Rocker and filmmaker Rob Zombie just sold his two-home compound in the Hollywood Hills to a pair of buyers for a combined $8.9 million.
One might have expected the director of “House of 1,000 Corpses” to have a carnival-like property, covered in music memorabilia and homages to B-movie massacres. But agent Rick Tyberg of Douglas Elliman Real Estate said Zombie and wife, Sheri Moon Zombie, weren’t selling on the strength of their camp horror personalities. Rob Zombie came to fame as the lead singer of White Zombie, a now-defunct heavy metal band known for its song "More Human Than Human."
“Lovely folks with a lot of pride of ownership,” Tyberg said. "They did a great job preserving the property.”
Tyberg handled the sale along with fellow agents Lauren Duffy and Abigail Gutwein.
The homes, Tyber said, didn’t need Zombie's fame to attract two buyers of the properties. “When you find a rare, restored, extraordinary example of post-and-beam in a desirable area — and I’m just going to say outside the [San Fernando] Valley — that’s a great opportunity for someone,” he said.
Architect Robert “Boulder” Thorgusen designed and built both homes in the 1950s. Though both have been updated with modern appliances and automation systems, they have retained the midcentury style and spirit.
The smaller two-bedroom, two-bathroom, 2,326-square-foot home is known as The Forest because of renowned landscape architect Garrett Eckbo’s lush greenery. The organic forms set off the sharp, geometric lines of the folded plate roofline and rectangular pool and deck.
The home also includes a lot of stone enhancements, “which you don’t find a lot of in midcentury,” Tyberg said.
The second home is bigger, at 4,100 square feet, and has three bedrooms and three bathrooms. An archetypal example of post-and-beam construction, the home features glass walls that turn the outdoors into visual features inside.
Another feature that blurs the lines between outside and inside is the pool that flows beneath the dining room and extends into the backyard for an easy flow of entertaining.
One way these two properties defy their age is their size. “Most post-and-beam homes are just small,” Tyberg said. But these have “plenty of elbow room.”
Zombie initially purchased and lived in the smaller home before making an off-market offer on the larger house to create his compound.
The homes were split again in the new sale, with the buyer of the smaller property paying $3.4 million and the larger house going for $5.5 million.
Tyberg said the properties are divided enough that the new owners (who are not celebrities) won’t have to get along to live in them, but they do have an easement on the driveway, meaning they’ll have to share maintenance costs.
He said that the Zombies weren’t interested in any publicity related to them in marketing the house, which is common among celebrities, according to the agent.
“Most of the time, they don’t want to lead with that,” he said. “They want to lead with the property.”