Celebrity home front :)

Celebrity home front

The Beckhams The expanding Beckham clan has bought a new luxury Malibu mansion for the summer at a cost of $27 million.

The palatial pad in California could be home to their new daughter, who is due in July, just in time to move into the beautiful beachside residence.

The property-loving Beckhams are famous for their gorgeous over-top-homes on both sides of the pond. And they have a pile in Beverly Hills as well as this latest addition to their property portfolio.

David and Victoria love living in America with their three sons Brooklyn, 11, Rome, eight and five-year-old Cruz.

Although the family are set to return to the UK later this year in November, they are set to make the most of their West Coast lifestyle this summer with the purchase of the dream home.

Of course their latest pad is brimming over with amazing trappings such as a massive high tech kitchen with stunning beach views. There is a cavernous living room with panoramic views of the palm tree-lined coast.

This particular beachside bolthole boasts seven bedrooms, nine bathrooms, floor-to-ceiling windows, marble walls, a gym, pool and lavish tropical gardens.

With its ultra modern architectural design and enviable location overlooking Malibu's prestigious dry sand beach, the Beckhams are rightly making the most of their American dream for another while.

Justin Timberlake
Megabucks Justin Timberlake has just splashed out $6.5 million on a new New York pad shortly after selling his former apartment also in the Big Apple for $5m.

The singer-turned-actor has recently moved into the New York district of Soho and a plush new home, but his other flat had yet to sell.

However, the good news is the other apartment has now sold bagging him just under $5m.

The 3,000 sq ft loft-style abode which is located in the former Pearline Soap Factory building was bought by Justin back in 2008.

It took up a whole floor of the building and was extremely luxurious with Brazilian teak wooden floors and high ceilings of up to 10-feet tall. He also enjoyed a six-foot double-sided bath which is perfect to relax in after a busy day filming.

Now, however, he has relocated to the Soho Mews area, as he was said to be tired of being doorstepped by paparazzi who waited outside his old address.

Mark Zuckerberg

First-time buyers take heart, Facebook billionaire Mark Zuckerberg is finally taking his first steps onto the property ladder.

He may be the world's youngest billionaire with a fortune of $13.5 billion but Zuckerberg is only getting round to buying his first home now.

A $7m pad in California will be the new Zuckerberg residence. With five-bedrooms and an entertainment pavilion which includes an outdoor fireplace and built-in barbecue, salt water swimming pool and spa, it will offer the Facebook creator more privacy and is close to his new office.

The house also has five bathrooms, large living room and banquet hall-sized dining room.

REALTOR'S DEN OBSERVES MEMORIAL DAY

Today, we observe and pay tribute to those that have fallen and those still standing in bravery for our country. 

We Thank, Love, and Honor You. 

God Bless All.

-Realtor's Den

10 Best Hollywood Celebrity Homes

10 Best Hollywood Celebrity Homes

If antiquity gods lived in the heavenly Olympus above the clouds, nowadays stars have cribs that top anything else in the world. Choose any celebrity home and you’ll hardly find any comparable house that doesn’t belong to a star. So, what’s so great about a celebrity home, apart from being famous? A celebrity home has style, Oscars by the fireplace and gorgeous gardens.

Hollywood is the most popular place for any celebrity home, for the simple reason that it is the heart of show-biz. So here i have compiled a list for some of the best Hollywood celebrity homes.


Barbra Streisand

This celebrity home is a huge mansion completely covered (inside and outside) with “aged” wood, stained glass windows and an outside garden with brick walkways in front of a beautiful water front.

Christina Onassis

Christina’s house is a 5 Bedroom, 6 bathroom estate with two separate wings, a huge pool and a squash tennis court. And the best part a personal luxurious yacht.

Madonna

The third position in the celebrity home top is held by Madonna and her villa with a personal spa salon, artificial pond, golf terrain and a top interior design touch, including leather sofas and mirrored walls.

Britney Spears

She is the proud owner of a tree-branch mansion with a resort-style pool and an amazing waterfall in the back yard.

George Clooney

The “Casa de Clooney” mansion is a 8 bedroom Tudor house with a large garden and golf terrain and with a design that makes Africa safari seem poor, being the celebrity home type in which you are likely to get lost.

