More than six months after disastrous fires and mudslides killed 21 people and wreaked havoc on Montecito‘s economy, rebuilding efforts continue. And the roughly 9,000 residents of the elite seaside community have banded together to support local vendors and better prepare neighbors for future catastrophic events. As they say, sometimes it takes a disaster to remind us all of the powerful nature of human compassion. ‘Tis true.

Like nearly all local industries, the local real estate market initially suffered, though it is quickly zooming back with a vengeance that Yolanda did not anticipate. Particularly in the ultra-high-end sector, where the past few months have borne witness to not one but two eye-popping real estate deals, the likes of which Santa Barbara County has not seen in more than a decade.

The first is the $35 million that Jamie Kern Lima paid for a Mediterranean-style Montecito mansion back in March (2018). And now, property records show that real estate-lovin’ talk show host Ellen DeGeneres sold her sprawling Montecito estate in June (2018) for $34 million. That’s a far cry from the $45 million she originally asked for the property last year, but still a healthy chunk more than the $28,800,000 she and her wife Portia DeRossi paid for the estate five years ago, way back in 2013.

Records also clearly reveal that the buyers are a married couple named Theodore “Ted” Sarandos and Nicole Avant. Our Mr. Sarandos is Netflix’s Chief Content Officer (CCO) and compensation information shows he was paid more than $22 million last year alone. As for Ms. Avant, she is the former United States Ambassador to the Bahamas and the daughter of mega-wealthy music producer Clarence Avant.

The Avant-Sarandos couple have a clearly defined taste for luxury living and their new Montecito acquisition is just one of multiple homes they own across Southern California. In fact, according to Yolanda’s calculations, the pair currently own more than $60 million worth of lavish real estate across our fair state. More on their holdings a bit later, of course.

The $34 million, nearly 17-acre spread is accessed via a gated, quarter-mile-long driveway that winds past groves of mature olive and eucalyptus trees. A cobblestone motorcourt graces the front of the low-slung main house, which was originally built in the 1930s and designed by celebrated architect Wallace Frost.

Clearly made to evoke a 17th century Italian farmhouse, the 10,500-square-foot main residence features a sprawling living room equipped with a fireplace and natural stone.

Other spaces include an epically-proportioned dining room with seating space for a dozen or more, a commercial-grade kitchen with high-end everything, and cozy family and wine-tasting rooms.

The main house additionally includes a master suite with vaulted ceilings, skylights, and convenient access to outdoor seating areas overlooking the Pacific Ocean.

The estate’s numerous outdoor amentieis include a full-size tennis/sports court, a simple rectangular-shaped swimming pool, and multiple seating/lounging areas with scenic views.

The property also includes a glassy guest residence with a spacious sunroom, an expansive kitchen, and a sculptural wet bar plus an al fresco outdoor dining terrace with a BBQ, pizza oven, and covered dining.

In addition to the $34 million they got from the Avant-Sarandoses, Ms. DeGeneres and Ms. DeRossi recently sold another Montecito residence for $11 million to Tinder founder Sean Rad. However, the couple still own an $18.6 million oceanfront spread in Carpinteria — a small town just south of Montecito — and their $16 million main residence in Beverly Hills.

As for Mr. Sarandos and Ms. Avant, they mainly reside in the so-called Isidor Eisner estate in LA’s tony Hancock Park neighborhood. More than three years after they purchased the property for nearly $16 million (from actors Melanie Griffith and Antonio Banderas), the sale remains the most ever paid for a house in the area.

The well-to-do couple additionally own an oceanfront home on Malibu’s coveted Carbon Beach — aka Billionaires’ Beach — which they purchased from actor David Spade way back in 2013 for $10.2 million.

Less than a year ago, the LA power couple paid just over $20 million for another oceanfront Malibu house — this one located in the more remote Encinal Bluffs neighborhood. After just eight months of ownership, Mr. Sarandos and Ms. Avant flipped the property for $21,250,000 to British pop singer Robbie Williams and his American actress wife Ayda Field.

Listing agent: Suzanne Perkins, Sotheby’s International Realty

Last year, amid a torrid rash of publicity, the onetime Beverly Hills (Post Office) estate of both Cher and Eddie Murphy exploded onto the market with a fat $85 million asking price. Although that buzz certainly generated interest among the well-heeled jetset who can afford to write a nearly nine-figure check, the palatial spread did not sell. And so, after a brief hiatus, it returns. And it looks much the same, albeit now it has received a $17 million price chop — it can be yours for the bargain bin ask of $68 million.

It’s been awhile since Yolanda wrote about this place, so we thought it might be fun to take another (virtual) tour, especially since this is undoubtedly one of the largest and most lavish compounds in all the 90210. Plus it has a unique, only-in-LA sort of history.

The current seller of the colossal 14-acre estate is not a Hollywood celebrity but rather a widowed socialite named Vicki Walters. Our Mrs. Walters (and her late husband) spent untold tens of millions cobbling together this compound beginning in 1997. But we’ll come back to her in a moment — first, a quick rewind.

It was way back in the ’70s, shortly after her divorce from Sonny Bono, that uni-named superstar Cher selected a hidden 4-acre parcel deep in Benedict Canyon as a place to build a monument to her success. As y’all might expect, Cher didn’t just built a normal big ol’ mansion — that would never do. Instead, she commissioned a 10,000-square-foot Egyptian pyramid-themed edifice with a gym and a retractable glass roof. The house was not complete until 1980 and likely cost millions to construct, though Yolanda is only guessing about that last part.

Unfortunately for her, Cher might not have the most fond memories of this place — she later commented that “there were times I was nearly bankrupt in that house,” and “whenever I wanted to sell it, I couldn’t“. But in 1988, she eventually did succeed in unloading it. The buyer — who paid $5.9 million, FYI — was Eddie Murphy. However, Mr. Murphy also didn’t stay here very long — he sold the house in 1995 (at a massive loss) for $4 million.

From there, Mr. Murphy moved to his new mega-mansion in the nearby guard-gated community of Beverly Park, where he continues to reside to this day. But we digress.

The buyer of the Egyptian-themed house was a Mexican businessman from Acapulco named Roberto Trouyet. He added square footage to the existing house and then lucratively flipped it in 1997 for about $6.4 million to a couple from Columbia, Missouri. Their names were Raul & Vicki Walters.

Our Mr. Walters — may he rest in peace — was a prominent Midwest real estate developer who earned a massive fortune through his friendship and partnership with Walmart founder Sam Walton. Many of Walmart’s early stores were built as the centerpieces of Mr. Walters’ development sites. Upon Sam Walton’s sorta-retirement phase, Mr. Walters continued his developments in partnership with billionaire Stan Kroenke. In 1985, however, Walters and Kroenke reportedly had a falling-out and ceased speaking to one another. A ten-year legal battle over how to divide their joint holdings ensued.

Anyway, in the mid-90s Mr. and Mrs. Walters decided to permanently relocate to LA after Mrs. Walters fell in love with the area during an extensive shopping trip here. (Sounds fun!) Mrs. Walters once joked (at least we think she was joking) that the couple actually moved from Columbia to Beverly Hills because “we had no Neiman’s in Missouri … Our version of exotic was Taco Bell“. Aw, shucks! We can’t imagine the pain of no Neiman’s, Mrs. Walters. But don’t hate on Taco Bell.

At the time of the Walters’ purchase, the estate still measured “just” four acres. But the lavish-living pair soon purchased several of their neighbors’ homes, razed the existing residences, and expanded the property into a 14-acre kingdom, surely at massive expense. Today, the old Cher/Eddie Murphy house still stands, but the estate additionally features a 7,000-square-foot guesthouse, a large stable/horse-house facility, a full-size riding rink, a guard house, acres of emerald green lawns and gardens, and meandering hiking trails that encircle and overlook the entire property.

The estate immediately impresses guests/vendors with its uber-grand entryway: elaborately carved gates, sculpted hedges, and an ivy-covered guard shack. Once cleared by security, cars wind up a long driveway that eventually ends at the main house. Several turn-offs lead to the guest quarters, stables, and riding rink.

Naturally there are also staff quarters on the property — an absolute necessity since Mrs. Walters once revealed that the she and her late hubby employed at least a dozen full-time staff members: eight gardeners, two housemaids, a Moroccan chef, and a gate guard. Yowza!

Though the Walterses extensively renovated the main house after they purchased it in the 1990s, Mrs. Walters has the now 20,000-square-foot structure under renovation yet again. For unknown reasons, she has opted to not complete the redo — maybe she assumes the next owner will want to put their own stamp on it anyway — and thus there are no interior pictures provided with the current listing.

Anywho, there is a full-size sunken tennis court just behind the main house with a covered (and fan-cooled, naturally) viewing pavilion. Elsewhere, the stables have five large stalls for horseys.

The stringently manicured grounds include numerous additional outdoor dining, lounging, and recreation options.

Yolanda can’t help but think that whoever buys this property — even at its reduced price — will have to be a billionaire. Just think of the money required to maintain this incredibly luxurious place! We would be shocked if Mrs. Walters does not spend upwards of seven figures each and every year just in upkeep costs. Heck, the edging on the ivy covering the guard shack alone must take hours to trim.

Perhaps the wildest part of this whole story is that Mrs. Walters no longer resides on this property — and has not for the last three years or so. That’s right, kiddies, the house has been vacant, save for whatever staff members continue to live here.

Back in 2015, Mrs. Walters paid a smashing $22,500,000 for a full-floor penthouse apartment in LA’s deluxe The Century condo building, arguably the most expensive high-rise living facility in LA. Other residents in the ivory-and-glass tower include Rihanna and Friends actor Matthew Perry.

Mrs. Walters’ new mansion in the sky has 9,343 square feet of interior space with 4 beds/5.5 baths, wrap-around terraces with 360-degree views, a private elevator lobby, a formal dining room capable of seating 25, floor-to-ceiling windows, and carries whopping HOA fees of $7,338 per month. Those fees provide Mrs. Walters access to all the building’s additional amenities, including the Pilates studio, yoga studio, “Equinox design gym”, lap pool, spa, 24-hour doorman, guard, valet, and concierge.

As for her old 90210 compound, Yolanda isn’t sure who is in the market for something of that size and scale. But in our opinion, the estate looks very much like the sort of fortified thing that would work well for an equestrian-loving royal family member in need of privacy and security. But with all the turmoil in Saudi Arabia these days, we somehow sorta doubt that anyone from that part of the world is looking to make a big property splash at this moment.

But we shall see.

Listing agents: The Altman Brothers, Douglas Elliman

Perhaps the city of LA’s biggest neighborhood luxury come-up in recent years has been the San Fernando Valley enclave of Encino, where the advent of celebrity buyers and numerous spec-builders has suddenly caused an astronomical price spike. For reference, take this nearly 10,000-square-foot mansion located in a desirable south-of-Ventura Boulevard neighborhood. Originally built in 1998, the house sold for $4,400,000 four years ago (in 2014) to football player Dashon Goldson. And just last month, the same house sold again for a much-increased $6,585,000, an amount that appears to have been paid all in cash.

The new owner, Yolanda discovered, is a 28-year-old man named Douglas “Doug” Delaney Jordan. Our Mr. Jordan is an up-and-coming film producer from Oakland, California who is also the elder son of a philanthropist named Quinn Delaney and her longtime hubby Wayne Jordan, one of the San Francisco Bay Area’s most successful real estate developers.

The elder Mr. Jordan and Ms. Delaney are two of the most generous Democratic donors in the state of California. Way back in 2015, the couple was ranked #4 on a list of the top givers to political causes in the entire San Francisco area, having donated $2.3 million of their own fortune to further liberal causes.

Anyway, Mr. Jordan and Ms. Delaney have long resided in an 8,000-square-foot mansion in the Oakland suburb of Piedmont — where they have hosted multiple dinners/fundraisers for President Obama and Hillary Clinton. However, they also own a Manhattan pied-à-terre, which they picked up for $5,400,000 in 2014.

The younger Mr. Jordan’s new gated and high-hedged Valley spread sits on a generous 1.09-acre lot. Although the sorta-Traditional, sorta-Mediterranean mansion has a muddled architectural style, it will certainly impress guests with its grand entrance staircase. The glassy double front doors open to an airport hangar-sized foyer facing a (rather cliche) double staircase.

The main floors are equipped with an array of casual yet luxurious entertaining spaces — a fireplace-equipped family room, a formal dining room, and a kitchen sporting dual islands and an astoundingly expensive glass-fronted SubZero refrigerator. Also on the premises (but not pictured) are a large wine cellar and a media room.

According to the listing, the main house sports 6 bedrooms an 7.5 bathrooms, including a master suite outfitted with dark hardwood floors, a fireplace, sitting area, and a master bath with dual vanities and a glassy shower. A spacious covered balcony overlooks the backyard, which includes strips of well-watered lawn, a pool w/ inset spa, and a raised tennis court.

Also in the backyard is a guesthouse above the three-car garage. Within this 720-square-foot space are two bedrooms and one bathroom, plus a large open living space outfitted with trendy ebonized hardwood floors. Also off the guest house is a built-in jungle gym, although we don’t think Mr. Jordan has kids of his own yet.

Despite his relatively young age, records reveal that this Encino pad is not the first-ever LA mansion purchased by Mr. Jordan. Back in 2016, when he was just 26 years old, he forked out $7,230,000 for a Mediterranean pad in the hills above Beverly Hills, in an area known as the Beverly Hills Post Office. That house is currently for sale with an asking price of $9,249,000, recently reduced from $9,995,000.

