If you have a fax machine, e-mail with a scanner, and a cell phone with an international access card, you can do business from virtually any place on earth. Nobody even needs to know where you are.
More and more, business takes place where you are, not where your office or factory is. You can work from a picnic table along the Seine in Paris, from a hotel room overlooking the harbor in Hong Kong, or from a cabin near Lake Tahoe.
With a soft speaker in your ear attached to a little box in your lap, you can talk business with anyone in the world from anywhere. Transmissions of faxes and e-mails may be contractually binding, regardless of point of origin.
You might as well be working from someplace pleasant! Perhaps out of your home in the hills of Malibu overlooking the Pacific?
That may be what some of these summertime buyers had in mind when they made the following local purchases. Or, maybe they just wanted to live near good surfing.
Beginning east, sales on Las Tunas Beach have shown up on the Multiple Listing Service at final prices of $1,150,000, $1.2 million and $1,650,000. An older home in Big Rock sold for just above $625,000.
A significant sale on Las Flores Beach featured a home on 55 feet of beach, with six bedrooms, for $2,750,000.
The most recent sales in Sea View Estates have come from the same street for $660,000 and $800,000. On higher ground, the homes had some ocean view.
A home in West Saddlepeak sold quickly at full price, just under $1.3 million, including 10 acres and commanding views.
A rebuilding enclave in the lower Rambla Pacifico area, above the slide, has had two closed escrows at $960,000 and more than $1.4 million. Both homes had at least 1.5 acres, four bedrooms and ocean views.
Sales in La Costa Hills have been reported at $1.2 million, $1,325,000, and $2 million. The $2 million home actually sold twice this summer at that price, featuring an older classic Mediterranean style.
Fifty feet on Carbon Beach brought just under $2,250,000 for a two-bedroom home.
A contemporary home in Sweetwater Canyon sold for more than $1.5 million. It had a pool and some ocean view.
Several closings have occurred in Latigo Canyon, including a prominent estate at $3.3 million. More typically, a home that sold for $415,000 in 1995 just closed at $525,000. It was contemporary in style. Another hillside home sold for $595,000. Higher yet in the hills, a 15-acre equestrian ranch recorded at about $1,750,000.
Malibu Cove Colony continues to be very active recently, with sales at $1,750,000, and $2.7 million on 57 feet of beach.
A white contemporary home on two acres in the Winding Way area went for $1.7 million.
While this is a sampling of sales, it fairly represents that the majority of deals are above $1 million, a median price that has long been surpassed.
A Point Dume home, with about a half-acre, sold for just more than $725,000. It had no view and was an older ranch house vintage. Another home on the Point, with about 1.5 acres, albeit mostly in a ravine, sold above its last asking price and brought in $1,050,000. It had four bedrooms and some ocean view. A probate property sold for about $1.4 million, with three bedrooms, on about one acre and physical access to the beach, in a cul-de-sac.
A Bonsall ranch mini-estate on 1.5 acres of flat land sold for $1.3 million. A fixer home in Malibu Park with some ocean view and about one acre transacted for $825,000. Not far away, another home in need of work, but with good ocean views brought $675,000. Across the street, a contemporary home, with less than an acre, sold for $830,000. Another Malibu Park home hit the market at $650,000, had several offers and sold for $715,000. It had less than an acre, but with some view, and four bedrooms.
An exclusive, gated cul-de-sac street in Malibu Park has had multi-million deals through the years, but none larger than recently, when a stunning Mediterranean, with captivating ocean views, and impeccable quality sold for $3.6 million. It had five bedrooms on about an acre.
Malibu West is enjoying a huge upsurge of values. An upgraded home hit the $800,000 level, with five bedrooms. In the upper mesa, a sale of a home of about $730,000 had a nice view and good size yard. It last sold in 1994 for $550,000.
Another Malibu West home below sold for $530,000 a couple of years ago, but sold for just under $700,000 this summer.
A home in the Trancas Highlands was quick on the market before a sale at $1,275,000. It had three acres and terrific views.
Broad Beach sales in recent months have landed from $2.7 million to $5.5 million. The latter sale was a celebrity-owned home that brought many prospects and sold at full price. The upper Broad Beach neighborhood had a recent sale just under $1.4 million for a newer house. Another home got more than its last asking price of about $900,000, with four bedrooms.
In the Sea Level/Victoria Point area, sales have landed near $1.7 million in two cases, including one home with four levels and a disco, and another beach home sold for nearly $2.6 million.
A 22-acre nursery site and residence sold for $2.5 million, located in the hills above Broad Beach. Not far away, a recent sale at $999,000 of a view home was exactly 80 percent above the $555,000 sale of the same house in 1998.
Also on the Pacific Coast Highway land side, up along the Encinal area, a home with one acre and a guesthouse sold for $745,000.
A home on 60 feet of beach at County Line sold for a little more than $1.5 million.
Up Yerba Buena, a 12-acre ranch sold for about $835,000.
Rick Wallace has been a Realtor at Fred Sands Malibu office for 12 years and a Malibu resident for 25 years. He can be reached at RICKMALIBUrealestate.com.