Paris Hilton

As to Hilton’s celebrity home, we’re talking a large real estate with a Baccarat crystalchandelier in the lounge, several pets’ rooms and an artificial garden lake to go with the exotic palms. The picture above is of her dog house. You can imagine her own !

Mel Gibson

Celebrity home number 7 is Mel Gibson’s and is the paradise-like villa we all dream about. Tennis field, heated pool, garden astronomy observer or large screens covering the inside walls are all there, because this villa is a celebrity home where living like a star is a must.

Colin Farrell

Farrell’s celebrity home is the typical bachelor villa, with a wine cellar, limestone kitchen tops, beamed ceilings and outdoor billiards salon.

Denise Richard

Richards has redecorated her private celebrity home using a Japanese theme, with bonsais around the garden pond and a red and black color palette to match the mahogany furniture around the mansion.

Marilyn Monroe

The final position is Marilyn Monroe’s ex- estate home, an elegant villa with a collection of actors’ paintings, a ’50s decoration theme and a pool showing Marilyn’s famous movies.

Charlie Sheen Puts His Sober Valley Ranch on the Market

Charlie Sheen Puts His Sober Valley Ranch on the Market
By Kiki Von Glinow

Looking for the perfect pad to host a bevy of porn stars fueled by a briefcase full of cocaine? Well, thenCharlie Sheen has got an opportunity you may not be able to refuse, according to TMZ. The over the top actor has put his Beverly Hills mansion on the market, ringing in at $7.2 million -- now is that in warlock barter or US dollars?

The 7,924 square foot house, known as Sheen's Sober Valley Ranch, boasts five bedrooms and seven baths and is situated in a gated community.

"This custom-built Mediterranean in Mulholland Estates is an entertainer's dream with spacious public rooms, most of which open to a beautifully landscaped yard featuring a professional outdoor kitchen with dining area, pool and spa," the listing reads. "Other features include a screening room and top-of-the-line appliances and finishes."

During their divorce, Sheen paid ex-wife, Brooke Mueller, $1 million to take sole ownership of the house. But one thing the listing may have left out is that upon taking ownership of the abode, the new tenant will also be responsible for an unemployed and inebriated Sheen forgetfully stumbling home to his old address.

Man Pleads Guilty To Harassing Real Estate Agents

Man Pleads Guilty To Harassing Real Estate Agents
By DENISE YOST


DELAWARE, Ohio --

A Newark man pleaded guilty to making sexually threatening phone calls to female real estate agents in Central Ohio.

John Daniels, 45, pleaded guilty to four counts of telecommunications harassment – fifth-degree felonies – in Delaware County Tuesday.

Daniels made threatening phone calls after he used another person's name to activate a cell phone he purchased from a Wal-Mart store in Heath.

Six area realtors reported similar behavior from Daniels, claiming he made contact with them, requesting to see a house.

Each conversation with the women resulted in Daniels telling the women that he was going to sexually assault them.

A sentencing hearing has been set for July 13 at 2 p.m.

He could face a maximum sentence of four years in prison. He was convicted of similar charges in 1994 and 1998 in Franklin County Municipal Court.

An Apartment Full of Reality Showmanship

The owners of the Clocktower apartment in Brooklyn had a party for real estate brokers and special guests last week.

An Apartment Full of Reality Showmanship
By DIANE CARDWELL

The party, in a triplex loft floating high above the East River, was just getting started a little after 6 p.m. on Wednesday. The models, leggy young women dressed in Nina Ricci, Proenza Schouler and Calvin Klein, had started to circulate as waiters came through with trays of canapés like smoked salmon topped with glistening orange roe. A jazz quartet kept up a steady rhythm from under the stairs as guests milled about, exclaiming over the panoramic views through four enormous, synchronized glass clocks set in the tower walls.

But over by the door, the evening’s hosts were tied in a vibrating knot of anxiety, trailed by a television crew as they paced in heels with phones glued to their ears and fretted about the rain. They were real estate agents trying to drum up excitement for what could become the most expensive apartment in all of Brooklyn — if it sells — and frantically trying to arrange cars to ferry missing brokers over to Dumbo from Manhattan.

