Larry Boren moved to the area in 1967 to gain teaching credentials at California State University, Long Beach. After graduation he taught health education in the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) for 10 years. In 1974 he bought a house in Belmont Shore and to bolster his income he took a summer job selling local real estate.

As Long Beach began renovating its downtown area in the late 1970s, the real estate market took off and Boren found himself making as much money at his summer job at he made the rest of the year. In 1980 he left teaching and went into real estate sales full time. He worked with a small independent brokerage in Belmont Shore, earning his broker’s license in 1982. But Boren had a vision: he wanted to develop, manage and promote residential real estate in addition to selling.

Late one night in 1985 he found a foreclosure property on a busy corner lot at the edge of the Belmont Shore commercial district. The next day he bought the property, soon gutting and rebuilding it. He started L B Brokerage with three other Realtors and two support people. By 1987 he added a 1,000-square-foot second floor to the building to handle L B Brokerage’s rapid growth.

Boren represented properties for sale and fixed up houses he’d bought, adding features he knew buyers wanted and selling them for a profit. Between 1985 and 1989 the Long Beach real estate market boomed and formerly $40,000 Belmont Shore California bungalows sold for $350,000.

The recession of the early 90s depressed real estate values and forced many homes into foreclosure. Construction stopped, investments dried up and the public stopped buying. Even as most of the country experienced economic recovery, Long Beach kept declining and housed lost up to 50 percent of their value. Boren jokes that by 1992, “Those of us who worked in real estate didn’t realize we were unemployed.”

L B Brokerage survived by diversifying operations. As interest rates fell beginning in 1992 and people refinanced their homes as often as twice a year, Boren added mortgage services, eventually becoming approved by 80 major lending institutions. One of his agents became a specialist in bank-owned properties, or REOs, and handled the growing number of foreclosures.

The market changed in 1997 as real estate sales rebounded, requiring L B Brokerage to gain shift focus. The number of available rental units shrank, few fixer houses remained to be renovated and the REO market dried up as foreclosures became rare. Boren sold many of the properties he managed and continued to take on new properties to professionally manage for long-term investment of sale. L B Brokerage thrived by providing services that covered the myriad details of real estate transactions. The loan mortgage division continued to grow and the brokerage began to manage condominium associations.

Today L B Brokerage continues as a successful boutique real estate office with a strong history of experience in Long Beach and his brokers offers efficient, friendly, personalized service. Their goal: to help clients determine the most profitable way to buy, sell or trade up.

As the broker-owner and president of L B Brokerage, Larry Boren personally controls every aspect of his business, and still works actively as an agent-broker. Boren maintains community ties through membership in the Long Beach Chamber of Commerce, the Police Officers Association, the local school district and various industry groups.

Larry Boren proudly states that his fun in life is listing, building and being involved with people selling or seeking homes and investment properties. “I run a small boutique company located in the city where I love to live ---Long Beach,” he says with a smile. “The joy of each and every day is representing people through L B Brokerage. I hope that people say, “With all his experience, I’m calling Larry Boren to handle my real estate business!”