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3930 Topanga Canyon Blvd Malibu CA 90265 Accepting Backup Offers!!
Directions: Take Pacific Coast Highway to Topanga Canyon Blvd approximately five hundred feet from the corner on the north side of the street is the land (across and past Oasis Imports) Remarks: Price Reduced! Seller wants it SOLD NOW! This is one of the least expensive vacant lots in Malibu and in such close proximity to the ocean. Lots like this don’t last long in this market! Buyer to verify all information and rely on their own investigations. Ask listing agent for a plat map and go direct. Alternatively great investment to hold for future appreciation. Sold AS IS & WHERE IS. Drive by and MAKE OFFER. Seller is open to seller financing as well. More photos to be posted tomorrow and a video is also in the works. If you are looking for a pet friendly Beverly Hills Realtor who can handle the most challenging properties that no one else could, please reach out to me directly. If you are considering buying or selling a home, a luxury home, luxury investment real estate, luxury vacation homes, or luxury beach properties or vacant land in Southern California, Los Angeles, Century City, Westwood, West Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Marina Del Rey, Venice or Malibu reach out to me at 310.486.1002 (m) or homes@endrebarath.com or visit my website at https://www.endrebarath.com....
read moreMaking a Case for : Why not build your home? by Endre Barath, Jr. a Beverly Hills Land Specialist.
Making A Case for why not build your home? by Endre Barath, Jr. a Beverly Hills Land Specialist. After recently reading an article by WalletHub, https://wallethub.com/edu/best-and-worst-cities-for-first-time-home-buyers/5564 they made a list of the best and worst places for affordability for a first-time home buyer. Sadly, out of the 300 cities, Inglewood, CA came in at #276, followed by Los Angeles at #295 with Santa Monica pulling up the rear at #299 – all 3 cities making it into the top 300 worst affordability. With these statistics, may I humbly suggest investing in vacant land in the Greater Los Angeles area. Sure, there are challenges with building approvals, permits and the like, but in the long-run the benefits outweigh the difficulties. Let’s start with the price. If you are a first-time home buyer, there are two big challenges you immediately face – one is having the downpayment and the second is being able to afford the monthly carrying costs. The price of most vacant lots is the price of the downpayment for a house. As one might expect, there are land loans available from lenders. Reach out to me and I’d be happy to give you the list. Depending upon where the land is located, the home approval process can take a couple of years, but the good news is while you are meandering through the approval process, you are paying down the land if you’ve taken a loan. Subsequently, the value of the land increases as time goes by hence, as you approach the finish line for approvals to build, the value of the land has increased dramatically. Should your situation change, there are many buyers who do not want to go through the approval process but are willing to pay top dollar to buy vacant land with Ready To Issue permits (RTI). So you just might be able to sell the land to someone else, thus using the proceeds for other opportunities, possibly even enough to put down for an already built home. Alternatively, if your plan to build moves forward the lender that gave you the land loan is generally open to converting your land loan into a construction loan. Now with that said, add an additional 6 months to a year and you built your home, clearly at a fraction of what you would have paid had you bought your first home. Another thing to keep in mind is there is a huge demand for new construction homes in the greater Los Angeles area that you can sell for top dollar should you decide not to live in your newly constructed home. If you take those proceeds and buy an existing home for less, you are well ahead of the game and avoided the huge dilemma of being a first-time home buyer in places such as Los Angeles, Inglewood and Santa Monica. Being a vacant land specialist in the greater Los Angeles area, reach out to me to help you achieve your goal of being a first-time homeowner. If you are looking for a pet friendly Beverly Hills Realtor who can handle the most challenging properties that no one else could, please reach out to me directly. If you are considering buying or selling a home, a luxury...
