13337 Beach Ave #106

Needs attention

Everything that is open right now, in deadline order. When this list is empty, the deal runs itself.

Repair credit covering the inspection list was requested Aug 28; seller response pending. Appraisal contingency (Sep 4) is already satisfied: appraised at exactly $935,000 on Aug 25, and Morgan Stanley's own appraisal, inspected Sep 2, came in at the same $935,000.

The deal

Both appraisals land on the price. US Bank's adjusted its comps to $931.6k to $940.6k; Morgan Stanley's adjusted five to $932.2k to $944.0k and says the contract price was heavily weighted. Read that as a price that is well supported, not a bargain. The unit measures 1,297 sq ft; public records and the listing say 1,390.

About 2.3% a year since 2014, and 6.5% under what the sellers paid in 2020. The same floor plan two floors up, #306, sold for $1,095,000 in August 2021. Condo prices per square foot in this MLS area have been flat since 2023: $775, $776, $765, and $771 so far in 2026. Two-bedrooms a block away sold for a median of about $1.1M this year; the appraiser puts 106 below that because it faces commercial across the street, which he prices at $50,000. On his paired sales the third bedroom is worth $75,000, the largest single feature in this market, and 106 already rates C2, the top condition grade for an occupied home, so a kitchen remodel will not move its appraised condition.

Inspection & repairs seller repairing

LaRocca inspected Aug 25. Everything found is minor - roughly $1-2k of plumber work. A credit was requested Aug 28; the seller chose instead to make the repairs themselves, so the list below is the final-walkthrough checklist.

The money

Everything financial in one place: what closing takes, which loan, what a month costs, and what the tax man gives back.

Cash to close

Cori's savings covers the down payment. Everything beyond it nets to roughly $0-1,500 after credits, essentially the insurance premium. Impounds are waived. Final figures arrive on the Closing Disclosure a few days before signing.

The loan: two applications, one pick decide by Sep 8

Decided Sep 3: Morgan Stanley at 5.45%, no credit. True cost here means interest actually paid plus lender fees minus the lender credit, over the holding period; principal is left out because it is equity you keep, not a cost. On that measure both MS options beat US Bank at every horizon past the first year, and the no-credit 5.45% is cheapest from month 32 onward, with $151/mo lower payment, $2,297 more equity by year 4, and the lowest lifetime ceiling. The $5,610 credit only wins if the loan dies before roughly year 3. US Bank stays alive as the locked, appraised backup until MS confirms the discount and issues a clear-to-close.

Does another fee change the lender choice? Almost certainly not, and the arithmetic is worth seeing because it puts every fee argument in proportion. On true cost, MS at 5.45% beats US Bank by $3,280 over four years and $10,378 over seven. So an extra MS-side cost only flips the answer once it exceeds those figures. The $500 HOA questionnaire fee, or the $615 including the $115 already on the form, does not come close: MS stays ahead by roughly $2,700 at four years and $9,800 at seven. Even $5,500 of extra cost, more than ten times the fee in question, would flip only the four-year horizon and would leave MS ahead by $4,878 at seven years.

The rate is the whole game, and the fee is a rounding error. Losing the 0.25% discount costs $5,606 over four years. Paying the $500 costs $500. They differ by a factor of eleven, and only one of them is currently uncertain. If MS lands 5.45%, pay the $500 without thinking about it. If MS ends up at 5.70%, the picture inverts: at that rate MS is behind US Bank by $2,327 over four years and ahead by only $602 over seven, so adding the questionnaire fee on top makes US Bank the better loan at both horizons. That is the decision to watch, not the fee.

One caveat on the four-year figures: they assume the plan holds. The stated plan is to sell in year 4, but timelines slip, and every extra year past that favors Morgan Stanley, because its advantage compounds with time while a one-off fee does not.

The rate, and how it was earned settled Sep 15

The rate is 5.45% on the no-credit structure, confirmed in writing by Morgan Stanley on September 15. Both discounts come from the wealth management relationship. The relationship tier for what is already held there takes the base to 5.70%. A promotion for new money takes off another quarter point, to 5.45%, and it required $1M sitting in the brokerage account eleven business days before funding.

Cori moved shares into the brokerage account, settling September 9, which met the mark for a September 24 funding date with a day to spare. It was a move inside Morgan Stanley rather than a transfer between institutions, and no shares were sold, so it was not a taxable event.

The quarter point is worth about $5,600 over four years. It is also the margin of the whole lender decision: at 5.45% Morgan Stanley beats US Bank at every horizon, and at 5.70% it does not. The next rung up, 0.375% for $5M of new assets rather than $1M, was considered and is closed, since a second transfer could not have landed by the same deadline.

