At Home in South Los Angeles
Two newlyweds never imagined they could afford a beautiful Craftsman in LA’s historic Jefferson Park district — until their Compass agents stepped in.
Images: Tanveer Badal
Los Angeles is home to one of the nation’s most competitive housing markets, and navigating it can be a rollercoaster of a process — which is exactly how how longtime renters and first-time buyers Lance Kosher and Brenna Johnston-Kosher describe it. The newlyweds, an international post-production editor for 20th Century Fox and the director of programming for the experiential team-building company Arc Adventure respectively, hunted through nearly 100 homes, made five offers, and entered escrow twice before sealing the deal at their 1910 Craftsman home.
This place is no ordinary find, though; the 107-year-old three-bedroom bungalow sits on a desirable corner lot smack dab in South LA’s Jefferson Park Historic Preservation Overlay Zone and offers up original Craftsman style in spades. A handsome rock porch with striking tapered pillars frames the entrance; inside, vintage details like beautiful built-in shelving, a stately tiled fireplace, and leaded windows ooze 1900s charm. Plus, both the bathroom and kitchen were recent upgrades. “The first thing we thought was, ‘Oh, this house is too good for us,’” recalls Brenna. “It was listed a little bit above our price range, and we expected it to go for way over asking. We saw it as a reach, but the architecture and the details just blew our minds.”
The real kicker? The Koshers didn’t even offer the highest bid, making every moment that they and their beloved dog, Elsa, spend in their new home feel all the more magical.
What drove you two to explore buying your first home now?
Brenna: We’d been renting a 500-square-foot, one-bedroom, one-bathroom apartment in Santa Monica for five years, and we’d outgrown it long ago. It was a great place for so much of our 20s — right by the beach, walking distance to all the bars. But after we got married last year, buying a home became the goal.
Lance: All our family lives out of town, so we really wanted to have a second bedroom where our guests could stay. If we’d upgraded to a two-bedroom in Santa Monica, it would have cost us more than what our mortgage is now.
Brenna: Now that we have the space, we’re even planning to host Thanksgiving for the first time!
How did you start working with Compass agents Noelle and Philippe Til?
Lance: I worked with someone who’d purchased a home recently, and he recommended Noelle. When I reached out, I warned her: ‘We’re pretty fresh and green. We’re going to need some hand-holding, and we’re probably not your biggest clients…’ We knew our budget of $500K to $750K put us right in there with a very competitive set of buyers, yet Noelle was willing to give it a go. We started going to open houses with her, and then with Philippe, too.
Initially, we didn’t believe we could afford a house, but Noelle and Philippe helped show us that it was a possibility.
Brenna: They asked, ‘What’s your dream?’ And we thought, ‘Well, a place to plant and grow an avocado tree. A place to barbecue. A porch, a big kitchen, high ceilings’ — that was a lot of it. With this home, we got almost everything on our bucket list.
How did you know this house was ‘the one’?
Brenna: The first thing we saw here was history and character, from the little windows in the closets to the fireplace with one original tile of a chrysanthemum preserved at the bottom. I was a history major, so I loved the look immediately. It’s so different from what you see on the market — which is what we fell in love with.
Lance: I really love the ironwork and leaded glass in the windows; I hadn’t seen that anywhere either. Plus, Elsa gave it her stamp of approval. She’s a completely different dog here.
Brenna: That was a bonus — how good this house was for her. The first time we let her sniff around the yard, it was the happiest day of her life.
You didn’t offer the highest bid for your home. So what sort of strategy did your agents employ to make that a non-issue?
Lance: The good thing about being first-time buyers is that we didn’t come with another house we had to sell, so we had very short escrow terms. We could close in just 18 days, which made us more competitive. Plus, our Compass agents and our mortgage banker had worked together many times; they were a machine. They knew how it all worked and communicated well.
Brenna: Philippe and Noelle are so charismatic, yet capable of being assertive in a way that makes people want to work with them. They were constantly talking to the seller’s realtor and helped convince him that we were the right people for this house.
Despite the heartbreak of earlier offers and escrow processes, was it all worth it in the end?
Brenna: When you go to a lot of open houses, you start to see the same laminate floors, the same subway tile, the same everything, in a similar aesthetic. But the first thing we saw with this house was character. We’re still pinching ourselves that we live here.
At times, we thought, ‘Hasn’t this happened to everyone? You get into an escrow and have issues with inspection or appraisal; then you find another place, but realize you don’t love it…’ Everyone we talked to just said, ‘It all happens for a reason, just believe.’ And we’d roll our eyes. But then it did. I had to go back to every single one of our family and friends and say, ‘You were right. It all happened for a reason.’
Want to work with agents like Noelle and Philippe Til? Compass partners with you throughout your home search and sell experience, providing deep knowledge of LA’s real estate market to help you find your place in the world.