The 8,000-square-foot 90210 pad has 6 beds and 7 baths, a three-car garage, formal dining and living rooms plus a high-ceilinged kitchen. The entryway also features a dramatic staircase accentuated by a one-of-a-kind Chihuly chandelier overhead. For those of y’all who don’t know, anything by Chilhuly can easily cost more than a new Toyota Corolla.

And for whatever it’s worth, Mr. Jordan’s unwanted B.H.P.O. house sits next door to a far larger estate owned and occupied by British pop star Robbie Williams and his American actress wife Ayda Field.

Listing agents (Encino): Scott Nell & Rick Dergan, Keller Williams
Doug Jordan’s agent (Encino): Santiago Arana, The Agency
Doug Jordan’s agent (90210): Sheila Bargrizan, Keller Williams

We know this sounds corny, but the posh Westside neighborhoods of Los Angeles are steamin’ hot right now, and we aren’t just referencing the weather. That real estate market — particularly the market for lavish new mansions built on speculation — is so toasty these days. Developers keep churning out more and more, and yet well-heeled consumers gobble them up so fast that occasionally fierce bidding wars break out. Yes, kids, bidding wars on houses costing upwards of $10 million. And discounts are mostly slim to unheard of. Imagine that!

Take the house of today, all shiny and new. Y’all can practically smell the fresh paint through your computer/iOS screen. Listed for $12,995,000 in March (2018), it sold in just one month for the full asking price. For all you beancounters, that’s nearly $2,000 per square foot — a lot of money, in other words.

The buyer, it seems, is a rather high-profile fella named Thomas “Tom” Barrack.

Now in his early 70s, Mr. Barrack stayed mostly out of general public notice for the first several decades of his career, though he was assuredly well-known in investment circles. Colony Capital (now known as Colony NorthStar), the private equity firm he founded back in 1990, was long considered one of the most successful companies of its kind.

Colony focuses mostly on large-scale real estate investments both here in the USA and abroad, and the myriad projects in which it has invested include properties in Europe and the Middle East and department stores, casinos, and hotels here in America. Speaking of the Middle East, Mr. Barrack has some very close connections to powerful folks in that part of the world — folks including Saudi royalty, U.A.E. government officials, and even the ruling family of Qatar.

Within the last couple years, however, Mr. Barrack has attracted widespread public attention for his close friendship and his reported role as an unofficial advisor to President Donald Trump. A couple months ago, he was apparently interviewed by the Robert Mueller team in regards to the ongoing investigation into possible Russian collusion during the 2016 election. No word on what the outcome of that interview was, however.

Positioned on a ridge directly overlooking rustic Mandeville Canyon, the house features a four-car garage facing the street — the rest of the property is shielded behind walls and thick hedges. Inside, the 7,800-square-foot mansion sports oatmeal-colored hardwood floors throughout and an open floorpan with lots of glass and dozens (hundreds?) of those little round LED ceiling lights. Numerous recreational amenities include a lounge space with a massive projection screen, a pool table, and a party-sized wet bar with bar-style seating.

The property sits on a generously-sized 1.25-acre lot, though the majority of that land is steep hillside and therefore unusable.

Dark wood trim on the walls and such provides added warmth to the somewhat austere color scheme. The “chef’s kitchen” — which has only the highest of high-end appliances, naturally — sits across from a dining area that opens to the backyard via an enormous disappearing wall of glass. While the yard isn’t quite as big as y’all might expect for $13 million — remember, much of the land here is unusable — there is still plenty of recreation space including a large deck a wee patch of lawn for doggies to do their business, and a rectangular infinity pool.

The long and narrow master suite is all about the views — from the bed, it appears as though y’all are airborne and hovering above the canyon. The adjacent bathroom has dual vanities and a unique indoor/outdoor situation. It’s also practically all glass — non-exhibitionists beware.

Elsewhere there are 6 additional beds and 10 more baths, many of them with their own snazzy, glassy vistas.

Speaking of views, the east-and-southward jetliner sightlines provide vistas of some of LA’s most iconic sights: the Century City and Downtown LA skylines, the Getty Center, the San Gabriel Mountains and the Pacific Ocean.

Anyway, this is definitely not Mr. Barrack’s first big Westside real estate excursion. Back in 2014, he paid $24,500,000 for a much larger spec-built mega-mansion in Santa Monica (with an indoor basketball court!). At the time of his purchase, the sale price was the most ever paid for a house in that city. (However, it has since been majorly eclipsed).

Mr. Barrack sold his huge Santa Monica abode in early 2017 for somewhere in the $30 million range (records are a bit vague) to South African entrepreneur Kirk Lazarus, who is apparently now engaged in a full-scale remodel of the premises.

Oh, we almost forgot to mention that Mr. Barrack — or his Colony firm, rather — also owns the 3,000-acre Neverland Ranch near Santa Barbara. The supersized estate is most (in)famous, of course, as the former home of Michael Jackson.

Listing and selling agent: Santiago Arana, The Agency

Divorce is hardly ever anything but a headache, but y’all might be forgiven for assuming that very wealthy folks have it easier than most. After all, they can afford the best attorneys and usually are not besieged by the financial problems that often plague lower-class splits.

But of course, bitterness afflicts the entire wealth spectrum. For a particularly extreme example, take the divorce of billionaires Bill and Sue Gross, who today grace the cover of the New York Post. Married for over 30 years, their split was actually finalized last year, yet the couple are still squabbling with one another about everything from Picasso paintings to algae-filled swimming pools to dead fish in air vents.

And though couple’s three children are all grown and living elsewhere, there was still a bitter custody battle to be hashed out — over cats. Yes, the Grosses have three cats and both wanted custody. (In case y’all care to know, the ex-missus ended up winning primary guardianship but Mr. Gross was awarded visitation rights with the feisty felines. No, really!)

Besides their kitties, one of the former pair’s main contentions is real estate.

For nearly the entirety of their marriage, the Grosses resided primarily in the posh town of Laguna Beach, CA — specifically in a custom-built mansion in the guard-gated Irvine Cove enclave, which is arguably the most expensive and exclusive gated community in all of Orange County. A few years ago, the couple expanded their Irvine Cove holdings by purchasing two of their neighbors’ houses, fashioning for themselves a $70 million three-house compound.

It seems that Mrs. Gross was awarded the entire compound upon their split, which Mr. Gross was none too pleased about. Of course, he was not about to leave Irvine Cove quietly — and so he began trying to buy other houses in the enclave. But the crafty Mrs. Gross caught wind of his plans and outbid him at least three times, spending a total of $37.8 million to keep him out! She even, apparently, gave her sister and brother-in-law $14 million to “steal” one house away from him.

And yet billionaires usually get what they want, eventually. You may recall that an oceanfront Irvine Cove house came up for sale recently asking $35 million. The house quickly sold to Mr. Gross for $35.8 million, and we speculated there must’ve been a bidding war over the property. Court documents now reveal that was indeed the case — and the other bidder was his ex. Allegedly Mrs. Gross made an even higher offer on the house, but the sellers chose to close with Mr. Gross because his offer was all-cash — hers was not.

But we’re not here today to talk about the once-sleepy Irvine Cove community.

Listen kids, we’ve discussed the real estate doings of billionaire Bill Gross so many times on this site that it almost seems like — pardon the pun — gross overkill to write another story about him. But then again, he can’t seem to stop buying outrageous houses — so maybe he’s secretly eager for yet another feature up on here. Well okay, Mr. Gross, we shall indulge you today.

As we have said, Yolanda discussed Mr. Gross’s new $35.8 million “bachelor pad” just a couple weeks ago. The oceanfront Spanish-style abode ranks as one of the most expensive homes ever sold in Orange County — perfect for a billionaire baller. So that’s all fine and dandy. But unbeknownst to us, Mr. Gross did not just purchase one new Laguna house. He bought two.

Just one month after Mr. Gross laid out that fat sum for his new house in Laguna Beach’s guard-gated Irvine Cove, records reveal he shockingly spent a whopping $32,000,000 on yet another oceanfront Laguna Beach house. This one, however, is not located in a guard-gated community — rather, it is situated right on busy Pacific Coast Highway and much closer to the center of town.

Yes, y’all, in the span of one month Mr. Gross spent $67.8 million on two luxury homes in the same city. Combined with the $37.8 million spent by his wife, the erstwhile couple have thrown down $105,600,000 in just one month in their little beach town. That’s Mr. & Mrs. Gross — keeping real estate agents fed and Laguna Beach house sellers happy.

Mr. Gross’s new Laguna house was last sold for $17,500,000 back in 2015 to a successful local fellow named Patrick R. Boyd. At the time of his purchase, the nearly 1-acre property included a 10,000-square-foot, three-story house originally built in 1985. Over the course of two years, Mr. Boyd completely rebuilt the existing property into the uber-modern confection you see here. Today, the property includes 4 bedrooms and 6.5 bathrooms, including a sumptuous 3,000-square-foot master suite.

“Rockledge-By-The-Sea” (as the property has been christened) sports 190 feet of coastal frontage and unspoiled vistas overlooking the aquamarine waters. To maximize those billion-dollar views, the newly-renovated house has numerous windows and a sprawling outdoor deck complete with a dining area and informal lounge-type seating.

Indoors, the open-plan main level includes a chic (and very pricey) Bulthaup kitchen with marble countertops and rare wood cabinetry. The living room includes a fireplace, there’s a family room with a pool table and another fireplace, and elsewhere there are three guest bedroom suites.

While the guest bedrooms are nice, the master suite is unquestionably the real star of the show. Occupying the entire third floor of the residence, it sports gobs of ocean views, a private spa, gym, office, bedroom w/ fireplace, walk-in closet, and a deluxe bathroom with his/hers vanities.

Other amenities in the starkly minimal residence include a “commercial 8-person elevator” (great for parties when guests are too boozed-up to traipse up/downstairs), a wine display room, and a double-gated entry drive for privacy and security. There’s also a pool and a spa outside, and the fully landscaped grounds additionally include a grassy lawn, colorful floral plantings, and a narrow stone stairway leading down the bluff to the sandy beach far below.

Yolanda has no clue why Mr. Gross wants or needs two $30+ million Laguna Beach houses within 5 minutes’ drive of each other. But when you’re rich, newly single and free to mingle, the question often isn’t why — it’s “Why not?”.

In addition to their $175 million in Laguna Beach real estate, the Grosses also own $55 million of Beverly Hills property, a house in Indian Wells (CA) worth at least $10 million, and a variety of less expensive (but still multi-million-dollar) homes in the Orange County areas.

Listing agent: Rob Giem, Compass
Bill Gross’s agent: Rod Daley, Coldwell Banker

According to a recent report, the real estate market out here in LA has cooled off considerably this summer. That jives with what Yolanda has seen just from our own idle surfing through recent high-end sales — it seems to us that activity this year is considerably more muted than in years past. Maybe it’s just a phase, or perhaps we have finally crested the peak?

Of course, it’s much too early to make a sweeping generalization about real estate in all of LA, and there are still hot pockets out there. One of them is the Brentwood neighborhood, whose market seems as robust — and the buyers as voracious — as ever. Take this Traditional-style house on a prime, quiet street just north of Sunset Boulevard. Originally built in 2012, the property sold in 2014 for $12.5 million. Back then — four years ago — most folks seemed to think the buyers paid top-dollar.

The 2014 buyers, incidentally, were a married couple from Norway named Hege Fossum and Mikkel Eriksen. Though y’all may have never heard their names before, you are almost certainly familiar with Mr. Eriksen’s work. You see, he is one half of Stargate, the production team known for writing and producing some of the biggest pop music hits in recent history.

Though Stargate is still successful in the industry, their real commercial heyday was about 10 years ago and peaked with the 2006 release of “Irreplaceable” by Beyoncé. That song — co-written and co-produced by Mr. Eriksen — went to #1 for 10 weeks and remains Beyoncé’s biggest hit, as the charts go. We imagine the royalties from that mega-smash alone will keep Mr. Eriksen in the black for the remainder of his life.

Stargate is also responsible for many other massive #1 records, most of them mellow ballads: “Take A Bow” by Rihanna, “Apologize” by OneRepublic, and “So Sick” by Ne-Yo. But we digress.

For reasons unknown to Yolanda, Mr. Eriksen and Ms. Fossum recently decided to move from their Brentwood family home. They put it up for sale this May (2018), with a fat $16.8 million pricetag. And while that may seem like a tall order, deep-pocketed buyers swarmed on the property. Apparently. Just one month later, the property sold for $17,150,000 — $350,000 more than the asking price and a sure sign of a bidding war. And that’s also a hefty $4.65 million more than the Fossum-Eriksens paid four years ago. For an essentially unchanged house!

The new owner, we were told, is a businessman from Chicago, Illinois named Theodore “Ted” Schwartz.

Now in his 60s, our Mr. Schwartz started out as a radio ad salesman in Chicago before becoming the founder and former Chairman of APAC, which began in the 1970s as a telemarketing company. In the 1990s, Mr. Schwartz sold off the advertising portion of the business and APAC now focuses on providing call center customer service for a wide-ranging list of corporate clients, many of them in the healthcare and financial services industry.

Mr. Schwartz is also the founder of LA-based Strand Equity Partners, a private equity firm that focuses their investments on up-and-coming brands in the consumer products segment.

Way back in 1997, Forbes listed Mr. Schwartz as a billionaire, though he does not appear on current rankings. But no doubt he is still very wealthy — in the mid-90s alone he reaped more than $300 million from stock sales and in 2011 he took in another $180 million or so when APAC was sold for $470 million to merchant banker One Equity Partners.

We think it’s safe to say that Mr. Schwartz is easily wealthy enough to afford a $17 million house in Brentwood. Probably several of them.

Described as a “Transitional Traditional” estate in the listing notes, the large home is surrounded by a low front fence. A gate leads up a short walkway — past mature sycamore trees — to the front door, and there’s a front-facing two-car garage.