Monthly cost of owning

Comfortably inside the $6,500/mo housing-and-saving budget modeled at home.flyhi.ai.

Taxes & standing deadlines

Deduction picture: ~$32k first-year mortgage interest + ~$11.5k property tax against the $32,200 standard deduction returns ≈ $3,600/yr at a 32% marginal rate. If California residency lands (primary residence here implies it), state taxes push itemizing past the SALT cap and the mortgage deduction becomes worth roughly $10k/yr, dropping the effective mortgage rate near 4%.

The long game: condo now, or straight to the bigger house?

Modeled Sep 1 with a monthly simulation on HomeCalc's conventions: a fixed housing-and-saving budget, surplus invested, gains taxed at liquidation, real estate marked at what it would net if sold. Four paths, all ending in the same ~$1.7M house bought in year 4 with 20% down (funded from household stock in the rental paths, from the condo sale in the sell path).

Base case: condo appreciates 3%/yr, house appreciates 3%/yr ($1.6M today, ~$1.8M in year 4), investments return 7%, rent if waiting $4,500/mo (Ivo's number), condo rents for $5,000 with $2,000 of expenses, 5.75% condo loan, 6% house loan, ~8% round-trip transaction costs. Total net worth in every path is roughly $3.5-3.8M at year 10, so these gaps are 3-5% of the whole: real money, not a life change. At 5% investment returns, waiting and buying the house now come out equal.

What moves the answer

Year-10 net worth versus waiting. Green means the condo path wins. Ivo's own read (Sep 1): this condo will not do 5%; 3% is the ceiling and even that is unlikely. So the realistic band is the 2-3% rows: the condo paths trail waiting by $110-165k (sell), $140-230k (rent out), or $200-290k (pay off). The house-now path does not depend on condo prices at all and stays at −$93k.

What it means

• Buying the bigger house now is the second-best money path and the only one with a single transaction, but it is ruled out for now: ~$10k/mo of carrying cost is more monthly exposure than feels right today, and comfort is a legitimate constraint the spreadsheet does not get to veto.
• Buying the condo then selling in 4 years is a bet on appreciation, and it is a bet you do not believe in. The ~8% round trip (~$87k on this condo) needs roughly 5%/yr of price growth to beat renting at $4,500. At 3% it costs ~$70-110k; at 2%, ~$110-165k. With the listing needing two price cuts, the comps in a soft band, and your own view that 3% is the ceiling, the condo is a lifestyle purchase priced at roughly $110-165k over ten years versus waiting, or $20-70k versus buying the house now.
• The condo as a rental is the highest-variance path, best by $74k if appreciation runs 5%, worst by $231k if it runs 2%. Its year-4 house down payment comes out of household stock, consuming a higher-growth asset to keep the lowest-growth one; the sell-at-year-4 path keeps the shares instead. Landlording itself is fine (you are up for it): 30-day minimum leases, nothing before Sep 2027, and a sale within 3 years of moving out to keep the tax-free gain.
• Paying the condo off is the one clearly negative step at a 7% expected return. The "$3k a month" in that plan is not produced by the condo; it is the 5.75% yield on the $561k of assets you would sink into the loan (5.75% × $561k ≈ $2,700/mo), assets that expect ~7% where they are, plus a capital-gains bill on selling them that the model does not even charge. It only wins if returns run 5% or lower. This is HomeCalc's break-even row applied to a bigger number.
• Scale check (Sep 1): the household stock position is public and large, and it makes every gap in these tables small relative to net worth. The paths differ by $90-290k over ten years; the portfolio can move more than that in an ordinary week. So the finances no longer argue loudly about the condo: if owning your own place for 3-4 years is worth it, the price of that choice is known, bounded, and affordable. What the finances do argue loudly about is single-stock concentration, which is a separate conversation.
• The deposit is still recoverable, so this is a real decision. No contingencies have been released, which means walking away today costs the inspection and appraisal fees already spent (~$1,500), not the $28,050 deposit. On the base case the money leans toward waiting by ~$68k at year 10 (about 2% of net worth); it flips to buying if condo prices run 5%/yr, and it leans harder toward waiting if you would actually rent for $4,000 instead of $5,000. So the honest framing: buying this condo is a lifestyle choice (owning and living here for 3-4 years versus renting an equivalent), not a financial step toward the bigger house. If you proceed, keep the cheap deductible loan and decide sell-versus-rent in year 3-4. If you release contingencies, the deposit goes at risk and the tilt toward "proceed" comes back.

