The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • Page 237

rpnr For Sale Average number of homes looked at by buyers in 1997. LosAngeles Buying Homes in COUntV' America," Chicago msm Title Trust Co. SECTION SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 1998 J1 ill ill nli Inl Iff i I LJLX Cos AttQelC0 SKmcs HOT PROPERTY Do Open Houses Waste Time or Sell Homes? prospective buyers who may purchase other houses. I'm glad you did not sign a listing for longer than 90 days. It will give your agent plenty of time to get your home sold.

If your home doesn't bring several offers inside and outside paint and a remodeled kitchen. We plan to sell it next summer. If we make these improvements now, do you think we'll get our money back in the form of a higher sales price? Fresh paint is the Real Estate qba renovating a kitchen before selling a home. Just get the kitchen into tip-top clean condition with minor fix-up, such as replacing a worn floor and painting. If you remodel, you could be wasting your money, because upgrading often does not add as much market value as it costs.

Agent Takes Vacation, Fails to Fulfill Duty I am thoroughly disgusted with the realty agent with whom I signed a six-month listing for the sale of my home. He put my listing into the local multiple listing service. A few local agents showed up at his "broker's open house." He refused to advertise my Please see HOMES, K5 By ROBERT J. BRUSS SPECIAL TO THE TIMES QUESTION: We signed the papers to list our home for sale in early January. The Realtor who got our 90-day listing refused to commit herself to holding Sunday open houses.

She says they don't sell homes and are a waste of time. Since she comes highly recommended by a friend whose home she sold, we respect her opinion. Do you agree? ANSWER: Some real estate agents share your Realtor's opinion. However, many homes are sold as a result of Sunday open houses, so nobody can say they don't work. Many agents love open houses because: (a) they get exposure for the home being shown, and (b) they help the agent meet new within the first 30 to 60 days, that's the time to push your agent to improve her marketing, including holding Sunday open houses.

Paint Before Selling, but Don't Remodel Our home needs new carpets, most profitable improvement you can make. It will make your home attractive to prospective buyers and add to its market value by many times its modest cost. New carpets are also very profitable improvements with the same benefits. However, kitchen remodeling often is not profitable. I do not recommend Patti LaBelle Pop Diva Goes for New Key 7t.

Vvw 11 rim 0. 3 JK By RUTH RYON TIMES STAFF WRITER Singer PATTI LaBELLE, preparing for a tour following her one-woman show on Broadway in January, and her manager-husband, L. ARMSTEAD EDWARDS, have sold their Westside condo for about $500,000 and bought a larger, more expensive one nearby, sources say. "Their main residence is in Philadelphia, so this is still a second home, but they expect to spend more time here," a source said. LaBelle, 53, and her seven -piece band went from their Broadway stint to a February run in Washington, D.C.

Her spring tour is expected to extend into the summer. She toured last year with her Grammy -nominated MCA release her 53rd album jn her 30-plus-year career. Known for her tunes, bluesy ballads and pop hits, LaBelle is also famous for her spiritual songs. She may release a gospel album this year. LaBelle and Edwards sold a penthouse in a 30-unit 6-year-old building to a local businessman, sources say.

The couple bought a two-bedroom unit that is half again as large Please see HOT PROP, K2 jlv VU 1 ft 1 1 1 i i 't 'J i ii LUISSINCO Los Angeles Times Sabrina Palmersheim, who bought her grandmother's three-bedroom, IVi-bath North Hollywood house, has noticed gradual change in the area. By DAN GORDON SPECIAL TO THE TIMES abrina Palmersheim grew up in Van Nuys but spent so much of her childhood in her North iHolly wood home that, 1 'she says, "I grew up here, too." Know the Hazards in Buying Home on Golf Course By KATHERINE SALANT SPECIAL TO THE TIMES Don't rule out buying a house on a golf course just because you don't play golf. In most residential golf course communities, the majority of homeowners don't play; they live there for the setting. But bucolic as it may appear, a golf course is not a quiet retreat; it's full of golfers. To have a pleasant time alongside their activities, you need to know a few basics of the game and golf course design.

For example, you don't want a lot adjoining a fairway in the "landing zone," golf course architects' term for the area where the tee shots land. If your house is there, you will get a lot of balls in your yard, plus golfers retrieving them and the occasional broken window. As Bill Newcomb, a golf course architect in Ann Arbor, explained it: "From the tee of a hole with a long fairway a par 4 or a par 5 most golfers hit the ball with a wood club about 180 to 200 yards. If your house adjoins the fairway here, a lot of golf balls will land in your yard. "The wood is the biggest club in the golfer's bag and it's harder to control.

Please see NEW HOME, K6 With vintage clothing shops, hip coffeehouses and live theater, this artsy North Hollywood district is slowly establishing a chic identity. rP Gorman T. 11,1 1 tt (Lancaster Burbank castalc 3 LOS NoHO "wnardIt! ANGELES I I DETAILED COUNTY i I HATTERAS ST Syk- JLjj BURBANKj'BLVD. iJ. 1 i 1 MAGNOLIA BLVD.

I ft-'J Valley r- Village I 1 FD VSII North Hollywood i RIVERSIDE DR. CAMARILLO ST. I Studio City 0 mile 0.5 Vi' v- rmrside'dr: '-A Early last year, North Hollywood became home again to the 27-year-old Spago restaurant controller. She paid $170,000 for her grandmother's Weddington Street home, a three-bedroom, IVi-bath house with six fruit trees in the spacious backyard. Since her return, Palmersheim has noticed something different about the area.

Whenever she and her two roommates go for a late-night dinner at Sitton's the same Magnolia Boulevard coffee shop that Palmersheim used to frequent with Please see NOHO, K2 Los Angeles Times The Nation's Housing: New legislation would help homeowners who need disaster insurance. K6 1.