read moreBlack Sunday by Thomas Harris A book review by Endre Barath, a Beverly Hills Realtor and avid reader
Black Sunday by Thomas Harris A book review by Endre Barath, a Beverly Hills Realtor and avid reader My latest read and book review and a novel that was published in 1975, and I am the proud owner of a First Ed. hard cover. Thomas Harris penned this book after he watched the 1972 Munich Olympics Massacre. As I was an Interpreter at the Munich Olympics Press Center for these Games, sadly I could relate to much of this novel; because of this, as you might imagine, this book holds extra meaning for me. The novel’s plot is about terrorists attempting to create mass murder at the Super Bowl in New Orleans. We have a Vietnam veteran battling personal demons (think marital issues and thoughts of suicide) who flies a blimp over the Stadium for the networks to cover the game and wants to take as many people as possible ‘out’ with him. Enter a female character who is part of Black September (yes, the same group that was involved with the Olympics Massacre) who offers him the opportunity to potentially kill close to 80,000 people in the Stadium; as an added ‘bonus’ the President of the United States is planning to attend the game as well. Now you’ve got the general idea of the story, one that is filled with American Intelligence and FBI agents, Israeli Mossad agents and Palestinian terrorists to name a few key players. Not wanting to give away the ending, I will say that I had a hard time at night to stop reading the novel. Once you get going with it, you just want to keep reading to get to the finish line. I’m glad that I finally read Thomas Harris’ first novel. The parallels of Munich for me were very eerie as I could truly relate and appreciate the plot; I felt as if I was living in the moment. Word has it this book was not a big blockbuster hit until Harris ended up selling it to Hollywood and it was made into a movie in 1977. If the author’s name rings a bell, yes, Thomas Harris is also the creator of Hanibal Lecter and The Silence of the Lambs. As I say in most of my book reviews, if you have not read this one and love a page turner, this one’s for you. If you are looking for a pet friendly Beverly Hills Realtor who can handle the most challenging properties that no one else could, please reach out to me directly. If you are considering buying or selling a home, a luxury home, luxury investment real estate, luxury vacation homes, or luxury beach properties or vacant land in Southern California, Los Angeles, Century City, Westwood, West Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Marina Del Rey, Venice or Malibu reach out to me at 310.486.1002 (m) or homes@endrebarath.com or visit my website...
read moreObservations about Real Estate Headlines, by a Beverly Hills, CA Realtor: Endre Barath, Jr.
Here we are, six days into July 2025 in other words we are well into the second half of 2025 with less than six months left in the year. Not fully grasping how this happened, I can only conclude that we are all very busy day-to-day, making the days go by quickly, hence the weeks and the months as well. No matter, there’s nothing we can do about it, time marches on as the saying goes. Real Estate headlines are all over the map, and often I wonder who is writing these headlines and from where do they get their information? A few examples: 1. The Jobs Report: The U.S. employment numbers for June surprised the experts! The economy added jobs, and the unemployment rate ticked down. Wages are still climbing, month over month and year over year. Simply stated, the job market isn’t falling off the cliff any time soon. Nevertheless, it surprised “experts”? 2. The Los Angeles Housing Market: Depending upon which headline you read: (a) The Los Angeles housing market shows signs of cooling since May2025; and (b) Are Home Prices dropping in Los Angeles? If you asked me, I would tell you that the Los Angeles housing market continues to show resilience. The median sales price for June 2025 was $876,067 up 3.8% year over year, while June inventory was up and an increase from May by 9%. You get the idea. Here in Los Angeles, prices remain elevated, inventory increased, and sales slowed down. This means that buyers have more options from which to choose and can negotiate more than in previous years. What headlines fail to mention is that Real Estate is very localized even within city or neighborhood limits. If you are considering buying or selling, you need to focus on a .5-.75-mile radius of the property you are considering buying or selling to obtain an accurate value. If you have any questions or want to talk about real estate, please reach out to me directly and get the real scoop, not the misleading headlines. In the meantime, I hope all of you had a safe July 4th holiday. If you are looking for a pet friendly Beverly Hills Realtor who can handle the most challenging properties that no one else could, please reach out to me directly. If you are considering buying or selling a home, a luxury home, luxury investment real estate, luxury vacation homes, or luxury beach properties or vacant land in Southern California, Los Angeles, Century City, Westwood, West Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Marina Del Rey, Venice or Malibu reach out to me at 310.486.1002 (m) or homes@endrebarath.com or visit my website...
read moreHappy Independence Day better known as Happy 4th of July!
