On February 10, 2016, the Los Angeles City Council adopted the “HI” Hybrid Industrial Live/Work Zone Ordinance. The new rule creates a new zone classification in the City of Los Angeles called the Hybrid Industrial (HI) Zone, along with accompanying land use and development standards. The new law comes online March 30, 2016. The main purpose of this new zone classification is to allow the development of residential live-work units, hotels and other specified commercial uses on property within an existing industrial zone and designated as Hybrid Industrial in the General Plan.
The newly approved HI Zone is the first industrial zone of its kind in Los Angeles. In addition to adding an assortment of residential and commercial uses on industrial land, projects sited on land zoned as HI must provide public benefits and other development requirements, such as below-ground parking. The new rules provide development incentives in exchange for affordable housing, additional non-residential floor area, public art and public open space.
The new ordinance is not likely to create a huge impact because it requires builders to construct very expensive underground parking below historic buildings, partially defeating the purpose of re-purposing.
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It’s the #1 best kept secret in Downtown Los Angeles. While more buyers than ever are feeling empowered with all of the real estate and property information on the internet, most are unaware of just how many properties they are not seeing. Out of sight, out of mind.
Up to 45% of the best deals in Downtown L.A. are pocket listings, off-market, exclusive deals, unlisted lofts, unadvertised condos and private transactions. Many prospective buyers make the mistake of sifting through hundreds of online listings that may or may not match the buyer’s criteria, and the buyer risks missing out on just the right home.
There are many reasons why so many properties are unlisted, often the listing agent simply notifies their office and other friendly local agents about new listings while the listing is being processed and prepared for the multiple listing service.
Technical glitches, spelling errors, listing omissions and other unanticipated events cause properties to be unlisted or otherwise not found on the MLS and not found on the internet. One common example is glitches and imperfections in the MLS-IDX feed to websites, and mistakes that agents and website owners make when attempting to link to local properties. This is why the L.A. Loft Blog has been adding alternative ways of finding homes for sale in addition to the regular FOR SALE links.
Many pocket listings are the result of sellers not being quite ready to invite the entire world into their home. Many properties for sale have renter tenants who are not always cooperative. Sometimes, the landlord does not want the tenant to know that the home is on the market because the landlord does not want to anger or possible lose the tenant too early.
Often the seller simply wants a more discrete transaction, the seller wants to be able to pick and choose the buyer, or the seller simply does not want the home to have an appearance of undesirable by being on listed on the MLS too long. A Downtown home that is listed on the MLS for more than 60 days might be tarnished, thought of as a potential problem.
To add to the problem, several MLS Multiple Listing Services, including our own popular local Combined Los Angeles Area Westside MLS, place a 3-day delay on feeds to the online real estate websites such as Trulia, Zillow and other real estate sites. This adds up to about 5 days delay before the average prospective home buyer sees the best deals online. Even without the artificial delay, the internet takes time for property information and its metadata to propagate to all of the websites.
There are countless other reasons why many of the best loft deals in Downtown Los Angeles are not found by many buyers, agents and brokers. TheMLS and other real estate professionals agree that buyers often get a better deal and a faster transaction with a pocket listing. Get free unlisted lofts and pocket listing information. Fill out the online form:
