Hot Property Newsletter: All that and then some
Up first this week is the Hollywood Hills home of a classic R&B force. Adding to the mix is the onetime home of an old-time crooner, a sale for a TV writer-producer and several actors on the move.
Our Home of the Week is a Spanish Colonial-inspired ranch in Santa Ynez. Don’t let the Old World ambience, red-tile roof and central courtyard fool you. The nearly 13,500-square-foot mansion, set on 4,674 acres, was built in 2007. The asking price is $29.75 million.
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.
– Neal J. Leitereg and Lauren Beale
Ending on an upbeat
It’s a lovely day in the Hollywood Hills, where a home owned by R&B singer-songwriter Bill Withers for more than two decades is for sale at $3.25 million.
Yes, the three-story Mediterranean-style house has a recording studio. Built in what was one of the home’s five bedrooms, the space is outfitted with a control room and an audio booth.
The nearly 5,000-square-foot home features fireplaces in the living room and master suite, a wet bar in the family room and an elevator. Balconies take in views extending from city to ocean.
Withers, 80, released his first studio album, “Just as I Am,” in 1971. The album featured the song “Ain’t No Sunshine,” which won a Grammy Award the following year. Two of his other hits, “Lean on Me” and “Just the Two of Us,” also won Grammys for best R&B song. His 1977 hit “Lovely Day” contained one of the longest sustained notes ever recorded at the time.
He’ll say cheers in Venice
Veteran television writer-producer Rob Long, whose credits include the sitcoms “Cheers” and “Kevin Can Wait,” has sold his Venice home of more than two decades for $3.7 million.
Dating to 1909, the Transitional Craftsman has overhanging eaves, wood-cased windows and a hipped roof with a squat dormer.
Beyond the covered front porch, the four-bedroom, 3.5-bathroom home opens to a white-walled living room with a fireplace. Built-in cherry wood bookshelves run from floor to ceiling in the library, and an antique chandelier tops the dining room.
Long was both a writer and co-executive producer for “Cheers,” which ran for 11 seasons and won six Golden Globes.
Going for a song?
A Long Island home once owned by cardigan-wearing crooner Perry Como, whose family-oriented pop music captured audiences in the 1940s, ’50s and ’60s, has come back on the market at $2.9 million. The estate was listed in 2017 at $3.95 million and last year for $3.45 million.
The stately Colonial, built in 1937, is set on 2.5 wooded acres and reached by way of a circular driveway. Behind the six-bedroom house is a swimming pool with a cabana.
A great room with beamed ceilings that Como added overlooks the pool. A cartoon drawing of the singer and the words “Ladies will please stay seated during the entire performance” remains on the powder room wall.
The affable Como, who died at 88 in 2001, had a weekly musical variety show, “Perry Como’s Kraft Music Hall,” and holiday spinoffs that earned five Emmys. Among the smooth baritone’s hit songs were “Catch a Falling Star.”
Taking their act elsewhere
Bret Harrison, who has had stints on the TV series “The Ranch” and “The Astronaut Wives Club,” and his wife, actress Lauren Zelman, have sold their Cape Cod-inspired home in Sherman Oaks for $1.775 million.
Entered through a two-story foyer, the 3,565-square-foot house contains an open-plan living-family-dining room with a fireplace, five bedrooms and 5.5 bathrooms. Adding to the classic East Coast vibe are wainscoting and wide-plank hardwood floors.
Harrison, 36, is known for his roles in “Grounded for Life,” “The Loop” and “Reaper.”
Zelman’s credits include “Wages of Sin,” “Undiscovered” and “The Ashlee Simpson Show.”
Where he’ll pull weeds
Actor Alexander Gould, who grew up before viewers’ eyes on the series “Weeds,” has bought a house in the Atwater Village area of Los Angeles for $1.005 million. If that price sounds a bit modest by actors’ standards, give the guy a break. He’s 25.
The Spanish-style bungalow is a cozy 900 square feet including two bedrooms and one bathroom. With a sunlit living room, an updated kitchen and a renovated bathroom, the 1926 house seems like a perfect starter home. Gould married actress Lieba Hall Gould last year.
The garage has been converted and contains another bathroom, this one with a claw-foot tub.
Gould voiced Nemo in the 2003 animated film and video game “Finding Nemo.”
‘Divorce’ creator finds a match
Irish actress and writer Sharon Horgan is the latest buyer to add to the celebrity pedigree of a home in Hollywood Hills. The 1953 house, which she bought for about $1.737 million, was once owned by Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist John Frusciante and in the late 1990s was leased by actor Norman Reedus and filmmaker Jonathan Silver.
The one-story features the requisite glass walls and vaulted ceilings of the Midcentury Modern style. Clerestory windows and skylights brighten the 1,437-square-foot open floor plan.
There’s a living room with a stone fireplace, three bedrooms and two bathrooms. The backyard contains a swimming pool, a fire pit and a tiled patio.
Horgan, 48, is the creator of the HBO series “Divorce.” Her acting credits include such British sitcoms as “Catastrophe” and “Women on the Verge.”
His favorite room
Actor Douglas Tait takes advantage of the privacy in the backyard of his 3,600-square-foot Northridge home for his unconventional Animal Flow workouts. When he’s not crawling along the ground wearing a monster mask, he can be found on the trampoline or training on the sports court. In his downtime, he reads scripts on the patio.
From the archives
Ten years ago, Hot Property brought readers “The 411 on ‘911’ actor.” The text: “You could call it a shorts sale. Tom Lennon, the pants-averse Lt. Jim Dangle on Comedy Central’s ‘Reno 911!’ (2003-09), and his actress wife, Jenny Robertson, have purchased a Hancock Park-area house for $2,175,000. The seller was ‘ER’ actress Maura Tierney, who had owned the 1913 Craftsman for nearly seven years.” She had listed the house at $2,195,000.
Twenty years ago, actors Antonio Banderas and Melanie Griffith purchased a 15,000-square-foot house in Hancock Park for $4.2 million. The headline: “Celebrity Pair Lands on Park Place.”
What we’re reading
The Frank Lloyd Wright Pappas House is for sale in St. Louis, notes WowHaus. Set on 3.36 acres, the Usonian-style house is made of concrete blocks, wood and glass. Asking price of the 2,310-square-foot gem is $1.2 million.
ICYMI: “Flip or Flop” star Christina Anstead, formerly known as Christina El Moussa, has a new house, a new show and a new husband. The Los Angeles Times talked to her about “Christina on the Coast,” which features remodels in Anaheim Hills, Costa Mesa, Fullerton, Tustin and Huntington Beach.
