Architectural and character homes in the San Gabriel Valley are my specialty: Craftsman, Spanish Colonial Revival, Tudor, Period Revival, and midcentury post-and-beam — in Pasadena, San Marino, South Pasadena, Altadena, and Alhambra, and in the landmark districts: Bungalow Heaven, Historic Highlands, Madison Heights, Oak Knoll, Arroyo Terrace.
I have held a California real estate license since 1990, and for twenty years I built and remodeled houses. The work I did with my own hands was interior millwork: coffered ceilings, newel posts, the hand-cut joinery that holds a staircase together. I have torn that work apart and put it back. It is why I can read a house — what is original, what was restored with care, what is a flip wearing period trim — and put a number on the difference.
That reading is the whole job on these properties. It determines what a house is actually worth, what it will cost to own, and what the right buyer will pay for authenticity once they recognize it.
I write the Arroyo Casa library, a public reference on the architects, styles, and landmark districts of this valley, along with the ownership mechanics that come with these homes: Mills Act contracts, Certificates of Appropriateness, design review, pre-1940 inspections. It is free and open to anyone, and it is the clearest record of how I work.
I price with Sell Odds, a tool I built on CRMLS sold and unsold outcomes — what has actually happened at a given price, in a given condition, in a given district, rather than what anyone says a house is worth.
Pre-war through midcentury, in the districts that have rules and the neighborhoods that have history: this is the work I do, and I have done it from both sides of the table.
