Real Estate Blog - the l3 real estate

The Mesa Verde Calendar Is Different

There’s the calendar everyone follows. And then there’s the Mesa Verde calendar.

Around here, you don’t necessarily need to look at the date to know the season is changing. You can see it happening throughout the neighborhood.

Summer vacations start winding down. Backpacks replace beach bags. The morning school traffic returns. Adams, California, Tanager and Estancia start filling back up. The days are still warm, the evenings are still long, and technically, summer isn’t over—but the rhythm of the neighborhood is changing.

For those of us who spend a lot of time in Mesa Verde, it’s a familiar feeling.

And it’s one of the things that makes this neighborhood different.

Back to School. Back to the Neighborhood.

Summer in Costa Mesa…

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Why Buyers Keep Choosing Mesa Verde Even When They Could Afford Anywhere Else

There are plenty of places in Orange County where you can buy a beautiful home.

• New construction.
• Bigger homes.
• Flashier finishes.
• Higher price tags.

Yet year after year, buyers who could live almost anywhere keep choosing Mesa Verde.

Why?

Because at some point, buying a home stops being about the house.

It becomes about the life you're going to live there.

You Feel It Before You Can Explain It

Drive through Mesa Verde once, and you'll notice the trees.

Drive through it twice, and you'll notice the homes.

Spend an afternoon here, and you'll notice something else entirely.

People are outside.

Kids are riding bikes.

Neighbors stop to talk.

Families are walking to the park.

Dogs know the route…

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Mesa Verde 4th of July Bike Parade & Community Celebration 2026

Celebrating Independence Day Together: Join Us for the Mesa Verde 4th of July Bike Parade & Community Celebration

There's something special about celebrating the Fourth of July with neighbors, friends, and families right here in Mesa Verde.

For more than a decade, local families have gathered to decorate their bikes, wagons, scooters, and strollers before taking part in one of our community's favorite traditions—the Mesa Verde 4th of July Bike Parade. The L3 Real Estate is proud to continue supporting this beloved event and helping bring our community together for another memorable morning.

The celebration kicks off at Adams Elementary School with a variety of family-friendly activities before the parade begins. Guests can enjoy coffee and…

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If Zillow Descriptions Were Honest...

Why We Love (and Hate) Zillow Descriptions

Zillow has become a national pastime. Some people binge Netflix; others scroll Instagram. And then there are those of us who fall down the Zillow rabbit hole at 11 p.m., suddenly convinced that our true calling is renovating a 1920s craftsman in a neighborhood we couldn’t find on a map without GPS.

But here’s the catch: the descriptions. They read like poetry written by someone trying to convince you that a shoe closet is actually a “flexible living space.” Words like “cozy,” “charming,” and “original details” lure you in, only for reality to slap you with low ceilings, slanted floors, and wallpaper that’s been slowly peeling since Nixon was in office.

Real estate listings aren’t lies—they’re……

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Dear Mesa Verde Neighbors: A Letter From Matt Kanoudi and The L3 Real Estate

WE ARE HALFWAY THROUGH 2025!

Dear Mesa Verde Neighbors,

Another 6 months have passed since my last neighborhood update, and it feels like so much has happened in such a short amount of time! Mesa Verde continues to be the hottest place to buy in Costa Mesa with Eastside Costa Mesa being the only comparable demand. I vehemently believe (with an incredible amount of bias) that our area is beyond anything Eastside Costa Mesa could ever hope to be. There is not one tract in the city with the sense of community we have let alone with an incredible country club located at its epicenter…and we do not have airplanes flying overhead every five minutes!

2025 has been wild thus far for varying reasons. Whether it be political, economical, or societal, we…

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Discover Hidden Treasures at the Pacific Sands Community Garage Sale Sponsored by The L3 Real Estate

Ring the alarm, bargain hunters and treasure seekers! Mark your calendars for the one-of-a-kind Pacific Sands Community Garage Sale happening on the 23rd of March, from early-bird 7AM through to noon. Sponsored by Matt Kanoudi with The L3 Real Estate, the Pacific Sands neighborhood will transform into a veritable treasure island just waiting for you to explore.

Think this is your ordinary garage sale? Think again! With heaps of items too vast to list, you are guaranteed to find more than what you’re looking for. From vintage furniture pieces and household appliances to a library worth of books, funky clothing, electrical gadgets, gardening pots, stacks of wood, nifty tools, and so much more! This garage sale truly is the embodiment of "one…

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Small Business Saturday Links to Costa Mesa Property Values

With Thanksgiving Day gatherings behind us, this year’s Costa Mesa holiday shopping action re-focused on the Black Friday sales phenomenon. Early reports were encouraging—but confirmed what Costa Mesa businesspeople expected: a substantial tilt to home-based shopping.

CNBC’s initial late-night observation was that bargain hunters were ringing up record online sales. This was a result that had been foreseen by retailers, who had prepared for the reluctance consumers might show to in-person shopping.

Even so, the National Retail Federation had projected that this year’s holiday sales would grow by somewhere between 3.6%-5.2%. If that proves accurate, sales will exceed averages reached during the previous five holiday seasons—a shot of good…

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Open House Events This Weekend!

We are built on a philosophy of Heritage & Hustle. The L3 is a full service real estate agency with a regional office located in the heart of #CostaMesa, offering a wide-array of custom services to meet their clients’ needs with roots in the community since 1976.  It’s L3 mission is to provide trusted, convenient, responsive service to ensure clients enjoy their real estate experience. The L3 was originally formed to offer personal, concierge-level service as an alternative to the large, nationally based real estate companies. From its small beginnings of only two employees, The L3 has grown to a full staff of 25 serving over 300 clients a year. The L3 is not limited to serving just its clients; it is also committed to serving the community. Not only…

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Your Costa Mesa Listing Should Have a Story to Tell

The text that accompanies your listing as it appears in the Costa Mesa MLS listings is called upon to do more heavy lifting than you might think. If it reads something like: THREE BEDROOM ranch style Costa Mesa charmer with 2 ½ baths, attractive kitchen, and fully landscaped backyard… —then it will only be serving half-duty. A blurb like this does succeed in emphasizing basic nuts-and-bolts details, but every Costa Mesa listing already includes the number of bedrooms, bathrooms and the rest. What’s missing is the story part of the story—the human element that strikes a chord with a reader’s own personal experience. It’s the pathway to emotions that astute marketers strive to reach. Successfully employed, it adds power to any Costa Mesa listing. One…

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Is the Actual Cost of a Home in Costa Mesa Still a Bargain?

With home prices and interest rates on the rise, you’re likely to assume that the cost of that next Costa Mesa home you’re thinking about buying has made it a financial stretch—especially compared with “the good old days.” But news stories tend to omit the effect of rising incomes and actual inflation on the real cost of a home in today’s market—which turns out to be something of a bargain! A recent calculation may not hold true for everyone, of course—nor does it apply to the cost of every Costa Mesa home—but the details make sense when you think about them. The comparisons are from a study by Zillow Research on housing affordability across the U.S. Researchers were looking into how much havoc the rise in U.S. mortgage interest rates has wreaked on…

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