Independence Day, perhaps better known as the 4th of July, represents the independence of the United States from British rulers. Over time, this holiday morphed in many directions and this year, for many, it represents a long weekend and a kickoff to summer. Many people will be barbequing in their backyards, patios, balconies or parks. Others will see it as a day of heavy alcohol consumption and of course, be prepared for lots of “illegal fireworks” no matter where you live. Being from Los Angeles, I find it appalling given the recent Palisades and Altadena fires that we can still count on an abundance of them particularly since it’s impossible to get through to your local police department to report anyone. In addition to the fire risks, there are many fireworks personal injuries as well. All of this makes you wonder why people still partake, doesn’t it? Conscientious pet owners dread this time of year and likely have pet medications on hand from their veterinarians. Sadly there’s no one to make it easier for wildlife and stray or feral cats. We will keep our windows closed, air conditioning on and play calming music to help keep our pets calm and safe. Local shelters, already overflowing with unwanted animals, will take in even more dogs and cats that may accidentally run away from home. So be smart – if you have pets, keep them indoors. As an added safety tip, if you live in a warm, dry climate consider watering your vegetation the morning of the 4th (or in any event before it gets dark) in case you have neighbors who you know will be shooting off illegal fireworks. In spite of the hazards brought on by those that are inconsiderate, Independence Day is a national holiday that should and will be marked with parades in the local communities as well as legal fireworks displays coordinated and supervised by the professionals. To this I say, enjoy the celebrations! I’ll end by sharing a bit of historical trivia: In 1903 in Cleveland Ohio an explosion took place at the Thor Mfg. Co., a maker of fireworks. The explosion demolished 12 buildings and killed 3 people. At a later time, there was a sparkler-ignited fireworks explosion at a Kresge store causing many patrons to be burned and others to be trampled in an attempt to escape. These incidents led to the Cleveland Congress of Mothers to advocate for change. In 1908, an ordinance was passed prohibiting fireworks within the city of Cleveland, thus making Cleveland the first “safe and sane” city in America. With all this said, I wish all of my clients and friends reading this post a happy and safe Independence Day! If you are looking for a pet friendly Beverly Hills Realtor who can handle the most challenging properties that no one else could, please reach out to me directly. If you are considering buying or selling a home, a luxury home, luxury investment real estate, luxury vacation homes, or luxury beach properties or vacant land in Southern California, Los Angeles, Century City, Westwood, West Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Marina Del Rey, Venice or Malibu reach out to me at 310.486.1002 (m) or homes@endrebarath.com or visit my website at...
read moreHappy 250th Birthday to the U.S. Army. Go Army!
Happy 250th Birthday to the U.S. Army. Go Army! By the action of the Continental Congress, the U.S. Army was founded on June 14, 1775. To share some historical information, the U.S. Army Infantry was and is the oldest of all the combat Arms Branches, not only in the U.S. Army but going back through history. As most history buffs will recall, the Ancient Greeks were the first to create the Infantry by introducing a tactic that was called “The Greek Phalanx” (i.e., flexible battle formation). Until the Romans improved on it, this tactic was dominant for centuries. Needless to say, both the Infantry and the U.S. Army have come a long way since the Greek & Roman Days. Today’s modern Infantry can move by land, by sea and by air. Since my focus is on celebrating the 250th birthday of the U.S. Army, I thought it would be nice to give some historical perspective. Now I will share the Mission of the US Army: Preserving the peace and security and providing for the defense of the United States, the Commonwealths and possessions, and any areas occupied by the United States. Supporting the national policies. Implementing the national objectives; and Overcoming any nations responsible for aggressive acts that imperil the peace and security of the United States The short version is: “To Fight and Win the Nation’s Wars”. Clearly this has been accomplished well over the centuries and still holds true today. Let me just share a quote from former President Ronald Reagan: “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same.” So, with all that said, I again say “Happy 250th Birthday U.S. Army”. On a personal note, I had the privilege of being a member of this great Army of ours as an Airborne Ranger Infantry Captain, so this day is extra special for me. I’m also proudly flying the American flag, not only to commemorate this special birthday, but also to recognize Flag Day 2025. The U.S. Flag was adopted on June 14, 1777, also by resolution of the Second Continental Congress. And this, my friends, concludes today’s history lesson! If you are looking for a pet friendly Beverly Hills Realtor who can handle the most challenging properties that no one else could, please reach out to me directly. If you are considering buying or selling a home, a luxury home, luxury investment real estate, luxury vacation homes, or luxury beach properties or vacant land in Southern California, Los Angeles, Century City, Westwood, West Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Marina Del Rey, Venice or Malibu reach out to me at 310.486.1002 (m) or homes@endrebarath.com or visit my website at...
