Newsletter: Hot Property: Behind drawn curtains
What makes a home interesting is who lives there, what they did with the decor and how they use the place. This week’s selections include the properties of musicians, athletes, soap stars and television show hosts.
Once you’re done checking out these star-studded transactions, visit and like our Facebook page, where you can find Hot Property stories and updates throughout the week. That’s also a great place to leave us a tip about a celebrity home deal.
– Neal J. Leitereg and Lauren Beale
He dug in at the beach
Grammy-winning jazz musician Lee Ritenour has put his longtime home in Malibu’s Point Dume area up for sale at $7.995 million. The property last changed hands nearly four decades ago for $470,000.
The colorful two-tone contemporary-style house sits behind gates on about an acre. There’s a lot going on here in the more than 6,000 square feet of living space.
Built in 1979, the home features vaulted ceilings, clerestory windows, polished stone, hardwood and travertine floors and fireplaces in the living room and master bedroom. An elevator and a floating-style staircase connect the two levels.
Towering palms dot grounds that include a swimming pool and artistically arrayed concrete slabs surrounded by lawn.
Ritenour, 65, has such hits as “Captain Fingers,” “Fly by Night” and “Isn’t She Lovely.”
Jazz musician Lee Ritenour has listed his home on about an acre in Malibu’s Point Dume area for sale at $7.995 million.
Fashionable new address
Okay, this is charming. “Fashion Police” co-host Brad Goreski and director/producer Gary Janetti have bought a gated English country home in Beverly Hills for $5.6 million.
The two-story Traditional-style house, built in 1931, features a steep gabled roof, vaulted beamed ceilings, multiple fireplaces and French doors. There are four bedrooms and five bathrooms in the main house.
A detached guesthouse contains two more bedrooms, a living room with a wet bar and two additional bathrooms. The quarter-acre lot has a swimming pool and is surrounded by mature hedges and trees.
His beat expands
Travis Barker of Blink-182 has a new spot to bang his drum in Calabasas. He just bought a Mediterranean home that sits on nearly half an acre for $2.825 million. He also owns another house in the gated community.
We’re not quite sure why the tattooed drummer, 41, picked up this place.
Built in 2006, the house features beamed ceilings and French doors that open to a veranda. The 7,196 square feet of living space includes a family room, five bedrooms and a bonus room that could function as a music room.
Mature landscaping, a covered loggia, a fire pit with seating, a bar, a built-in barbecue and a swimming pool with a spa and waterfall feature complete the grounds.
Leaving Paradise
Retired NBA player and former Lakers guard Steve Nash has sold his home in Paradise Valley, Ariz., for $3.175 million. The Tuscan-style residence, set on more than an acre, has a courtyard entry, vaulted beam ceilings and custom built-ins.
The nearly 6,500 square feet of living space includes a living room with a stone fireplace, a library, a game room, a wine cellar, five bedrooms and 5.5 bathrooms.
The green grounds don’t even look like Arizona to us. Must be a heck of a water bill.
A pool and spa, a covered patio with a fire pit and barbecue area, expanses of lawn and a sports court complete the resort-like setting.
Nash, 43, is an eight-time all-star and two-time NBA Most Valuable Player. He began his career with the Phoenix Suns and also played for the Dallas Mavericks.
For you soap fans
Actress Katherine Kelly Lang of “The Bold and the Beautiful” has sold her home in Glassell Park for $840,000.
The two-story house, built in 2013, blends contemporary and industrial styles in an open floor plan of 1,900 square feet. White walls, polished floors and a reclaimed-wood accent wall adorn the living/dining room areas.
The master suite has vaulted ceilings, skylights and a walk-in closet. There are three bedrooms and two bathrooms.
The 55-year-old has been on “The Bold and the Beautiful” since 1987. Her other credits include such shows as “The Young and the Restless,” “Lonesome Dove: The Outlaw Years” and “Magnum P.I.”
Warrior takes a loss
Here’s one for the loss column. Golden State Warriors’ Kevin Durant has sold his twin townhouse-style lodgings in Oklahoma City for $1.1 million — far less than the $1.769 million he paid in 2013 before combining them into a single home.
The side-by-side three-story properties are connected by a passageway and contain a total of six bedrooms, eight bathrooms and 7,000 square feet of living space.
The small forward reportedly put $3 million into the place.
What he created are some seriously luxurious contemporary digs. One part of the home was designed as living quarters and the other designated for entertaining. A billiards room opens to a theater/media room on one level. Chandeliers and eye-popping light fixtures abound.
Her favorite room
Late last year, California-born and -bred actress Marissa Hermer returned to the Southland with her husband and three young children, upgrading from a cozy London home to 10,000 square feet of space in a six-bedroom, nine-bathroom estate in Pacific Palisades. Her favorite room is the kitchen, which she calls “the heartbeat of the house.”
Marissa Hermer’s London kitchen was tiny, but the one in her Pacific Palisades home is big enough so that “we can all do cartwheels ... and not hit each other,” she says.
From the archives
Ten years ago, boxer Oscar De La Hoya sold his Big Bear Lake retreat and training facility for about $2.1 million. The buyer was mixed martial arts champ Tito Ortiz.
Twenty years ago, Oscar-winning actress Geena Davis and director Renny Harlin sold their 12-acre Montecito estate for about $9.5 million. There were eight bedrooms in the 20-room, 9,000-square-foot main residence as well as a guest house, a staff cottage, a tennis court and a swimming pool.
Thirty years ago, a Mulholland Drive mansion known as the Errol Flynn Estate was in escrow. Designed and built by the swashbuckling actor in the ’40s, the rambling Connecticut-style farmhouse had been described in print several times as a “fortress of bacchanalian amusements.” Among features was a one-way mirror in the ceiling of a guest bedroom.
What we’re reading
Are millennials’ hipster spending habits the reason they can’t afford to buy homes? Not really. In L.A. County, the median price of a house was $525,000 as of February. For example, if you saved the $19 hypothetically spent on avocado toast every single day, that’d be $6,935 a year. To save up the recommended 20% down payment on that median-priced house would take more than 15 years.
Admit it. We’ve all wondered how people actually live in those incredibly cute tiny houses. Estately’s Ryan Nickum offers 47 reasons not to downsize to minuscule. Among them: “It’s like living in a broken down RV. You get the same space, but no mobility.”
ICYMI: Think you finally found that perfect house to buy? Get through the home inspection first. One in four buyers face issues that delay or scuttle a sale.