“It’s very hard to get people here just to look at it — they won’t come,” said Michele Kleier of Gumley Haft Kleier, which is marketing the 6,800-square-foot apartment at the top of the Clocktower building. “But if you offer them a fabulous evening,” she added, and provide transportation, maybe you can get enough people who know other people willing to shell out $23.5 million for a trophy apartment, with its own glass-walled elevator, crow’s nest deck and catering-inspired kitchen.

But the party, an event that has become almost de rigueur as a luxury marketing tool, was notable for more than the lengths to which Ms. Kleier and her daughters, executive vice presidents of her agency, had gone. It was also an embodiment of the intersection of real estate and reality TV, a junction where the proliferation of shows turning a voyeuristic eye on the getting and shedding of expensive homes has injected a higher dose of showmanship into the marketing strategy.

Indeed, the Clocktower party, taped for the half-hour show the agency regularly appears on, HGTV’s “Selling New York,” became an art-and-commerce version of the serpent eating its tail. Asher Abehsera, managing director of residential properties at Two Trees, which developed the building and much of Dumbo, had been impressed by a segment on the show featuring Ms. Kleier’s marketing of the Stanhope on Fifth Avenue and asked her to take on the Clocktower after running into her at a cafe on the Upper East Side, he said.

“Very successful brokers are really about selling real estate and it’s very much all day, all night — it’s part of what they do,” said Shari Levine, senior vice president of production at Bravo, which is shooting another reality show, a New York version of its Los Angeles-based “Million Dollar Listing,” which will follow the work and personal lives of three brokers.

“Selling New York” follows a revolving cast from four agencies. The talent is paid an honorarium for appearances, enough for “a decent dinner” out, said Courtney Campbell, who oversees the show at JV Productions, the company that brought it to HGTV.

But Ms. Kleier and her daughters, Sabrina Kleier-Morgenstern and Samantha Kleier-Forbes, say that the show has brought them more clients.

A castmate, Frederick Peters, president of Warburg Realty Partnership, sees the benefits differently.

“It would be hard for me to say that we now have more listings because of that,” he said. “But inevitably, over time, having more people know about your company and see that we do a thorough and professional job translates into more calls, more business.”

But some see no benefit at all, and caution that many of the so-called new clients are actually more interested in being on television than in buying or selling property.

“I think it is much more about someone — whether it’s a buyer, a seller, or a broker on there — about their 15 minutes of fame than anything else,” said Hall F. Willkie, president of Brown Harris Stevens, adding that buyers at the highest end want more, rather than less, privacy about their interests and purchases. He added that the shows reach a vast audience, but not the intended audience of buyers. “No one looking for real estate in New York City — not a soul — turns on reality TV to find their property.”

Back at the party, though, things had picked up. A mix of brokers, publicists, business professionals and artistic types, like the clothing designer Yeohlee Teng and her partner, the architect Joerg Schwartz, were crowded onto the main level and wandering upstairs. Andrew Rothstein, one of the show’s directors, hovered behind the cameras, listening through an earpiece to what the Kleier women were saying as they squired guests around.

“We’re looking to capture real moments, real stuff,” he said. “Someone could come up and say, ‘I want to make an offer.’ We want to know right away. Then we want to grab and interview them.”

A few feet away, a man resembling a slighter version of the rapper Fat Joe — who identified himself as Pablo Escobar Jr., though the family of the slain drug lord has labeled him a fraud — took in the view, one he said made the price tag “not bad,” along with his companions. They included Brittany Andrews, a former adult film actress — “I’m a two-time Hall of Fame porn star!” she volunteered — who said she now makes mainstream films and was considering the space as a location. Later the group attracted attention as they posed for pictures with Richard Garcia, a Tupac Shakur impersonator.

At the end of the night, as the caterers loaded glassware into pink plastic racks and the models had changed out of their designer garb from Edit boutique on the Upper East Side, the Kleiers seemed to be breathing a collective sigh of relief.

“It was horrible weather — I was so nervous when I first got here because I was like, where are the people, now it’s packed,” Michele Kleier said. “The party is over, and nobody’s leaving — there are still people here, so yes, I’m happy.”

She paused. “I’ll be happier when I sell it.”