read moreTriple a book review of yet another Ken Follet book by Endre Barath Jr. a Beverly Hills Realtor
Triple a book review of yet another Ken Follet book by Endre Barath Jr. a Beverly Hills Realtor First off, Ken Follet is one my all-time favorite authors. How often have you read a book and just thought “Wow I knew it! This is how it really happened”. Ken Follett’s books generally leave me with this impression whenever I finish one of his books. Needless to say, Triple left me with the same impression. My most recent reads have been of the 1960’s-1970’s Middle Eastern genre, books covering Egypt, Israel, the Fedayeen, the Palestinians and others. Ironically, the last three books I’ve read by Frederick Forsyth and Ken Follett read exactly as I remembered reading about the events in the news during those days. So, with that lead-in, let me start my book review of Triple by quoting the Postscript from the book: A quote from the London Daily Telegraph written on May 7th, 1977 “Israel suspected of hijacking ship with uranium” by Henry Miller. The book was first published in 1979, and I am the proud owner of an autographed first edition book! (As a book nerd, I am excited over that.) Our cast of characters include a Mossad top level agent, a Russian KGB agent, and Palestinian terrorists, some who are best known as active players of the 1972 Olympic Massacre. Ironically, thanks to my German and English language skills I happened to be working as an Interpreter in the Press Center for the Olympic Committee in those days. Hence the connection was extremely uncanny for me. To give you an idea of the plot, it is about the fact that Egypt is getting close to developing a nuclear bomb and in the 1960’s. The Mossad’s star agent is tasked with the challenge to beat the Arabs in the nuclear arms race. His job is to find and steal 200 tons of uranium without getting caught and exposing the Israeli connection to this event. Indeed, the book was another page turner; needless to say, no one outside of a few people who were in the top-secret government levels knew the answer or suspected the answer outside of the few of us such as Henry Miller from the London Daily Telegraph and of course author Ken Follett. Clearly this is a true story, historical fiction you’d say, and after you read the book you will agree with me that it is a great historical reflection of what was happening in the late sixties through the late seventies in the Middle East. If you have not read it, I highly recommend that you read it if you are a fan of that particular period of history, current events and the background to the Middle Eastern crisis. If you are looking for a pet friendly Beverly Hills Realtor who can handle the most challenging properties that no one else could, please reach out to me directly. If you are considering buying or selling a home, a luxury home, luxury investment real estate, luxury vacation homes, or luxury beach properties or vacant land in Southern California, Los Angeles, Century City, Westwood, West Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Marina Del Rey, Venice or Malibu reach out to me at 310.486.1002 (m) or homes@endrebarath.com or visit my website...
read moreJune 2025 hard to believe in a few weeks 2025 will be half over!
Is it me, or are you also wondering how we’ve gotten to the 6th month of 2025 already? Ready or not, in just over 3 weeks 2025 will be half over. Depending on what day you see the headlines or real estate postings, no doubt you continue to see news about inventory shortages, lack of sales, increase of inventory, and interest rates going up and down. What is my take? The same as always, buying a house, a condominium or even vacant land you cannot go wrong no matter what the market is like. For example, my father bought his Connecticut home in the early 1970’s as home prices and interest rates were increasing in double digits. He paid top dollar for his home. Twenty years later, he sold his house at the bottom of the market and still tripled his purchase price and was able to pay cash for his next home. Fast forward to the more recent past 10 to 11 years when we bought our house, just as home prices and interest rates started to rise. Here we are in 2025 with our home’s value having nearly doubled while we have been living comfortably knowing our house is almost free and clear. Perhaps it’s time to downsize or upsize or sell and relocate out of the area. As needs change, any of these options could be right for you. Depending on the situation, money from a sale can be invested into the next home with an option of investing in other areas, such as stocks. My message always remains the same, no matter what the market or the interest rates, real estate in the long term is a safe investment with one of the best perks being you do not have to worry about a landlord increasing your rent. Will inflation keep up and will you be able to afford to rent in areas you like? All these concerns and more fall to the wayside when you buy your home. Reach out to me, and let’s discuss your situation. Do not be confused with the daily headlines, instead talk to a seasoned Realtor that you can trust to give you straight advice. Until then, enjoy this month’s newsletter. Notable Dates in June: Pride Month; Father’s Day (June 15); Juneteenth (June 19); First Day of Summer/Summer Solstice (June 20) If you are looking for a pet friendly Beverly Hills Realtor who can handle the most challenging properties that no one else could, please reach out to me directly. If you are considering buying or selling a home, a luxury home, luxury investment real estate, luxury vacation homes, or luxury beach properties or vacant land in Southern California, Los Angeles, Century City, Westwood, West Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Marina Del Rey, Venice or Malibu reach out to me at 310.486.1002 (m) or homes@endrebarath.com or visit my website...
