Like bread crumbs in an urban forest, the telltale open house flags have been planted along a tantalizing route in Brentwood, leading from Mandeville Canyon to a little street called Kimberly Lane. At the end of the trail is not grandmother's cottage, however. It is a driveway. A very long driveway, where a black Ferrari is parked, not quite perfectly. This slightly intimidating vehicle belongs to Michael Eisenberg, an irrepressible real estate agent who has parked his car askew in order to keep the electronic gate from closing. He is selling this house for a couple who bought it, changed their minds, never moved in and put it back on the market. They are not speculators. "Internet software," says Eisenberg, as though that is all the explanation that is necessary.
So much more open
L.A. WAYS
By appointment only? Not anymore. High-end owners let wannabe buyers saunter through on Sunday afternoons, whether they're looking for a $5-million deal -- or just looking.
The driveway leads to an ultra-refurbished 1950s ranch house of about 5,500 square feet, with a two-story living room, four bedrooms including a master suite, maid's quarters, limestone floors and a pool with a rock waterfall and slide. The property is semi-secluded (the house next door, on a higher elevation, looms a bit over the driveway). This is, says Eisenberg, "a good house on a great piece of property." And, for $5.9 million or so, it could be yours. So come on in and take a look.
"They do open houses in other parts, but it's a California phenomenon, basically," says real estate agent Joan McGoohan. "It's almost a religion with us."
This secular form of worship takes place every Sunday in neighborhoods all over real-estate crazy Los Angeles, even at the very highest reaches. There was a time, not so long ago, when the $5-million open house was just about unheard of. Anything in that range was only going to be shown by appointment. But as real estate prices have skyrocketed, open houses in the $5-million-and-up category are becoming increasingly common, especially in a market as hot as this. As of last week, Multiple Listing Service showed 119 homes in Los Angeles County priced at $5 million and above. Of those 119 properties, most will be available to see by appointment only, but half a dozen or so are likely to throw their doors open, inviting the public in to inspect their layouts, closet spaces and amenities.
There is no question that open houses sell homes. McGoohan mentions a new home on Alma Real in Pacific Palisades that recently sold for $13.2 million to a businessman who wandered in one Sunday and decided to make an offer, even though he hadn't intended to buy in that range.
Though the entertainment business is a fact of life in L.A., big celebrities rarely allow open houses. But plenty of working show-biz people do. Real estate agent Shel Kirshner recently held an open house in Pacific Palisades at the $5.9-million home of music producer Jerry Goldstein, whose gold records for "The Best of War and More" (War is famous for "Cisco Kid" and "Low Rider") and the 1965 hit "Hang on Sloopy" were displayed. The recent rains had put a dent in the number of showings for the home, says Kirshner, who felt the open house would make up for that. About 50 people came through the first day. "Maybe one or two of those are potential buyers," he says.
Looky-loos will always mingle with serious buyers, and in an era as casual as this, no one can reliably tell the difference. Some agents will take special precautions in these expensive homes, such as asking people to don hospital booties to keep floors pristine. Some will post assistants at the front door or follow visitors around to make sure they don't help themselves to a trinket such as the little Persian rug that someone once stole from the powder room of a Beverly Hills home McGoohan had listed.
Eisenberg doesn't ask people to sign in -- "You think people are gonna give me their real name and number, so I have to call a fake number and go through that?" But most agents do. Longtime Westside agent James Respondek usually stands at the door, introducing himself to people coming through.
"I have them tell me their name, and then I put it in the book," he says. "A lot of people would scribble a fake name, and if they are going to lie, I want them to lie to me and I will write their lie down. At least they have to verbalize it. A lot of times, they will be with friends or family and they won't lie in front of them."
'Buyers are liars'
Yet even at this level, the reasons for an open house are the same as those for a $400,000 tract home in Torrance: It makes home shopping easy for people who are busy during the week, it generates potential business for an agent, and it creates a sense of excitement about a property. And an open house may lead to an unexpected sale, because, as Eisenberg puts it, "buyers are liars."