Jennifer Aniston buys penthouse in dog’s name

He outlived her marriage to Brad Pitt. He’s Norman, Jennifer Aniston’s newly deceased dog — and his loyalty will never be forgotten. Aniston, whose new movie Just Go With Ithas now been released, has just bought a luxury New York penthouse in the West Village under her corgi-terrier mix’s name, The New York Post reports. Property records reveal the apartment, for which she paid US$4.95-million, was bought by Norman’s Nest Trust.

The penthouse previously belonged to celebrity hairdresser Sally Hershberger. As well as the penthouse, she picked up two other small units in the building — what’s another million or two? — with the plan to eventually combine all three units to make one sprawling duplex apartment.

Aniston recently put her also sprawling Beverly Hills home on the market for US$42-million, explaining it was too much for her.

Ok, this is absolutely crazy..lol.. C’mon Jennifer.. why the hell would anyone put real estate in your dog’s name.

It’s reported that the 42 year old actress has sealed the deal at a whopping cost of $5.9 million. It was stated earlier that the apartments were bought by Norman’s Nest Trust.

Ok guys, did you hear me? Jennifer Aniston bought the apartments using the name of her beloved corgi-terrier mix, Norman!!!!
Take a look at some of the pics. Thoughts people.. Has she lost it?

Realtors bond over tough times

Realtors bond over tough times
By Libby Lewis

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- It's no fun to be a realtor these days: home prices are sinking, delinquencies are up, and stricter regulations are coming.

So the mood at the convention for the National Association of Realtors last weekend in Washington, D.C., was understandably sober.

And yet, those in attendance were working hard to stay upbeat.

Matt Cohen was in from Minneapolis. He's in the tech side of the industry, handling multiple listing services for realtors.

"You can't let yourself get down," Cohen said during a break. "You just have to be positive. Move things forward. Try to make things better."

He knows what some of the realtors here have been going through.

"In many markets, between 45% and 60% of the members have not done a transaction in the past year! There are not a lot of listings to go around. And the prices are down so the commission checks are smaller -- it's a very difficult market for everybody."

Cohen said he was glad to get together with his colleagues in these tough times. "This meeting doesn't change the business environment, the challenges. But we can discuss how we can work together and help each other as a community. And that's a wonderful feeling." Podcast: Scenes from the Realtors' convention

Tammie Tucker tweeted from the convention to her fellow realtors back home in Springfield, Missouri, including the ones who couldn't afford to attend.

She said her market hasn't been hit as hard as others. "But it's definitely the hardest market I've seen since I've been in the business," which is 22 years.

Hers, like many other markets, has lost realtors to the downturn.

National Association of Realtors membership has declined 21% since 2006, to 1.06 million, according to Inman News.

She said the ones who are left are focused on the basics: helping families make responsible, educated decisions. And keeping upbeat about the future.

"We are making some strides; the market is improving," she said.

This was the semi-annual realtors' convention. They were here to lobby lawmakers to make realtors' jobs easier. And to engage in a little convention-as-therapy.

Ron Phipps, president of the realtors' association, spoke about what his colleagues are doing to deal with the stress.

"Some of us like me, run. I do lots of running -- I do a fair amount of swimming."

He said what makes it hard for realtors is that they deal directly with families dealing with the same challenges.

"And we have to figure out how to fix it. There's a tremendous stress to that. Because for us it's personal. We're facing them. And they're saying, okay I can't make my mortgage payment. What do I do? Who do I call?"

Phipps said he's talked to realtors who've dealt with the stress in different ways. This year, for stress relief, the convention offered yoga.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- It's no fun to be a realtor these days: home prices are sinking, delinquencies are up, and stricter regulations are coming.

So the mood at the convention for the National Association of Realtors last weekend in Washington, D.C., was understandably sober.

The Bad And The Worse Scenario For Hong Kong Real Estate

The Bad And The Worse Scenario For Hong Kong Real Estate  

As the slowdown of the Chinese economy appears to be more likely, one has to ask the question of what is going to happen for Hong Kong, and in particular, Hong Kong property.

The reason I find it necessary to bring this issue up is that the overall market view on Hong Kong real estate remains that as long as the Federal Reserve keeps rates low, the real estate market will be fine, while failing to consider the potential threat from the slowdown of Chinese economy (or believing that a slowdown of Chinese economy is impossible).  Controversially, I argued that the People’s Bank of China is probably getting more important than the Federal Reserve, especially in the case for Hong Kong.  The reasons are, first of all, because of the close link between the Chinese economy and Hong Kong.  And secondly, the monetary policy in the United States will remain accommodative for an extended period of time.

