Jeff Lewis Finally Flipped His Los Feliz Flip

My DVR is already set for the Season 2 premiere of Bravo TV’s “Flipping Out,” starring L.A. home flipper Jeff Lewis, on Tuesday, June 17. I have to say, I wondered whether Bravo would bring back the show, given the state of the real estate market.  But it IS back, which means Jeff, an admitted obsessive-compulsive with flair for drama, will probably be even more crazed than last year as he tries to unload his properties.

Meanwhile, if you’ll recall, Season 1 featured a number of L.A. properties Jeff was trying to flip.  He refers to them by their street names.  I blogged several times about “Ben Lomond,” which is this Los Feliz house at 3427 Ben Lomond Place. 

As you can see from the Redfin listing, Ben Lomond finally sold on April 1, 2008, for $1,250,000.  Piecing together previous posts, we can trace the price reductions:

June 2006:  Purchased house for $975,000 and remodeled it extensively.  Put it back on the market sometime in 2007 with an asking price of $1,525,000.
August 2007: Asking price reduced to $1,485,000.
September 2007:  Price reduced again, to $1,449,000.
October 2007:  The house is taken off the market.
October 2007:  The house is back on the market, priced at $1,399,000.
April 2008: Sold for $1,250,000.

It doesn’t take a financial genius to surmise that Jeff didn’t do very well on this house.  He probably put at least $200K into it (he said it was in terrible shape when he bought it), then carried the loan for close to two years. (Click here to see pictures of the redone house from a post on The Real Estalker.) On the other hand, to get $1,250,000 in this market for a two-bedroom, two-bath isn’t so awful. At least the place did sell, unlike many others.

I think I’m beginning to see why the show came back:  Jeff needs the money!

Anyway, the protracted sale of Ben Lomond should make for great T.V.