About the Building
Wilshire Country Manor is a thirty-six home townhome association of 1973 occupying the last block of Wilcox Avenue, and the county's parcel data confirms it as a true for-sale condominium rather than a rental holding. The assessor carries the homes on recorded condominium Tract 30444, individually assessed and coded 010C, with the roll running to condominium unit 36. The postal addresses spread across 604 to 656 Wilcox Avenue and around the corner onto Clinton Street, which is the giveaway that these are attached houses with their own street numbers rather than flats behind a single lobby door.
The year built is 1973 on every parcel the assessor records here, with the effective year the same, meaning the county has recorded no reconstruction substantial enough to reset the age. Directories give three floors and thirty-six townhome units, and the arrangement is what that implies: attached dwellings of two and three levels rather than corridor-served apartments, each with its own entrance and its own patio. There is no lift, no lobby and no internal corridor. That is the essential thing to understand about the building before anything else. Every practical question that follows, from access and maintenance to who insures what, flows from that single distinction.
Areas verified against the assessor's own records give a spread from about 1,363 square feet on a two-bedroom home up to roughly 1,802 square feet on a three-bedroom, with a sampled middle plan at 1,701 square feet. A condominium directory publishes two-bedroom plans between 1,358 and 1,363 square feet and three-bedroom plans between 1,698 and 1,875, which sits squarely on top of the assessor's figures. The narrow spread within each type suggests two plan families repeated across the site rather than a catalogue of individual layouts. Establish the plan designation for a particular home before comparing it with any sale inside the association.
The published feature list is consistent for the period and the price band: open plans with a formal living room and fireplace, a formal dining room with wet bar, walk-in closets to the primary suites, dual vanities with a soaking tub and separate shower, private patios and laundry inside each home. Common facilities are described as a heated pool, a community room, controlled access and gated parking for residents and guests. All of that comes from condominium directories rather than from the association, so confirm the current amenity set and any facility out of service with management.
The single largest diligence item at this address is seismic. A three storey wood-frame residential building of 1973 with gated parking beneath is the precise profile that Los Angeles wrote its soft-story retrofit ordinances to capture, and condominiums were expressly included in the city's order distribution. Whether these particular structures qualify depends on how they are framed and how the city classified them, which is a question for the association and the department rather than for a listing sheet. Ask for the order, the engineer's report and the signed-off permit before you go firm.
Amenities & Services
The Residences
Every home in this association is a townhome with its own street address and its own front door, spread from 604 to 656 Wilcox Avenue and around onto Clinton Street. There is no shared lobby, no lift and no internal corridor. Access to your home is by your own stairs, and the building envelope you look after is closer to that of a small attached house than of an apartment. That buys real separation from neighbours and a private outdoor space, and it rules the association out entirely for anyone who needs single-level living now or expects to.
The assessor records a two-bedroom home at 1,363 square feet with three bathrooms, and a published directory gives the two-bedroom range as 1,358 to 1,363. A spread of five square feet across a plan type means one repeating layout rather than several, which is useful: it makes comparable sales inside the association genuinely comparable, and it means the condition and level of updating, not the floor plan, will drive the difference in value between two-bedroom homes. Read the area off the recorded condominium plan before pricing per square foot. Ask which plan designation the home carries, since two-bedroom sales here should function as near-identical comparables.
The assessor gives a three-bedroom home at 1,802 square feet with three bathrooms and another at 1,701, and a directory publishes the three-bedroom range as 1,698 to 1,875. That is a spread of a little under two hundred square feet, consistent with end positions carrying more area than interior ones. Three bedrooms and three bathrooms at that size, across multiple levels with a private patio, is a genuinely house-like proposition, and it competes with small single-family homes in the surrounding streets rather than with flats. Ask which position the home occupies on the recorded plan, since end positions generally carry the larger areas.
The assessor records three bathrooms on the sampled homes of both plan types, including the two-bedroom. In a townhome that usually means a bathroom serving each sleeping level plus a powder room at the entry or living level, which is a comfortable arrangement and one that 1970s townhome design handled well. It also means three sets of drainage stacks and supply runs inside a fifty-year-old structure. When you inspect, look at supply piping material, at any evidence of past leaks at floor penetrations, and at what has already been replaced.
Every home is described as having a private patio and laundry inside the dwelling rather than in a shared room, which is the practical difference between this association and a flat of similar size and price nearby. A patio in a townhome scheme of this era is normally exclusive-use common area rather than part of your unit, which affects who maintains the surface, who insures it and what you may alter. Read the CC&Rs on exclusive-use areas and check the condominium plan for how far your boundary actually extends. Ask the board what patio and railing alterations it has approved in the past few years, and on what conditions.
