Minding Your Manors

By KATHY BRYANT

July 12, 1997 12 AM PT

SPECIAL TO THE TIMES

This is the year you just might be able to come up with a couple million to buy that dream house overlooking the ocean or the city lights. But that initial cost may be the cheapest part of home ownership.

If you think paying the monthly utilities and maintenance bills on your old abode is tough, imagine writing checks to maintain Dean Koontz’s 24,000-square-foot estate being built in Newport Coast or Barbara and Mark Chapin Johnson’s 8,000-square-foot villa in North Tustin.

Estates require a lot of cash to keep them in perfect order. The Johnsons’ $8.4 million home’s monthly bills rival those of a small business--$12,000. That doesn’t factor in $30,000 in annual property taxes.

“Because my wife, Barbara, and I do so much entertaining, we have extra bills, like around $400 a month just for carpet cleaning,” Mark Johnson says.

Here are the Johnsons’ monthly basic utilities:

* Electricity, $1,200

* Gas, $150

* Water $350

Outside maintenance requires a groundskeeper ($2,500 a month) and other helpers ($1,250 a month). Replacing droopy daffodils and tuckered-out tulips runs $5,000 three times a year. Trees trimming is needed at least once a year to the buzz of $1,800. After paying for the construction of the pool, it costs $200 a month to maintain it.

“Our grounds are more formal than most, so they’re more expensive,” Johnson says.

Inside maintenance could include a full-time housekeeper ($2,400 a month); window washers ($200 a month); and incidental expenses to keep up the marble, crystal chandeliers and so forth (about $500 a month).

Those are the maintenance costs before the dishwasher breaks down during a big charity party or the caterer breaks the crystal serving bowl or the roof springs a leak.

Once a year most grand houses are painted inside (around $15,000) and outside (around $25,000). If this isn’t done yearly, repair costs could rise.

Once a year, the roofers are called in to repair damage from wind and rain, which can run $500 to $1,000, depending on damage.

Of course, estates are targets for burglaries and need a security system. Systems can be installed for a few thousand dollars, but rates increase sharply depending on the quality and complexity of the protection being offered. Monthly fees for outside monitoring of the system can be a few hundred dollars.

If the house is in a guarded or gated community, there are monthly association fees that can run from a few hundred dollars a month to thousands.

House insurance premiums run in the thousands, especially if earthquake and flood insurance are added on. That’s not counting extra insurance for the valuables inside.

To add to already high property taxes, new houses in areas such as tony Newport Coast or near Tustin Ranch are dinged with special assessments that can run $1,000 to $1,500 a month.

If all this weren’t almost enough to send Bill Gates to bankruptcy court, estate owners also fret that they often pay more than the going rate for repair work because of their location.

As one homeowner says, “When a repairman comes out to look at the problem and sees where I live, I can just see him calculate the bill upward.”

Some high-flying homeowners double or triple these bills by maintaining second and third homes in Idaho, Wyoming or Palm Desert. These getaway homes are often larger than the primary dwelling.

Add a yacht or a private plane, and . . . well, you get the bottom line.

These monthly expenses aren’t enough to dissuade people from buying their dream houses. In Newport Beach in the past six months, 32 homes in the $2-million to $16-million range have sold or are in escrow, says Marcia Saunders of Seven Gables Real Estate in Tustin.

Some houses in exclusive Harbor Island in Newport Beach are selling within a week, and land lots that cost from $500,000 to more than $2 million are being sold and developed along Newport Coast.

“The economy has improved, and people are ready to buy again, and builders are ready to build,” Saunders says.

All you need is the money.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Minding You Manors

A sample of expenditures to maintain the North Tustin mansion of Barbara and Mark Chapin Johnson:

Paint inside: $15,000 (per year)

Paint outside: $25,000 (per year)

Housekeeper: $2,400 (per month)

Electricity: $1,200 (per month)

Gas: $150 (per month)

Water: $350 (per month)

Pool: $200 (per month)