A singer's burglarized villa and a 377-acre nature resort outside Big Bear are two of the most notable listings in a busy week of real estate news.
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[View in browser]( By Jack Flemming Welcome back to the Real Estate newsletter. This week we have it all: a luxury villa in Hollywood Hills, a sprawling ranch near Big Bear, a broken-down sailboat on the San Francisco Bay and a Highland Park home riddled with cockroaches. Or at least it was, until a pair of architects turned the decrepit, code-violating residence into a âmust-have home.â [Lisa Boone tells the unconventional story]( in which the single-family residence was cut in half and now consists of a granny flat in front and a main house in back. To make a buck in this historically hot market, it helps to get creative. The second week of November also saw two notable â but very different â listings. The first surfaced in the Hollywood Hills, where singer and âCinderellaâ star Camila Cabello put her [Spanish-style villa on the market for $4 million](. She might be in search of a bit more security after the house was broken into earlier this year. The other popped up in the San Bernardino Mountains outside Big Bear Lake, where [a 377-acre nature resort known as Holcomb Valley Ranch]( listed for $12 million. By far the biggest property available in the area, the scenic retreat once served as a gold mining settlement, then a cattle ranch, before becoming a campground and event space with cabins, lodges and a few fun additions such as a climbing wall, zip line and archery range. Orange County got some big news as well, as âSelling Sunsetâ star Jason Oppenheim announced a spinoff series called âSelling the OC.â The Netflix show will bring its mix of real estate and reality drama down south, and to christen the announcement, [Oppenheim bought a $7-million mansion]( for himself in Newport Beach. We also got a slice of life from San Francisco Bay, where a group of âanchor-outs,â or those who live illegally and rent-free aboard boats â in various states of disrepair â on the water, [are facing a crackdown from authorities.]( In August, city officials announced a five-year plan to clear what they described as floating homeless encampments â a move that might bring an end to the nautical way of life that some have led for decades. While catching up on the latest, visit and like [our Facebook page]( where you can find real estate stories and updates throughout the week. From cockroaches to mini compound
[Two women sit in a living room.]
Architects Melissa Shin and Amanda Shin sit in the living room of Amandaâs house. (Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times) The five-bedroom, two-bathroom house was advertised as âa charming fixer, traditional style home in the heart of Highland Park,â [writes Lisa Boone.]( In reality, it was legally uninhabitable because of multiple unpermitted additions over the years that had resulted in substandard notices from the city and thousands of dollars in unpaid liens. In 2014, the Los Angeles Department of Building and Safetyâs code enforcement unit cited the owners for an illegal garage conversion, which might explain why the house fell out of escrow multiple times, even in[L.A.âs red-hot real estate market](. Other flaws: The electrical wiring was not up to code. Nor was the plumbing. And the front door and porch had been illegally altered and were in violation of historic preservation overlay zone standards. Despite the red flags, architects Melissa and Amanda Shin of [Shin Shin Architecture]( purchased the property in 2019 in hopes of realizing their professional work in a personal way: by creating a home for Amanda along with an accessory dwelling unit, or ADU, rental that would subsidize the renovation and add more housing to the neighborhood. ADVERTISEMENT
Singer looks to sell after break-in
[The rear of an upscale multiple-story home with a pool]
Camila Cabello added a recording studio and vocal booth to the three-story home during her stay. (Neue Focus) A few months after her Hollywood Hills villa [was broken into]( singer Camila Cabello [is shopping the property around]( for $4 million. Itâs a relatively short stay for the âCinderellaâ star, who paid $3.375 million for the Spanish-style abode in 2019. She found time to make some changes during the two-year stretch, converting one of the bedrooms into a recording studio and adding a vocal booth to the two-car garage. Other additions include security cameras, an intercom system and alarm. 377 acres up for grabs in the mountains
[An aerial view shows land with evergreen trees and, in the background, mountains.]
Holcomb Valley Ranch has plenty of land, as well as a variety of campground buildings, a climbing wall, a zip line, an archery range and an amphitheater. (Nicholas Marx) About four miles north of Big Bear Lake, a sprawling nature resort known as Holcomb Valley Ranch [just hit the market for $12 million](. At 377 acres, itâs by far the biggest property currently available around the mountain city and also the most expensive. Made up of meadows, forests, mountains and fields, the scenic retreat has served many purposes over the years, including as a gold mining settlement, a cattle ranch and a campsite for Boy Scouts of America, which bought the land in the 1960s. Today, it primarily serves as a campground and event space, hosting weddings, corporate retreats and music festivals. Itâs being marketed as a development opportunity, and the ranch comes with approved use as an outdoor hospitality resort with 37 buildings that combine for roughly 14,000 square feet. Thereâs also approval for 380 lots that could hold luxury tents or guest cabins. ADVERTISEMENT
A new mansion and show for reality star
[An exterior view of a home shows a double garage, a stone covered entryway and the two-story mansion.]
Built in 2017, the Mediterranean-style mansion fits six bedrooms, eight bathrooms and two garages into 13,000 square feet. (The Oppenheim Group) âSelling Sunset,â the hit Netflix series that mashes up luxury real estate and reality drama, is making its way to Orange County. The showâs star, Jason Oppenheim, announced on Tuesday a spinoff series titled âSelling the OC,â and it looks like heâll be spending a lot more time in the area. In October, he dropped $7 million on a [13,000-square-foot showplace in Newport Beach](. Built in 2017, the Mediterranean-style mansion sits a few miles north of the Oppenheim Groupâs new office in Corona del Mar, which the brokerage opened earlier this year. âFloating homeless encampmentâ faces extinction
[A man in a beanie crouches alongside a boat moored at a dock.]
Chad Wycliffe, alongside the Vadura â a nearly century-old teak yacht thatâs moored in Richardson Bay â has been living on the bay on and off since he was a teenager. (Rachel Scheier / For The Times) Greg Baker likes to say that the only way heâs leaving his home, a broken-down 40-foot sailboat anchored in a sparkling estuary north of the Golden Gate Bridge, is in handcuffs or a black plastic bag, [writes Rachel Scheier.]( âI like the peace, the quiet â if I stub my toe, I can holler,â said Baker, who at 82 has been living here, in one vessel or another, for half a century. Lately though, life has been anything but peaceful on the bay. Baker and his fellow anchor-outs, as theyâre known, have long lived illegally and rent-free in the sightline of some of Americaâs priciest real estate, and now authorities in Sausalito and other neighboring communities want them gone. The battle has pitted the forces of gentrification against Sausalitoâs fading identity as a freewheeling maritime town that has always been a refuge for rebels and dropouts. Around 90 vessels in various states of disrepair bob amid the seagulls and paddle-boarders. To the flinty salts who occupy these rusting tugboats and de-masted sloops, Richardson Bay is sacred, a last bastion of living free on the water in a Bay Area of Apple Stores and $3,000-a-month studio apartments. What weâre reading While home prices soar, one Southern California community is offering up a huge bargain for low-income buyers. As part of its affordable housing program, the city of Carlsbad will soon be accepting applications for a batch of condos that start at $200,000, [the San Diego Union-Tribune reports](. Con artists have come up with a scam in Detroit where they pretend to be landlords and rent out properties they donât own. Advocates say as many as 1 in 10 tenants facing eviction fall victim to the ruse, and the culprits rarely face consequences. [NBC News has the story](. ADVERTISEMENT
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