If the front facade seems somewhat unsexy, the house makes up for it inside — the sumptuous interiors are mature and comfortable, yet still tres chic. Most of the rooms feature lustrous hardwood floors. (Looks like burled walnut to us, though we can’t be sure). The living and family rooms include oversized fireplaces and high ceilings.

Naturally the kitchen is equipped with all the high-end stainless appliances money can buy, and there are not one but two islands — both of which are the size of a Toyota Yaris. There’s also a sunny breakfast nook area and a spacious formal dining room with seating for 10 and another fireplace.

There are a total of 6 beds and 7 baths in the home’s 10,000-square-feet of living space — the upstairs master features a bedroom with a sitting area and a private balcony, plus an oversized master bath with a glassy shower, built-in soaking tub, and heated floors. Elsewhere in the home is a soundproof movie theater.

The generous (for this neighborhood) .55-acre lot is fully landscaped. And in true Southern California fashion, there are numerous outdoor living spaces and recreational amenities out back — a lighted sports court, a large pool with inset spa, a covered dining area with an outdoor fireplace, and a second outdoor dining/lounge area next to a full outdoor kitchen complete with a BBQ and stainless appliances.

It appears that Ms. Fossum and Mr. Eriksen also have a backyard sculpture of a prancing, multi-colored horsey. Looks a bit odd to Yolanda, but then again we don’t know nearly enough about art, so you’ll have to forgive us.

We really don’t know for sure if Mr. Schwartz plans to live in this big Brentwood house or if it will be primarily occupied by a family member — we’ve heard it may actually be a gift for his daughter Tracy Schwartz-Ward — but we do know that this is not the only large mansion he owns in the LA area. He still owns his area “starter” house — if you can call the hulking pad below a starter house, of course.

Back in 2014, Mr. Schwartz paid $7,900,000 for a large Mediterranean-style mansion in the seaside city of Manhattan Beach. The property is located in the Hill Section of town, which means it is not oceanfront, though the property does feature ocean views and cool sea breezes.

According to records, the house was built in 2005 and features 7,261-square-feet of living space with 6 bedrooms and 7 bathrooms. The three-level estate includes a game room, a home theater, wine cellar, and seven fireplaces for those chilly beach nights. Also on the grounds are a pool/spa and an adjacent cabana.

Listing agents: Branden & Rayni Williams, Hilton & Hyland
Ted Schwartz’s agent: Santiago Arana, The Agency

Yolanda profusely apologizes for our sporadic postings as of late — summer blues and all that. More precisely, we are traveling out of the country for the next week or so, but we promise to return to our regularly scheduled programming after that. Don’t fret.

Anyway, we won’t bore you with further digressions; let’s get down to brass tacks. We recently discovered that famously brash powerhouse talent agent Ari Emanuel has — somewhat surprisingly — ponied up a very substantial $11,500,000 to acquire the home of his next door neighbor in Brentwood.

We say “somewhat surprisingly” because Mr. Emanuel’s own home — he bought it back in 2015 for $16,550,000 — sits on .75-acres of land and already has a large guesthouse on the premises, so we really can’t fathom why he needs further space. But then again, more is always better than less and Mr. Emanuel now has serious property bragging rights. His new 1.25-acre compound is on price par with the homes of Hollywood’s wealthiest. Los Angeles may be infamously expensive, but this total of $28 million is still a very substantial amount of money here.

For those who may not be aware, the hard-charging Mr. Emanuel is co-CEO of talent agency juggernaut William Morris Endeavor (WME), which represents individuals from across the entertainment spectrum (movies, TV, music, digital, and even sports). WME was formed in 2009 by the merger of two smaller firms: William Morris Agency and Endeavor Talent Agency. In the years following WME’s birth, the company has grown and in 2016 it acquired Zuffa LLC — parent of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) — for an eye-popping $4.2 billion (via private equity backers).

Our Mr. Emanuel has long been married to a lady named Sarah (nee Addington), and together they have three sons. And for the record — in case anyone was still wondering — yes, Mr. Emanuel was the inspiration for central character Ari Gold on the long-running HBO show Entourage.

Back to the house. Unfortunately, we have no photos to share of Mr. Emanuel’s $11.5 million acquisition, as the deal went down completely off-market. But we can tell y’all that the house has 4,330-square feet of living space and sits on a flat half-acre lot with a pool and large lawns. The property is very private and invisible from the street out front, thanks to tall hedges and gates. It appears the sellers — a non-celebrity couple — owned the house since 1994, when they coughed up a mere $1,475,000 for the property. Ka-ching!

Perhaps Mr. Emanuel will raze the existing structure, or maybe he is seeking additional at-home office/meeting space or something. Whatever the case, the new place is stylistically the polar opposite of his main residence — it’s a modest Traditional/ranch-type sort of thing, while Mr. Emanuel’s place is a large and flashy contemporary modeled after the modern homes of legendary Mexican architect Ricardo Legorreta.

If you’d like to read more about Mr. Emanuel’s current home, feel free to peruse our previous story, but for here suffice to say that it is actually one of our favorites in the Brentwood area and sits in the bucolic and equestrian-friendly lower Mandeville Canyon area.

Clearly Mr. Emanuel is a fan of this area of town — he has lived there since at least 2005, when he and his wife paid $9,850,000 for a 6,800-square-foot abode on a prestigious street in Brentwood Park only 5 minutes or so by motor vehicle from his new Mandeville Canyon spread. That house, incidentally, has not been sold but (since 2017) has been solely owned by Mrs. Emanuel. Her hubby appears to have relinquished his interest in the property.

Meanwhile, back in Mandeville Canyon, some of Mr. Emanuel’s nearest famous neighbors within sugar-borrowing distance include actress Gwyneth Paltrow, director Ryan Murphy, Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor, and Milwaukee Brewers owner Mark Attanasio.

If there’s one thing we’ve learned from our years of observing transactions in the high-end sector of the real estate market, it is that wealth – even great wealth – can be fleeting. There’s an ancient proverb about how it takes three generations to destroy an empire, but real talk — these days, that is a massive understatement. Sometimes it just takes a few years to destroy – or create, for that matter – great wealth. For example, take the story behind today’s house.

This 16,000-square-foot behemoth is one of the largest properties in The Estates at the Oaks, which has long been prized as the most exclusive and expensive gated community in Calabasas, which is itself a city made up of a myriad exclusive gated communities.

For those not familiar with the area, The Estates at the Oaks is a gated community within another guard-gated community – yes, visitors must pass through two gates to reach the homes there – and there are about 50 homes in the enclave, all of which are large custom-built mansions, many of them French or Tuscan-influenced piles.

Homeowners in this expensive neighborhood – prices begin around $7 million and can easily breeze into the eight figures – include Travis Barker, Michael Jackson’s mama Katherine, Dr. Phil’s son Jay McGraw, rap music super-producer Anthony “Top Dawg” Tiffith, and a couple of the Kardashian sisters.

Back in the day, music producer Vincent Herbert and his showbiz wife Tamar Braxton forked out an impressive $10,500,000 for a brand-new monster mansion in the Estates at the Oaks. At the time, that price was the most ever paid for a house in the city of Calabasas.

To be specific, this transaction went down in April 2013. Seems like just yesterday, right? Yet time mercilessly ticks on and already five long years have slipped by. My, how just a few years can drastically change circumstances. Oh dear.

Back in 2013, Mr. Herbert and Ms. Braxton were living high on the proverbial hog. He’s the guy often credited with discovering Lady GaGa, and he made untold millions in royalties from her early mega-hits. Ms. Braxton had a plum job as a TV host on The Real talk show, and the couple additionally had their own reality TV show. They also had a new baby, drove Rolls Royces, and bought their aforementioned $10.5 million Calabasas mansion. Life was good.

But very soon troubles began creeping up: Mr. Herbert was sued by Sony and ordered to pay $3.7 million over a business deal gone bad, Ms. Braxton was fired from her TV hosting job, their reality show folded, there were tales of repossessed automobiles and other assorted financial woes. Compounding their issues, the couple went through a very public and bitter divorce (though they are still legally married – for the time being).

By February 2014 – less than a year after they bought the house – public records reveal that the mansion was already facing foreclosure, and the Braxton-Herberts were already more than $250,000 behind on their mortgage payments. Yikes!

Yet somehow the couple were able to stave off foreclosure for more than four years, though multiple notices of default and liens were filed against the property.

In the midst of their split and the foreclosure mess, the estranged couple put their mansion up for sale with a $15 million ask, later reduced to $14 million. But properties in financial distress – such as this one – often have a litany of problems associated with them, and we are quite certain that the looming foreclosure turned off many potential buyers.

A few months ago, a public bank auction was officially scheduled for the property. But just when it appeared that Ms. Braxton and Mr. Herbert were about to lose the house, a big-bucks buyer appeared and paid them $9,250,000 in what appears to have been an all-cash deal. As such, the auction was cancelled and the creditors were paid (we hope).

Now kids, $9.25 million in cash is a ton of moolah – don’t get it twisted – but it is also $1.25 million less than the Braxton-Herberts paid five years ago and a mind-boggling nearly $5 million less than the $14 million they were asking. That’s a massive 34% discount, the likes of which Yolanda has not seen in many moons. So either the house was massively overpriced or the Braxton-Herberts were absolutely desperate to sell.

Or both, right?

So who snagged the property at a massive discount? The property was technically acquired by an LLC. And at first Yolanda heard it was Chris Tawil – a very wealthy Bugatti-driving fellow who made his fortune in cosmetics. But the winds have shifted and the moving finger now points not at him but rather at his younger sister (who is also his business partner), Linda Tawil.

Ms. Tawil is a single mom with a young daughter who is also (with her bro) the co-owner and co-CEO of Morphe, one of the beauty industry’s fastest-growing cosmetics brands. The Tawils came into a massive amount of money recently when they reportedly sold a big portion of their company to a private equity firm. Terms of the sale were not (publicly) disclosed, but there are numerous online rumors that the Tawils raked in at least $200 million – and possibly as much as $400 million, depending on where you look and who you believe.

What is perhaps most eye-popping about Ms. Tawil’s wealth is how fast she came up in the millionaire ranks. Back in 2013 — just five years ago — we doubt she could dream of affording a $9 million mansion, much less paying for it in cash. Back then, all she sold was makeup brushes from a tiny story in dowdy Burbank, CA. But in 2014, Ms. Tawil and her brother discovered the power of social media. They were one of the first to harness Instagram to sell their beauty products, and they forged relationships with some of the platform’s top “influencers” to morph Morphe from just another unknown player into a cosmetics juggernaut.

Perhaps Ms. Tawil’s best-known (and most successful) business collaboration is with her best friend — YouTube star Jaclyn Hill. In 2017, the Tawils and Ms. Hill collaborated to launch the Jaclyn Hill makeup palette, which proved stupendously successful. The $38 palette — promoted only through YouTube, Instagram, and Snapchat, mind you — sold more than a million units in less than a year. Ka-ching!

Morphe is now one of the fastest-growing beauty brands in the world and has physical stores across the United States. But we digress — simply rest assured that Ms. Tawil has more than enough cash to afford a $9.25 million house in Calabasas.

The Italianate-style manse was constructed in 2012 by a very wealthy local couple named John & Gloria Gebbia. The Gebbias built the property on a prime end-of-cul-de-sac lot with sweeping views and an imposing street presence. Formal lawns and carefully clipped hedges grace the front yard, and the side and rear outdoor areas alternatively sport a covered dining area that can easily seat two dozen guests and an elaborate children’s playset.

Additionally, the estate’s two acres of flat land endow the house with an enormous grassy backyard and a large pool + spa combo. Views from the hilltop property take in the surrounding Santa Monica Mountain ranges and stretch nearly to the shores of Malibu (on a clear day, of course).

Unfortunately for us, the most recent listing for the property does not include any photographs of the mansion’s interior, but the video tour (below) does provide a tantalizing (if brief) glimpse of the opulent living spaces within the Mediterranean-style architecture. Yolanda can tell y’all that the big-ass pad has a grand two-story entryway with a sweeping staircase, 7 bedrooms and 10 bathrooms, a 15-car underground garage, a gym, a wine cellar, a recording studio, and a in-house hairdressing salon.

Avid followers of this site may recall that this is not the first time we have discussed Ms. Tawil – only one year ago, Yolanda revealed she forked over a frightening $12,550,000 in cash for a monstrous mansion in Hidden Hills – right next door to Calabasas.

In a remarkable coincidence — or maybe it’s not — Ms. Tawil’s Hidden Hills house was built by John & Gloria Gebbia, the very same local couple who also built the Calabasas palace she just bought. So either she likes buying Gebbia houses or she simply appreciates their sense of style, we suppose.

Anyway, y’all might wonder why Ms. Tawil would want or need a $9 million house in Calabasas when she already has a $12 million house in Hidden Hills. Well, Yolanda will tell you. Our Ms. Tawil is orchestrating a massive, multi-million-dollar renovation of the Hidden Hills mansion that will take at least a couple years. Thus, the Calabasas house is merely a “crash pad” until her new dream manse over yonder is complete.

While Ms. Tawil is renovating her Hidden Hills estate — which happens to be right next door to Jessica Simpson, FYI — her brother Chris is plotting to build a mega-mega-mansion on the multi-acre adjacent vacant lot, which he bought from Dr. Dre in a $12.5 million all-cash deal last year. That property will reportedly contain a 20-car garage to house his extensive exotic car collection.

When complete, the Tawil family compound in Hidden Hills will likely have cost $35 million — and that’s being conservative — and will almost certainly rank as the most expensive and extravagant estate in all of the San Fernando Valley, not just Hidden Hills. Not bad for a brother-and-sister pair who started with a small Burbank store selling makeup brushes just five years ago.

