Emerald Bay Laguna Beach

Buying a home in Laguna Beach can be tricky when deciding on which neighborhood to live and the best time to buy.  There are pros and cons to buying at different times of the year in Laguna Beach and often depends on how the current real estate market is doing.  It's first important to establish if the market is a buyers or a seller's market.  A buyers market means that homes will sit on the market longer than usual.  Buyers don't have to rush into buying a home and can often negotiate with the seller off the listing price.  In a seller's market properties are selling very fast and the owners are in control on who they sell it and the price they think the market will bear.  

Most of the homes in Laguna Beach will come on the market between January

Emerald Bay is widely considered one of the top communities in Laguna Beach due to it's private beach and secure guard gated entrance.  For many, this is a popular vacation rental destination as select properties are available for a short term lease of 30 days.  What many don't realize is that there is an extra cost to rent a home here that deals directly with the community.

Before you rent a home in Emerald Bay you must fill out and submit and an Emerald Bay Tenant Application.  This basically goes over the address that you will be renting, the start and end date, names of who will be living there, contact info and number of vehicles associated with the rental.  What many people don't realize is that there is a cost paid to the Emerald Bay community

When Real Estate agents take a listing it is usually for a 6 or 12 month period.  Of course, this can be any length of time that the owner wants as we have seen it as short as one month when the owner really wants to get it sold right away.  After this set amount of time when the property does not sell it goes off the market and is considered an "expired listing."  Be prepared when this happens as dozens of real estate agents who's sole job is to call on expired listings will start calling you non-stop the morning after the home expires.  

These agents make a living trying to convince owners why their home didn't sell and to use them the next time around.  What most seller's don't realize is that these types of agents have very good phone skills but

Laguna Beach is a unique city that has many small neighborhoods that offer private cul-de-sac locations where homes can be offered for sale.  Real Estate prices will vary a lot depending on where the home is located.  Some of these factors include the proximity to the beach, having an ocean view or not and the proximity to the downtown Village area.  Homes located at the southern end of the Laguna Beach will most likely be more affordable than those located north of downtown.  

Starting in South Laguna area several cul-de-sac neighborhoods like Coast Royal that are located just above Coast Highway and have incredible ocean views.  These homes have close proximity to West street beach, the Montage resort and the Monarch Beach area.  Other notable

The Emerald Bay community has two different sections which locals commonly refer to as Lower & Upper Emerald Bay.  The boundaries for these two sides are cleverly divided by the Coast Highway where the entrance to community is found.  Once you pass through the gates and hang to the right you will find the community clubhouse, tennis courts and large park area which are all found in the Upper section of Emerald Bay.  The road eventually leads down to the beach and the Lower Emerald Bay side.  For the most part homes are pretty much the same on both sides except for the ocean front properties.  Lower Emerald Bay features some of the most awe inspiring oceanfront views that can be found anywhere in Laguna Beach.  There are only a handful of these special

Crescent Bay is a beautiful spot located between Shaw's cove and Emerald Bay in the plush North Laguna neighborhood.  Ocean Front homes located in this area have commanding ocean and coastline views and rarely come on the market for sale.  There are a total of 3 ocean front streets in this area and known as Circle Way, Crescent Bay Drive and Mcknight Drive.  The latter is where one current ocean front home is currently on the market for sale at $12,450,000 and listed by the McMonigle Group corporation.  

The three bedroom, four bath home features a total of 3,212 square feet and located on 0.18 acre ocean front lot.  The tip of the home is located at Crown Point which features just a few select ocean properties that typically look north towards the

This has been a record year for real estate sales in Laguna Beach.  We have seen some incredible homes sell at amazing prices and some of the most premium properties coming on the market for sale.  By far the most exciting part of the year was seeing the iconic Twin Points home come on the market for sale.  Twin Points is a rare property that sits on a huge ocean front parcel of land that splits into two points, hence the name "Twin Points."  The land can be seen from many coastline spots and we never thought we would see this iconic property come on the market this year.

Twin Points is located at 1101 Marine Drive in Laguna Beach.  The home sold for $45,000,000 and closed escrow on 02/02/2016.  It was originally listed at $75,000,000 and was on the

A lot of properties on the market have the potential to be good potential flip properties if they are bought at the right price.  It's the old saying that you make money when you buy real estate and not when you sell.  Buying at a low price will often result in instant equity and leverage the property for sale in the future for a profit. Laguna Beach is one of the most expensive real estate markets in Southern California so it takes a lot of money to "get in the game" versus other neighboring cities.  This also adds a lot of risk and carrying costs while the home is being maintained.  Flip properties have been sensationalized on television as properties that need extra TLC and with enough sweat equity and quality craftsmanship to fix up the property the

The North Laguna area of Laguna Beach has many ocean front homes and neighborhoods to choose from. North Laguna has traditionally been a bid draw for residents who live here due to the large upscale homes that reside along the coastline. Some of the largest and most expensive neighborhoods are also located here which include Smithcliffs, Irvine Cove and Emerald Bay. When looking for an ocean front property it’s important to keep these things in mind.

First, do you want to live in a gated community? This is one of the first questions we ask clients when they start their real estate search in Laguna. If the answer is yes, then this narrows the search down tremendously since there are only a few gated communities that exist in Laguna Beach. In South

Laguna Beach saw some record sales in 2015 with some large estate homes selling in some of the most expensive gated neighborhoods.  The highest sale actually happened outside of a gated neighborhood this year and was a custom 10,000 square foot home South Laguna that sold for the highest amount in 2015.  Below is a quick guide to the most expensive homes sold in Laguna Beach for the calendar year of 2015.

First, the highest sale goes to the property located at 2475 S. Coast Highway which sold for $17,500,000 on 11/20/2015.  This property had been on the market for several years but finally got the homes sold due to some aggressive pricing.  Originally listed at $21,900,000, the 10,000 square foot home that sat on an approximate 1 Acre of land dropped