Hot Property newsletter: It’s crunch time for sellers looking to unload in 2020

With November fast upon us, is it time to start thinking about the holidays? Well, yes, if you are a home seller hoping to wrap up some real estate business before year-end. Joining the raft of listers in this week’s collection are homes owned by a KISS co-founder, a hockey legend and a World Golf Hall of Fame inductee.

Our Home of the Week is a Mediterranean estate set on an acre along the Malibu beachfront. The 13,500-square-foot mansion wraps around a landscaped courtyard. The $42-million asking price includes extensive patio space, a swimming pool and 120 feet of sand.

Once you’re done reading about these deals, visit and like our Facebook page, where you can find Hot Property stories and updates throughout the week.

— Jack Flemming and Lauren Beale

Rocking out of Beverly Hills

Gene Simmons of KISS fame is ready to sell an amenity-loaded mansion in Beverly Hills for which he paid $1.34 million in 1986.

Listed at $22 million, the estate centers on a 16,000-square-foot mansion entered through a 40-foot-tall foyer. A three-story wall of windows illuminates the living room. Other spaces include a chandelier-topped dining room, a family room under ornate coffered ceilings and seven bedrooms.

The compound also features a swimming pool with a 60-foot slide, a tennis court and parking for 35 cars.

Déjà vu all over again

Hockey legend Wayne Gretzky has put his mansion on nearly seven acres in Thousand Oaks on the market for $22.9 million.

It’s actually Gretzky’s second time selling the home. The NHL Hall of Famer was the compound’s original owner, having it built in 2002. Five years later, he sold it for $18.5 million to former baseball star Lenny Dykstra, who lost the property to foreclosure. Gretzky reunited with the home two years ago, paying $13.5 million.

The grounds contain a Colonial-style main home, two guesthouses, a swimming pool and a tennis court. In total, the homes combine for six bedrooms and 7.5 bathrooms and 13,300 square feet of living space.

Her business at hand

Vanessa Bryant, wife of late Lakers legend Kobe Bryant, is asking $1.995 million for an investment home in Irvine that they bought back in 2013.

The single-story brick house is Tuscan in style, with three bedrooms and 2.5 bathrooms within its more than 2,300 square feet. Beamed ceilings, arched doorways and French doors are among the details.

A stone patio off the back of the house has a brick fireplace and an in-ground spa.

His $3.25 million sweet spot

Hall of Fame golfer Fred Couples has sold his Newport Beach home for $3.25 million.

Built in the 1970s but updated since, the house spans a single story with five bedrooms and 4.5 bathrooms across 3,800 square feet. The open-concept space combines a chandelier-topped dining room and a living room with a fireplace. The kitchen expands to a family room framed by columns.

Couples, 61, had 15 victories on the PGA Tour, including the Masters Tournament in 1992.

‘SNL’ alum’s finale

“SNL” veteran Will Forte has sold his 107-year-old Craftsman in Santa Monica for $2.475 million. He paid $840,000 for the property in 2002.

The dining room of the three-bedroom home is where the actor and his team penned the first episode of his sitcom “The Last Man on Earth,” as well as some of the feature film “MacGruber.”

The two-story Craftsman features tapered brick columns supporting a covered front porch. Wood details fill the 1,900 square feet of living space.

From the archives

Thirty years ago, Emmy-winning actress Patricia Heaton of “Everybody Loves Raymond” and her husband, British-born actor-producer David Hunt, listed their Hancock Park home in the $1.7-million range. They had recently bought a larger home in the neighborhood and owned another in a village near Cambridge, England.

Twenty years ago, actor Richard Gere sold his Malibu home for close to its $10-million asking price. The property included a three-bedroom, 2,500-square-foot house on a bluff, two guesthouses, a cottage on the sand, a pool, a tennis court and 90 feet of beach.

Ten years ago, “Partridge Family” cast member and radio personality Danny Bonaduce listed his Los Felix home at $4.2 million. The four-bedroom Spanish villa, built in 1926, had been restored and had a new courtyard pool and roof.

What we’re reading

Realtor.com asked professional movers to name the scariest things they have encountered on the job. Making the list were an urn of human remains, the homeowner’s headstone and a taxidermy lemur with teeth bared. A moving crew walked into a Fort Worth, Texas, house to find 300 dolls — not nostalgic childhood collection kind, more like the ritual kind. And one of the dolls looked like a double for one of the movers.

“The Iconic American House: Architectural Masterworks Since 1900” by Dominic Bradbury might be just the thing to put on your gift list this year. Architectural Digest recently highlighted the new work, which traces U.S. residential showplaces throughout the last century. It’ll set you back $65.