Fire Damaged Homes From Thousand Oaks Fire

[Mallie Messri]

Hi all,

As many of you may know there has been a huge fire that's erupted in the San Fernando Valley over the last few days and many homes have been damaged or completely burned. In Starbucks this morning there were over 50 evacuees from the Thousand Oaks Hills in our Woodland Hills location and we started a conversation with a few of the neighbors.

Does anyone have any idea what will happen to these homes? I assume most will be completely re-built with Insurance but I imagine that some home owners may be in a situation where they now need to sell? We obviously don't want to capitalize on this distressed situation for our neighbors but we definitely would like to know if there is any opportunity to purchase a fire damaged home in the next few months.

Any thoughts on this?

Thanks!

[Christine Swaidan]

I lost my home in the December 2018 Thomas Fire in Ventura. The cost to rebuild my original 1970's tract home will be $1,000,000 as it is now a custom home (3300 square ft.). It is costing me more to rebuild my house than I can sell it for at this point in time. Many people were under insured or just can't deal with the difficult rebuild process and have put their lots on the market or have not decided what they will do. There are lots for sale in my neighborhood with beautiful ocean views. Figure the lots are going for $500,000+ and add the cost of building puts you at 1.5 million plus.