Yes, kiddies, sell enough makeup and you can afford a $9.25 million temporary “crash pad” too. Plus a $25+ million palatial compound in Hidden Hills. If that’s really what you want, of course.

Just remember to stash some cash for a rainy day.

Listing agents: Dee Crawford, Keller Williams Beverly Hills; Marc & Rory Shevin, Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices
Linda Tawil’s agents: Marc & Rory Shevin, Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices

Yolanda was on a flight back home to LA earlier this week. And recently our pocketbook has become a bit pinched, so unfortunately we were herded like cattle on a hideous commercial flight, and not our preferred private method of travel. Anyway, we tuned out the ugly screaming babies and the grouchy plebes around us by watching the Avicii: True Stories documentary, which we highly recommend.

For those of y’all non-hip folks, Avicii — real name Tim Bergling — was a Swedish fellow who was one of the world’s highest-earning DJs during the late 2010s. DJs are the new rockstars, kids, and Mr. Bergling made untold tens of millions during his short career. Sadly, Mr. Bergling also suffered from acute depression, stress, and serious substance abuse. There was also the issue of his too-aggressive management team — allegedly — but that’s a story for another day. Just watch the documentary if y’all want to learn more.

This April (2018), Mr. Bergling committed suicide in a particularly grisly manner. He was just 28 years old.

Coincidentally, just as we were arriving home it was revealed that Mr. Bergling’s estate sold his Hollywood Hills mansion in a secret off-market deal for a huge sum of money: $17,500,000, to be exact. And Yolanda finds no evidence of a mortgage in public records, so all signs point to the buyer having paid ca$h.

Speaking of the buyer, that person’s name was not (publicly) revealed, but naturally we were curious about his/her identity, particularly since $17.5 million cash is several truckloads of dough. And this is also 2018’s biggest sale so far in the trendy Bird Streets area. Unfortunately, the buyer’s identity is shielded behind an LLC, but Yolanda did some askin’ and sniffin’ around and we can tell y’all who now has the keys to the Avicii palace. He is a man, and his name is Richard Saghian.

Most of our readers have likely never heard of Mr. Saghian, but rest assured that he is a very, very, very rich fellow. And if you use the Instagram contraption with any frequency, you have probably seen Mr. Saghian’s products being hawked on the platform. Particularly if you follow trendsetting female celebrities.

Our Mr. Saghian, you see, is the owner, founder, and CEO of Fashion Nova, which is arguably the most famous and successful Instagram brand — “Instabrand”, for short — of them all. Fashion Nova has more than 13 million followers on the ‘gram, and last year it was the fourth-most-Googled fashion brand in all the world: ahead of Chanel and behind only Gucci, Louis Vuitton, and Supreme. That’s all the more shocking and impressive because the discount clothing retailer was virtually nonexistent five years ago, save for a handful of small stores here in LA.

In 2013, however, Mr. Saghian discovered the power of e-commerce and social media. He began forging relationships with many of Instagram’s top female “influencers” — particularly ladies with curvy, plus-size bodies — to promote his clothing. And though he still has a small handful of physical stores here in LA, the vast majority of his company’s sales now come from the online realm.

Hot celebrities of the moment such as Cardi B, Nicki Minaj, and the Kardashians promote Fashion Nova on their accounts. And they promote it so often and routinely that we have to wonder how much Mr. Saghian is paying these ladies on a monthly basis. Hundreds of thousands? Millions? After all, these gals are some of Instagram’s top “influencers” and we doubt they peddle Mr. Saghian’s products out of the kindness of their hearts.

But whatever the cost, it is clearly worth it to Mr. Saghian. His new $17.5 million house is proof of that. And though he declines to state Fashion Nova’s annual revenue, he admitted that sales grew a jaw-dropping 600% in 2017. Safe to say that Fashion Nova is probably close to becoming a billion-dollar (revenue) brand, if it ain’t there already.

Despite the fact that Fashion Nova is now very famous, Mr. Saghian himself eschews publicity, remaining almost reclusive. He rarely gives interviews — he has said they make him uncomfortable — and he does not seem to frequent the LA social scene. We do know that he is in his late 30s, appears to be unmarried, and was born and raised in Beverly Hills — his parents are wealthy Iranian-American immigrants.

But we digress. Let’s discuss the house, which sits on the most famous Bird Streets street: Blue Jay Way, immortalized in psychedelic-influenced song by the Beatles. And for those who may not be aware, the Bird Streets have long been the most desirable (and likewise most expensive) area of the Hollywood Hills. They sit just east of Beverly Hills and directly overlook the Sunset Strip and the bustling city of West Hollywood.

Because this most recent transaction took place completely off-market, we do not have recent photos to share with y’all. Apologies. The pictures below are from 2013, when Mr. Bergling originally purchased the property. During his 4+ years of ownership, Mr. Bergling made substantial alterations to the house, though the basic structure and look remains intact. Keep that in mind and more details on those alterations in a moment.

The striking 7,007-square-foot mansion was drawn up by highly acclaimed architect Paul McClean — it was one of his first LA house designs — and built in 2008 on speculation by a real estate developer named Brad Kuish and interior designer Ryan Brown. The following year, the ultra-contemporary pad was sold for exactly $10 million to haircare entrepreneur Bruno Mascolo and his wife Kyara.

Eventually, along came Mr. Avicii. He scooped the property up in late 2013, when he was just a wee 24-year-old lad.

There are 6 bedrooms and 7 bathrooms in the sleekly bi-winged residence, which is mostly hidden from the street out front by thick hedges and such. A four-car garage faces the street and most of the walls are of the glassy disappearing variety. Sure to impress guests is the dramatic entryway: a gated courtyard with fountains and fire features leads to a concrete walkway over the pool, which in turn leads to the front door of the manse.

Soaring, unobstructed views take in a huge swathe of Los Angeles: everything from the San Gabriel Mountains to the skyscrapers of Downtown LA and Century City, to (on a clear day) the Pacific Ocean and Catalina Island. The 75-foot pool has a sunbathing shelf and the surrounding terraces have various outdoor dining and lounging options in a quintessentially Southern California style.

Indoors, the living room sports a fireplace and floor-to-ceiling walls of glass with more of those mesmerizing views. The kitchen is done up in a rather austere (yet chic) manner with stainless steel, metal accents, and top-of-the-line appliances. Chocolate brown hardwood floors grace most of the main rooms, and there is also a home theater with tiered seating, a game room, and a large wine cellar.

Upstairs is the master suite, which sports a sitting area, a walk-in dressing room with a lurid hot pink (or is it red?) chandelier, and an expansive all-marble bathroom with dual vanities, striking westward views, a built-in soaking tub, and a glassy shower. As for the house itself, it is cramped on a sloped .31-acre lot, so there really is no yard to speak of. But who needs a yard with that view, right?

Records reveal that this is not the first Hollywood Hills house purchased by Mr. Saghian. Back in 2016, he paid $4,105,000 for a 1960-built structure space less than 10 minutes by car from his new house. Though that place is not currently on the market, Yolanda fully expects him to sell it very soon.

Speaking of his new house, some of Mr. Saghian’s nearest new neighbors include Keanu Reeves, Leonardo DiCaprio, Westfield heir Peter Lowy, Walmart heiress Whitney Kroenke, Walmart heiress Paige Laurie, and Walmart heiress Sybil Robson Orr.

Anywho. We know that some of you are probably thinking that $17.5 million is a ton of money for the Bird Streets place and that Mr. Bergling’s estate probably raked in millions in profit. But the truth is that Mr. Bergling actually spent close to that during his short ownership of this house, kiddies. You see, he paid $15,550,000 for the structure in late 2013. But very soon after he reportedly discovered a termite infestation — and ended up remodeling the entire house in a two-year-long process. And that kind of remodeling takes cash. Lots of it.

So you see, this house was Mr. Bergling’s biggest life splurge — easily — and yet he only got to live in it for a year or two, at most. A bit sad, that.

Mr. Bergling’s final post on Instagram — just days before his untimely death — was a haunting, poignant image of him crossing the concrete bridge at his LA home. Beyond him and the glass walls lay all of Los Angeles, the skyline stretching for miles to a horizon so distant it is almost nonexistent. Young Mr. Bergling had it all: success, fame, fortune. Yet everyone — rich or poor — has their own struggles. For some of us it’s sitting with the peasants on a commercial airline, but for many it is much more serious.

Yolanda isn’t quite sure how to wrap this story up. We don’t normally preach or give advice, but we’ll just say be kind — y’all never know what someone else is going through.

One of our all-time favorite films is the 1975 flick Return of The Pink Panther, particularly the scenes in which Inspector Clouseau (in disguise) attempts to impress Lady Litton with his smooth talk and suave demeanor. “A man sees a beautiful chicken, he can’t help but be inquisitive, you know?” says he.

That Pink Panther film is really apropos of nothing — we only bring it up because Yolanda has always wanted an excuse to mention it in one of our stories. But we could never think of a reason to weave it in, so here we are today. No relevance at all. But we will say that if Clouseau had the keys to today’s house, we think her Ladyship would have been suitably impressed.

This house, you see, was just sold for nearly $22 million — $21,800,000, to be exact. That’s a great deal of money. In fact, Yolanda believes it is the most ever paid for a house in Brentwood Park, which is one of the most expensive neighborhoods in all of Los Angeles.

For those new to LA or simply slow on the uptake, Brentwood Park is the most exclusive neighborhood in Brentwood, which is itself one of the most exclusive (and priciest) neighborhoods within the city of Los Angeles. Brentwood Park consists of just a handful of streets centered around Sunset Boulevard. Notably, properties here do not have views, but they mostly feature spacious lots and large mansions. Current Brentwood Park homeowners include South Park’s Trey Parker, billionaire Rick Caruso, talk show host James Corden, actor Tobey Maguire, WME CEO Ari Emanuel, and Zillow CEO Spencer Rascoff, just to name a few. All of them have paid eight-figure pricetags for a chance to live in this area.

Today’s property was built by a low-profile local developer who acquired the land in early 2015 for $7,610,000. He spent three years and millions of bucks constructing the spec-mansion, which was completed in early 2018 and quickly put up for sale with a fat $23 million asking price. Within 2-3 months, the house had found a buyer and sold for the aforementioned $21.8 million.

Unfortunately, the buyers’ names do not appear on the deed — their identities are shielded behind an all-too-common blind trust — but Yolanda did a great deal of digging on this one. After a long spat of fruitless research, we finally found out who the new owners are: a guy named Michael Mahan and his wife, the former Brooke Horrell. The couple have two young sons.

Mike Mahan, in his early 40s, is a former financier and currently toils as the CEO of Dick Clark Productions, the Santa Monica-based studio that bills itself as the “world’s largest producer and proprietor of televised live event entertainment programming.” Yes, that’s a mouthful — in simpler terms, the company produces major award shows. The Golden Globe awards and the Country Music Awards, for example. Yolanda confesses we do not know anything about Mr. Mahan’s salary or net worth, but we can only assume that he is extraordinarily well-compensated in his leadership position.

Brooke Mahan, also in her early 40s, is a popular YouTube personality. With her friends Elle Walker and Meg Resnikoff, she founded the channel What’s Up Moms. According to Forbes, that channel is now the #1 “parenting” destination on YouTube and sports a whopping 2.2 million+ followers. The three mom founders are now regarded as top social media “influencers”, run a team of 12 employees, and can command seven figures for a partnership. Ka-ching!

While involved in What’s Up Moms, Mrs. Mahan became famous for her DIY crafts and fascinating artsy creations. Yolanda wishes we had one ounce of Mrs. Mahan’s creativity, but we don’t. Such is life.

For reasons unknown to Yolanda, Mrs. Mahan — who has more than 60,000 followers on the Instagram contraption, incidentally — departed What’s Up Moms a few months ago in a finale video that boasts over 1 million views. It is unclear whether she still holds an ownership stake in the business, but it is very clear that she and her hubby are not hurting for cash. Their new $21.8 million house is proof of that.

Though it contains a hefty 13,558-square-feet of living space, the Traditional-style structure appears deceptively modest to incoming visitors. A gated driveway on the half-acre lot leads to a small motorcourt and a three-car garage. The front door opens to a double-height foyer with an eye-catching chandelier and unvarnished (oak?) floors. To the left of the entryway is a formal dining room that can easily seat 8, to the right is a living room with a vaulted ceiling and fireplace.

Just beyond the staircase are the main living quarters, which include an open kitchen (complete with an enormous center island and every high-end appliance known to mankind) and a spacious family room. Also downstairs are a swanky wet bar and a wood-paneled office.

The backyard isn’t quite as big as y’all might expect for a $22 million estate, but it does have ample lawn space and a classy rectangular pool with an inset spa. A flagstone surround terrace has a fancy heated loggia and plenty of space for lounging, sunbathing, and outdoor siestas.

There are five bedrooms upstairs, all of which sport en-suite bathrooms. The master sports a vaulted ceiling with a fireplace and a large balcony overlooking the backyard. In addition, there are his-and-hers master baths — each with built-in soaking tubs and glassy showers — and his-and-hers “showroom” closets.

Besides the main level and the upstairs, there is a full third level in the massive basement, which features a playroom, a home theater, a gym, a gargantuan lounge, two additional bedrooms, a wine cellar, and an impressive wine bar with bar seating space for 10 individuals. The tricked-out house also features an elevator servicing all three floors and a mudroom plus a laundry room. There are a total of 8 bedrooms and 10 bathrooms in all — more than enough space for a young family of four, we imagine.

