A historic California estate in the coveted Montecito area has hit the market for $52 million after a full restoration, and brokers are pitching it as the perfect family home. And it's big enough for an extended family.
Known as Monte Arroyo Estate, the 13,560-square-foot house has been well known since it was first built in 1910, according to a statement issued by brokerage Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices California Properties. It was listed on June 11 by Nancy Kogevinas.
The house has nine bedrooms and 14 bathrooms, a listing on CoStar’s Homes.com shows. It sits on just shy of 4 acres, and its property includes a pickleball court, fruit trees, a private pool and a one-bedroom, one-bathroom pool house that can be used as an accessory dwelling unit.
It’s unconfirmed who first owned and inhabited the house, but it was purchased in the 1970s by the Karpeles family, renowned manuscript collectors, who initially used the home as a place to store their collection, Kogevinas told CoStar News. Eventually, David Karpeles took up full-time residence in the home until it was listed for sale in November 2022.
“It was just really dated and old and run down. And even though he was still living there, he wasn't living there like we live today,” Kogevinas said. “He was living there because he collected manuscripts, and it was all about his manuscripts. So, when you looked at the house and the property…it was like, wait, what? How does this manuscript room fit in with the rest of this beautiful, old estate?”
Enter Xorin Balbes — a designer known for his work restoring notable, but dated, homes.
Balbes purchased the home in November 2022 and got to work renovating and restoring the property, adding his signature “opulent, yet soulful” touches, according to Kogevinas and the brokerage.
“He was the only person who saw this property and had a vision for how to bring it all together with the manuscript room becoming the primary suite and just kind of uniting all these sort of disjointed rooms that were different sizes,” Kogevinas said. “The layout was weird, and the staircase was weird, and he united the whole thing and brought it back to really what it originally probably was and then much larger and much more magnificent.”
Now that the home has been updated, Kogevinas said she knows her market.
“First and foremost, probably a family,” she said. “They want to live in the heart of Montecito, where all the action is, and the other families are, and it's near a school. And they want to live a stylish, kind of dynamic life…and have people over and have parties.”
The other type of buyer is couples who have large extended families seeking a property where they can host their family for short and long periods. Ultimately, the buyer is likely someone who wants to use the property and its amenities to host others, and it’s someone who does not want to have to renovate a property themselves, according to Kogevinas.
To find these buyers, Kogevinas said she’s undertaken “an extensive marketing campaign” by creating a story about the home and sharing that on social media and with various sources. Unlike other, similar estates that aren’t listed on the multiple listing service, the tool brokers use to list properties, Monte Arroyo Estate was put online.
“There's a bigger market out there, and there's even an international market out there,” Kogevinas said. “This is the best way for them to see it.”
Montecito is known as a “luxurious celebrity hideaway with Pacific Ocean views,” according to Homes.com. It’s known for luxury estates and its tight-knit community, including Oprah Winfrey and Harry and Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. The median single-family home price in Montecito is $6.78 million.
About That Listing explores how brokers market distinctive properties. Let us know about your unusual listing at news@costar.com.