End of Week Mish Mash

After nearly four long years on the market Grammy winning singer/songwriter Sheryl Crow re-listed her Tennessee Farm for $3.85 million, $3.65 million less than the original $7.5 million price tag.

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Leo DiCaprio had to come way down off his original $23 million asking price to sell his Malibu Colony adjacent compound. If finally sold this week for $17.35 million to an as yet unidentified buyer.

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Sir Paul McCartney and his third wife, Nancy Shevell, reportedly had a peep around a $12.9 million condo on New York City's Fifth Avenue.

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The (rather fab) full-floor contemporary art-filled Park Avenue apartment of late architect Armand Phillip Bartos and (also deceased) paper and finance heiress/philanthropist Celeste Gottesman Bartos sold for $18 million. It was originally listed in March 2013 for $22.5 million. The buyers, according to property records, are Joseph and Hilary Feshbach. He appears to be in finance and she's a scion to a real estate rich family who, among other Manhattan properties, owns the venerable and soon-to-be-closed Roseland Ballroom.

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The folks at Zillow named Jimmy Fallon as the most desirable (imaginary) celebrity neighbor for 2014. Not surprisingly—at least it came as no surprise to this cynical property gossip—Kim Kardashian and Kanye West topped their list for least desirable neighbors for 2014. (Kimmy and Kanye also show up as number seven on most desirable celebrity neighbor list so...)

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Howie Mandel Sells to Billionaire Producer Ryan Kavanaugh

BUYER: Ryan Kavanaugh
SELLER: Howie Mandel
LOCATION: Malibu, CA
PRICE: $7,000,000
SIZE: 5,865 square feet, 6 bedrooms, 7 bathrooms

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: In October 2009 venture capitalist turned prolific and highly successful movie producer Ryan Kavanaugh (Don Jon, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, Little Fockers, Salt) paid class action attorney Thomas W. Girardi* $7,000,000 for an four bedroom and two bathroom ocean front house on Malibu's La Costa Beach. The newly minted billionaire (and his ballet dancer wife, Britta Lazenga) pushed the 2,880 square foot beach house back on the open market not quite two years later with a much increased $10,500,000 price tag. By the time the house was taken off the (open) market in May 2012 the price had dropped to $8,500,000.

About a month and a half ago, at least according to Your Mama's research on the internets, Mister and Missus Kavanaugh's beach house (above) popped up as a rental at a rate of $40,000 per month in the off season and $70,000 per month for summer months. (Listing details Your Mama turned up from 2011 state the "beach front haven" had been "recently renovated and updated" and current listing details show it was "renovated in 2013 with remarkable detail.")

According to the always reliable real estate yenta Yolanda Yakketyyak the Kavanaugh couple's decision to put their La Costa crib up for lease may (or may not) have something to do with his November (2013) acquisition of a mysophobic comedian/game show host Howie Mandel's land-locked mini-compound in the much-coveted and celeb-studded Point Dume area of Malibu.

Mister Mandel first hoisted the 1.04 acre property with its Doug Burdge-designed residence on the open market in late 2011 with an asking price of $7,250,000. The property was taken off the market in the second week of 2013 only to pop back up two days later with a curiously increased price tag of $7,750,000. Property records and other digital resources show Mister Kavanaugh—through the same opaquely named trust that owns his La Costa Beach house—shelled out exactly $7,000,000 for the gated property that listing details rather generously describes as "One of the finest homes ever conceived in this exclusive seaside community."Certainly the house is luxurious and well-equipped and finished with high-quality materials to exacting standards but one of the finest homes in Malibu? Well, we'll let the children duke that hyperbole out in the comments.

The 5,865 square foot main house—a Cape Cod/Nantucket-y sort of thing—has five bedrooms, 5.5 bathrooms, formal living and dining rooms, an open concept kitchen/family room, an office and a petite screening room. Additional living quarters are contained in a separate one bedroom and 1.5 bathroom guest/pool house. Lower level rooms open out to large, ocean view terraces, a stacked stone outdoor fireplace and a built-in barbecue. Beyond the heated swimming pool and slightly raised spa (with adjacent built-in fire pit) there's a lawn large enough to a children's soccer match or a more adult-oriented round of strip croquet.

Mister Mandel, according to Your Mama's brief perusal of property record, still owns a nearly 13,000 square foot mansion in the affluent guard-gated equestrian-oriented suburban enclave of Hidden Hills in the far western reaches of L.A.'s San Fernando Valley.

As for Mister Kavanaugh, well, we're not sure what—if any—other properties he holds in his personal portfolio but we do know—thanks again to good ol' Yolanda and again confirmed with property records—that in December 2011 he paid actor Dennis Quaid and his estranged wife Kimberly Buffington Quaid $9.5 million for a 1.96-acre, horse-friendly compound in the Mandeville Canyon area of Pacific Palisades that he was lucky enough to flip in September 2012 for $11.2 to former beauty queen turned actress/fit model turned designer denim queen Paige Adams-Geller and her apparel industry veteran husband, Michael Geller.