That means, in my view, the People’s Bank of China is a more likely candidate responsible (indirectly) for any monetary tightening in Hong Kong for the months to come.  I have discussed the mechanism of how the actions of the People’s Bank of China have tightened credit in Hong Kong indirectly.  In short, as the People’s Bank of China tighten monetary policy and credit in China, companies are having more difficulties in obtaining credits, such that those who are capable of raising money or borrowing money from Hong Kong would have done so.  As a result of that, money flows away from Hong Kong, inadvertently tightened monetary policy.

Now we have got a better sense of how tight credit is in China.  Small to medium sized companies, for instance, resort to borrowing from pawnshops and loan sharks as many of them cannot borrow from banks.  Real estate developers and (potential) home buyers alike are also feeling the squeeze.  There were also some bizarre stories of how companies use copper as collateral to obtain financing from banks (H/T to a reader of mine).  These are anecdotal evidences for sure, yet all point to the same reality: credit is tightened.  As long as the government and the People’s Bank of China maintain its tightening stance, a significant slowdown would become more likely.

Let say a significant slowdown is going to happen, I believe that the Hong Kong property market will most certainly feel the pain. The fractional reserve banking system, which creates money through extending credit, would run in reverse and destroy money in the event of slowdown as companies and local governments fail.  Thus the monetary condition might be squeezed in China, and through the mechanism I described, the monetary condition in Hong Kong will be squeezed as well, such that interest rates will go up sharply.  Also, as banks in Hong Kong have been lending more and more money to Chinese companies, banks in Hong Kong may become more cautious in lending to anyone in the event of a slowdown, making it even more difficult for any one to borrow.

Buyers from the Mainland China has been blamed in the past few years for driving up real estate prices.  In the event of a significant slowdown, however, this money flow from China to Hong Kong real estate will slow, or even stop.  In this worst case scenario, money “destruction” in the banking system of China will also mean wealth destruction, that means significant corrections in real estate and stock prices are possible.  As people become poorer, they are much less likely to be investing elsewhere.  If the wealth destructions are severe, one should not be surprised if they sell their overseas assets (including Hong Kong real estate) and cash in, even though this is so unthinkable today.

Now I am not suggesting that this is certainly going to happen.  For one thing, even though a slowdown is now almost inevitable, it is not clear whether it is going to be a crash scenario or a soft-landing scenario, which is what everyone is hoping for.  For a “hard-landing” scenario in China, it is obviously necessary to be prepared for the worst (i.e. don’t be too shocked when that happen).

For a “soft-landing” scenario, the likely outcome is somewhat elusive.  There is no previous “soft-landing” scenario in China which we can now benchmark with as the conditions today are so much different from the previous successful soft-landing attempt (see The Forgotten Real Estate Bubble Of The 1990s), in which economic growth was somehow intact, but inflation has been brought down, and localised real estate bubbles in coastal cities went bust without severe consequences.  Also, the economic relationship between China and Hong Kong back then was arguable less close than today.  Finally, the Federal Reserve was tightening monetary policy in 1994, while the Federal Reserve is now remaining accommodative, meaning that the 1994 real estate prices corrections were driven by both China and the US factor, while today’s correction will likely be triggered only by the China factor.

In both scenario, however, I think the story is pretty much the same, i.e. slowdown of China’s economy will be negative for Hong Kong real estate, although I cannot possibly say the exact negative impact there will be.

This article originally appeared here: Hong Kong Property: In The Event Of A China’s Slowdown
Also sprach Analyst - World & China Economy, Global Finance, Real Estate

Miami real estate sales soar, price slump drags on

Miami real estate sales soar, price slump drags on
BY MARY UMBERGERBy some measures, one persistent dark cloud may be finally lifting over a region that is otherwise known for sunshine. Homes are selling again in Miami.

Sales in March were noticeably brisk: Existing-home sales in Miami-Dade County spiked up 59 percent and condo sales soared by 85 percent that month compared to the same month last year, according to the Miami Association of Realtors.

