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Hot Property: Playboy bunny shows off an ear for high-end home sales

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Crystal Hefner’s hop into the real estate game seems to be going well. The former Playboy bunny and widow of Hugh Hefner has sold her modern home in Hollywood Hills West for $5 million.

The pair paid $4.995 million for the home in 2013 a few months after getting married. According to Crystal Hefner, they wanted a change of pace from their usual digs.

“In terms of architecture, it’s so different from the Playboy Mansion,” she said, referring to the 20,000-square-foot complex with 29 rooms, an orchard and a zoo.

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In contrast, this home offers four bedrooms and five bathrooms across 6,471 square feet. Clad in stained wood accents, it enters into an expansive two-story foyer.

On the main level, there’s a great room, office, dining area and center-island kitchen. Indoor-outdoor living spaces take in city light views through walls of glass, and visual flairs include Italian tile, walnut walls, Jerusalem stone and a butcher-block floating staircase.

The second story holds the majority of the bedrooms, including an expansive master suite with a free-standing tub. Amenities, such as a game room and movie theater, are found downstairs.

There’s a swimming pool and spa on the front end of the property. In the back, a turf yard overlooks the hillside.

Juliette Hohnen of Douglas Elliman held the listing. Christine Quinn of the Oppenheim Group represented the buyer.

Hefner, 32, attended a Playboy Mansion party in 2008 and moved in with Hugh soon after. Following her husband’s death two years ago at 91, she took to real estate, developing projects in Malibu, Beverly Hills and elsewhere.

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A prelude to a bigger move?

Where Kawhi Leonard lands next basketball season is anyone’s guess, but it appears the Toronto Raptors star and impending free agent will be spending his offseasons in Rancho Santa Fe.

Leonard has paid $13.3 million for a home in the affluent San Diego County community. The purchase was made using a corporate entity that lists the two-time Defensive Player of the Year as manager, public records show.

Set on a lot of more than five acres, the Tuscan-style estate has been extensively renovated and updated for modern living.

Amenities include a workout facility with a dry bar, a home theater, a gourmet kitchen and two offices. A steel-framed wall of glass looks into a temperature-controlled wine vault in the tasting and bar room.

The 13,000 square feet of interior also holds seven bedroom suites including a customized master suite with two dressing rooms and a spa-like bath. There are 10.5 bathrooms in all.

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Outdoors, the grounds center on a multi-section pool complete with a raised spa, a conversation/fire pit, waterfall features and Baja decks. Various patio areas, a tennis/sports court, fruit orchards and lawn fill out the setting.

The purchase is a homecoming of sorts for Leonard, who played two seasons of college basketball at San Diego State University before entering the 2011 NBA draft.

The 27-year-old forward began his career with the Spurs, with whom he spent seven seasons and won an NBA title in 2014. After requesting a trade from the team last year, Leonard was sent by San Antonio to Toronto in a deal involving fellow all-star DeMar DeRozan. He will be an unrestricted free agent this summer.

Laura Barry and Jason Barry of Barry Estates were the listing agents. Laura Barry also represented the buyer.

Sold for a cut below asking

Lucy Liu has sold her Studio City home of nearly two decades, but it wasn’t for quite the killing the “Kill Bill” and “Charlie’s Angels” star first sought.

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The actress’ Fryman Canyon estate closed before Christmas for $3.06 million, or about $1.14 million less than what she first listed the property for last summer.

Built in 1959, the updated Craftsman home has 4,100 square feet of living space, four bedrooms and five bathrooms. Pocketing wood doors connect the kitchen and a garden-view dining room. In the living room, which has a tiled fireplace, picture windows bring in leafy views.

In a departure from Arts and Crafts details, the media room and master bedroom are both lined in Italian leather panels.

The property, which sits on more than a third of an acre, contains a swimming pool and spa, lush landscaping and mature trees. A rustic cabana with walls of wood-framed windows overlooks the pool area.

Liu, 50, has scores of television and film credits including the show “Ally McBeal” and the films “Payback” (1999) and “Shanghai Noon” (2000). She currently appears as Dr. Joan Watson on the television series “Elementary.”