Yolanda suspects that Mr. and Mrs. Mahan have already moved into their big new house, as their former digs in nearby Pacific Palisades are already for sale. And the interiors look staged to the max, y’all. Records show that the couple acquired the below house in 2014 for $4,420,000.

The Mahans would very much like someone to pay them $5,995,000 for the house you see above, which is located near the downtown Palisades area and features 5 beds and 6.5 baths in 6,414-square-feet of living space. Unfortunately, the property does not include a pool. Would Yolanda pay almost $6 million for an LA house with no pool? No, kiddies — we definitely would not.

But if the lack of a cement pond doesn’t bother y’all and you have the money, please do give the Mahans (or their realtor) a call. We are sure he/they would be glad to personally tour you through the premises.

Yolanda sends our congratulations to Mr. and Mrs. Mahan on their huge new mansion purchase — owning the most expensive property in one of LA’s priciest neighborhoods is no small accomplishment. See, Clouseau, if only you had saved your pennies, you could have a swank place like this. There wouldn’t be any need to woo Mrs. Litton with alcoholic beverages and your tales of proficient skiing!

Listing & selling agent: Santiago Arana, The Agency

Some time ago, we received an email from a reader. Let’s call this reader Amy because, well, that’s her name. Anyway, Amy wanted to know more information about a rather fetching house set in the Hollywood foothills, conveniently just above the ever-trendy Sunset Strip. This house was celebrity-owned and recently sold for nearly $8 million — $7,870,000, to be precise.

Yolanda is always eager to please, and plus we actually quite like this place — we could imagine ourselves living up in this ol’ gurl. She’s sleek and contemporary, yet still comfy and inviting. The garages, so often a blight with modern homes, are discreetly tucked away out back. And the house and grounds are not too big, yet not too small. It’s just right! So naturally we dove into a sea of property records to see who the lucky new owner was.

Unfortunately, the buyer’s identity is locked away behind a blind trust, but after some extensive and researchin’ and askin’ around, Yolanda can tell y’all who it is. He is a Aussie guy named Sam Worthington, and he is married to an Aussie lady named Lara Bingle.

Ignoramus that we are, Yolanda confesses we had never heard of either Mr. Worthington or Ms. Bingle. But approximately 8.5 seconds of Googling reveals they are both quite famous. Our Mr. Worthington is a very noted Hollywood actor perhaps best-known for his role as Jake Sully in the Avatar (2009), the highest grossing film of all-time. That movie was arguably his Hollywood breakout role — what a way to get your name out, right? — and led to many other successful action and drama film castings:  Clash of the Titans as well as its sequel Wrath of the Titans, Everest (2015), Hacksaw Ridge (2016), The Shack, and Manhunt: Unabomber (both in 2017).

Nowadays Mr. Worthington is an A-lister, so it might surprise y’all that he came from very modest beginnings in humble ol’ Australia, and success did not come easily or quickly. In his late teens and early 20s, Mr. Worthington worked a variety of odd jobs — including as a bricklayer — to make ends meet. By 30, according to him, he was homeless and living in his car while spending his days auditioning for roles. It wasn’t until age 33 that Avatar’s massive success provided him the means to find a proper place to live.

Now in his early 40s and a multi-millionaire, Mr. Worthington has been married to successful model and makeup entrepreneur Ms. Bingle — a millionaire in her own right — since 2014. The couple now have two young zoomily-named sons: Rocket and Racer.

Last year, Ms. Bingle made headlines when she claimed (during a radio interview) that she and her hubby “aren’t rich“. Yolanda suspects (and hopes) she was being sarcastic, as only a few months later Mr. Worthington gifted her a Christmas present that she showed off on social media: a brand-new Porsche 911 Turbo, a car that can retail for well over $200,000 when loaded up with options. And then there’s the $8 million Hollywood Hills manse, of course.

Speaking of the house, the listing for the property says it is part of the desirable Bird Streets neighborhood, but the property does not actually have a Bird Street address. But it is so close to the Birds that we suppose our quibble is basically splitting hairs.

By the way, this pad was sold by British-born screenwriter Simon Kinberg. If you’ll recall, Mr. Kinberg recently made headlines when he paid a shocking $31,500,000 for a spectacular Hollywood Hills mega-mansion nearby. Thus he had no need for this place — his “starter” Hollywood Hills house, for which he paid $8.4 million in late 2015.

And yes, kiddies, Mr. Kinberg lost big on the sale of his house to Mr. Worthington — to the tune of $530,000. But we think that loss reflects not on any supposed failings of the house; rather, we suspect that Mr. Kinberg significantly overpaid for the property back in 2015. But who knows for sure, right?

Built in 2015 on speculation, the mini-compound includes a main house and a guest house centered around a pool and lawn area. There are a total of 6,300-square-feet of living space on the premises, with 4 bedrooms and 7.5 bathrooms. Although the .3-acre lot is not particularly large, it is completely flat and the house is quite private. The front facade is all but obscured behind tall, sculpted hedges and a security gate. As previously mentioned, the three-car garage and driveway are located around back, on a hidden cul-de-sac and away from prying eyes. Perfect for a celebrity couple.

The front yard features a stone terrace and a lush lawn that continues around the side of the house to the pool/spa combo and the courtyard lawn. Off the guest house is a wooden terrace with firepit, and the main house additionally features a covered loggia with comfy-lookin’ settee benches. Just imagine kicking your feet up on that table while reading a good book, kids. That’s the life!

Inside the main house, the front door opens to an airy, double-height foyer facing the staircase. Immediately to the right is a formal dining room, with its trendy grey paint and sculptural chandelier. To the left is an open living/family room combo equipped with a marble fireplace and a disappearing glass wall that leads to the courtyard. Just around the corner is the very chic European-style kitchen, with its marble island, huge flatscreen TV, and top-of-the-line appliances.

Also downstairs are a screening room and a wine “gallery”.

Upstairs is the master suite, which includes his-and-hers closets, a bedroom with a sitting area and marble fireplace and a bathroom with a party-sized marble-and-glass shower. Both the bedroom and bathroom have access (via French doors) to a private outdoor balcony, as does the large office in the guest house out back.

Perhaps the only demerit to give this property is that it does not have a city lights view. Houses in the Bird Streets are famous for their jetliner vistas, but this house sits a bit too far down in the hills to take advantage of those sightlines. But you can’t have it all, kids. Not even for almost $8 million. That’s just life.

Although we could easily be mistaken, Yolanda believes this may be Mr. Worthington’s first-ever home purchase in Los Angeles. (Mazel tov!) At one point he owned a sprawling property in Hawaii, but that was divested back in 2015.

So there you have it, Amy. And for the rest of y’all, if you’re 30 and still living in your 1992 Camry — there’s still hope for you. Just look at Mr. Worthington now! But if you’re already 35, well, just forget it.

Simon Kinberg’s agent: Jory Burton, Sotheby’s International Realty
Sam Worthington’s agent: Jonathan Ruiz, The Agency

As summer 2018 slips away like so much sand through the proverbial hourglass, we wanted to catch the last wisps of freedom before they fleet off into the night, stolen by autumn — with winter close behind. But really, who are we kidding? This is LA. It’s summer 365 days a year here, for better or worse.

Yolanda has noticed that the ultra-high-end market — we’re talking homes sold for $15 million and up — has been unusually dead this summer, especially in comparison to recent years. Perhaps we’ve finally crested the peak in these parts? We shall see. Still, there have been a small handful of big sales here and there. Let’s head to the beach to take a peek at an upcoming one. Come on, it’ll be fun.

Last year, entertainment veteran Ed Fishman — he founded Access Records with his business partner Dick Clark — heaved his huge oceanfront spread onto the open market. The two-parcel compound, which is located on a private road and sports a hefty 130 feet of ocean frontage, is sidled with a $23,900,000 pricetag and is currently in escrow, according to the MLS.

And although the sale has not yet closed, whispers through the Pacific Coast Highway grapevine say that the buyers will be Malibu local Richard Weintraub and his longtime wife Liane.

The Weintraubs, both of whom are about 50ish, have been married for upwards of 25 years and have two young children. Our Mr. Weintraub is one of LA’s most successful real estate developers — he’s the guy behind the sublime Malibu Lumber Yard outdoor mall and the Californian condo tower in the Wilshire Corridor, just to name a couple of his developments.

Liane Weintraub is herself an entrepreneur — she co-founded Tasty Brand, a nutritious and organic snack-producing company that has received much media recognition. She is also one of Malibu’s most social and philanthropic residents — she and her hubby have hosted numerous galas and charity events at their home over the past couple decades. Thus she is friends with all her celebrity neighbors — and pretty much everyone in Malibu, to be honest.

Mr. and Mrs. Weintraub aren’t really celebrities — more like ordinary well-connected (very) wealthy folks. But if their names sound vaguely familiar, it’s probably because they were splattered all over every real estate news site last month. It was then, y’all, when the Weintraubs sold their massive La Villa Contenta estate for nearly $50 million — $48,750,000, to be exact.

The hedonistic 8+ acre Malibu property was custom-built by Mr. and Mrs. Weintraub in the early 2000s and features a luridly opulent main house, a guest house, and several ancillary structures. It has been featured in numerous films and TV shows — including True Blood — and was famously rented to Beyonce and Jay-Z last summer (2017). The property had been on and off the market for eight years — beginning in 2010 with an optimistic $75 million asking price.

Although the buyer’s identity is concealed behind an LLC, numerous reports have already identified him as Behdad Eghbali. Our Mr. Eghbali is not a big-time celebrity but rather a low-profile private equity guy, the co-founder of Santa Monica-based hedge fund Clearlake Capital, a multi-billion-dollar investment firm.

But we digress. Point is, the Weintraubs just sold their longtime estate, so it isn’t particularly surprising that they would be in the mood to drop millions on a new Malibu house. Let’s check out their (alleged) new digs, shall we?

The .59-acre oceanfront spread features a 6,100-square-foot mansion that was custom-built by Mr. and Mrs. Fishman in 1991. Though the contemporary property is blessed with stellar views and a superb location, Yolanda thinks the interiors are in need of a thorough renovation. Many of the rooms in this pad scream “early 90s”, often for worse. Still, the property features a double-height great room with a fireplace, a media room, and a formal entryway.

Walls of glass enhance the magnificent vistas from this place and make up for the kitchen, which is woefully dated and should be gutted entirely. Those tiles make Yolanda want to gouge her eyes out!

There are a total of 5 beds and 4.25 baths in the mini-estate. The upstairs master suite has a fireplace, a private balcony, walls of glasss, and a bathroom decked out with hideous green-and-pink tiles. Argh! Make it stop, kids. We pray Mr. and Mrs. Weintraub have the good sense to redo the whole shebang. And maybe they’ll even invite Yolanda over to see it once the renovation is complete? Pretty please!

The private Escondido Beach road where the Weintraubs’ new house is situated is home to multiple noteworthy individuals: retired TV show creator extraordinaire Marcy Carsey, entrepreneur Jeff Stibel, and the estate of the late Tom Petty, just to name a few.

Listing agents: Eytan Levin, 4 Malibu Real Estate; Ellen Francisco, Coldwell Banker

Sometimes you never know what’s lurking behind a gate. A boon of being well-to-do is that one can afford to indulge one’s passions in ways mere financial mortals cannot. That’s part of why we enjoy writing about high-end real estate — every custom-built property tells a unique, occasionally offbeat story about the personalities and quirks of its owners. Cruise around Point Dume — perhaps Malibu’s most star-studded neighborhood — and you’re greeted by the outer defenses of large estates, extravagant properties shielded from the public behind towering walls and hedges. Behind some of these fortifications are lovely architectural compounds. Gerard Butler’s Point Dume estate, for example. Behind others are grand mansions, some contemporary and others traditional in style. And then there are the more — ahem — unique creations.

Just 400 feet from the Point Dume beach is a 1.06-acre property, the entire lot secured and invisible behind a large security gate. If y’all were just passing by, you might glance at the gate and imagine it is protecting just another celebrity mansion like all of the neighboring properties. But lurking behind all that steel and wood is a strangely squat 7,000-square-foot structure with an industrial-looking edifice. Peep a bit closer, and you’ll realize this structure is not a house at all — it’s actually a garage, albeit a very fancy, unique, mansion-sized one.

Although records are somewhat incomplete here, we do know that the property was sold in 2001 for $990,000 to a Steve Goldman and his wife Azita. Our Mr. Goldman is a low-profile engineer (by trade) who made his fortune in the electronics industry and was able to retire while still in his 40s.

Now in his early 60s, Mr. Goldman’s name probably does not ring a bell with most of y’all, but in the exotic car collecting community he has long been well-known — some might even say famous. And pictures of his cars and garage (“auto museum”, as he calls it) have been posted and revered on online car lover forums for upwards of a decade now.

In 2002, Mr. and Mrs. Goldman spent untold millions to custom-build the high-tech facility, which was constructed entirely from steel, aluminum, and glass. Indoors, the structure sports epoxy flooring, temperature control, humidity control, dust control, and anti-bacterial control. All of this was incorporated to keep his cars in pristine condition. According to Mr. Goldman himself, “[the facility is] essentially on par with a hospital operating room.”

Those are some pampered rides!

As was shown on a video feature for Robb Report, Mr. Goldman’s eye-popping 14-car collection includes six Ferraris, five Porsches, two McLarens, and one ultra-rare Pagani Zonda, of which there are believed to be only ten units — at most — in the entire United States. And none of these vehicles are the kind that y’all could just walk in and buy off the dealership showroom floors, kids. All of Mr. Goldman’s cars appear to be special edition or limited-production models, the type that you must pre-order well in advance or actually apply to purchase. Several of the vehicles are worth seven figures — easily — and the total value of the collection is probably $15 million. Or $20 million? Possibly even more? We wouldn’t doubt it.

