LA Agents Set Dealmaking Aside as Wildfires Burn

Arvin Haddad’s 75-year-old aunt covered her face to cry as she saw her home burned and reduced to rubble from the Palisades Fire.

Damages from fires that rocked Los Angeles County – the largest in the Pacific Palisades – have yet to be fully assessed, but the impact to the industry is coming into focus, with several thousand licensed agents living in affected areas, according to The Real Deal Research. The number could be much larger when factoring in staff members and executives who aren’t licensed through the California Department of Real Estate. The impact has left the industry reeling as brokerages and agents scramble to help colleagues and clients find immediate shelter and begin to navigate insurance claims and take other next steps even as the blazes continue to burn.

Haddad, senior estates director at The Agency, estimated that 70 to 80 percent of the residences in the Palisades have been burned to varying degrees. That includes 1601 San Onofre Drive, which sold to tech billionaire Austin Russell in 2021 for a record $83 million.

“I know all these streets like the back of my hand. I’m going there and I’m like, ‘Where am I?’” Haddad said of what it was like to walk through the neighborhood his family lived in and where he’s sold many homes. “It’s so disorienting. I would get lost in areas that I knew. It’s like nothing it was before. There’s nothing there. I just didn’t even know what I was looking at.”

The Palisades Fire in the Pacific Palisades remains the largest of Southern California’s active blazes, having spread across more than 17,000 acres as of late Thursday, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. There’s also the Eaton Fire in the Altadena area, which has spread to over 13,000 acres, and Hurst Fire in Sylmar, spanning nearly 700 acres. The newest, the Kenneth Fire, straddles Los Angeles and Ventura counties and began Thursday burning through nearly 1,000 acres.

Scarcity

Any talk of business right now has largely been put on ice.

“Right now, we’re all scrambling. Everyone’s just looking for rentals,” said Marcy Roth, California Managing Director for Douglas Elliman’s Eklund Gomes team.

They’re doing that in the midst of a significant number of agents and staff who are grappling with the impact of the fires.

The Agency estimated that 25 members of its local operations have sustained property losses from the flames. Coldwell Banker Realty confirmed Thursday evening at least 40 from its offices have been impacted, including President and CEO Kamini Lane.

Keller Williams Advisors SoCal Region Team Leader Nick Shepherd said 20 of the brokerage’s agents were evacuated, with five confirmed to have lost their homes as of Thursday.

Local office buildings of numerous brokerages also have been impacted. Keller Williams’ Pacific Palisades office burned down, and its Brentwood location has been temporarily closed, according to Shepherd. Compass offices in the Palisades, Malibu, Calabasas, Brentwood and a one on Montana Avenue in Santa Monica also are closed, a spokesperson confirmed.

Christie’s International Real Estate Southern California COO Nina Zokhrabyan couldn’t provide an estimate of how many employees have been personally impacted by the fires. For now, she said, there is a region-wide push to get resources to colleagues in need.

“We have agents opening their offices, helping with relocation for their fellow colleagues throughout each of our offices from Orange County and Beverly Hills to Encino and Altadena,” Zokhrabyan said.

It’s a matter of “prioritizing support over traditional sales and business promotion during this time,” Zokhrabyan said.

Coldwell Banker Realty Western Regional President Jennifer Lind said the brokerage has a Facebook Group to network and coordinate needs such as short- and long-term housing, temporary housing for pets, moving trucks, WiFi access and hotel accommodation assistance.

Coldwell is also using the disaster relief fund of parent company Anywhere Real Estate’s Anywhere Gives charitable foundation to help employees and affiliates. Compass started a GoFundMe through its Compass Cares Initiative, which had raised over $87,000 as of Thursday evening.

More questions

What to expect in terms of the daily dealmaking for an industry that thrives on such action remains an open question in light of the historic sweep of damages from the various fires.

And the question of insurance and whether new policies will be written for homes looking to be sold could prove to be the next wrench for future closings as it’s common for insurance companies to issue temporary freezes on new policies in times of natural disasters. That would set off a chain reaction for buyers who need insurance to obtain a mortgage.

“It’s way too early for us to get into that world,” The Agency CEO and co-founder Mauricio Umansky told TRD in talking about the overall impact to business moving forward. “Yes, we are beginning to assess that. There are certainly a lot of pending deals that were in escrow, homes that were burnt down. Certainly a number of listings that burnt down. Homes that were scheduled to close yesterday and today, all of that’s delayed. Lenders have delayed funding. They want to make sure homes are still standing. They’re wanting to do visual inspections.”

What’s top of mind for Umansky are clients, along with the agents and staff who have so far lost their homes to the fires, he said.

“All we’re trying to do is give the best service possible in dealing with this,” Umanksy said. “We’re also working hard and diligently on helping them understand what needs to be done, teach them what has to be done in terms of filling out claims with insurance, what they should be grabbing. A lot of these people are so frantic, they can’t think. I’m talking to people multiple times a day and they can’t think.”

Multiple agents have indicated a lack of available short-term housing, which could cause lease prices to skyrocket.

Umansky said he’s been on the phone calling multifamily developers sitting on inventory and asking them to open it up to short-term leasing. He and his team have also been looking at homes sitting on the market that haven’t been sold as other potential options.

“What’s going to happen – right now, there’s more questions than there are answers,” he said.

Lauren Elkies Schram contributed to this report.