Trading Up to a Luxury Home in Los Feliz Knolls

You are trading into a housing stock that the City's SurveyLA Hollywood survey dates from 1908 through 1950. The 1908 house at 3728 Monon Street is the oldest the survey lists here, and it says the house appears to predate its surroundings by a decade or more. The newest it lists is the 1950 Mid-Century Modern at 3214 Waverly Drive by master architect J.R. Davidson. Between those two dates sit the Lloyd Wright houses on Lowry Road from 1925 and 1926, the Raphael Soriano house at 2190 Talmadge Street from 1939 and the Milton J. Black Streamline Moderne at 4241 Newdale Drive from 1935.

A trade-up buyer usually moves for more room or a different setting, and Los Feliz Knolls holds two settings inside one neighborhood. Parts of it are hillside and parts sit on flatter ground. Cedarhurst, Ben Lomond and Lowry sit near the boulevard, and Waverly Drive crests a hill where the Los Feliz Improvement Association describes a view over Griffith Park and the Verdugo Hills toward Glendale and the Los Angeles River. That view is on the record for one street. For any other, you confirm it from the lot.

The street names tell you where you are. Much of the east side sits on the Ivanhoe tract, which L.A. Street Names says was named in 1887 with streets drawn from Sir Walter Scott. Rowena, Waverly, Ettrick and St. George are all his. A move here is a move onto streets that have carried those names for more than a century.

Two landmarks frame the edges. The Shakespeare Bridge carries Franklin Avenue over a ravine on the south edge, and the William Mulholland Memorial Fountain stands at Riverside Drive and Los Feliz Boulevard at the northeast corner. Both are City Historic-Cultural Monuments.

1. Name the move. What the next home needs to do that the current one does not. More room, a hilltop on Waverly or a flatter block, or a specific era of house.
2. Estimate your equity. Comparable sales for your current home give a range. Subtract what you owe and your expected costs of sale.
3. Talk with your lender. Ask what you can buy before your sale closes and after it. Get the pre-approval in writing.
4. Choose the sequence. Sell first, buy first, or a contingent offer or a rent-back. Our post on trading up to a Los Feliz luxury home works through each option.
5. Prepare the current home early. Repairs and disclosures start before the list date so the timing stays yours.
6. Tour Los Feliz Knolls with the survey in hand. We check each address against SurveyLA and the City monument list before the showing.
7. Write the offer to fit the plan. Brandon typically writes an inspection period of 7 to 10 days, set in each offer. The initial deposit is about 3% of the price and is held by the escrow company.
8. Run both escrows together. Purchases in Los Angeles close through escrow and title companies. We keep both calendars in view and adjust them together if one moves.

This page explains how the process generally works. It is not tax, legal or lending advice. For your own situation, talk with your lender and your CPA or attorney as well.