About Jaman Properties

Jaman (sounds like jammin’) Properties is a boutique real estate development company specializing in selecting, purchasing, designing, building, furnishing and marketing for sale, high end, single family residences in select areas of Los Angeles and Malibu.

Principals Michael Manheim and Janus Cercone, in concert with an experienced team of professionals, apply their unique backgrounds and experience to the creation of emotional, narrative-based properties that, due to their singularity, have the greatest chance of maximizing return on investment.

JAMAN’S MISSION

To protect investment, maximize return and, in the process, create exceptional environments that will inspire their owners to live their ultimate lives.

JAMAN’S CORE VALUES

RESPECT:
For our investors, the property, the community and our buyers.

GENEROSITY:
A Jaman house must offer more than the buyer expects, not just in tangible luxury, but by providing opportunities throughout the home to grow, reflect, create new experiences and share—food, drink and love. It’s not enough that a Jaman property has style…it must also have soul.

GRATITUDE:
For the opportunity to build beautiful homes, for the trust of our investors, the response of our buyers and for the creative team who help bring each Jaman property to life.

WHAT MAKES JAMAN PROPERTIES DIFFERENT FROMOTHER REAL ESTATE DEVELOPMENT COMPANIES?

DISCIPLINE

Jaman typically views hundreds of properties before making a purchase. Though location and potential for expansion are important considerations, a Jaman property must offer more than just a desirable neighborhood or room count as trends and the marketplace can change.

Rather, Jaman targets unique properties that, in a high market or low, will maintain their appeal due to intrinsic value: a dramatic view; an emotional setting; historical provenance or sometimes…just a vibe.

Any potential project must satisfy an exacting matrix of criteria and analyses involving risk/reward, best and highest use, project viability and market demand for the final product. When making these evaluations, Jaman utilizes a five-page, proprietary checklist created and distilled over decades of hands-on experience. In so doing, Jaman anticipates a flat market—basing potential profit projections not on market escalation, but on its judgement of the finished property’s enhanced value.

IMAGINATION

Having spent decades in the story-telling business–producing and writing feature films, television and theatre—principals Michael Manheim and Janus Cercone approach each Jaman property as a story waiting to be told.

They imagine the specific character for whom they’re developing, then focus all subsequent choices on producing a “set” that will inspire that character’s narrative to be most fully realized.

The result is a property possessed of so many custom details, that its desirability has the greatest potential to supersede market fluctuations. Also, with rare exception, the real-world buyer has turned out to be eerily similar to the fictional character for whom the house was created.

EXCLUSIVITY

Jaman homes are not for everyone. The company’s goal is not to target a mass market, but to produce a bespoke creation that a select audience will fight to possess.

To this end, each Jaman property offers not just the expected luxuries for a home at its price point, but also one-of-a-kind elements designed to heighten the home’s living experience by elevating its story.

Past projects have included such unique features as a kitchen island made from Fred Astaire’s dance floor; a powder room covered in 25,000 individually applied peacock feathers; a dining room painted in crushed pearls and an archivally preserved shower where Ronald Reagan received the news he’d been elected President of the United States. As a result of custom elements like these, Jaman properties have consistently outperformed the market.

As a result of Jaman properties’ unique design philosophy, they have received world-wide media coverage on network television and in publications such as The New York Times, LA Times, Wall Street Journal, Architectural Digest, Forbes, The London Daily Mail, Variety and The Hollywood Reporter to name a few. To explore Jaman’s media coverage, please visit “PRESS“.

THE SALE

While most developers rely on their realtor for a property’s pricing and marketing, Jaman principals Manheim and Cercone collaborate actively in the pricing, then apply their entertainment business experience to campaigning each Jaman property as if they’re opening a movie. As such, Jaman employs a combination of targeted events, house tours, traditional press and social media to both maximize each property’s launch and also maintain awareness throughout marketing.

When an offer results, Manheim and Cercone continue their active involvement until the sale is complete. Subsequent to the sale, they typically maintain contact with the new owner to help familiarize them with the home’s systems, features and, if necessary, adjusting to their new community. In many cases, a friendship has resulted—a wonderful lagniappe!