Directories describe formal living rooms with fireplaces, formal dining rooms with wet bars and linen storage, walk-in closets to the primary suites and primary bathrooms with dual vanities, a soaking tub and a separate shower. That reads as the original 1973 specification updated at various points by individual owners over five decades. Condition will vary widely from home to home as a result, and so will the quality of the work. Ask what was permitted, and treat any unpermitted structural or plumbing alteration as a negotiating point rather than a footnote.
Due Diligence
Los Angeles Ordinances 183893 and 184081 reach wood-frame buildings of two or more storeys built to code standards enacted before 1 January 1978 with parking or similar open space at ground level, excluding residential buildings of three units or fewer. A 1973 three storey townhome association with gated parking is the profile the programme was written for, and the city's order distribution expressly included condominiums. Ask whether an Order to Comply was issued, what the engineer concluded and whether the work is complete, permitted and signed off.
In an association the retrofit is common-area work, funded from reserves or by special assessment, and the allocation follows the CC&Rs rather than any general rule. If work has already been done, ask how it was paid for and whether any assessment remains outstanding against the home you are buying. If it has not been done, ask what the engineer's estimate is and whether the board has begun collecting for it. An unfunded retrofit obligation is a real liability and it should be priced.
California Civil Code section 5551 requires associations to have exterior elevated elements with wood framing, including balconies, stairs and walkways more than six feet above ground, inspected by a licensed professional at nine year intervals. A three storey townhome scheme of 1973 will have external stairs and elevated walkways within scope. Ask whether the inspection has been carried out, what the report found and whether any recommended repair has been completed. Deferred findings here become special assessments, and they surface at the worst possible moment.
Thirty-six attached homes spread along a block carry a great deal of roof, cladding, paving and landscaping per dwelling, plus a heated pool and gated parking. That is more exterior per home than a stacked building of the same unit count would produce, and it puts real pressure on the reserve schedule. Read the reserve study and the last three years of financials, and look specifically at roofing, exterior paint, the pool plant and the parking gate. Ask whether dues have tracked the study or lagged it.
In a townhome condominium the recorded plan decides where your ownership stops, and the answer is rarely intuitive. Patios, garage spaces, stairs and the exterior wall assembly may be common area, exclusive-use common area, or part of the unit, and each carries a different maintenance and insurance consequence. Get the condominium plan and the CC&Rs and read them together before you plan any works. It is the difference between a straightforward kitchen refit and a project that needs board approval and an engineer.
Wilcox Avenue ends at Rosewood Avenue, and this association sits on the last block before it does. A terminating street carries no through movement, which is the single largest determinant of quiet in central Los Angeles. It also means one route in and out, and the corner position at Clinton Street puts some homes closer to the cross street than others. Walk the block at a weekday evening and on a weekend to understand which position within the association suits you before choosing a home.
Directories describe gated parking for residents and for guests, which in a thirty-six home association of this era usually means a mix of garages and assigned open spaces. What is not published is how many spaces attach to a given home, whether they are deeded or assigned, and whether guest parking is reserved or first come. Read the title report and the condominium plan for the deeded allocation, and ask the board how guest parking is administered. In a dead-end block, on-street overflow is limited.
California Civil Code section 4741 prevents an association from setting a rental cap below twenty-five percent of units and permits it to prohibit tenancies of thirty days or less, but what this board has actually adopted is a separate question. In a thirty-six home association the rental proportion also matters for lending, since some loan programmes test owner-occupancy ratios. Ask for the current leasing rule, the present owner-occupancy percentage and whether any lender has declined the project in the past two years.
Everything above is drawn from public records, city permit data and published sources. The association’s statutory disclosure package is the only authoritative answer on dues, rules, reserves, insurance and litigation — Ben will request it and read it with you before you remove contingencies.
Common Questions
Keep Exploring
More about the neighbourhood: Mid Wilshire
Off Market & Coming Soon
Residences here reach the open market rarely, and some never do. Ask Ben to tell you when one is coming, including quietly.
Work With Ben
Units here often trade before they are ever listed. Tell Ben what you are looking for and hear first when something opens up, including off market.
Start the ConversationOff Market & Coming Soon
Residences here reach the open market rarely, and some never do. Ask Ben to tell you when one is coming, including quietly.
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