Just as an FYI, we appreciate that Mr. Goldman does not discriminate based on color. In his collection we see white, we see black, we see silver. There are reds, blues, yellows, and even a daring shade of burgundy on that McLaren P1. Good heavens!

For many years, the Goldmans resided on Point Dume, though their main residence was actually not adjacent to their garage. Rather, it was down the hill and around the corner. Imagine that, kids. Our Mr. Goldman had to construct two separate multi-million-dollar mansions — one as a home for himself and his wife, the other as a harem (if you will) to house his 14 automotive lovelies.

Stop for a moment and imagine Mr. Goldman waking up in the wee hours of the morning. He stealthily creeps out of bed, exits his house via a discreet side door, hops the front gate. In the darkness, he silently he jogs around the corner and up the short hill, his sock-covered feet barely kissing the ground in his haste. Upon reaching the garage, he slips through the glass doors. Lying there in the darkness are his 14 sleeping beastly beauties, each one so cold and immobile yet possessed of so much awesome firepower. Just one push of a button, one turn of a key, and all of these ladies — so elegant and refined at home — could soon be screaming down PCH. Engines wailing, tires smoking, exploring every primal urge, devouring every innocent Honda and Suzuki in their path. Our Mr. Goldman caresses every rakish fender, gently fingers every crevice on their bodies until dawn begins to illuminate their sinewy sheetmetal.

Ecstasy!

Just kidding. We’re sure Mr. Goldman wouldn’t dream of doing such a silly thing. But he could, right? And that’s what makes this setup fabulous. A dream garage in every sense, if you will.

Anyway, the Goldmans relocated to a different house in Malibu a few years back and sold off their Point Dume residence. And for whatever reason, after more than 15 years of ownership, Mr. Goldman also grew tired of his harem. Or something. In March 2018, he put the property up for sale with an even-steven $10 million asking price. And while you might think that the amount of folks looking for a $10 million auto museum way out in desolate Malibu would be small indeed, think again. The property was in escrow within four months and sold, albeit for $7,325,000 — a significant 27% discount. Looks like the buyer and/or his agents were good negotiators.

Naturally Yolanda was curious as to the identity of the new owner(s), and what his/her/their intentions were for the property. Particularly since the listing mentioned that the “acoustically engineered” structure could be converted into a recording studio. Could the new owner be a famous musician?

Nope. Turns out the buyers are Todd & Karen Blue, a married couple from the U.S. state of Kentucky.

The Blues — who have four children — hail from Louisville, though for the last few years they have primarily resided in Houston, Texas. It is there, in Houston, where Mr. Blue’s business interests are headquartered. Our boy is an auto dealership magnate who owns at least ten facilities across the country, all of them selling luxury nameplates — Porsche, Bentley, Lamborghini, BMW, McLaren, Aston Martin and the like. In fact, Mr. Blue’s Lamborghini Houston dealership is the top-selling Lambo location in the entire country. Bravo!

Mr. Blue comes from a wealthy Louisville family who made their fortune in scrap metal, although the clan’s steel mill business was sold off some years ago. As a young man, Mr. Blue had lots of money but no gainful employment, and so he began indulging one of his passions: collecting exotic cars, some of which he was able to flip for lucrative amounts. His interest in cars led him to purchase his first dealership — Porsche of North Houston — in 2010. Fast forward eight years, and his IndiGO group is now comprised of a dozen luxury auto dealerships. All of them are located either in Louisville, Houston, or Rancho Mirage.

Though they don’t appear to have any business interests in the area — at least not yet — it seems as though Mr. and Mrs. Blue have decided to make Malibu their primary home base. Earlier this year, as y’all may recall, Yolanda discussed their recent purchase of an epic $16 million Malibu estate named La Vie En Rose. The ocean-view property is located only a few minutes’ drive away from their new Point Dume auto museum.

The couple also maintain multi-million-dollar residences in Houston and in Palm Desert, California, though neither are nearly as extravagant as the Malibu pad.

Although we have no inside intel on the matter, Yolanda rather suspects that the car-collecting Blues do not find the four-car garage on their estate commodious enough for their automotive needs. Thus the fancy, separate $7.3 million garage they have purchased will likely remain just that — a garage.

As mentioned, the property spans more than an acre and is mostly landscape-free in favor of an expansive paved driveway that wraps all around the structure and allows large semi-trucks and car carriers to directly access the facility. The glassy car entrance — garage door, if you will — is discreetly located at the rear of the facility. Tall hedges keep the place hidden from neighborly prying eyes and over-the-treetops views take in the Santa Monica mountain range.

In addition to the garage itself, which can hold 25+ exotic vehicles. there is also a small, loft-like living space above the garage. Though spartan, the quarters are livable enough and are comprised of a small kitchen with stainless steel appliances, one bedroom, and 2.5 bathrooms. These quarters are best suited to a live-in security guard or one lucky professional caretaker, Yolanda thinks. Not a bad job if you can get it, right?

As we’ve said, our educated guess is that Mr. and Mrs. Blue will keep the facility as-is. Soon, we imagine, the place will be home to an entirely different — but probably no less impressive — fleet of luxury rides. And maybe, just maybe, Mr. Blue will invite Yolanda over for a quick private tour. Wishful thinking? Come on, Mr. Blue, it wouldn’t hurt.

As for Mr. and Mrs. Goldman, they have now divested themselves entirely of their Point Dume real estate holdings. Their new contemporary Malibu residence is located not far from Point Dume — less than 10 minutes by car, it is — but it is much further away from the ocean, up above PCH in the foothills. It does, however, sport a magnificent ocean view.

Bizarrely, the Goldmans’ new estate happens to be located on the very same dead-end road where the Blues’ $16 million mansion is also located. But on second thought, that could be be coincidental. After all, Malibu is a fairly small city. And the wealthiest residents there tend to congregate together.

But here’s the $15 million (or $20 million or whatever) question: to where will Mr. Goldman’s exotic rides zoom off? The $7.325 million purchase price here did not include any of the fancy autos. And Mr. Goldman’s new house — at least in the aerial view — does not appear to have a garage capable of containing these gems. But then again, there’s always the possibility that the new place has a hidden underground lair.

Sometimes you never know what’s lurking behind a gate, right?

Listing agent: Chris Cortazzo, Coldwell Banker
Todd Blue’s agents: The Altman Brothers, Douglas Elliman

Thanks to a reader tip, we have learned that a very expensive real estate transaction went down last month (August 2018) in the city of Beverly Hills. Quietly, of course. The buyer is Australian billionaire James Packer and the compound was long owned by Hollywood actors Danny DeVito and Rhea Perlman, though they sold off the property in 2015 and it has since undergone a substantial renovation.

You’ll have to forgive an old bat like Yolanda but we’re having a real devil of a time pinning down the exact sale price here. We’ve looked everywhere but still cannot find the amount. But based on the transfer taxes Mr. Packer paid, we are estimating that the deal was done for around $60-65 million. But please don’t quote that like it’s gospel. If anyone cares to share the precise figure, please do let us know. We’d be ever so grateful.

(We also found evidence that the sale price might be just $42,250,000, but that seems entirely too low.)

Anyway, if the $60-65 million price point is true, Mr. Packer got a nice little discount. Though the house was never publicly listed for sale, it was shopped around off-market at $85 million. But don’t fret, this is still one of the three biggest sales ever recorded in Beverly Hills. For reference, the current record-holder is that $70 million Minecraft house.

The 51-year-old Mr. Packer is an Australia-based hotel and casino tycoon with a net worth of $3.9 billion (per Forbes) though most of us ignorant Americans only know him as the ex-fiancee of crooner Mariah Carey.

We Yanks love drama – hey, who doesn’t – and Mr. Packer and Ms. Carey certainly kept the tabloids and their readers happy throughout the course of their doomed relationship. At one point, Mr. Packer reportedly instructed staff at the Crown Perth — his posh seaside hotel — to play nothing but Mariah songs on a loop. Understandably, guests and employees alike were driven all batty, the poor dears. Some still have nightmares about those high notes to this day. Just kidding (we hope). And no offense to Ms. Carey, of course.

Upon their breakup, Ms. Carey kept the $10 million engagement ring and then proceeded to demand $50 million from Mr. Packer. She also recently released a breakup anthem called “GTFO” – gee, wonder what that stands for — about him. Classy!

Although his relationship with Ms. Carey has flown away like a bird, it’s not particularly surprising that Mr. Packer would still be in the market for a large Beverly Hills estate. His ex-wife Erica Packer and their three children have primarily resided in LA for the last few years.

The ex-Mrs. Packer has a $13 million mansion in Bel Air and just a couple months ago, she quietly spent another $10 million to acquire the Rothschild family’s lovely Malibu estate.

But we digress.

Originally built in a French Country architectural style by celebrated architect Wallace Neff, the DeVito/Perlman couple owned the place for decades before unloading it in 2015 for somewhere around $28 million. The buyers of the four-parcel property were a married couple named Stuart Liner and Stephanie Hershey Liner. Our Mr. Liner is an attorney by day — and his wife an interior designer — but they moonlight as high-end property developers/flippers. Together they have bought, rehabbed, and sold dozens of LA homes over the past years.

Upon acquiring the estate in 2015, the Liners proceeded to divide the property into two sections. On the larger 1.29 acre portion (the one Mr. Packer just bought) they completely overhauled every inch of the lot, transforming the main house into a contemporary Georgian-style behemoth that is unrecognizable from the former Neff creation. On the smaller .48-acre section, they are building a spec-mansion to sell off at a later date.

Since this house was never officially on the market, details are slim. But we do know that the new compound has multiple structures that total a beastly 29,000-square-feet of living space. There is an 8-car garage, a massive motorcourt, and an all-marble kitchen that can easily accommodate the largest events. Check out those two elephantine islands and that La Cornue range — it’s one of the biggest Yolanda has ever laid eyes upon and probably costs more than a new E-Class Mercedes.

Elsewhere there are hardwood and marble floors, an enormous great room, and a mirror-walled dining room. Disappearing walls of glass bring the outdoors in and vice versa.

As you’d expect given the price, the compound is equipped with every conceivable luxury feature known to mankind. There is a massive screening room, a wine cellar, a lounge, a beauty salon, and a cigar room. Don’t forget the two guest houses. “A person who buys this house is likely to have a lot of staff,” Mr. Liner says. Indeed.

Tucked into the northwest corner of Beverly Hills – the property straddles the border of B.H. and the even more posh Holmby Hills neighborhood – the house lies a couple blocks above Sunset at the end of a quiet cul-de-sac. Some of Mr. Packer’s new neighbors include hedge funder Jon Brooks, Indonesian businessman-turned-politician Aburizal Bakrie, and Symantec CEO Greg Clark who is attempting to sell his own mansion for $16.9 million. No luck as of yet. Also nearby is the main residence of embattled media exec Les Moonves and his wife Julie Chen Moonves.

On the Holmby Hills side, some of Mr. Packer’s nearest new neighbors on North Carolwood Drive include billionaires like Bruce Karsh, Tom Gores, Zhang Jun, Yuri Milner, and Peter Morton. Just down the road is another mega-mansion built by Mr. and Mrs. Liner. Completed in 2014, that place was sold for about $30 million to now-deceased Saudi billionaire Walid Juffali.

Listing agent: Drew Fenton, Hilton & Hyland

We know everyone always loves reading about Beverly Park, so we just couldn’t resist straying from our usual tack and heading back up that hill once again. See those pearly gates in the distance, just above the clouds? Yes, mortals, that’s Beverly Park.

Although it has been quietly shopped around off-market for a decade or more, Beverly Park‘s Villa Firenze estate has now finally hit the MLS for the very first time. And with a $165 million thud. Blimey! Well, it is the largest and most lavish home in the enclave.

The current owners — more on them in a moment — custom-built the village-like compound in the late 1990s and raised their family on the premises, though they are now empty-nesters. Perhaps that is why they are beginning to get more serious about selling. Surely the upkeep costs on an estate of this magnitude must be terrifying, not that they can’t afford it.

If this house seems familiar — yes, we wrote about it a few months ago when it was still “pocket listed” off-market (with the same asking price). We’ll be more brief in our assessment here, but we will say that the property cost tens of millions to construct and was built with high-end everything. Naturally.

Located high in the mountains above Beverly Hills, Beverly Park is without a doubt the most expensive and exclusive guard-gated community in Los Angeles, a place where there are hundreds of gated communities scattered across the landscape. But Beverly Park is particularly notable for a few important reasons.

For one, residents here are very security-conscious. Paranoid, some folks might call it. Beverly Park is divided into two sections — Beverly Park North and Beverly Park South — and has three guard-gated entrances, one in the South and two in the North. All entrances are guarded 24/7. In addition, there are 24/7 security patrols who rove around the community. And each and every estate within the fortress-like enclave sits behind its own mechanized, camera-watched gate.

Moreover, many of the residents have their own private security teams who patrol. Of course, there are hundreds of security cameras littered throughout the community.

To put it simply — no matter where y’all are in the 250 acres of Beverly Park, there are probably a couple pairs of eyes watching and analyzing your every move. Candid camera, but with a billionaire twist. Feeling famous yet?

Speaking of fame, many of Beverly Park’s residents already have that in spades. The big B.P. is known for its Hollywood celebrities, and current residents include Denzel Washington, Mark Wahlberg, Eddie Murphy, Steve Harvey, Samuel L. Jackson, Magic Johnson, Sylvester Stallone, Rod Stewart, and Kimora Lee Simmons.