The building, in brief

Innove HOA runs underfunded reserves, a negative operating account, and no earthquake coverage, and it just changed both its president and its management company. Budget for special assessments. The full picture, problems and facts alike, lives on its own tab.

Insurance

Re-read against the quote documents Sep 4: AAA's condo policy carries no loss-assessment coverage at all, and its earthquake section is quoted at zero across every line, so the CEA companion is not in that $1,756. Its Coverage A is built as 10% of contents ($9,900) plus an HO-31 endorsement adding $140,000 for $415. Mercury's two quotes are the same quote number in two versions, so they compare cleanly. That settles it: Mercury.

US Bank does not require a personal policy (confirmed Sep 3): the master policy is all-in on the original build-out, which satisfies the lender's interest in the structure. Read that as a cleared loan condition, not as advice. The master insures the building; an HO-6 insures you.

Where the master stops, and what you should not pay twice for

The CC&Rs (Article IX) are unusually explicit. Section 1(a) puts the master policy on the buildings "including all originally installed built-in or set-in appliances, cabinets, floor coverings, fixtures, and other interior appurtenances." Then Section 4 goes further: no owner may separately insure any part of the unit already covered by the association's blanket policy, and if a duplicate policy reduces what the association recovers, the shortfall is "chargeable to the Owner who acquired such other insurance." Owners may insure only their personal property and their own improvements, at the level known as tenant's improvements, and any individual policy must carry a waiver of subrogation in favor of the other owners, the association, and first mortgagees.

So the duplicated line is Coverage A, the dwelling or building-property amount, quoted at about $150,000 by both carriers. Original 2013 finishes are the association's to insure, not yours. What you actually need Coverage A for is the $5,000 master deductible the CC&Rs push onto the unit where damage starts, plus anything upgraded beyond original spec. That is tens of thousands, not $150,000. On the AAA quote the driver is visible: the HO-31 endorsement adds $140,000 of building items for $415/yr, and without it Coverage A falls to $9,900. On Mercury, Coverage A carries $2,140 of the $2,208 premium.

Do not expect the premium to halve when Coverage A does. Mercury prices the same $150,000 limit at $2,140 on the $1M-liability version and $1,750 on the $500k one, so the liability charge is loaded into the Coverage A line rather than sitting on its own. Ask for the reduced figure priced rather than assuming it scales.

What to keep at full strength, because none of it overlaps: personal property, personal liability, loss of use, water backup, and loss assessment. Loss assessment is the one to increase rather than trim in this building - Mercury includes $25,000 for $12, so ask what $50,000 or $100,000 costs.

Loss-assessment coverage matters in this building for ordinary perils (fire-type events assessed past the master policy), and Mercury includes it. Three separate routes lead to an assessment here, which is why $100,000 is the right limit rather than a nicety. The master's building limit is $19,186,000 against a board-estimated ~$22M replacement value, so a total loss is assessed for the shortfall. Its general liability stops at $1M per occurrence and $2M aggregate, so a serious common-area injury claim above that is assessed too. And the $5,000 deductible on every property claim lands somewhere. Add a negative operating fund, 20% reserves, and 3 of 39 units in collections, and the association has no cushion to absorb any of it.

Where the quotes stand condo done, auto not

Mercury reissued both on Sep 8, and the condo policy is issued: effective Sep 17, naming Ivo and Corinna Andov, $1,514.37 a year paid in full. The condo policy is where it should be. The auto is not. The carrier entity on the declarations page reads California Automobile Insurance Company, which is the Mercury group company that writes California homeowners policies, not a car policy.

Worth knowing for any future limit change: halving Coverage A from $150,000 to $75,000 took only $354 off a $1,750 line, about 20%. Mercury loads that line with charges that have nothing to do with the dwelling amount, so always have them price a change rather than assuming it scales.

The auto policy is now rated on the right garaging address, 90292 rather than the 90066 it originally carried, which costs $226 a year more and is money well spent: a policy rated on the wrong garaging ZIP is worth far more than that in trouble at claim time. The condo policy saves $352 against its original quote, so across both the household pays $126 a year less than it would have, with more coverage and correct rating.

Still outstanding, in order of what it is worth:

1. Bodily injury and uninsured motorist both sit at 100/300 and need to be 250/500. This is the largest exposure anywhere in the household's insurance, and it gates everything below it, because umbrella carriers require 250/500 underneath.
2. No umbrella quote yet, at $2M or $5M.
3. Waiver of subrogation, still unconfirmed in writing. Required twice by the CC&Rs, Article IX Section 4 on the property side and Section 8 on the liability side. A quote summary would not show it, so it needs a sentence from Justin either way.
4. Loss assessment should be $100,000, not $50,000. The step from $25,000 to $50,000 cost $5, so the next one is likely another $10, which is nothing against a master policy carrying a limit gap. It covers assessments from fire and other covered perils, not earthquake.
5. The $5,000 deductible and the comprehensive-delete were never priced. Both minor.

