I think this house is trying to kill me
Like many, in the 1970s I dealt with Real Estate in Southern CA. Through a series of connections with old Studio City party hounds, movers and shakers and such, I found myself in a glassy tower in a mortgage operation in the Valley, on Ventura Boulevard right near the House of Kwong, the venerable Chinese food restaurant and tiki bar. In the late 70's a wild story rippled through our mortgage operation about a guy who defaulted on his mortgage because the house WAS POSSESSED. You heard me; freaking possessed. He did a deed in lieu on a house in a premium area of custom homes in Woodland Hills, south of Ventura Boulevard on Wells Drive, a tony street with custom high-end homes on large lots with stellar views of the Valley. It was the type of neighborhood where some stars and behind the camera types live, directors, producers, CFOs, VPs, you get the idea.
Now no one walks away from a home in this neighborhood. You’d have to be crazy.
Back then, you always had 20% equity at a minimum in your property because your bank generally kept the note and that was the security- 20% in the property. But you should have seen this guy! I could catch a glimpse of him through the smoked glass partitions of the front office management, wild eyed, sweat stained, rumpled white shirt (monogrammed) hair disheveled, unshaven and with quaking…