read moreThe Odessa File by Frederick Forsyth a Book Review by Endre Barath, Jr. a Beverly Hills Realtor
The Odessa File by Frederick Forsyth a Book Review by Endre Barath, Jr. a Beverly Hills Realtor As my regulars know, I ceased being a member of a real estate social media group a fairly short while ago which has opened up my time to getting back to my passion of reading books at night vs. social media blogging. It is truly refreshing and I realize how much I have missed my reading world. Ironically, I am at the point where I am reading books faster than I write book reviews. Needless to say, I have been catching up on books that I had for decades, books that have literally been collecting dust! As I attempt to catch up on reviews, I am already another book review behind. With all that said, this was the second book published by Frederick Forsyth. For those of you who are not familiar with Frederick Forsyth’s background, he used to be a Reuters Investigative reporter, and this novel is very much the result of his investigations albeit fictionalized to protect the people with whom he came in contact and shared their experiences. His first book, The Day of the Jackal, you should find the movie and if you missed my review, check it out. Peter Miller, a freelance journalist and main character in The Odess File, receives a packet with a diary of someone who survived a Nazi Concentration Camp and committed suicide. Miller discovers that one of the Concentration Camp Commandants, better known as “The Butcher of Riga”, is out and about working on a bomb manufacturing goal with the Egyptians to rain bombs on Israel. Keep in mind, this book was written in 1971 and published in 1972; the novel covers the early 1960’s. Having lived in Austria from 1964-1967, I recognized some of the names and can confirm that the book is a very factual historical novel. There are contacts with Simon Wiesenthal, the world renown Nazi hunter, referenced in the book. In another interesting part of the novel, Miller gets questioned “why a German non-Jewish reporter” would be going after the Nazi criminals who were mostly Germans. This again was very factual; the Germans wanted to put Nazi History behind them in the 1960’s, not bringing up old wounds for all to relive. Not to give any spoilers, be sure to read all the way to the end. One of the reasons I love Frederick Forsyth’s style of writing is that he saves the biggest thrill for the end. On a side note, in 1974 there was a movie made based on the book with John Voit and Maximilian Schell starring. While I did not see the movie, nevertheless, I am confident you would enjoy the movie as well knowing the stars and what the plot is all about. This book is a page turner, not only enjoyable, but it has inspired me to continue reading more of this genre. If you have not read this book, you must put it on your to-be-read (TBR) list. I’ll close this review by saying I am so glad I read this book. If you are looking for a pet friendly Beverly Hills Realtor who can handle the most challenging properties that no one else could, please reach out to me directly. If you are considering buying or...
read moreInglewood, California is hosting the FIFA World Cup in 2026!
SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California to host the FIFA World cup in 2026! This iconic event inspired me to write this post and include some historical trivia of the sport (“soccer “) as well as a bit of personal reflection which includes my own connection with the sport and with some of its historically world-famous players. If you can imagine, before the 1970’s soccer was not a big deal in the United States and was even looked at as a secondary sport, being compared to football. Ironically, in Europe and around the globe soccer was viewed as the exact opposite. It’s also worth noting that around the world it was not called “soccer” rather it was called “football”. This can be a bit confusing, right? By the early 1980’s, soccer started to pick up momentum and interest in the United States thanks in large part to the 1984 Olympics that were hosted in Los Angeles, CA. (On a side note, I find it equally interesting that the Olympics are going to be hosted again in Los Angeles in 2028. Needless to say, that is food for another future post.) For this particular post, I am only focusing on the men’s soccer history, since that is where my own personal connection was and I’m not looking to write a book or even a chapter here. As some of my regular readers know, I was born in Communist Hungary prior to legally immigrating to the United States (thanks to my late father) and calling the U.S. my home. Interestingly enough, Hungary became the talk of ‘world soccer’, since they managed to defeat England in the early 1950’s. England was considered by all as the king of the sport of soccer until then, so it was no small win for Hungary. In the early 1950’s, the Hungarian National Soccer Team had been affectionately nicknamed “The Golden Team”. Not only did they beat England, but in the 1952 Olympics, they won the Gold Medal. Hence in 1954, everyone in Hungary was listening to the radio broadcast of the World Cup, but were sadly disappointed when Hungry lost to West Germany 3-2. Rather than celebrating Hungary’s win of the Silver medal, the loss was followed by a huge public protest in Budapest, Hungary. The public had a hard time coming to terms with this defeat. Some thought it was a “fix”. Keep in mind that rioting (or even protesting) in Communist Hungary was totally unheard of. Can you imagine shop windows being smashed in Budapest in 1954? It took three days for the authorities to calm down and quelch the riots of the angry football fans. There was no celebration for winning the Silver medal, rather it only angered the fans. Nevertheless, after the 1956 Hungarian Revolution the team members who remained in Hungary were well respected and treated kindly by the politicians as well as their loyal fans. Nandor Hidegkuti, Sandor Kocsis and Ferenc Puskas are three names that were part of the Golden Team. Hidegkuti was the real star of the game, although the other two received more accolades and credit, only because they immigrated to the West and received more international publicity. Just to be clear Hidegkuti coached and managed a number of teams in Hungary as well as later on in the Globe after many years. He was instrumental in winning the Hungarian League Championship with...
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