The week restaurateur Tyler Wells reopened his Altadena restaurant after the Eaton fire, Compass agent Teresa Fuller snapped up a reservation.
The scene was both joyous and painful. The restaurant, formerly Bernee and now called Betsy, had great food — a farm-to-table concept whose white anchovy-topped Caesar salad and wood-oven cheesecake were renowned within weeks. But steps away, diners could see the hollowed-out Woodbury Building, a reminder of the destruction caused by January’s fire.
“I knew every single person in the restaurant,” Fuller said. “I got emotional. It was overwhelming.” She lives and works in nearby Pasadena, while her home gets remediated. She lost her storage space for staging supplies and business records while her office got tested for heavy metals.
On Saturday nights since, it’s become normal again to see Betsy patrons sitting outside on Altadena’s Mariposa Street, an ordinariness many have craved since Jan. 7 when the Palisades and Eaton fires ripped through, destroying more than 18,000 structures, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. Fuller also frequents the Good Neighbor Bar and West Altadena Wine and Spirits, all in a bid to bring life back.
The fires were devastating, but it was after the flames were tamed that all hell broke loose. Government leaders scrambled for a game plan, inflamed residents pointed fingers, onlookers added their two cents, insurance was a terror, tariffs took on a new toll and opportunists entered the picture.
Between the recovery, the outrage and the concern, the real estate industry in the region has settled into a new role. They’re not just brokers or builders behind the rush to rebuild; they’re also sounding boards, community leaders, experts in how to price homes when there are no comps and even economic development players who now understand the importance of normal routines — like Saturday nights out at an up-and-coming spot — returning in Altadena and the Palisades.
“We need to eliminate this fear of being a dead town,” Carolwood Estates’ Nichole Shanfeld said.
It’s all personal
Westside Estate Agency’s JJ Meyers was grabbing coffee and walking his dog when the Palisades Fire broke out.
He watched in real time as local news filmed the burning home of a friend’s parents, their family clock being carried out.
When the fires were controlled and the city began its recovery, the real estate industry picked up early on residents’ concerns and misgivings.
“Immediately, the [client] inquiries were, ‘What do you know that I don’t know?’ There was such a general distrust immediately,” Meyers recalled. “It was like they were coming to us because they didn’t believe the information they were getting. It was helping give people a general level of respect they didn’t feel they were getting.”
The bottom line: Brokers were living the disaster along with their clients.
“On a personal level, I love Kagawa. Every year, there were Halloween parties, Super Bowl parties, USC events, BBQs, you name it.”
Jacqueline Chernov, who joined the Beverly Hills Estates earlier this year from Compass, had her Palisades homes — a Spanish-style residence in the Huntington and the family property of 22 years in the Alphabet Streets — destroyed by the fire.
The number of temporary homes she’s lived in has now crept into the double digits; Chernov’s currently in a Malibu rental and hopes it can be home until her actual home is rebuilt. She does have a permit pulled for the Huntington home. At the Alphabet Streets property, she’s changed the plans and is not in a rush to rebuild.
Chernov was underinsured on both properties and is still awaiting money from State Farm. She described the insurance company — the largest home and auto insurer in the state — as difficult and chalks that up to a business model that holds the purse strings closed long enough for some people to give up on their claims. Hiring an adjuster to see the claims through to resolution and giving up 25 percent wasn’t an option.
“I’ve been doing this as another full-time job,” Chernov said of the insurance.
Her only break was a trip this summer to Amsterdam, for her daughter’s wedding. It was good to be out of town for a while, she said.
This is client service
On Jan. 22, a group of agents sat huddled in the living room of a Hollywood Hills home unsure of what was next and what they could do.
They discussed navigating new price-gouging rules, insurance, what the burned communities would be rebuilt into and, of course, Measure ULA.
The city of Los Angeles’ two-tier tax, also referred to as the mansion tax, has been a thorn in real estate’s side since it went into effect in April 2023. Charging a blanket 4 percent tax on properties starting at $5.3 million and 5.5 percent on those $10.6 million or more is absurd, the industry has repeatedly cried...
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