Simon Cowell looking to sell Beverly Hills home
Simon Cowell is quietly looking for a buyer for his Beverly Hills trophy house, marketing it outside the Multiple Listing Service.
Cowell, who paid $15.5 million for the gated estate, is asking $20 million, according to local real estate agents.
He bought the Trousdale Estates-area house two years ago from Randy Phillips of concert-promotion powerhouse AEG Live in an off-market deal. Phillips has a passion for restoring midcentury homes and had planned to move into the 1966 Hal Levitt-designed showcase with work completed.
When approached about selling the home, Phillips decided to test the water. “I came up with a price that I didn’t think anyone would match or meet,” he told the Los Angeles Times last year. “So I didn’t think I was in trouble of losing my house.”
The two-story house, which sits on more than half an acre with a swimming pool, has four bedrooms, six bathrooms and 7,265 square feet of living space, public records show. Features include city views, an outdoor entertainment area, a screening room and a formal dining room with walls of glass.
Cowell, 53, is known to television audiences for his role as a music judge on shows including “The X Factor,” “American Idol” and “Britain’s Got Talent.” The band One Direction recently renewed with his Syco record label.
Hope estate hits market
The Bob Hope and Dolores Hope estate in Toluca Lake is for sale at $27.5 million.
The compound is made up of four parcels totaling 5.15 acres and includes a 14,876-square-foot main house, a two-bedroom guesthouse, two-bedroom staff quarters and offices.
Built in 1939 for the Hopes, the original traditional house was designed by Robert Finkelhor. The Hopes hired John Elgin Woolf in the 1950s to remodel and update the house. Walls of glass in the living room overlook the grounds.
There are indoor and outdoor swimming pools, a one-hole golf course, mature trees and rose gardens.
Comic actor Bob Hope died in 2003 at 100. He appeared in scores of films including the “Road” series with Bing Crosby and entertained the U.S. military during five decades of USO tours. His wife, Dolores, died two years ago at 102.
Jade Mills of Coldwell Banker and Drew Fenton of Hilton & Hyland/Christie’s International Real Estate are the listing agents.
Zombie inhabits this stately Tudor
Musician and filmmaker Rob Zombie, known for his horror and sci-fi themes, has listed his stately home in Hancock Park at $3.95 million.
The tree-sheltered Tudor, built in 1924, features wood paneling in the living room and pub rooms as well as the entry. The kitchen has been remodeled and includes a butler’s pantry. There are six bedrooms and five bathrooms for a total of 6,249 square feet of interior space.
There’s hardly anything sinister about the house at all — except for a taxidermy bear towering over the living room in the listing photos.
The half-acre lot also contains a guest house, pool house, swimming pool and spa.
Zombie, 48, was a founding member and lead singer for the heavy metal band White Zombie. He expanded to film soundtrack writing and performing for such movies as “The Matrix” (1999), “House of 1000 Corpses” (2003) and “Paranormal Activity 4” (2012). After two “Halloween” films, he wrote and directed the subtly creepy “The Lords of Salem.”
The home last sold in 1999 for $1.799 million, public records show. Zombie also owns a home in Woodbury, Conn.
Michael Goldberg of the Brokerage Beverly Hills is the listing agent.
Actor writes in a scene change
James Van Der Beek has listed a house in the heart of Valley Village for $1.25 million.
The single-family home was an income property, said Kofi Nartey of the Agency, who shares the listing with Craig Knizek of the same office. The former “Dawson’s Creek” star is selling to focus on the upcoming comedy series “Friends With Better Lives.”
The 3,017-square-foot house, built in 1936, features a great room with vaulted ceilings, exposed beams, four bedrooms and three bathrooms. French doors off the master suite overlook a swimming pool.
Van Der Beek, 36, will be in the upcoming movie “Labor Day.” He was a regular this year and last on “Don’t Trust the B---- in Apartment 23.”
He paid $1.26 million for the house in 2005 and had been leasing it out for nearly $5,000 a month, according to the MLS.
Fewer frets in Studio City?
Guitarist-songwriter Billy Howerdel has sold his Studio City house for $1.825 million.
The Mediterranean, completed in 2008, features 10-foot ceilings, formal dining and living rooms, three fireplaces, five en suite bedrooms and a powder room in its 4,000 square feet. Outdoor amenities include a kitchen with granite counters and barbecue, a patio misting system, a fireplace, a swimming pool and a spa.
Howerdel, 41, is a founding member of the platinum-selling band A Perfect Circle and the solo project Ashes Divide. The rocker has worked as a guitar technician for bands including Tool, Nine Inch Nails and Guns N’ Roses. A Perfect Circle, which toured in South America and Australia this year, will release a greatest-hits collection next month called “Three Sixty.”
Howerdel bought the property in 2008 for $1.685 million, public records show.
Tregg Rustad and Peter Maurice of Rodeo Realty were the listing agents. Erik Ostergard of Keller Williams’ Studio City office represented the buyers.
Tehachapi ranch has art studio
Bob Biggs, the founder of Slash Records, has listed his ranch in Tehachapi for sale at $2.25 million.
The 80-acre spread centers on a three-level concrete home designed by Santa Monica architect Carl Day and built a decade ago. Features include three ground-level fireplaces, loft offices, a library/den, three bedrooms and three bathrooms in nearly 3,900 square feet of living space. A deck runs almost the length of the house. Exterior metal doors can be rolled down for fire protection.
The property has a six-stall barn, a workshop and a studio for Biggs, who is a painter.
He also has listed a nearby airplane hangar with office space in it for $575,000.
Slash, built around groups such as Los Lobos and the Blasters, was a force in the growth of L.A.’s punk and rock scene in the late 1970s and early ‘80s.
Jennifer Parker-Stanton of Deasy/Penner & Partners is the listing agent.
Twitter: @LATHotProperty
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