Scott Seagall and Fredrik Eklund of Douglas Elliman were the listing agents. Dorothy Carter of Keller Williams Realty represented the buyer.

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New guy on the block

Actor and comedian Lamorne Morris, known for his role as Winston on the long-running Fox sitcom “New Girl,” has found some space in the San Fernando Valley to call his own. He’s bought a home in Tarzana for $3.11 million.

The two-story house, completed last year, is an updated play on the Spanish style and features a clay-tile roof, multiple balconies and a white exterior that bears a slight resemblance to the stucco facades popularized in the 1920s and ’30s.

The 5,840-square-foot floor plan, largely devoted to open-plan space, features a two-story foyer that opens to a living room with a floor-to-ceiling fireplace. A formal dining room with glass-enclosed wine storage, a home theater, an office and a center-island kitchen fill out the main level.

The house has five bedrooms and 7.5 bathrooms including a master suite outfitted with custom closets and a fireplace.

Outdoors, the more than one-third-acre lot holds multiple patios, a swimming pool with a spa and a pool house. Lawn and landscaping fill out the grounds, which are hedged and fenced.

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Morris, 35, currently appears in the new National Geographic docudrama miniseries “Valley of the Boom.” In addition to his television credits, he has appeared in the films “Barbershop: The Next Cut” (2016), “Sandy Wexler” (2017) and “Game Night” (2018).

Aaron Kirman of Compass was the listing agent. Joshua and Matthew Altman, the Altman brothers of Douglas Elliman, represented the buyer..

Closing set for band manager

Phil Harvey, the creative director, manager and fifth member of the rock group Coldplay, has put his home in Brentwood on the market for $6.795 million.

The East Coast-inspired traditional home, built in 2014, has curb appeal with white trim, clapboard siding and a covered porch supported by thick square pillars.

Within the 5,898-square-foot two-story are three fireplaces, formal living and dining rooms, a family room and a center-island kitchen. Walls of built-ins fill opposite walls in the office/den, which has a garden view. There’s also a wine and tasting room.

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A total of five bedrooms and 5.5 bathrooms include a multi-room master suite with a checkerboard-tiled bathroom.

Pocketing glass doors open to the rear, where a large covered patio has space for dining and entertaining. Lawn, mature landscaping and a swimming pool with a spa fill out the more than quarter-acre lot.

Harvey, 42, met Coldplay frontman Chris Martin in school in the 1990s and later dropped out of college to manage the band full time. Despite relinquishing the official title of Coldplay’s manager in the early 2000s, he still contributes to the group as its creative director and honorary fifth member.

He bought the house five years ago for $5.975 million, records show.

Susan Perryman of Hilton & Hyland holds the listing.

Where a Yankee once played

In Marco Island, Fla., a grand estate once owned by Cy Young Award-winning pitcher Bob Turley will go to the highest bidder.

Originally built for the late New York Yankees ace in 1988, the home has shuffled on and off the market for the last few years, most recently listing for $7.2 million in January. The property will now be auctioned off with no reserve on Feb. 9 by Elite Auctions.

The turnkey property, known as Greystone Manor, comprises four lots totaling about 2.6 acres overlooking Robert’s Bay. In addition to a 13,000-square-foot home, it holds a swimming pool and spa, screened patio, vegetable garden, gazebo and tennis court.

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Through pillars and two iron gates, the house is fronted by a porte-cochere entry. Stone touches up the exterior, and copper tops the roof.

Stately living spaces full of antique chandeliers and marble floors fill the floor plan. There’s a library wrapped in cherry wood, a wet bar overlooking a koi pond and a grand salon with hand-painted barrel ceilings.

Barrel ceilings also top the master suite, which opens to a private terrace with views of the water. In total, there are six bedrooms and 7.5 bathrooms across two stories.

A landscaped backyard descends to 190 feet of water frontage, complete with 100-foot dock.

Turley, who died in 2013 at 82, led the Yankees to a pair of World Series titles in the 1950s. In addition to three All-Star appearances, the right-hander also won the American League Cy Young Award and the World Series most valuable player award in 1958.

neal.leitereg@latimes.com | Twitter: @LATHotProperty

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