Mercury: the changes to ask for leaning Mercury

One caution when Coverage A drops: contents, loss of use, and other limits are often rated off it. Ask the agent to confirm Coverage C stays at $100,000 and Coverage D at $60,000 at the lower dwelling figure, rather than sliding down with it.

A renovation raises Coverage A, and one is coming. The master insures what was originally installed in 2013. The $30,000 kitchen going in shortly stops being the association's problem the moment it is installed and becomes yours, which the CC&Rs expressly allow you to insure at the level called tenant's improvements. Decided Sep 4: plan on a $30,000 kitchen and set Coverage A at $75,000 - $5,000 for the master deductible, $30,000 for the kitchen, and $40,000 of headroom for later work and for the fact that redoing a kitchen after a fire costs more than building it did, once demolition, debris and current code are added. Set it at the finished figure when you bind rather than amending mid-term, and keep the invoices, because betterments are proven with receipts at claim time. One upside: your own improvements claim through your policy at its deductible instead of the association's $5,000.

Worth being precise about what the headroom buys, since it is a limit and not an agreed value. Carrying $75,000 does not mean $75,000 gets paid; it means a claim is covered up to that figure for improvements that actually exist at the time of loss. Before the kitchen goes in, the usable part is small. The reason to set it now anyway is that the premium difference between sizing for today and sizing for the finished unit is minor on Mercury's pricing, while the failure mode on the other path, finishing the kitchen and forgetting to raise the limit, is expensive and easy to fall into.

Before any such work, note CC&Rs Article VI Section 4: no structural alterations, and no plumbing or electrical work within bearing or common walls, without the Association's prior written consent. Cabinets alone are usually fine; a kitchen that moves plumbing or electrical is not, and this is a board you want written approval from rather than forgiveness.

Waiver of subrogation, and the one-way street in the CC&Rs

Subrogation is an insurer's right to inherit your grudge. When your carrier pays you for a loss someone else caused, it steps into your shoes and goes after them to recover what it paid. That is why a claim between neighbors turns into a lawsuit neither of them filed: the insurance companies fight it on their behalf. A waiver of subrogation is a clause giving that right up in advance for named parties.

The Innove CC&Rs require one from you in two separate places. Article IX Section 4 covers the property side: any individually carried policy "must contain a waiver of subrogation rights by the carrier as to other Owners, the Association, and any institutional first Mortgagee." Article IX Section 8 covers the liability side separately, and adds a wrinkle: the waiver must be "acceptable by the Board and to any institutional first Mortgagee." So this is not one box to tick on the HO-6, it is a requirement that reaches both halves of the policy.

Two things this does not cost you. It has no effect on your own claim being paid; it only limits what your insurer may do afterward. And the recovery it gives up is largely circular anyway, because money clawed back from the association is money that comes out of the reserves and dues you fund. In a 39-unit building where everyone pays into the same master policy, mutual waivers are what stop a burst pipe becoming neighbors suing neighbors.

The asymmetry is worth knowing, because it runs against you. The CC&Rs oblige your policy to waive subrogation toward the association. Nothing in them obliges the master policy to waive it toward you. So if a fire starts in your unit and damages the building, the association's carrier can pay for the repairs and then pursue you for the cost, and a building loss is a seven-figure number rather than a $5,000 deductible. Whether it actually can turns on the master policy's own form, which is not in the declarations package the escrow supplied. Worth asking Topanga for in writing: does the master policy waive subrogation against individual unit owners? It is a fair question from a buyer and the answer is either reassuring or extremely useful.

If the answer is no, the exposure lands on your HO-6 personal liability and the umbrella above it, which is one more reason the umbrella is the best-value item on this page. Related, and worth knowing separately: Article IX Section 6 appoints the Board as your attorney-in-fact to negotiate, settle and release claims under the master policy. You do not control the settlement of a loss to your own building, which is the strongest practical argument for showing up to meetings and for carrying your own loss-assessment limit rather than trusting the association's process.

The umbrella, and the gap it exposes biggest item on this page

An umbrella policy is extra liability cover that sits on top of the home and auto policies. When someone sues and the claim runs past what those policies pay, the umbrella covers the rest up to its own limit and pays the legal defense. It is bought in millions, and it is the cheapest insurance sold: roughly $200-400/yr for the first $1M and about $75-100 per million after.

