent second hubby Jim Toth in Atlanta (GA) may be—he for driving drunk, she for cop sassing—it's their most recent, semi-secret real estate doings that really grab the attentions of real estate obsessed folk like Your Mama.

Some of the children may recall it wasn't too long ago that word made its way down the celebrity real estate gossip grapevine and into Your Mama's increasingly prodigious lap about how the Witherspoon-Toths were scouring the better zip codes of Los Angeles for a secluded new spread in the $15-20,000,000 range. Indeed, multiple sources snitched to Your Mama that, among other similarly sized and priced properties, the couple had a look see at but passed on NBC Broadcasting Chairman Ted Harbert's ex-wife Susan's secluded two-plus acre spread in Pacific Palisades that was then being quietly shown off market but is now listed on the open market with an $18.5 million asking price.

Despite an exhaustive search for a pricey new pad to house their growing family of five it seems Miz Witherspoon and Mister Toth may have decided to stay put in Miz Witherspoon's long-time residence in a discreet, gated enclave in L.A.'s tony Brentwood community where, Your Mama recently discovered, last December she/they surreptitiously shelled out exactly $3,000,000 for the house next door.

The first piece of Miz Witherspoon's three property puzzle was picked up way back in late 2003 when she was still married to actor Ryan Phillippe. She paid, according to property records, $4,725,000 for the corner property and its nearly 7,000 square foot mock-Med mini-mansion.

In July 2009, not too long after she and Mister Phillippe parted ways, Miz Witherspoon forked over $3.325 million for one of the two neighboring properties. She subsequently razed the 3,000 residence and re-landscaped the property to incorporate it into the existing backyard area.

A couple of quick and crude calculations on Your Mama's beloved bejeweled abacus shows that Miz Witherspoon has spent a total of $11,050,000 on her three parcel spread that combined encompass 1.32 acres.

Miz Witherspoon's newest  acquisition had long been owned by handsome NCIS actor Mark Harmon's mother, the late fashion designer turned Maybelline model turned Tinseltown starlet turned painter mother Elyse Knox who was married to Heisman Trophy winning father Tom Harmon until his death in 1990.


Listing details from the time of the sale show the existing, perfectly ordinary single story ranch-style house was originally built in 1956, on a .66 acre lot and includes a total of three bedrooms and three bathrooms—plus an additional staff bedroom and bathroom—in 3,053 square feet. The grounds include a brick-paved motor court and attached two car garage, expansive brick terraces, a swimming pool and a separate stone and glass art studio/guest house. Your Mama has no idea what Miz Witherspoon and Mister Toth have planned for the property.


Avid celebrity real estate watchers know that Miz Witherspoon and by extension Mister Toth have been in mood to shake up her/their portfolio of high-priced properties over the last few years. In 2008 the Miz Witherspoon snatched up Libbey Ranch—a stunning historic ranch in Ojai, CA—from Million Dollar Decorator Kathryn Ireland for $5.8 million. She had the landscaping worked over by accomplished landscape designer Jay Griffith and the interiors all did up by lady-decorator Kristen Buckingham and in March 2011 she and Mister Toth were united in holy matrimony on the grounds in front of a slew of celeb guests. It wasn't long after the pristine property appeared on the cover and in the glossy pages of Elle Decor (Sept. 2012) that it popped up for sale with a $10 million price tag. She recently slashed the asking price by $2.75 million.

In August 2010—half a year before she married Mister Toth—she bought a secluded, equestrian friendly 2.53 acre spread in the prosperous and rustic Mandeville Canyon area of Los Angeles from idiosyncratic actor Steven Seagal for $6.9 million. She quickly leveled the property's various structures before she caught a classic case of The Celebrity Real Estate Fickle and flipped the property back on the market with an asking price of $7.995 million. The property was quietly sold it in November 2012 for $7.5 to seven-time Oscar nominated producer Kathleen Kennedy and five-time Oscar nominated producer Frank Marshall who, the children may recall, sold their previous home in L.A.—a gigantic Gwathmey Siegel & Associates-designed pile —early 2010 for just over $26 million to Tinseltown royals Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson.

Miz Witherspoon's property portfolio also includes a 6,462 square foot residence in the guard-gated Sugartree enclave in her native Nashville, TN that she scooped up in April 2005 for $760,000.

listing photo: Coldwell Banker Beverly Hills North

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New Loan Started, March Apartment Update

I've started  a new hard money loan on a property in Richmond, CA. This is a 4 bedroom duplex, 2 bedrooms and 1 bath on each side. Each unit is 600 square feet for a total property square footage of 1,200 square feet. Each unit has an attached one car garage. There is at least one tenant in the property (my partner was unable to see the interior of either side). The property was built in 1960 and is on a 3,750 square foot lot. There is a train track nearby and my partner said he could hear the train as it went by, but he thinks it might not be audible from inside the property.

