Buying and Living in Leisure World Seal Beach

are you looking to make a move to Leisure World in Seal Beach California well in this video we're going to go over the ins and outs of making a purchase in Leisure World and some of the things you might want to consider before making an offer in Leisure World [Music] hi my name is Steve Matisse I'm the broker owner of next home West Realty and we get calls emails and texts from people just like you every day looking to make their move into the area so whether it be nine days or 90 days give me a call shoot me a text or send me an email all the information is in the description below and I would love to help you make a smooth transition into Southern California so if you are looking to purchase in Leisure World there's a few things that you're going to need to know number one being that it's a 55 plus community so and we get calls you know from people that are you know looking to move into the area and they see the prices in Leisure World and some of them are really good you can get in for you know 300 000 on up all the units in there they're basically you don't actually own the

unit on 14 of the mutuals so if you're looking to move into Leisure World one of the first things you need to understand that it is a 55 plus Community you're actually buying stock certificate for the units most of them there is one mutual in Leisure World that are Condominiums and they pretty much function like during the sale process like a normal real estate transaction but in the other Mutual other mutuals within Leisure World you have to go through a process so what we're going to talk about today is that process what you're going to need to know and you know how to navigate the process because the process can take 45 plus days usually it can get done in about 45 days but you just give yourself a little bit more time so Leisure World it has 15 stock cooperatives and one Condominium Association they pretty much function by a board of directors of volunteers there are monthly dues that have to be paid with a condominium you pay your taxes you get billed by the tax assessor and with the stock Cooperative it is a an assessment so it's taken care of in that assessment the actual units the physical units are owned by the Golden Rain Foundation however you do have rights

with that stock certificate and your rights to sell that stock of that unit okay with the 15 stock cooperatives there are different rules for requirements for people qualifying to move into Leisure World I've seen it where you have to make a certain income but certain mutuals will allow that income a little lower based on your age so if you're older you might not have to make as much but you do have to have money in reserve in order to you know so that they can assure that you're going to be able to pay the monthly HOA dues in there HOA dues start right around 4 50 and go up not too much higher but currently that's where they are I mean by the you know whenever you're watching this video it might be different but once you go in once you find a unit that you want to purchase the process basically goes like this when a seller wants to sell his ownership of that unit he has to get a pre-inspection done in order a pre-listing inspection so they'll come in and they will inspect the unit to make sure that you know the the unit is in good shape if not they will give the current owner a list of things that need

to be repaired once that's done the realtor can actually put the lock box and start showing the property when when we go in to look at the properties usually they're you know fairly decent shape sometimes you know I've seen a few of them that were not in great shape but you know I mean the prices for Seal Beach is very inexpensive but again 15 of the stock cooperatives require that you pay cash one of them you can get a mortgage in they're the three-story buildings right in the beginning right in the front part of Leisure World so if you were to go on the main gate and take a left immediately there's three buildings there that you can get a mortgage on those units are a little bit more expensive but you know you're not you're not having to pay cash for them there are still requirements you you still have to once you get into escrow you're going to be there's going to be several interviews that you have to do one of them they're going to do a financial interview they're going to go in and make sure that you're you have enough money to maintain a lifestyle in Leisure World there's going to be a meeting with the mutual president normally and

that's usually towards the end of escrow but before escrow close is the seller is going to have to make sure that those required repairs that they were made aware of during their pre-listing inspection are taken care of before escrow closes so sometimes that can drag out the process but it's usually a pretty smooth process a lot of the you know the escrow company they handle you know they handle those uh Mutual transfer or the stock transfers in the mutuals so they understand what's going on and how to do it you'll also need to go to the stock transfer office at the end of escrow to get the stock certificates transferred they'll make sure everything's correct on them and then they'll that's where they'll give you the keys and basically you know give you access after escrow's closed now there is a fee for the amenities a one-time fee for the amenities and that you know that's going to vary depending on what what when you actually move in but it's per occupant so if you and your wife want to use the amenities you you're both going to have to pay that one-time fee it's pretty much a requirement so you know on top of the all cash you will have to have money to

pay for that for those amenities only stockholders can use the amenities and they can also make changes to the units so you'll notice that some of the units in Leisure World are very highly upgraded some of them there there's not a lot of work done to them the units can be modified on the inside some of them like if it's an in-unit or some units have a covered porch as some of those porches can be modified and for additional space so you'll notice that a lot of that those have to get approved through your actual Mutual so depending on what Mutual you're in will depend on whether or not they allow that to happen most of the time it's not a problem it's just like getting a permit to you know fix up your current residence some of the mutuals will actually allow units to be rented out to renters some of them will not so you're going to want to make sure before you you know if you're planning on buying a mutual and ringing out you're going to want to make sure that they allow that in that mutual as well there's also you know the the Golden Rain Foundation has an HOA fee so so whether you live in a stock Cooperative

or the condominium you're going to have to pay that monthly fee if you're in the stock cooperatives you're you know you're basically you're paying the HOA fees every month so and again those vary I would go to the lwsb.com website there's a whole list of them there where you can actually see what the HOAs are per stock Cooperative or the Condominiums all the units in Leisure World are on electric there is no gas in any of the units a guest if you want to have a guest they're allowed to stay for a maximum of 60 days per year co-occupants need to be approved with the board if you're married to someone who is not 55 as a senior or younger than 55 they can get approved to live in a Leisure World and if you know if something were to happen to you they can stay in Leisure World after that happens you know nothing to worry about there I would definitely check at the time that you're going to go purchase in Leisure World you'll you'll want to through escrow you'll want to ask those questions and make sure that's still the case pets are allowed in Leisure with some restrictions so again during escrow make sure you read the hoe docs make sure

you read all the rules and then just double check and you know ask the questions if you have any questions at all make sure during escrow that's the time to ask but Leisure World has a lot to offer there's a RV parking nine hole golf course there's five clubhouses you know at the time of this video there were 150 clubs there's a Woodworking Shop there's an aquatic center putting greens there's there's so much to do they also have buses for transportation to downtown Seal Beach at a time they were doing daily buses out to Pechanga Casino out in Temecula there was talk that they were going to start that back up again during Covey they stopped doing that but you know Leisure World also there's a 24-hour security and there's a gate you know that people have to have passes to access through the gate so it's a very safe Community Leisure World takes up about pretty close to half the population of Seal Beach it's right across from a naval weapons station which is a huge navy or it's not a huge navy base but there's a navy base right across the street so if you're a veteran shoot across the street and used the facilities at the at the naval weapons station but

you're literally you know probably about a five minute drive to the actual beach too so it's a great location close to the freeway plenty of things to do a very active Community a lot of clubs to join a lot of things to do so if you're looking to make a move into Leisure World I'd love to navigate you through the waters of moving in so remember all my contact information is in the description below if you need anything just let me know we'd love to help you out [Music] foreign