Danny Brown's Q&A

It sounds like you made a classic mistake and used your "friend" brain not your "business" brain.  There's nothing wrong with being kind and generous, but selling real estate in a tough market takes percission, tenacity, experience, enthusiasm and relationships.  If your agent is missing any of the above your playing roulette with your precious real estate asset and your personal net worth.   The good news is there is an easy way to fix this. Your listing expires in 30 days, so in the next week or so you should mention it to your current listing agent and tell them that you'd like to have your other friend co-list it.  You should be straight forward and direct so they know it's not up for discussion.  You could even have the new broker split the marketing costs to date so the 1st broker doesn't feel like they were treated unfairly.  The 2nd broker should be happy to reimburse the 1st broker at the close of escrow. 

Have your agent search the deed which will state which lender (s) have loans outstanding on the property.DANNY BROWN I HOMES GROUPHave

I don't know your specific situation.  In general, you cannot refinance if you are underwater.  You may be able to work out a loan mod, but that is a laborious process and could take several months and there's no guarantee that your lender will modify your loan. DANNY BROWN I HOMES GROUP WWW.THEWESTSIDEBLOG.COM

Initially your property tax of approximately 1.25% will be based on your purchase price until it's assessed by the County.  Then, it will go up or down based on the country assessor's office assessment of the property value.  The taxes are billed twice a year in February (due in April) and November (due in December).  You can speak with your lender if you prefer to pay taxes monthly rather than bi-annually. They can generally set up an escrow account for you to do this.  Danny Brown Homes

Contact an attorney who specializes in dealing with easement issues and review a title report and the underlying documents which will show all plotted easements.

You may want to contact Justin Weiss who is very involved with what's going on Downtown and may know people living in the Market Lofts.  I know they're planning an auction soon at that project and I'm curious what sort of prices will be offered.jweiss@downtownla.com

LA County property tax is approximately 1.25% of the purchase price /market value.  It's billed bi-annually in November and February, not monthly. 

There's a limited amount of 2009 construction in each pocket of Brentwood.  Look at your specific micro market or pocket and see if any new construction has sold this year.  This information will give you a starting point in terms of value per square foot and overall market value. Of course, you have to take into account the upgrades, the lot size, the floor plan, the street and the location on the street, etc.  The you drill down on the details the more accurate your price assessment will be. 

The residential market is hyper local, or micro, so each area has a unique landscape and the activity level varies in each area and each price range.  The schitzophrenic impulses you're feeling are valid.  We're reading and hearing a lot of awful econmic news everyday, and then we're seeing 15 offers on some properties.  Why is this happening?  This usually happens on the Westside of Los Angeles when a home is priced more than 5% below the true current market value.  If a house is priced right, there's a lot of qualified buyers ready to snap it up.  If a house is not priced right it will sit until it's reduced to an attractive price.  Obviously, Interest rates are ridiculously low and won't stay this artifically low forever, and there's been a pent up demand of buyers who have been on the sidelines for the past 3-5 years.  All of these factors have helped spur transaction activity through out Los Angeles.