Newsletter: Hot Property: Signed, sealed, delivered
There are aspects of houses and home deals that just scream out for one’s attention. Among them are A-list celebrity owners, secret rooms, jaw-dropping interiors, magical gardens and framed NBA jerseys. Murder also makes the list this week, as does a way-over-asking sales price.
– Neal J. Leitereg and Lauren Beale
They had us at Brando
A Hollywood Hills residence where actor Marlon Brando once made his home has sold for $2.73 million.
Besides the legendary parties thrown by the Oscar winner during his ownership, the property was later known as the site of a star-attracting yoga center. Actor Stacy Keach, actress Tina Louise and singers Carole King and James Taylor are among those who frequented the studio.
Through the years, other occupants have included rock star Frank Zappa, actress Barbara Hershey and “Kung Fu” actor David Carradine.
Is that not enough? A bookshelf in the study of the 4,000-square-foot home can be moved to reveal a hidden room — a feature of the Prohibition-era design.
The former home of Brando sold in Hollywood Hills for $2.73 million. (Nick Springett | Inset: Getty Images)
Over the top
This is one way to get a soap star’s autograph. Galen Gering of “Days of Our Lives” has sold his Hollywood Hills home for $2.55 million — far surpassing the actor’s $1.695-million asking price.
The 1920s Spanish Revival-style house is a showstopper with intricate details and graceful interiors. “Lush” falls short of describing the landscaping, which artfully surrounds patios, decks, an outdoor fireplace and an open-air meditation house.
We would like to start a fan club for this house. Props to Gering and his wife, model-actress Jenna Gering, for creating this L.A. Shangri-La. They bought the house in 2000 for about $755,000.
Where are they now?
A childhood home of socialites Paris and Nicky Hilton has come on the market in Bel-Air for $7.25 million.
The stately Traditional, built in 1931, was owned by family patriarch Rick Hilton, a grandson of hotelier Conrad Hilton, from 1980 until the early 1990s.
So what are the heiresses, who furthered their fame on reality television, up to these days?
Paris Hilton, now 35, still makes tabloid fodder. She was recently spotted near the Mediterranean island of Ibiza flashing some skin in a black swimsuit.
Meanwhile, Nicky Hilton Rothschild, 32, has been out and about in New York with her newborn daughter.
The early childhood home of the Hiltons is for sale in Bel-Air for $7.25 million. (Tom Hunter Photography | Getty Images)
A supermodel home
So. Darn. Pretty. That’s our reaction to the Hollywood West house that supermodel, actress and television host Rachel Hunter has put on the market for just under $5 million.
Hidden behind gates and privacy hedges, the 1930s English Country-style house has been brightened up with contemporary details.
But it’s the leaded-glass windows, pointed Gothic arches and charming Dutch door entry that have us drooling. That bathroom chandelier shaped like an old-timey sailing vessel? Not so much.
Hunter put her English country-inspired home in Hollywood Hills West on the market for about $5 million. (Pierre Galant | Associated Press)
Parting with party pad
NBA All-Star Tyson Chandler has sold his rookie-year crib in Riverside for $798,000.
Set behind gates on about an acre, the Mediterranean-style home is tricked out for entertaining with a wide covered patio, a built-in barbecue and a fenced swimming pool and spa. Attached and detached garages can park up to 11 cars.
Among rooms in the 4,000 square feet of interior space was one decorated with his framed jerseys.
Chandler, 33, averaged 7.2 points and 6.1 rebounds in 66 games for the Phoenix Suns last season. He has another home in Hidden Hills for sale at $8.995 million.
Chandler, the former Dominguez High star and NBA veteran, sold his home in Riverside for $798,000. (Realtor.com | Getty Images)
Blast from the past
After 47 years of ownership, actress Eve Plumb of “The Brady Bunch” has sold her oceanfront house in Malibu for $3.9 million.
She bought the bungalow in 1969 when she was 11 years old for $55,300, records show. That was the same year she became a television staple as middle daughter Jan. Not a bad place to park her earnings and watch them grow.
The 1950s cottage, which sold with plans for a whole-house remodel and expansion, has three bedrooms and 1.75 bathrooms in 850 square feet of space. Decks wrap around the home, which takes in views of the sand.
Plumb sold her oceanfront home in Malibu for $3.9 million. (Nick Springett | Los Angeles Times)
Brave new owners
The so-called Los Feliz murder house has sold for $2.3 million to civil rights attorney and television legal analyst Lisa Bloom and her husband, Internet entrepreneur Braden Pollock. Bloom’s mom is high-profile civil rights attorney Gloria Allred.
The infamous Spanish Colonial Revival is where in 1959 then-owner Dr. Harold Perelson killed his wife in the master bedroom before taking his own life, according to archives from The Times.
Subsequent owners never moved into the three-story home, and it sat dormant for more than half a century — becoming a local landmark and an attraction for thrill-seekers.
The 5,050 square feet of interior space will require a total remodel and, perhaps, an exorcism.
Bloom paid about $2.3 million for the infamous murder house in Los Feliz. (Realtor.com | Nicole Madau)
Remember when?
Twenty years ago, actor Hugh Grant picked up a furnished Beverly Hills home for lease at close to $11,000 a month. The London resident was in the film “Extreme Measures” that year. This month, he stars with Meryl Streep in “Florence Foster Jenkins.”
Ten years ago, actress Sharon Stone listed a Beverly Hills home she had bought a few months earlier at $12.5 million. Rumor had it the place was an impulse buy and love at first sight didn’t last.
What we’re reading
— The sound of four hands clapping: The U.S. Treasury Department recently announced that it will require buyers of luxury homes in Los Angeles and other California counties with pricey real estate to reveal their identities when making cash buys through shell companies. Self-interest aside, we have long suspected that these secret buyers sometimes pay more for homes, distorting property values.
— Is it just our imagination or is L.A. getting hotter? In response to the region’s prolonged drought, tens of thousands of homeowners replaced their water-guzzling lawns last year with dry landscapes. Now researchers are taking a look at what the loss of this “natural air-conditioning” is doing to our temperatures, reports The Times’ Deborah Netburn.
— We’re digging this idea. Take a two-block stretch of vacant and abandoned homes in Detroit, raze them and erect 25 tiny homes of 250 to 400 square feet each. Then rent them on a lease-to-own basis to people who earn less than $9,000 a year. The experimental project, reported at Deadline Detroit, hopes to help low-income people become homeowners, upgrade a blighted area and create energy-efficient living spaces that reduce the carbon footprint.
— Potential L.A. home buyers continue to face an uphill climb to own in the current market, even with an uptick in supply, Inman News LA reports. In June, the overall supply was 2.4 months, according to data compiled by Redfin. Typically a well-balanced market will have six months of supply.
For more luxury real estate, visit us at the Hot Property blog and follow us on Twitter and Instagram.
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