Man, the real estate market may be in a slump nationwide but you sure cannot tell it by all the websites that specialize in real estate. I love these sites myself and have a few favorites that I want to pass on to you. I especially love the websites that have information about the celebrity homes. One that I try to read each day is the New York Post (www.NYPost.com.) Just click on the real estate section and read the articles on which celebrity or business mogul is moving and/or selling where and what. They also have articles on the stars and their Hamptons mansions, condo or apartments as well. The Los Angeles Times (www.LATimes.com) has the best celebrity real estate news on Sunday when they discuss who in Hollywood has listed or sold their home and give you all the information about that particular property.
One of the best blog sites on celebrity real estate is www.BergProperties.com/blog. This guy knows the dirt on all the celebrities and their properties and gives you very detailed information on their homes, the sales price, who used to own it and more. He is also extremely funny and it makes for an interesting read.
I recently found an offbeat website that was funny as well as different. Go to www.StarsDriveways.com. This is written by an agent in the Los Angeles area and she has pictures of the star's driveways. It's really cute and you can see their homes in a lot of the shots. She also has done the same thing for the homes of celebrities in Malibu. That site is www.StarsDriveways.malibucelebritydriveways.com. I love this site...it's quirky and fun!
Two others are good for star info, real estate wise, but I had to do a lot of searching on my own, which, for me, is not fun. I am sure if I was computer friendlier I could have found more info but since my teenager wasn't there to help me navigate it, I was pretty much on my own. Try www.MapScene.com and www.FunMansion.com.
If you are a country music fan, you can search www.Brentwood.TheFunTimesGuide.com and go to their section about the star's home in and around Nashville. I enjoyed this site because I grew up in Nashville and can always remember when we had family in from out of town. Inevitably, they would want to see where the stars lived and we would take them to see the ones we knew of. My parents currently live about 10 minutes from Dolly Parton in Brentwood and that is always a popular spot distant cousins want to see when they visit.
I guess my favorite website is one that I somehow stumbled on quite by accident and I really have no idea how I found it but I love it and check it two or three times a week, especially if I find something interesting in the LATimes.com or the Berg Properties blog. This one is easy to use and I will try and make the directions as simple as possible. I think this is one you will really enjoy.
Go to http://Guests.TheMLS.com. This allows you to search the California MLS system as a guest. One you get there you will see on the right hand side a list of California cities that you can search for properties. Click the cities for Beverly Hills; there will be Beverly Hills itself, Beverly Center Miracle Mile, Beverly Hills Post Office and Beverlywood Vincity. You can then put in a price range for homes that you want to search. Put in 5 million dollars as your begining price range and see what comes up. There are 3 homes of the stars currently up for sale. The first one is listed at 5.8 million and is located at 3331 Clerendon Drive. This is the home of the former guitarist for the rock group Kiss, Paul Stanley. Click on the poiucture and you will be able to take a virtual tour. Remember John O'Hurly who played J Peterman on "Seinfeld" ? His home, at 1710 Monte Cielo court, is listed at 6.2 million and it is gorgeous! He, too, has a virtual tour. Pete Samphras, the tennis star, has his mansion on Loma Vista Road listed for 23 million , recently reduced from 25 million. If you go back to search and click on Hidden hills, you can see the home listed at 25170 Jim Brudger Road listed for $8,790,000. This is the former home of "Everybody Loves Raymond" star Brad Garrett. His wife got it in their recent divorce. One more star listing...click on Malibu and Malibu Beach....click on the house at 22355 Carbon Mesa to see Kenny Chesney"s retreat. These are fabulous homes and I like to see how the other half lives. I hope you enjoy this one has much as I do.
If you are just looking for real estate information and statistics there are two sites that are very good. The first is www.Zillow.com. It also has fun things things there as well, like the most unusual homes for sale, TV homes, and the homes currently posted that are receiving the most hits on the site. The statistcal information is current and up to date and this is one of the largest real estate search sites out there. The other is www.Trulia.com. It has lots of stats, "how to" articles and other good solid information.
I hope you visit each of the sites and enjoy them. If you have informative sites you would like to pass along to me please do so at TammySpann@kw.com or post your response here for all to see and share. I love the celebrity houses sites so let me know of any I have missed.
Thanks for reading....let me know if you have any real estate needs that sI can assit you with. Please be sure and visit my website at www.TammyandTeam,com