*Mister Girardi, in case his name does not ring a bell, is the fella who litigated the trial that inspired the Oscar-winning Erin Brockovich movie.

listing photos (Malibu): Pritchett-Rapf & Associates
listing photos (Pacific Palisades): Sotheby's International Realty 

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Happy Day Off

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In More Pre-Christmas Celebrity Real Estate Related News...

The celebrity gossip hounds at Page Six of the New York Post were the first to reveal that actor Rob Lowe and his wife, Sheryl Berkoff, have quietly reached an agreement to sell their Feng-Shui-ed, 20-room Georgian mansion in Montecito (CA) to an as yet unknown buyer for $42 million.

Mister and Missus Lowe, who last year sold their beach front house in nearby Carpinteria for $5.9 million to insurance tycoon William Foley, II, custom built the stately mansion on four manicured acres and had it photographed for the November 2010 issue of Architectural Digest. (In April 2011, Mister Lowe gave his richer and more famous Montecito neighbor Oprah Winfrey a video tour of both the Montecito mansion and the Carpinteria beach house.)

In addition to the main manse, the ocean view property has two guest houses and a total of four kitchens, the largest with a reclaimed French oak floors, a Calacatta marble-topped center island, and a breakfast room with a motorized pocket door.

We have no idea what Mister Lowe and Miz Berkoff's future real estate plans hold The Post speculates they'll likely stick to the Montecito area since they're "said to love the area."

photo: Mary E. Nichols for Architectural Digest

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In Even More Pre-Christmas Celebrity Real Estate Related News...

As first reported by the property gossips at Zillow, Oscar-winning actor Keith Carradine and wife Sandra, have put their four-parcel property near downtown Telluride, CO, up for sale as an off-market listing with an $8 million asking price. The property previously belonged to legendary concert promoter Bill Graham.

Listing details show the 6,000-ish square foot house—of limited architectural interest as far as this property gossip is concerned—has four bedrooms, 4.5 bathrooms, a heated two-car garage, and 180-degree views of Bear Creek and the Telluride Ski Resort.

listing photos: The Agency

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In Other Pre-Christmas Celebrity Real Estate Related News...

As we first learned from the long-legged blond at Trulia Luxe Living, internationally beloved bubble gum pop star Katy Perry has finally found a buyer for Park Hill, her real estate white elephant in West Hollywood (CA), also sometimes referred to as The DeWitt Mansion after the home's original property developer owner.

Miz Perry purchased the centrally located estate with her ex-hubby, British comedian and giddy provocateur Russell Brand, in June 2011 for $6.5 million. They split before they moved into the three-story, 1920s Mediterranean that was granted to Miz Perry in their divorce.

Perched on a gated promontory just about the mouth of the West Hollywood end of Laurel Canyon, the three acre estate includes a 8,835 square foot main house plus a detached garage, pool house, and—on the steep hillside above the lagoon-style swimming pool, a self-contained one-bedroom and one bathroom guest house with separate entrance.

The somber and even somewhat gloomy (and very beige) house includes 7 bedrooms, 7 full and 4 half bathrooms, a double height living room with minstrel's gallery and city view, a formal dining room with a hand-stenciled honeycomb pattern ceiling treatment.

The price eventually dropped to $5,988,000 before an as yet unidentified buyer turned up to buy the property for an as yet unknown price. Our calculations show that even even she sells if for full price Miz Perry will lose well over half a million clams when one considers the purchase price ($6.5 million), upkeep and other carrying costs, and real estate fees.

Rather than occupy Park Hill, Grammy-collecting Miz Perry opted to drop $11.2 million on a multi-residence high in the Hollywood Hills.

listing photos: Teles Properties

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Reese Witherspoon Sells Ojai Mini-Ranch at Big Loss

SELLER: Reese Witherspoon
LOCATION: Ojai, CA
PRICE: $4,983,500
SIZE: 7 bedrooms and 9 bathrooms

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: As we first heard from real estate yenta Yolanda Yakketyyak—and then confirmed with property records—Oscar-winning and exceedingly well-compensated actress Reese Witherspoon has—at a substantial loss—sold her rustic-luxe and equine-accommodating Wallace Neff-designed mini-ranch getaway in Ojai, CA.

Miz Witherspoon purchased the property in March 2008 for $5.8 million and first put it on the open market in September 2012 for $10 million. In March 2011 she and husband, talent agent Jim Toth, hitched their love wagons on the picture perfect property and in the spring of 2013 she generously lent the seven acre semi-rural spread to British actor and tween heart throb Rob Pattinson after it was revealed his (now ex-) girlfriend, Kristen Stewart, was fooling around with a very married movie director. Remember that nonsense? Anyways...

The asking price for the compound-like property eventually plummeted to $5.9 million before an as-yet unidentified buyer swooped in and snatched up the property for..drum roll please...$4,983,5000. A few clicks and clacks on Your Mama's bejeweled abacus shows Miz Witherspoon took a mouth-drying $816,500 loss, not counting carrying costs, improvements, and real estate fees.

As far as this property gossip know, Miz Witherspoon still owns a three parcel spread in a gated enclave in the Brentwood area of Los Angeles—the last bit she bought last year for $3 million—and a nearly 6,500 square foot house in the guard-gated Sugartree development in the upscale Belle Meade area of her native Nashville, TN.

listing photos: Keller Williams

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