Prices, however, are another story. The same March data showed Miami-Dade prices continuing their years-long plunge, with single-family homes falling 19 percent, year over year, to a median of $159,800. Condos got cheaper, too: They dropped by 30 percent, to $97,400.

Overall, home values have fallen more than 55 percent since the frothy days of June 2006. They are now back at 2002 levels, according to the Miami Herald.

The pricing pressure, of course, comes from the steady flow of foreclosures and short sales, according to an Inman News canvass of agents.

And sellers continue to slash, according to an April report from the real estate research firm Trulia. Miami ranked second, to Detroit, in the size of the average home discount over the last 12 months; Trulia reported that Miami sellers have cut their prices by an average 11 percent in that period.

But foreclosure-related pricing may be in line for a change, as several agents said the bank-owned property (REO) pipeline has begun to tighten in response to the foreclosure moratorium in place with numerous lenders after the so-called "robo-signing" debacle.

"Many analysts predicted that a slew of foreclosures would hit the market in 2011," said Lucas Lechuga, a Keller Williams Realty agent. "It's almost the middle of the year and I'm just not seeing anything close to what many had feared."

Still, the "happy dance" is far from universal. A market analysis by the Raymond James & Associates financial services firm said the company fears that statewide reports of increased sales amount to an "unkind economic head fake."

"We are increasingly cautious that any recent anecdotes from foreclosure-ridden areas could be false positives, given that lenders will likely soon reaccelerate the foreclosure liquidations from Florida's immense backlog," a Raymond James analyst noted.

Nonetheless, the real estate community claims to be rallying with the news of higher sales volumes: In a market that has been Exhibit A in the real estate crash, any description with the word "up" in it -- even if it amounted only to a little more than 1,000 Miami sales in the Miami metro area for all of March -- is more than welcome.

Indeed, some reports from the field sound a little like the heady olden days before the crash.

"Heightened demand is evident for REOs, new construction, and properties with close proximity to the ocean and/or downtown," according to Ralph De Martino, residential president of the Miami Association of Realtors and broker-president of Ocean International Realty.

"In Miami-Dade there are currently 20- and 30- day supplies of REO condominiums and single-family homes, respectively," he said.

The buyer pack is being led by investors and internationals, particularly from South America, agents told Inman News. They like to pay cash and they like properties in good condition, the agents said.

"Foreign nationals now represent 60 percent of our sales," said Melissa Rubin, vice president and broker, Platinum Properties International. "The biggest increase has been from Brazilians and Venezuelans. The Canadians, who have traditionally led in foreign purchases, are now the third-strongest group."

Other readings on the Miami-area market:

• Median prices for luxury properties, defined as starting at $535,000, declined by 6.8 percent in the first quarter, to $885,000, according to a report by Douglas Elliman Florida. However, such homes moved faster, on average, than the rest of the market, the report said: 54 days vs. 66 for the overall market.
• South Florida homebuilders saw a slight bounce in February. Though Miami-Dade builders took out a paltry 57 single-family permits that month, the data was still 10 percent better than the year before. Nonetheless, February's permit numbers were 93 percent below those seen in February 2005, according to the U.S. Census.
• Like closed sales, pending sales also were positive in March, according to the Realtors group. Pending sales were up 18 percent, year over year, in Miami-Dade, and up 6 percent in nearby Broward County.

Miami market data

Miami metro area
Population (2009)	2.5 million
Population growth (2000-09)	+11%
Total closed sales (2010)	17,086
% change closed sales (March '09-March '10)	+73.4%
Sales rate per person (per total population, 2010)	1 sale per 146 people
Median sales price, single-family home (March '11)	$159,800
Median sales price, condo (March '11)	$97,400
% change median sales price (March '10-March '11)	-19% (condo: -30%)
% change foreclosure filings rate (March '10-March '11)	+38%
% of sales distressed (March 2011)	+60%
% homes affordable to median-income households (Q4 2010)	65%
% unemployment (February 2011, not seasonally adjusted)	11.8%
Walk Score (city of Miami)	72
Rent-vs.-buy ratio (Q1 2011)	6

Sources: U.S. Census; RealtyTrac, Miami-Dade Department of Planning and Zoning, WalkScore, Trulia, Raymond James & Associates, Miami Association of Realtors, National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo, Florida Realtors.