Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Distressed Sale: Soap Star Jackie Zeman

SELLER: Jackie Zeman
LOCATION: Malibu, CA
PRICE: $2,699,000
SIZE: 2,945 square feet, 3 bedrooms, 3.5 bathrooms

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: Thanks to a heads up from a fella we'll call Malibu Ken, Your Mama has learned soap story veteran Jackie Zeman, in a valiant effort to stave off foreclosure, has hoisted her Malibu, CA residence on the market with an asking price of $2,699,000.

Miz Zeman—who bless her heart, certainly appears, as Kathy Griffin would say, to see "the dentist" on a regular basis—was let go in 2010 after 30-plus years as Nurse Bobbi Spencer on General Hospital. Since then she's worked some—mostly on a web series called The Bay— but has none-the less found herself between a financial rock and a hard place. In mid-July (2012) the tabs and celebrity gossip blogs reported she'd fallen behind on the mortgage payments for her ocean view residence to the tune of $320,505. Oh dear.

Property records, unfortunately for the detail oriented children, aren't entirely clear on when exactly she bought the property or how much she paid. Blockshopper shows she transferred the property into a trust in August 2007 and Redfin shows the last time the property changed hands was in May 2005 for $3,250,000. Y'all can be the judge and jury on that one; We're just relaying our unscientific findings. All we can really say for sure is our research shows there's foreclosure activity on the Miz Zeman's spread and it's up for grabs on the open market at $2,699,000.

Current listing information shows the two-story, 1979 mock-Med mini-manse measures 2,925 square feet with 3 bedrooms, 3.5 bathrooms, 3 fireplaces and rights to the La Costa Beach and Tennis Club. Presumably access to the beach and tennis club requires a for-fee membership on top of the rights to pay such a membership, but we're not really sure. Can anyone in Malibu edumuhcate the children on that?

Anyhoo, a steep drive curves tightly up to a front-facing two car garage. A narrow flagstone path curls around the garage, hugs tightly to the façade as it extends along the narrow strip of land between the house and the steep slope that falls nerve-wrackingly away just a few feet from the house.

Inside, the combination living/dining room has hardwood floors, walls of windows with almost unobstructed ocean views, and a carved stone (gas) fireplace flanked by a pair of flower sprays that look to Your Mama—no disrespect, JZ—like they was bought discount from a funeral home yard sale. Seriously.

The hardwood floors and ocean views continue into the updated (if sorta out-dated) and decidedly countrified eat-in kitchen complete with center island snack counter; faux-distressed, bone-colored cabinetry, some with glass doors; bull-nosed granite counter tops; high-grade built-in appliances; a breakfast nook in a five-sided bay window; and a perplexing tile-like ceiling treatment that may or may not actually be tile, we can't tell. A nearby den with (gas) fireplace has a convenient, built-in wet bar for commercial-time booze and beverage refreshments.

Each of the three, spacious upstairs bedrooms have ship-like sea and sunset views through large (but not entirely pleasingly arranged) windows. At least one bedroom connects directly a private bathroom and at least two open to covered balconies ringed by wrought iron railings.

Besides the front door, a single sliding glass door in the kitchen is the sole egress to the backyard entertainment areas that include a long, flagstone-paved dining and sun bathing terrace night lit by a couple of (too-charming) Old-Timey street lamps and a slender, in-ground swimming pool and spa.

 Good luck Miz Zeman. Your Mama hopes you save your house and get a job soon.

listing photos: Coldwell Banker Previews International