The Mercury auto quote carries bodily injury limits of 100/300 - $100,000 per person, $300,000 per accident - on a 2006 Honda Accord, $559.88 for six months. Property damage is $100,000, which is fine; the bodily injury limit is not. Against a household balance sheet in the millions that is the weakest link in the whole picture, and it has nothing to do with the condo. Cause a serious injury and the policy stops at $100,000 for that person, while a judgment for a bad one runs into seven figures. The difference gets collected from savings, brokerage accounts, and future income.

There is also an eligibility catch: umbrella carriers require minimum underlying limits, usually 250/500 on auto. At 100/300 the auto policy would not qualify, so the order matters:

• Raise auto bodily injury from 100/300 to at least 250/500. Property damage is already $100,000. On a $422 semi-annual bodily-injury line this is likely $100-200 more per year, and it is the prerequisite for the umbrella.
• Raise uninsured and underinsured motorist to match at 250/500. This is the commonly missed one, and it protects you rather than the person you hit: it pays when someone with no insurance or thin insurance injures you or Cori. California's legal minimum is 15/30, so a meaningful share of the drivers around you cannot cover a serious injury they cause. It is quoted at 100/300 for $79 a half-year, and matching it to the liability limit is the standard shape.
• Keep the HO-6 liability at $500,000 rather than paying $398 to reach $1M.
• Then buy a $2-5M umbrella over both.

Two more vehicles join the picture at the move: a 250cc Vespa and the 2016 diesel van. An auto policy is rated on where a vehicle is garaged rather than where it is titled, so both move to California cover the day they arrive from Seattle, and a Washington policy on a vehicle kept here is the kind of mismatch that surfaces at a claim. It is also circular with the DMV, which wants California insurance in force before it will register either one, within 20 days of arrival. The Vespa is titled personally and joins the Accord on the personal policy. The van is titled to Ivolution and registered commercially, but sits on its own personal policy today and stays on one here if Mercury will write it. California plating a van as commercial is a body-type rule and does not by itself force a commercial policy. What can is the company title, since a personal policy names a person as the insured, and business use, which personal policies partly exclude. Worth having that confirmed in writing rather than discovered at a claim. Keep the Washington policies running until the California ones start, because a single uninsured day breaks continuous coverage and raises every future quote. The umbrella waits until all four are placed, since it has to sit over everything at matching limits.

One error to fix before binding: the Mercury auto quote lists the garaging address as 13337 Beach Ave #106, Los Angeles 90066, but the condo is Marina del Rey 90292. The condo quote for the same address has it right. Auto premiums are rated off the garaging ZIP, so the quote needs correcting and re-rating, and a wrong garaging address on a bound policy is the kind of thing a carrier raises at claim time.

The AAA auto quote is not the alternative it looks like. It runs $1,220 for twelve months against Mercury's $1,119.76, but it lists only one driver where Mercury lists both of you, and its uninsured motorist limit is 30/60 rather than Mercury's 100/300. Adding a second driver would re-rate it. Mercury also requires no Auto Club membership fee on top and carries the multi-policy discount with the condo.

Why not simply buy higher auto limits instead? Partly you should, which is why 250/500 is step one. But auto liability cannot get you where you need to be. Personal auto policies stop at $500,000 or $1M, so $5M is not purchasable there at any price, and each extra dollar costs more than the last. An umbrella sells the second million for about what auto charges for the second hundred thousand. It also covers what auto never touches: a guest hurt inside the condo, a dog bite, a defamation or landlord claim, service on a nonprofit or HOA board, and incidents abroad. It sits over the home policy as well as the car, usually pays legal defense on top of the limit rather than out of it, and steps in when an underlying carrier disputes coverage. Raising auto limits protects you in a car; the umbrella protects you everywhere else too.

This matters more once the condo is owned and more again if it is ever rented out, since a landlord is a bigger liability target than a resident. Total cost of the whole rearrangement is likely under $700/yr, less than the Coverage A saving on the HO-6 alone.

The unit

Seller disclosures (TDS) are clean: no known defects, no litigation, no insurance claims disclosed.

After closing

People

The documents

Everything lives in Google Drive under Finances → Home Purchase → Real Estate → Glencoe Lofts → 13337 Beach Ave $106: purchase agreement and counter, seller disclosures, inspection report, appraisal, loan estimates, escrow statements, insurance quotes, and the complete HOA package (CC&Rs, budgets, reserve study, financials, minutes, master policy).

Companion tool: home.flyhi.ai - the financing calculator this deal's mortgage-vs-LAL decision was modeled on.