MB Sunday Opens: 6/8/14

As Summer comes into focus, we love the crush of local events before the schools let out and parents, friends and kids disperse for a couple months.

Saturday was the annual Grandview Gator 5K, with about 1,000 souls sweating through a nice run around town. (Just about everyone who ran it has a tale about that wicked uphill finish.)

Little League has wrapped up, champions crowned, All-Stars getting under way next.

Sunday, it's parents vs. parents in the MB Athletic Foundation's charity softball tournament. As with the recent Jeff Goodrich Parents' Soccer Classic, parents build teams around school affiliations and then go head-to-head in an all-day competition. You know, for kids. Games run all day at the Marine baseball field complex (near Adventureplex), with the championship game at 3:15pm. Bacon burgers at the snack stands, folks! (Dave is coordinating the Robinson team. Go Riptides!)

And next week is the annual Summertime MB5K, on Fathers' Day this year, bright and early at the MB Pier (7:13am). This is a flat, wet-sand run at low tide that is a signature event in Manhattan Beach. (MB Confidential is, proudly, the lead sponsor.) Click here to register.

All of that, and real estate, too!

As always, to plan your open-house tours for this week, try this Redfin map list of open houses, or click here for the Beach Reporter list of opens.

Don't forget, when previewing homes here on MB Confidential, you can click "Open All Images" right above the main listing photo to get immediate display of all the listing photos at once.

Tree Section

3300 Poinsettia (5br/5ba, 3430 sq. ft.) is Dave's new listing in the Tree Section. (Co-listed with our broker, Jim Orland.) Because we don't offer "reviews" of our listings, we'll just provide the official description below.

Note: If you looked at the photos online in the first day or two, you'll find the full, improved set online now here.

This inspired, spacious family home in the Manhattan Beach Tree Section offers a large, sunny yard connecting to a bright, open kitchen and family room with high ceilings. It's that "great room" layout that families love, with more outdoor space than you might expect. There are expansive, treetop views from this outstanding perch high on a hill, going all the way to Palos Verdes. The layout features a full guest suite on the 1st floor, plus 4 bedrooms and 3 baths upstairs. Large master suite. Common areas on the first floor feature wide-plank, dark-stained walnut flooring. Newer appliances and other upgrades. Plantation shutters on all windows. The 2-car garage has a bonus, large storage room. Garage is tucked under the home, giving the home great, uninterrupted flow front to back. Kids will also love the separate, bright 'Harry Potter' playroom/craft room hidden away on the lower level.

3300 Poinsettia starts at $2.520M and is open Sun. 1-4pm.

2005 Pacific (4br/4ba, 3025 sq. ft.) is a new Tree Section listing that is substantially different than 3300 Poinsettia, but because it might be construed as a competing listing, this time we're not going to review it, but instead offer excerpts from the official listing description:

[B]eautifully designed for the entire family to enjoy. Its thoughtful layout is ideal for entertaining, with its bright sunken living room, spacious family room, formal dining room and eat-in kitchen on the main floor, and most of the large, comfortable bedrooms upstairs for privacy. Unique features such as a beverage center with wine storage linking the living and family rooms, a large butler's pantry off the kitchen, a huge laundry room with desk, vaulted ceilings, two sundecks and more make this home feel extra special... [Y]ou'll absolutely adore this home's location, perfectly situated in the Tree Section just a few minutes' walk to award-winning Pacific Elementary School, American Martyrs, and the popular shops and restaurants of downtown Manhattan Beach.

2005 Pacific starts at $1.999M and is open Sun. 1-4pm.

Sand Section

548 Marine (5br/5ba, 2800 sq. ft.) is new construction with an upside-down layout, a modern take on 'Nantucket' styling and a big, open top-floor common areas.

You'll find 4br together on the first floor, two presented as suites and two sharing a bath. The bright master suite is upstairs and tucked in back beyond the living spaces.

The light-stained wide-plank oak floors throughout the home have a warm, sandy tone that we found captivating.

Kitchen and baths all have a modern, bright look with nice white tile, counters and quality cabinetry.

The big, open great room upstairs opens to a covered patio and flows nicely. Views are more treetop and neighborhood than anything else, but pleasant.

548 Marine starts at $2.750M and is open Sun. 1-4pm.

444 33rd Place (2br/2ba, 900 sq. ft.) is a bit hard to figure.

It's and older house sporting a 1931 build date. There were definitely additions and changes over the years. 

The lot is the first unusual bit. It runs wide along the alley of 33rd Place rather than street-to-alley. As currently built, it feels like a half-lot home with a nice big yard. (There are also parking spaces on the unbuilt section of the lot.)

Inside, the first floor has the living room, opening nicely to the side yard, a sleeping room off there, and the kitchen in back. The sleeping room does not have a closet, but they seem to be counting it as one of two bedrooms.

The second bedroom is accessed up old, narrow, steep stairs. If you want to close it off from the living spaces below, you fold down an attic door. That bedroom has a closet and its own bath, and a sizable deck.

Back on the first floor, beyond the kitchen, there's a combined bathroom/laundry room.

This home was absolutely stolen in 2009, in a short sale for $835K.

This year they're asking $1.575M, or +88% over 2009.

444 33rd Place starts at $1.575M and is open Sun. 1-4pm.

East MB

1335 19th (6br/6ba, 5000 sq. ft.) is a newer, big custom Spanish.

The first floor flows as one might expect, with large formal living and dining rooms on either side on the way to the rear kitchen/great room setup. The family room back there opens to a nice yard with some grass and some stone pavers; not huge. 

Upstairs among the bedrooms we found our favorite feature: A dedicated office with its own little hallway from the master. It's perfect for someone working market hours at home, for instance – slip out from under the covers and shuffle a few steps into the office, and your commute is finished.

The build quality and finishes are high-end and solid.

If you like the home, you'll have to struggle with the fact that you could have had it last year for $2.799M. It was listed for a month last Summer. Acquisition price back in 2010 was $1.900M, according to tax records.

1335 19th starts at $3.099M and is open Sun. 2-5pm.

1156 10th #2 (3br/3ba, 2500 sq. ft.) might offer the most square footage for the money in all of MB. When was the last time you saw a sub-$500 PPSF?

Sure, it's a TH with some dated features, but the kitchen looks nice, and there is lots of space to spread out on the top floor with all the common rooms.

A picket-fenced front yard offers the only outdoor space, but that's more than you might get in a lot of other multifamily units in East MB.

1156 10th starts at $1.199M and is open Sun. 2-5pm.