patrick.net

If you have $400k to put down AND need good public schools AND a reasonable commute, you are looking at:

South Pasadena
La Crescenta
La Canada
Arcadia
Temple City
Alhambra
San Marino
Burbank
Parts of Monterey Park and San Gabriel

All feature public schools K-12 that are good to outstanding depending on the community.

All are a 45 minute or less rush hour commute to DTLA except Arcadia where I would recommend taking the Gold Line rather than drive. South Pasadena is closest.

All are nice safe areas. Several have large or even majority Asian populations.

I'm guessing that overall Burbank, Monterey Park, Alhambra, and Temple City are the least expensive. All were blue collar lower middle class neighborhoods ...basically the Los Angeles suburban dream.. for decades but good schools and rising home prices made the upper middle class enclaves. 3/2 1500 sq ft homes start around $450-500k.

Most expensive is San Marino aka The Chinese Beverly Hills followed by La Canada and South Pasadena. 3/2 1500 sq ft homes start in the mid 700's.

Isn't Hancock Park zoned to Fairfax High?

I thought Fairfax High was terrible....

Does anyone know a good realtor around south Pasadena?

A good realtor?

Is it reasonable to look for foreclosure around temple city or Alhambra?
How about south Pasadena? I know RE agents might say no way!!!
Has anyone bought foreclosure in south Pasadena? If yes, how many sq. ft. And how much?
Detailed information is greatly appreciated.

Gulpher I like your comment. Would you pls post more comment.
I want to know a bit more about Sherman oaks and its surrounding cities.
Pls let me know good zip code area Thai I should look for.

Are you happy with your new purchase?
How much is reasonable offer per sq. ft.?
Are you pleased with the school?
Pls guide me through it.

I hope patrick will be kind enough to let us get in touch directly.

carducci22 says

good realtor?

LMAO. Welcome to patrick.net.

Carducci22, The neighborhood we looked at in Sherman Oaks was areas of east of 405 and south of Ventura Blvd; addresses zoned to Dixie Canyon Elementary and Sherman Oaks Elementary. These two schools are ok with a rating of 8. A couple of houses south of 101 were also looked at. But never went north of 101. We stopped shopping at Sherman Oaks since our son would have to go north of 101 to attend secondary and high schools which wife said no good.

Studio City, In our opinion, has a similar issue with good elementary school in Carpenter Avenue Elementary School. One needs to send kids to private secondary and high schools.

I couldn't be happier with where we settled. The schools are 9-10s. The weather rarely goes over 80s. Yes, it costs a small fortune to get a newer sub 3k square feet house. We prepared to pay between $300 - 360/Sq. Ft. regard to areas mentioned before.

Looking back, I think that last November was a better time to buy not only it cost a little less but also more choices there were. Heck, who knows. All I could say was that I lost some ten years of quality life while waiting to get in thanks to all the interventions out there. Sure, I rented in some of the most beautiful cities on the planet the last twenty years. However, it's just not the same as where I'm at.

Gulpher, how about pre schools and elementary schools in the area? Is it top notch?
Pls let me know the zip codes. Are the zones classified by zip code? Or is it irrelevant?
$300-$360 per sq. ft. Is not bad for the area.
Did you use RE agent? Do you recommend him/her?

I sincerely appreciate your help.

***patrick is outstanding. I wish we have more selfless individuals like him.

Ok, trying for good karma here.

First, may I suggest buying and reading Patrick's book,
'The Housing Trap'

Then, if you still want to buy, may I suggest the courthouse steps if you have 400k in cash?

Redondo Beach is very nice, but not Torrance.
Yes, Burbank, Sherman Oaks, and Studio City too.

Also, for a family, East Ventura County may be ideal. Thousand Oaks andCamarillo, on the LA county side, Agoura Hills, Westlake Village, and Calabasas.

carducci22, what I did was entering an address at http://rsi.lausd.net/ResidentSchoolIdentifier/ to find out the zoned schools and then getting the schools' info. at http://www.greatschools.org. Good luck.

David9 which neighborhood in redondo beach? Pls be more specific.

Gulpher, could you pls let me know which tools you used to locate the property.
I couldn't get any suitable place. Pls share with me your experience.

I sincerely appreciate your help.

carducci22 says

which neighborhood in redondo beach?

My Friends live in South Redondo, one of the Avenue Streets A thru G. It has been a safe, no complaints I have heard on the schools, and just a nice place to raise their now 10 year old daughter. They have been happy their and are now married 18 years. It's also a place where home values have held. They bought their 1300 square foot house with a peek a boo ocean view for 290k in 1994, was worth way over a $1 million at the height of the bubble. Still 700k - 800k, I presume.

David9,
I appreciate your input.

I am still waiting for gulpher's suggestion.

Gulpher? No reply! Did I ask too much?
If I did, I full heartedly appologise.

I am new for the area. And i assure you that your kind help lasts for a life time.

By the way, The web address to find zoned schools does not respond.
Is anything missing?

I sincerely appreciate your help.

Patrick, what is the best tool to find forclosure or short sale properties in Southern California?
I could not trust RE agents. Pls help.

carducci22 says

Patrick, what is the best tool to find forclosure or short sale properties in Southern California?
I could not trust RE agents. Pls help.

The best thing is to get familiar with your county records office, which will have all of the NOD (Notice of Default) records on file. Be friendly with the clerks.

It's grim, but death, divorce, and bankruptcy also create records that can be used to find property that is likely to be sold soon. If you can get to it before the realtors do, you have a chance of getting a good deal.

BTW, the best way to make sure I see a comment is to put @Patrick in it. In general, if you put @ before a username with no space, the user will get an email of that comment, unless they turned that feature off in their profile.

