Trailer Parks In Paradise
If the Malibu coast is heaven on earth, then, truth be told, there are trailer parks in paradise.
"This place is worth over a mil and it's a mobile home," says Tristan Imboden. "We're still pinching ourselves."
As CBS News Correspondent Jerry Bowen
, they're expensive trailer parks with million dollar views where even the bare trailer frames set off a bidding frenzy."It's sold three times in the last year, starting at $740,000, $900,000 and the last time $1.2 million," says David Carter of Mobile Home Sales. "It basically just turned over without anything being done."
But once interior environmentalist Deborah Irving gets done, an old metal-sided mobile home is transformed into something entirely different for a total price that matches the view.
"Location, location, location," she says.
When she tells people she's just finished a mobile home, they don't believe it.
"Actually, I didn't believe it at first," says Irving.
The prices are high and don't include the land; that's leased separately for up to $2,500 a month. Also, there's a waiting list, because everyone wants a piece of the view.
Consider this. Just across the ravine is Barbara Streisand's ocean estate. It's the same view and it's worth $30 million. It makes a $1 million mobile home seem like a bargain – an exotic bargain. Architectural styles range from Tiki to Tuscan.
"It's the new breed of mobile home," says Kim Sheftel.
You'd never guess the Sheftel's villa sits on two side-by-side steel trailer frames.
"The beautiful floors are imported from France, and the front door was brought over from Guatemala," says Sheftel.
And that $1 million view just keeps going up. The Sheftels bought their home last year for $1.3 million. They say that if they wanted to sell today they'd get maybe $2 million. They've been offered $1.8 million but refused.
Imboden, drummer for the band Chicago, says a trailer park address still carries a stigma.
He says people have teased him, calling him "trailer trash."
But then they visit and see the view and realize that in paradise, trailer parks are different.
"One thing you will not see in this trailer park is hair in curlers, rolling pins and fuzzy slippers," he says.
No, life here moves to a gloriously different beat: surfboards, yes, fuzzy slippers, no. Even trailer park paradise has its standards.