2701 Oak Avenue, Manhattan Beach: a Tree Section cottage sold off market at $2,250,000

Sold

Not every sale wants a sign in the yard. 2701 Oak Avenue, a 912 square foot 1952 cottage on a full 4,481 square foot lot in the Tree Section, changed hands privately at $2,250,000 on April 15, 2026, and was entered in the MLS after the fact for the record, as the rules require. The interior had been remodeled in a cottage style, with a new kitchen and bathroom, refinished floors, new windows, new appliances, a working white brick fireplace and new wood trim throughout, and the price reflects what a full Tree Section lot with a livable house on it is worth when the seller wants certainty over exposure. This is the kind of transaction we describe when clients ask what “off market” actually means, and it is worth being plain about what it delivered.

What was the house?

A two bedroom, one bathroom cottage of 912 square feet, built in 1952, on one of the Tree Section’s standard lots with a two car garage and no heating or cooling system, which is common for the era on this side of the hill. The remodel had made it a house someone could live in comfortably while deciding what to do with the lot: new kitchen, new bath, refinished floors, fresh paint, new windows, ceiling fans, new appliances, and the original brick fireplace kept and working. On a 4,481 square foot lot in a section where new construction routinely exceeds 3,000 square feet, the long-term value is in the land, and the house is the option to wait.

What was the goal?

Privacy and certainty. The seller did not want the house photographed, the price published or the neighbors walking through, and the buyer wanted a specific kind of lot in a specific part of the section without competing in a public process. When those two wants meet, a private sale at a full price is the right outcome for both, and the listing agent’s job is to make sure the price is a full price. Here the reference was the lot: recent Tree Section land and tear-down sales set the floor, the remodeled interior added the value of a house that could be occupied or rented in the meantime, and $2,250,000 was where the two sides met. The transaction was reported to the MLS on closing so the sale is part of the public record and the comparable set, which is the honest way to do a private deal.

At $2,250,000 for 4,481 square feet of land, the price works out to about $502 per square foot of lot, which is the number a Tree Section builder cares about. The house itself, at 912 square feet, was not the point of the price.

What does off market deliver, and what does it cost?

It delivers exactly what this seller wanted: no marketing period, no open houses, no public price history, and a buyer who was ready. What it does not deliver is competition, and competition is how the last few percent of a price gets paid. A private sale is the right call when the seller’s reasons for privacy are real and the price is a full one against the land comparables, and the wrong call when the only reason is convenience. The difference between those two cases is most of our job, and we say which is which when a client asks. For the section’s current land values, see the Tree Section page and our Market Insights; for how builders price a lot, see fixer, flip, remodel or tear-down.

Update: sold

If you own a Tree Section lot and have been approached privately, the offer in hand is a floor, not a ceiling, until someone has checked it against the land sales. Send Neil the address and we will tell you what the lot would bring with exposure, and whether a private sale is the right call. The Sellers page describes how we run both.

Sources

• California Regional MLS listing record, SB26101262; closing figures as reported to the MLS
• Tree Section, Manhattan Beach; Fixer, flip, remodel or tear-down

Written March 2026; updated April 15, 2026. Property facts, list price and days on market are from the California Regional MLS listing record (SB26101262); the sale price and closing date are public record. Represented by Neil Chhabria, Chhabria Real Estate Company. This article is general real estate information about one sale, not tax, legal, lending or investment advice, and not a statement about the value of any other property.

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