@patrick, thanks for priceless information.
I found all this online listing sites pretty useless.
All the reasonabley priced properties are shown as sold. What is the deal?
It is illegal to give false information, isn't it?

carducci22 says

I found all this online listing sites pretty useless.
All the reasonabley priced properties are shown as sold. What is the deal?
It is illegal to give false information, isn't it?

Listing sites are just sales tools.

Showing property as sold is just an ad for the agent, as in "See how great I am? I sold this!"

I don't think there is any law against lying on those sites. Buyer beware.

@patrick, is there any other tips.
If record office doesn't yield anything, is there plan B?

You can try to call the banks directly and ask to talk to their "REO" department about property they are trying to get rid of. Might work, but they are big bureaucracies.

BTW, no need to put @ anymore for comments on this thread. I'm watching all the comments on it by email now (using that checkbox below).

Wow! There is no reasonable way out.
If the record office is successful, how do you approach the owners?

Go to the owners directly. Call, write a letter, or just show up.

Ok, I hope I don't get armed response.

Carducci22,

Why don't you use Redfin and do a search of homes available in the areas you like? Theres lots of homes in your price range.

BTW, if your job is in Downtown LA, I do not recommend living in South Bay. IMO you would eventually hate the commute.

But FWIW, Torrance is just fine. I have no idea why people are saying its a bad neighborhood. I assume they are confusing it with Hawthorne or something.

Also, is there some particular reason you are obsessed with foreclosures? I assume that you are looking into buying a house for quality of live issues, not as an investment vehicle.

I have been looking on Redfin for a while. found Redfin a bit troubling. The reasonable prices are shown as sold. How could it be?
I am not obsessed with foreclosure, but I only see a reasonable price as foreclosure.
Pls enlighten me about the commute.

carducci22 says

I have been looking on Redfin for a while. found Redfin a bit troubling. The reasonable prices are shown as sold. How could it be?

I am not obsessed with foreclosure, but I only see a reasonable price as foreclosure.

Pls enlighten me about the commute.

I don't understand what you mean by reasonable prices. You have yet to list a price range you are looking for.

As far as commute.....Torrance, Redondo, etc to Downtown LA is a harsh commute at rush hour. Do a check on your GPS at the times you would be commuting during the week. I believe you'd be looking at a 60 minute commute that gets worse the further away you are from the 405.

@Dodgerfanjohn, The places I am looking for is some where from 350-450PSF on Redfin.
It is too much. I don' mind to pay around 300PSF.

By the way, Redfin shows around 250PSF in the area I am looking for, unfortunately, it all shows as sold. I don't know whether it is a marketing trick or not.

Do you have any personal experience with listing web site?

As far as commute is concerned, you are accurate.

@gulpher, can you drop some wisdom on the issue.
You are a brilliant guy.

*shrug*

I agree that current purchase prices in parts of Los Angeles I want to live in are too expensive.

I can probably afford up to $450k, but I'm simply not paying that much to live in a tiny house in marginal(though improving) neighborhoods.

I'm pretty sure those $450k cracker boxes are too expensive by around $130-180k at the moment.

carducci22, the two web addresses should work. First, find the house address, enter it at the ResidentSchoolIdentifier to get the zoned schools (elem. secondary and high school). Then entering the schools info. to the other web to get the rating. Remember, only LA unified Schools (zoned) we are talking about although you can get the rating for any schools.

Torrance has five zip codes. I would only look at zip code 505, part of 503. Generally, anything east of Hawthorne Blvd is no go for me. 505 is great, 501 is no no IMHO.

Market is getting tougher now? It might be very hard to find a decent place in the neighborhoods we are talking about at $300 S/F.

@Gulpher, What is the best tool to find the property?
Redfin and zillow are useless. A decent place is over a million dollar. Is it for real?
Any idea?

carducci22, We were using Redfin and Ziprealty while shopping our home. Honestly, I don't know if there is 'best' tool. More or less, they are all similar. You are right that 'a decent place is over a million' in these neighborhoods. This afternoon I received a mail of report of the 3rd quarter sales from Prud**tial. It says the lowest sale price of the west Manhattan Beach is 700k while the highest is 6.2millions.

I used to live in Patrick's neighborhood, the bay areas for many years. So the price in LA is not going to make me jump. It's what it is.

@gulpher, is there any dos and don'ts when you give offer?
How less do I give offer %? Does it make difference if I pay cash?
What is your overall advise?

carducci22, Cash offer will make yours more attractive since there is no loan contingency. Do expect multiple offers if the property is listed at its fair market value in these neighborhoods. I got outbid four times before landed mine. The four houses were all sold at and above the listing. One would have to know the market well to come up with an offer.

I would seek professional help preparing an offer.

@patrick, do you have any experience with a house via auction?
I got a good place but afraid to commit.
Pls share me any knowledge.
Your kind help is vey much appreciateed.

Call a title company, ask for a title rep.
Ask the rep to look up the property and advise you of any liens on the property. The liens are yours.
The title rep may accompany you to the auction.
They might already be at the auction.
They're free and will always do your legwork.

@jaws, where is the place to look auction listings?
Any do's and don't and do's?
Pls advise me in detail.

Carducci22 - sorry, guess I messed up my reply.
What county do you want?
I can lead you to the county's website and a title co. (I'm in Las Vegas and we have a killer auction website put together by a title co) - don't know where you are. Don't read every comment.
Do not bid without knowing the liens, some don't matter, some you will be the sitting duck of the auction.
Walk the property yourself, snoop. Go to some auctions before you actually bid. Get the lay of the land, some tough bidders, some newbies and boy do they get taken. Just hang around and talk to the vendors.
Talk to a title rep - you can ask a million questions for free.