Surprisingly, there are several duplex comps within a 1 mile radius. They sold for between $140,000 (REO sale, slightly smaller property) to $215,000. This property was purchased at auction for $176,000. The opening bid was $117,000, so there was a lot of interest in this property and the price was bid up nicely. Our after repaired value estimate is $220,000 with a current value estimate of $170,000. (Yes, our current value estimate is lower than the purchase price.) Our loan is for $120,000, giving us a 71% loan to value ratio based on the current value. We also estimate the units can rent for $700 a month each, which would be a $1,400 monthly income on a $120,000 investment, should we have to foreclose. Not bad. Our borrower is someone we have worked with a couple times before. He has always paid on time. He works for our biggest borrower and is starting to build his own business of rehabbing foreclosed properties. He is personally guaranteeing the loan. I'll refer to this property as Hard Money #27.

In other news, the March numbers for the apartment complex are in. Rent income increased by $2,000, occupancy rose. Total revenue dropped due to lower utility billbacks, and operating expenses declined. All those factors combined to give an increase in Net Operating Income over last February by almost $3,000. Management expects revenue to continue to increase going forward. For the first three months of this year, the property is cash flow positive, although it is still below the budgeted cash flow amount.

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Virtual Visits

A new study purportedly suggests that “virtual visits” to healthcare providers for certain infections may be as effective as, and cheaper than, in-person in-office visits.  The researchers’ rough estimate of the cost difference with respect to treating a patient with a reported UTI was $74 per e-visit vs. $93 for an office visit.  Query, what are the implications for proper patient screening and care; patient savings; efficiencies; return visit frequencies; over-prescribing antibiotics; access to healthcare; and healthcare real estate needs, costs, and returns on costs per square footage?

Read more at:

“Virtual visits to doctor may be cheaper than and as effective as in-person visits”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/virtual-visits-to-doctor-may-be-cheaper-than-and-as-effective-as-in-person-visits/2013/01/18/8237c028-601e-11e2-a389-ee565c81c565_story.html

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What's Ahead For Mortgage Rates This Week - May 6, 2013

Mortgage rates fell last week and approached or reached record low levels.

According to Freddie Mac, the average rate for a 30-year fixed rate mortgage (FRM) fell from 3.40 percent to 3.35 percent. Average rates for a 15-year FRM moved from 2.61percent to 2.56 percent.

Average rates for a 5/1 adjustable rate mortgage (ARM) fell to 2.56 from last week's average of 2.58 percent Discount points for last week's mortgage rates ranged from 0.7percent for 30 and 15 year FRM loans to 0.5 percent for a 5/1 ARM.

Rock-bottom mortgage rates can offset the impact of rising home prices.

Last Week Was A Strong Showing For The US Economy

Last week's economic news provided further indications of economic recovery, with housing related reports contributing to overall confidence in a stronger economy.

Highlights of last week's news include:

Monday: Pending home sales moved up to 1.50 percent in March from February's -1.07 percent. This reading also surpassed Wall Street's forecast of 0.90 percent for March.

Tuesday: The Case-Shiller Home Price Index for February reported that the national average home price had increased by 9.3 percent year-over-year between February 2012 and February 2013. By comparison, the average national home price between January 2012 and January 2013 increased by 8.1 percent year-over-year. Rising home prices are contributing to the economic recovery, but in some areas demand for homes exceeds supply, which also contributes to rising home prices.

Wednesday: The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) issued its scheduled statement after its meeting concluded. Committee members noted signs of an improving economy, and cited housing markets as a leading contributor to the recovery. The FOMC statement also indicated that economic conditions were not sufficiently improved for the FOMC to change or cease the Federal Reserve's quantitative easing policy. The Fed's goal for its current quantitative easing program is keeping long-term interest rates including mortgage rates low.

Thursday: The weekly Jobless Claims Report brought better-than-expected news with new jobless claims coming in at 324,000, less than the expected reading of 345,000 new jobless claims and also higher than the previous report's reading of 342,000 new jobless claims.

Friday: The Bureau of Labor Statistics issued its monthly “Jobs Report,” which consists of the Non-farm Payrolls Report and the national Unemployment Rate. Again new jobs added exceeded expectations for April with 165,000 jobs added against expectations of 135,000 new jobs added. April's reading also surpassed the March reading of 138,000 new jobs.

The unemployment rate dropped to 7.5 percent as compared to a consensus of 7.6 percent and last month's reading of 7.6 percent. To put this reading in perspective, the FOMC has targeted an unemployment rate of 6.5 percent as a benchmark for adjusting its current policies including quantitative easing.

What To Look For This Week

This week's economic events include latest Jobless Claims report on Thursday. It will be interesting to see if this week's reading will be lower than last week's reading of 324,000 new jobless claims.

On Friday, the Federal Budget will be released; this could influence financial markets depending on what programs and services are cut or reduced.

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