Lastly, Beverly Park is known for also attracting foreign businesspeople, many of them low-profile billionaires. Residents include folks from Indonesia, Mexico, China, Taiwan, Saudi Arabia, Russia, Israel, Lebanon, Dubai, Pakistan, and even little-known countries like Kazakhstan and Africa’s Côte d’Ivoire. 

However, the current owners of Villa Firenze are neither Hollywood celebrities nor foreigners. They are American billionaires named Steve & Christine Hazy.

Born in Hungary but raised primarily in Los Angeles, the self-made Mr. Hazy grew up poor but went on to essentially create the aircraft leasing industry. Now in his early 70s, he remains a major figure in the business — he is CEO of Air Lease Corporation — and has a net worth of $4 billion, according to Forbes.

Mr. and Mrs. Hazy have four adult children — two sons and two daughters. Their youngest child is in her mid-20s, so it appears as though they may be rattlin’ around in their mammoth Beverly Park spread all alone, save for whatever domestic help they employ.

And for anyone who might be curious, the Hazy family are Mormons. In fact, Yolanda believes they may be the wealthiest LDS family in the whole wide world. But as usual, we digress.

Located in the more-desirable North section of the community, the Hazy estate towers above its neighbors and has views of the surrounding mountains. Built by LA-based mega-mansion specialist William Hablinski, a guy who designed several of the largest estates in Beverly Park, the compound was meant to invoke a traditional Italian village. There’s a 20,000-square-foot main residence, a 5,000-square-foot guest house, a pool house, and one or two other guest houses for a total living space of 28,660-square-feet.

Bizarrely, the listing first pegs the lot size here at 5.43-acres, but then later describes it as “over seven acres”. Neither figure is accurate, according to our research. The estate sits on a two-parcel property that spans a full 10 acres, and there is an additional 2.8-acre undeveloped lot next door (also owned by the Hazys) for a total of nearly 13 acres. All three parcels are included in the asking price.

There’s a very large swimming pool, a football field-sized grassy lawn, a tennis court, formal gardens, a motorcourt capable of accommodating 30+ cars, and at least three formal fountains on the premises. Mature 40-foot Canary palms and a paved walking/hiking trail surrounds the entire compound. And what’s more, the property is so large that it sits on its own private street

You know you’ve made it when you have your own private street, kids.

Fret not — should they sell this place, the Hazys won’t be living under a freeway overpass. As mentioned in our previous story they own two other Beverly Hills Post Office homes just outside the Beverly Park gates. Both pale in size comparison to Villa Firenze, but then again so does basically every other house around so that’s neither here nor there. They also own a ocean-view mega-mansion down in the Orange County coastal community of Dana Point.

Now let’s discuss the proverbial elephant in the room: that $165 million pricetag. Keep in mind, y’all, that no house in Southern California has ever sold for more than $110 million. Moreover, nothing in Beverly Park has ever sold for more than $40 million. That means Mr. and Mrs. Hazy are asking more than quadruple what any of their billionaire neighbors have paid, kids.

We certainly expect this place to set a new neighborhood record once it is sold, as it is admittedly the grandest estate in the ‘hood. But $165 million seems a very tall order to Yolanda. If the Hazys truly want to get serious about unloading this behemoth, they may need to adjust their expectations with a lower price point. Otherwise, we fear they may be sitting on this property for many more years to come.

Then again, what do we know? Perhaps there’s a spendthrift bazillionaire chomping at the bit to own the most extravagant mansion on the hill. But if not, the Hazys can probably afford to remain here for as long as they please.

Listing agents: Rick Hilton & Jeff Hyland, Hilton & Hyland

She may be best-known for her roles in iconic films like Grease 2, Scarface, and Batman Returns, but Michelle Pfeiffer is also a high-end real estate connoisseur with a taste for expansive (and expensive) compound living. As y’all may know, Ms. Pfeiffer paid $8.15 million back in a 2016 off-market deal for a nice but rather ordinary-lookin’ house in the fancy Westside neighborhood of Pacific Palisades.

Well kids, the house immediately next door to Mr. Pfeiffer’s pad has just sold for $7,700,000 and an examination of records reveals that the purchaser is — again — none other than our very own Ms. Pfeiffer. That makes a total of $15,850,000 that she has forked over on the two properties.

We know it may not look like much. It’s actually a very humble single-story house with a front-facing two car garage. But Pacific Palisades is fearsomely expensive (as y’all should already know) and this house is located on one of the best streets there.

This is not Ms. Pfeiffer’s first (or second, for that matter) luxury compound. Back in the day she owned an enormous two-house estate in Brentwood. That place was sold back in 2005 for a total of nearly $27 million to two different buyers — one of whom was current Disney CEO Bob Iger.

Since selling off her Brentwood holdings, Ms. Pfeiffer has made her primary residence in the sleepy but very wealthy town of Woodside — up north in the San Francisco Bay Area. It is there where she owns a bucolic, equestrian-friendly multi-acre compound that was listed for sale a few months back with a hefty $29.5 million asking price.

Though she is now 60 (and still looks great, we might add) and has been on an extended hiatus from acting, it would seem that Ms. Pfeiffer is eager to make a comeback. Perhaps that is what has precipitated her return to living in LA.

Anyway, both of Ms. Pfeiffer’s current LA homes are located in the Riviera, which is the most exclusive neighborhood in Pacific Palisades, itself one of LA’s most exclusive areas.

And yes, we know that some of y’all are wondering where Ms. Pfeiffer gets nearly $16 million for a luxury compound when she’s only acted sporadically in the last decade. Well, Yolanda will tell you. Since 1993, Ms. Pfeiffer has been married to a fellow named David Kelley.

Our Mr. Kelley is one of the most successful TV show creators in Hollywood — just a few of his shows include Picket Fences, The Practice, Ally McBeal, Boston Legal, and Big Little Lies. Some of those have gone into syndication, and thus we imagine that $15.85 million is no more than a drop in the proverbial bucket to Mr. Kelley.

Funnily enough, Mr. Kelley never intended to become a writer or show creator. He is an attorney by trade who began screenwriting as a hobby — in the evenings and weekends — and did not even sell his first script until he was in his 30s. And now he’s one of the richest guys in Hollywood. Funny how life throws curveballs at you, right?

Anyway, we digress. Since both of Ms. Pfeiffer’s Palisades acquisitions were made off-market, we know little about either house beyond what we can tell from records. The $8.15 million house has 3,211-square-feet of living space with 3 bedrooms and 4 bathrooms on .45-acres of land, while the $7.7 million house has a mere 2,870-square-feet of living space with 4 beds and 3 baths and is situated on .35-acres. Both properties are of the Traditional variety and were originally constructed in the 1970s. For decades, both were long owned by two non-celebrity families (until along came the Pfeiffer-Kelleys).

Put it all together, and Ms. Pfeiffer and Mr. Kelley now have themselves a compound on nearly an acre of prime Palisades land with over 6,000-square-feet of living space and 7 beds and baths.

Time will tell what Ms. Pfeiffer and Mr. Kelley plan to do with this $15.85 million Riviera compound, but for now their intentions are utterly unbeknownst to Yolanda. Perhaps they will demolish both houses to make way for a new mega-mansion. Or maybe they’ll expand and renovate both structures. We shall see, shan’t we?

Many of Ms. Pfeiffer’s Riviera neighbors are also famous — some of the nearby folks include Jessica Capshaw, Molly Sims, Bill Cosby, Ben Affleck, Kate Hudson, Jennifer Garner, Blake Griffin and Sam Raimi, just to name a few.

It’s been awhile since we’ve written about a house in the historic Hancock Park/Windsor Square neighborhood of Los Angeles. That’s poor taste on our part because the mansions there are some of the most beautiful in the city. Think grand old dames chock-full of style, memories, and ghosts of the party days of yore.

Windsor Square, for those who may not know, is located in central Los Angeles, specifically in a highly urban and heavily-trafficked part of town. This very wealthy neighborhood is notably more ethnically diverse than most other rich parts of LA — some 40% of the residents are Asian, mostly of Korean ancestry. There is also a large Hispanic minority population.

Back in the day — the Roaring Twenties, to be specific — Windsor Square was the most exclusive neighborhood in Los Angeles, jam-packed with rambling mansions designed by the top architects of the day. Many of those homes, believe it or not, still stand and have been well-preserved.

Although the area fell somewhat out of fashion decades ago when many rich folks migrated westward — to the 90210 and surrounding environs — home values have come roarin’ back in a big way. In recent years, prices have spiked so high that they are now nearly comparable with the flats of Beverly Hills! Okay, not quite, but you get the point. It’s mighty expensive out there.

Witness today this large Mediterranean Revival style mansion, which was sold back in 2015 for just $4.3 million. The buyer then was a real estate developer who spent a considerable amount of time and money renovating and expanding the premises before attempting to flip the property.

After more than a year on the market and a couple significant price chops, the historic estate has just sold for $8,700,000 to an LLC. The buyer, Yolanda discovered, is a woman named Holly Madison.

For those who may not know, our Ms. Madison is a celebrity who is likely best-known as an ex-girlfriend of the late Hugh Hefner. Though virtually unknown by the public even after her move-in to the Playboy Mansion, she eventually gained great fame by co-starring on the hit TV show The Girls Next Door. While we never saw that particular program, we gather that Ms. Madison made a name for herself that she went on to parlay into a variety of entrepreneurial endeavors.

After her TV show folded, Ms. Madison appeared on Dancing With The Stars, starred in the Las Vegas-based Peepshow, and authored a very successful memoir — Down The Rabbit Hole — which reigned at #1 on the New York Times bestseller list for three straight weeks. She now has more than one million followers on the Instagram contraption.

And since 2013, Ms. Madison has been married to Pasquale Rotella, a former restaurant busboy turned wealthy entrepreneur. Our Mr. Rotella is the founder of Insomniac Events, the largest EDM event producer in the world — they produce the always-popular electronic dance music festival Electric Daisy Carnival (EDC), among other rave productions. While we cannot verify the deets, Mr. Rotella’s net worth has been reported to be in excess of $50 million.

The Madison-Rotellas were married at Disneyland and now have two young children — one girl and one boy named Rainbow and Forest, respectively.  And the young family seems to have developed a fondness for the Hancock Park/Windsor Square neighborhood — their new manse is not the first home they have owned in the area. More on that a little later.

Located just a block north of busy-busy Wilshire Boulevard, the Windsor Square manor in question is more than 100 years old, originally built way back in 1914 by noted architects Hunt & Burns — they also built Downtown LA’s celebrated Bradbury Building (which is definitely worth a visit if y’all have never been, FYI). Although the Windsor Square pad’s exterior appears mostly the same as it did back in the Roaring 20s, the interior is almost entirely all-new and all but unrecognizable. Renovation credit goes to the Bowery Design Group.

There are 8 beds and 8.5 baths in a massive 11,826-square-feet of living space. A wideset, gated brick walkway is guaranteed to impress guests and vendors, as it leads past graceful formal gardens and up stairs to the glassy front door.

To the left of the entryway is a formal living room with a large fireplace, to the right is a windowed formal dining room easily capable of seating 10 dinner guests. A long hallway leads back to more informal rooms such as the breakfast nook and family lounge areas.

Throughout the main rooms (and on the stairs) are hardwood floors stained a trendy inky black. The all-new kitchen sports fancy stainless appliances, an island with bar-style seating, and easy access to the backyard patios.

The sumptuous master suite includes a massive bedroom w/sitting area and an equally expansive bathroom. We’re not sure if we love the marble washstand with its trough-like sink and gold cabinetry, but it’s certainly unique. There’s also two private vanities, a soaking tub, and a glassy shower. Also upstairs are four more guest/family suites.

A lower basement level is packed with luxury features including an enormous wine cellar and a home theater with tiered seating (there’s also maid quarters down there). The backyard of the .61-acre property isn’t particularly huge, but it’s certainly plenty spacious and includes a full outdoor kitchen on the back terrace. Next to the pool is a cabana with an outdoor fireplace attached to a wee one-bedroom guesthouse, and the tree-shaded backyard also boasts a large fountain and grassy lawns for kids and pets to play.

Once upon a time Ms. Madison and Mr. Rotella owned a rather lovely Spanish Colonial-style mansion in Hancock Park. To be specific, they bought the fully renovated estate in late 2014 for $7.1 million and lucratively flipped it just two years later for over $8.2 million. Ka-ching! (The buyers were an art-collecting couple named Joshua & Sonya Roth).

A few months ago, we heard the Madison-Rotellas were in escrow on Breck Eisner‘s Hancock Park compound, but that deal must’ve fallen through because the house recently sold for $12.5 million in an off-market deal to an entirely different buyer — a Boston-based couple named Robert & Marjie Kargman, whose fortune derives from owning apartments and office units.

Listing agents: Ernie Carswell, Douglas Elliman; H. Blair Chang, The Agency
Holly Madison & Pasquale Rotella’s agent: Jon Grauman, The Agency

A kind-hearted little birdie swooped by the other day and pointed Yolanda to a fully-renovated ranch house in Hidden Hills, way out in the San Fernando Valley. For those of y’all who may not know, Hidden Hills is a completely gated city of approximately 600 homes, many of them set on large, multi-acre properties. Back in the day, Hidden Hills was primarily made up of quaint, horsey ranches. It wasn’t a fancy place, there were no sidewalks, and most of the homes had whimsical signs out front that said things like “Home Sweet Home” and “So Happy Together“.

Well, there are still no sidewalks, and most homes still display the signs. But as was detailed by Vanity Fair, property values shot through the proverbial sky a few years ago when celebrities discovered the privacy and security that Hidden Hills’ gated nature affords. Today, even the shoddiest house in the community will run y’all at least $2 million and the area has become swarmed by famous folks — most of them athletes or musicians.

