March Notable sales in Montecito

Adam Levine Ponies Up $52 Million for Rob Lowe’s Former Montecito Mansion

Adam Levine and Behati Prinsloo can’t stop buying — and then quickly selling — exceedingly expensive homes, often in clandestine off-market deals that have earned them impressive profits!

In 2018, they coughed up $33.9 million for a Beverly Hills mansion they flipped just over a year later for $42.5 million to Ellen DeGeneres, who’s since sold it for $45 million; last year they took in $28.5 million on the sale a five-acre estate in Montecito, $5.8 million more than they paid just three months earlier; and just this month they hung a spine-stiffening $57.5 million price tag on their sprawling Pacific Palisades compound, nearly twice the $31.95 million they paid Jennifer Garner and Ben Affleck in 2018.

And now, the trophy property-mad pair have plunked down a whopping $52 million for Oakview, a sprawling Montecito estate custom designed by Don Nulty and built in 2009 for Hollywood heavy hitter Rob Lowe and his family. The “9-1-1: Lone Star” star sold the nearly 3.5-acre estate in the fall of 2020 for $44.5 million to Jack McGinley, a healthcare-focused private equity exec, and his wife Julie.

The deal between the McGinleys and the Prinsloo-Levines appears to have gone down off market, so it’s not known what changes, if any, the McGinley’s may have made. However, promo materials from when Lowe had the house on the market show the East Coast traditional meets antebellum mansion measures about 10,000 square feet with six bedrooms and eight bathrooms, plus three powder rooms. There’s also a two-bedroom and two-bath guesthouse, as well as a pool house with another bedroom and bath.

An inviting mix of refined and relaxed, interior spaces during Lowe’s ownership showcased gleaming wood floors, intricate moldings, and custom millwork throughout. Presumably, both the living and family rooms, as well as a couple other rooms, still spill out to the yard through French doors, while the huge eat-in family kitchen was buttressed by a stainless-steel catering kitchen, a second-floor games room did double duty as a casual library, and a home theater sported state-of-the-art equipment.

Beyond the broad covered porches that extend along the back of the house, where they offer endless views over the ocean, the grounds include a cobblestone-accented motor court, an outdoor living room with fireplace, a prairie-sized expanse of lawn, a meditative water feature, an elegant swimming pool, and a sunken tennis court overlooked by not just one but two viewing platforms.

Once they’ve sold their Pacific Palisades home, Levine and Prinsloo will probably end up with another big and expensive spread in L.A., while Lowe as already bought two homes in Montecito for a combined $18.2 million, as well as a crash pad in Beverly Hills that cost another $3.75 million.

Ellen DeGeneres Sells Spare Montecito Home for $13.5 Million

It probably comes as no surprise that Ellen DeGeneres is playing real estate roulette again in her home base of Montecito.

Having recently picked up a nearly 12,000-square-foot mansion dubbed “Villa Tragara” for a cool $21 million earlier this year — and already owning several other properties, including a $14.3 million hacienda right next door to Oprah Winfrey’s “Promised Land” estate — the former talk show host and her longtime wife Portia de Rossi have newly pared down their land holdings in the affluent Santa Barbara County community.

After placing their home right across the street from their Rancho San Leandro estate on the market in late January for $13.9 million, records show DeGeneres and de Rossi have already managed to flip the property for $13.5 million. The buyer is Soren Urry, managing partner of Synergy, a commercial real estate development firm headquartered in Utah.

That’s $1.5 million more than the couple paid for the place a little over six months ago, back in September 2021. So that means they came away with a quick and impressive profit — and they only added a few of their signature tweaks to the interiors!

Tucked away on nearly three-quarters of an acre, within a private gated community in prime Montecito, the stucco and terracotta-roof structure was built in 2018, and has three bedrooms and four baths in just over 4,700 square feet of single-level living space boasting soaring ceilings and seamless indoor-outdoor spaces. There’s also a detached studio building.

Highlights include an open-concept great room sporting a dual-sided fireplace and floor-to-ceiling Steelcase doors, and a dark-hued gourmet kitchen outfitted with an eat-in island and high-end appliances. Separate bedroom wings can be found on either side of the house; one holds the master suite, complete with dual walk-in closets, and a marble-clad bath featuring a soaking tub and shower, plus a second outdoor shower, and the other shares two guest bedrooms.

Though there’s no pool, the nicely landscaped backyard is dotted with drought-tolerant natural grasses and wizened olive trees resting alongside a fireside lounge area, dining space and built-in barbecue.

In addition to their current Montecito homes, DeGeneres and de Rossi also own a $2.9 million cottage elsewhere in the city, as well as an $8.5 million midcentury modern Los Angeles “crash pad” in the mountains above Beverly Hills.

Content Courtesy of Dirt.com