In a listing, on a jobsite, on Instagram, and published in magazines over the last few decades, I’ve had plenty of chances to show the finished thing.
What never fits in those places is the reasoning. Why that house and not the one next door. What it actually cost. Whether it’s good, or whether it just photographs well.
So, welcome to I’d Buy This House.
Houses, design, land, money, and the judgment that connects them.
Twenty-five years inside this industry. Most of it as a designer and developer building them, now as an agent in San Diego buying and selling the gems. I have bought, built, restored and sold more than $50 million of property with my own name on it. Everything here is first-hand. I have paid for the mistakes I’m describing.
Nothing is off limits, and none of it is about what’s trending, because the houses worth having were finished before the trend arrived.
What shows up here…
Houses I’d buy right now, here and anywhere in the world, and the ones I wouldn’t.
The underdogs. The ugly house that is secretly the best one on the street.
The money part. The myths about buying, taken apart one at a time.
Vintage shelter magazines from my own archive, dissected page by page.
What a renovation actually costs, in real numbers, from someone who has paid them.
Land, restoration, and the long projects. Park City, Pioneertown, and whatever is next.
Rancho Santa Fe, Del Mar, Encinitas. What’s really happening in these markets, said plainly.
Anyone can google the information. What you can’t google is judgment.
You’ll always know where I land. Let’s go walk the property.
xx Jen
Jennifer DeLonge has spent twenty-five years on every side of a house. She launched her eponymous children’s furniture line in 2004 with the Ava Chair, which sold at Barneys New York and FAO Schwarz. She founded Reissued, a curated vintage marketplace, and the letterpress shop Papier Moderne. Through Jennifer Jay, Inc. she designed and developed homes and remodels, and she has restored historic properties from Park City to Pioneertown. Her work has been featured in more than 200 publications, including Elle Decor, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times and People. She has personally bought, built, restored and sold more than $50 million in property.
A Coronado native and SDSU fine arts graduate, she represents buyers and sellers throughout Rancho Santa Fe, Del Mar and Encinitas with the Jackson Arnett Group at Douglas Elliman.
If you are buying or selling in Rancho Santa Fe, Del Mar or Encinitas, or you want an opinion on a house before you go further, lets connect at jen@jenniferdelonge.com or find me at jenniferdelonge.com.
Jennifer DeLonge · Douglas Elliman · Jackson Arnett Group DRE# 02241130