The incoming star power has brought a wild influx of newly-constructed mansions to the once-sleepy and pastoral community. Though about half the homes still have equestrian facilities, nowadays pedestrians who dare to walk the streets are far more likely to be hit by a speeding Ferrari or Bentley than by Roger the pony.

Anyway, according to our birdie — and confirmed by property records — the buyer of this particular Hidden Hills house is NFL star Brandin Cooks. Our Mr. Cooks has played professional football for both the New Orleans Saints and the New England Patriots, though he now toils as a wide receiver for the Los Angeles Rams. In July 2018, Mr. Cooks signed an $81 million extension with the Rams, so it makes sense that he’d want to invest some of that cash into real estate.

And Mr. Cooks is a busy guy — in addition to signing his big football contract, he recently wed his longtime fiancee Briannon Lepman. And then, of course, he bought his first house. The Hidden Hills casa is a fine place for a young couple to live, and perhaps to start a family. When the time is right, of course.

In case y’all didn’t know, today is Mr. Cooks’ 25th birthday — happy bday, Mr. Cooks. Off the court, he is known for being a devout Christian, regularly tweeting Bible verses on his Twitter feed. He was born and raised in the Northern California town of Stockton, CA, which is also from where Ms. Lepman hails.

Sublimely located at the end of a private cul-de-sac, the house was originally built in 1958 as a modest ranch-style abode but was substantially renovated and expanded over the past year. Though still single-story, the structure now sports 4,850-square-feet of living space — definitely big but not overwhelmingly huge. The interiors are all-new and contemporary with the walls of glass, hardwood floors, and LED lighting we’ve come to expect from swanky high-end pads.

Originally listed for sale in July (2018), the house sold in just about six weeks for $5,450,000, or more than $1,000 per square foot.

The glassy two-car garage overlooks a spacious motorcourt, and a stone walkway leads past the front lawn to the home’s entryway. Once inside, y’all are greeted by wide-plank wood floors in the great room, which features a massive marble fireplace and a snazzy disappearing glass wall overlooking the valley below.

The great room opens to the completely redone kitchen, which features two center islands — one with bar-style seating — and high-end stainless appliances. Elsewhere is a formal dining area with a table that can seat 10, and outside is an barbecue center adjacent dining area and another bar. Despite the name, most homes in Hidden Hills are not set high enough to have views, but this place is situated up on a particularly tall knoll and therefore blessed with wide vistas of the surrounding countryside.

There are 4 beds and 4.5 bathrooms in the structure, and the light-filled master suite sports glassy windows and sliding doors, plus a sitting area, a fireplace, dual vanities and a soaking tub in the all-stone bathroom, and two spacious walk-in closets.

The 2.32-acre property has a generous backyard equipped with seating areas, a firepit, and even a winding path that leads down to a lower pasture area complete with a picturesque stable. The classy rectangular-shaped pool has an inset spa and is set just below a wooden deck — perfect for a patch of sunbathing.

Some of Mr. Cooks’ new Hidden Hills neighbors include athletes like Paul George, Vin Scully, and DeMar DeRozan. Other notable folks in the area include Drake, The Weeknd, cosmetics moguls Linda & Chris Tawil, beauty barons Dan & Sheree Funsch, lottery winner Ronald Willis, and several members of the Kardashian clan.

Listing agents: Marc & Rory Shevin, Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices
Brandin Cooks’ agent: Jordan Cohen, Re/Max Olson & Associates

Full disclosure: this transaction actually went down several months ago. We planned to write about it back then but for whatever reason kept putting it off, so here the ol’ gurl is today playing catch-up. Apologies.

Anyway, we think this story will still be of particular interest to y’all for a couple reasons. For one, we actually quite like this property, even if the architectural style isn’t the sort of thing we typically go in for. We would definitely live here. So for the one or two nuts who have ever wanted to critique Yolanda’s real estate taste, take heed of this opportunity.

But more importantly, folks occasionally ask us what LA’s “best” residential neighborhood might be. There’s no right way to answer that, of course — lots of them are good for different reasons, and each has its own personality — but we would definitely say that the most expensive neighborhood, at least for the moment, is Holmby Hills.

Sandwiched between the much larger communities of Beverly Hills and Bel Air and neatly bisected by Sunset Boulevard, Holmby Hills is made up of only a few dozen homes, most of them sprawling, multi-acre estate compounds. Of the three $100+ million sales LA has seen, two of them went down in this wee little area. Heck, this neighborhood is so posh that it even sports its own art gallery. Which happens to be right across the street from today’s house, incidentally.

How much does it cost to live in LA’s most exclusive neighborhood? Well, the good thang is that not every property out there is $100 million. Today’s house is one of the cheapest in the community, and it recently sold for $8,735,000. Still a boatload of cash, but a far cry from billionaires-only territory.

Amidst multi-acre tennis court compounds — some of them among the most expensive in the world — sits the tiny .22-acre, street-to-street property. Next door is the longtime main residence of Hard Rock Hotel founder Peter Morton, and on the other side is a spec-mansion currently asking $45 million. Some other folks within sugar-borrowing distance include billionaires like Bruce Karsh, James Packer, Yuri Milner, Zhang Jun, and Tom Gores, just to name a few.

See? You don’t have to be a billionaire to live amongst billionaires. But you still need a lot of money, of course.

Unfortunately, we do not know how this particular house came to be or why this property is so much more petite than all its neighbors, but it does have a rather interesting recent history. In 2009, the 1930s Mediterranean-style house was sold to musician Jeff Lynne. Our Mr. Lynne held onto the house for only one year before dumping it at a loss to his next door neighbor — Mr. Peter Morton, of course. And although we really don’t know why Mr. Morton wanted this place — maybe he used it as a guest house or as staff quarters — we do know that he sold it in 2015 for $4.5 million. The buyer? The notorious Woodbridge, an investment firm/Ponzi scheme that went belly-up last year.

During their ownership of the property, Woodbridge gave the house a comprehensive renovation, complete with all-new contemporary interiors and a modern exterior look. That slick redo seems to have done the trick, as the property then sold at a major profit — the aforementioned $8.735 million.

The new owner, who purchased the house through an LLC, is a young woman named Fajer Al-Rajaan.

The Kuwaiti Miss Al-Rajaan — known professionally as Fajer Fahad — is just 30 years old and a member of what some folks might call the “new international jetset”. Though sometimes referred to as Princess Fajer Al-Rajaan in publications, as best we can tell she is not actual royalty. Though she certainly has the funds to put many royals to financial shame.

For those of y’all wondering who Miss Al-Rajaan is and where someone so young gets $8.7 million for a Holmby Hills house, kindly allow Yolanda to enlighten you.

Miss Al-Rajaan is the younger daughter of Fahad Al-Rajaan, an international finance expert and successful banker who served as Director of Kuwait’s Social Security Fund for more than 30 years. In 2016, Kuwaiti officials accused him of using his position to embezzle vast sums of money — totaling some $390 million, allegedly. Per the authorities, much of the moolah was transferred to bank accounts controlled by his wife and daughters. Our Mr. Al-Rajaan, who fled the country, was sentenced to a 10-year prison term in absentia and an international arrest warrant was issued.

Last year, Mr. Al-Rajaan was arrested by British authorities, and there was talk of him being extradited to Kuwait. But to be honest, Yolanda is uncertain about whether that ever happened, and we do not know if Kuwaiti authorities have recovered any of the (allegedly) stolen loot. Whether he is still in custody also remains unknown (to us).

Whatever Mr. Al-Rajaan’s murky current situation may be, it is abundantly clear that his daughter does not have any trouble paying her bills. Miss Al-Rajaan divides her time between apartments in Paris and Dubai (and her LA home, of course). She also sports a whole assemblage of famous friends, including folks such as Sofia Vergara and Jessica Alba.

Miss Al-Rajaan is also a budding social media influencer with more than 125,000 followers on the Instagram contraption. She’s been named to best-dressed lists and has been profiled in Vogue Arabia. And in her spare time, she toils as a contributing editor for Violet Grey, the publication founded by fashionista Cassandra Grey (Ms. Grey is the widow of the late Hollywood producer Brad Grey, FYI). Clearly, Miss Al-Rajaan is a busy gal.

But let’s move on the the real estate matters at hand.

For the record, the street-to-street lot straddles the Beverly Hills/Holmby Hills border and actually features two different addresses — one of them with the B.H. 90210 zip code, and one with the Holmby Hills/BelAir 90077 zip code. To be honest, Yolanda is unsure about which community this house technically lies in. But although the front of the home faces the Beverly Hills side of town, the property was marketed with the Holmby Hills address. So there y’all have it.

Out front, the 5,446-square-foot house features a gated driveway that leads to an attached three-car garage. From the drive, stone steps lead up to a courtyard and front door. On the outside, the formerly Mediterranean architecture has been massaged into a trendier Spanish Colonial. Inside, things are bright and airy, the contemporary interiors boasting honey-colored hardwoods and milky white marble and limestone.

An international jetsetter like Ms. Al-Rajaan lives life on the go, and the eat-in kitchen boats abundant counter space and a massive marble center island, perfect for grabbing a snack on the fly. For more formal occasions, there’s a nearby dining room table overlooking the backyard and opening to the fireplace-equipped family room. Towards the front of the house is a living room with a vaulted ceiling and another fireplace.

Speaking of the backyard, it’s not very big at all, but it does sport a pool and inset spa. The rest of the space is mainly a stone terrace with various seating and lounging options. Outside the front door — at least we think that’s the front door — is a generous courtyard with an outdoor fireplace for chilly nights.

We know some of y’all might gripe about how this $8.7 million house has no grassy lawn or any landscaping to speak of, really. But Yolanda loves this low-maintenance setup. Really, does anyone need more than a pool, a courtyard, and some tall hedges for privacy? It’s perfect for a young, part-time LA resident like Miss Al-Rajan, though she could no doubt afford a plethora of groundskeepers.

But perhaps the best part of this property is that there is a discreet, camera-watched gate at the rear, just off the poolside terrace. This gate leads to swanky North Carolwood Drive, just behind the house. And we love a property with a discreet rear access point, if you will. Say y’all want to have a pool party, but dread having your raucous guests traipse through this beautiful home. Just have them park out back and enter through the gate! Problem solved. Or perhaps you’re a celeb, and want to have a clandestine rendezvous with your secret lover. But those pesky paparazzis are camped out front! No worries. Just tell him/her to park on Carolwood, and you can get your smooch on by the pool. With nobody being the wiser!

Love it.

There are 4 beds and 4.5 baths on the premises. One bedroom suite is downstairs — perfect for a live-in maid. The other three bedrooms are upstairs, consisting of two small guest/family suites and a spacious master suite — 900 square feet, per the listing — with hardwood floors, a private balcony overlooking the backyard, a soaking tub, glassy shower w/ rainfall showerhead, and dual limestone vanities.

A peek through records reveals that Miss Al-Rajaan and her older sister Farah own at least a couple other multi-million dollar properties in LA. In September 2017, The Al-Rajaans paid $3,685,000 for a brand-new contemporary house situated on one of the best streets in West Hollywood.

The West Hollywood property is currently available for rent at a rate of $24,995 per month.

At one point the Al-Rajaan sisters owned no fewer than four different units in the luxurious The Century condo skyscraper — over in the Wilshire Corridor — but it appears as though all but one of their residences there have been sold off over the past year. Records reveal the sisters raked in a fat total of $17,400,000 for the three units divested. Two of those sold units, incidentally, are now owned by Nikita Kahn, the young woman best-known as Larry Ellison’s ex-girlfriend.

We hate to get philosophical on y’all, but we know some folks might look at a young one-percenter like Miss Al-Rajaan and scoff at her lifestyle of private jets, posh vacations, and extravagant homes. “So wasteful!” the naysayers might crow. Perhaps they’re right, depending on your point of view. But if y’all were in her position, and afforded the means to do whatever you like, whenever you please, how different would your life be? Think about that, kids.

And it’s always fun to write about a lifestyle like this. So there’s that.

Listing agents: Adam Rosenfeld, Douglas Elliman; Justin Mandile, Sotheby’s International Realty
Fajer Al-Rajaan’s agent: Dena Luciano, Douglas Elliman

Yolanda is down for the count today with severe food poisoning. We warned her that $7.99 lunch buffet was too good to be true. Anyway, you have her friend and confidante U.N. Owen at the reins of this website today. This story will be uncharacteristically brief, but we wanted to give y’all a tasty morsel for your cruise into the weekend. Don’t worry, it’s poison-free.

In case you haven’t already heard, Ellen DeGeneres recently coughed up $15 million for a new house in Trousdale Estates, the steep and mid century modern neighborhood in the foothills of Beverly Hills. You may have already seen pics elsewhere but if you haven’t, here ya go. We shall let the photos do most of the talking.

Originally built in 1962 by celebrated architect John Elgin Woolf, the single story house was revamped last year by noted design firm Marmol Radziner. Before that, the house was long owned by the actress Marjorie Lord. There are 5 bedrooms, 4.5 bathrooms, and 5,100 square feet inside.

The property is located on a tiny cul-de-sac where some of the neighbors include Blink182’s Mark Hoppus, music producer Clarence Avant, songwriter Ryan Tedder, and fashion designer Hedi Slimane. Mr. Owen hears that Mr. Slimane has a full-time security guard stationed in front of his house, which Ellen will likely appreciate.

Ellen DeGeneres and her wife Portia de Rossi have bought and sold so many houses over the past few years that it’s almost impossible to quantify them all. But her current stable also includes another mid-century residence in Beverly Hills and an oceanfront mansion just south of Santa Barbara.

Listing agents: Linda May & Drew Fenton, Hilton & Hyland
Ellen DeGeneres’s agent: Kurt Rappaport, Westside Estate Agency