- NEWS
- SPORTS
- BUSINESS
- ENTERTAINMENT
- LIFE
- TRAVEL
- OPINION
$75 million sale not on record
June 22nd, 2009, 6:05 pm · 18 Comments · posted by Jeff Collins
Bruce Chambers/The Register (click to enlarge)
The Portabello Estate along Corona del Mar’s “billionaire’s row” may have sold for $75 million as a Newport Beach agent claimed in late April.
But two months after news of that landmark deal surfaced, no deed transferring ownership has been recorded with the county Clerk-Recorder’s Office.
The Portabello mystery stems from an abrupt appearance of a post in the local Multiple Listing Service stating that Portabello had just closed escrow, listing the sale price as $75 million — $40 million more than the current record O.C. price paid for actor Nicolas Cage’s home on Newport Bay.
The agent who made the entry, Sengdao Vongruksukdi, confirmed that the sale had closed escrow, calling it “a done deal.” But Steve Kiser, an attorney claiming to represent the home’s owner, contacted the Register and denied that any such sale had been finalized.
Both Vongruksukdi and Kiser now steadfastly refuse to comment on whatever happened to that deal.
When the Corona del Mar manor first went up for sale three years ago, it’s $75 million asking price was the second-highest in the nation.
The sprawling, two-level home has its own theater, bowling alley, soda shop and jewelry store. It also features an outdoor grotto, two pools and an upper-deck whirlpool tub with a see-through plastic bubble on the bottom.
Vongruksukdi reported in the Multiple Listing Service on April 29 that the home had closed escrow. The next day, she changed the listing’s status from “closed sale” to “canceled” listing, still insisting in an interview that a deal had gone through.
While recording a deed with the county is not required by law, by practice such deeds are almost always recorded these days to protect one’s claim to ownership of such a valuable asset. The absence of a recorded transfer of ownership in this case could be an indication that the “done deal” of April wasn’t done after all.
Previous Portabello stories/posts …
- Portabello villa said to sell for O.C. record $75 million
- Portabello sold? Owner’s attorney says ‘No!’
- $75 million sale? Or not?
- Portabello mystery continues
- Luxury homes are costly sales job
- When luxury homes go unsold, agents lose
- Top agent loses $75 million listing
- The architect behind the $75 million dollar O.C. estate (click here for photos)
- New high: $75 million home
Other luxury home news …
- Is this $33 million Laguna house about to sell?
- Glass elevator highlights $34.5 million house
- O.C. super agent sets up new shop
- What a $4,180-a-month rental gets you
- Look what $11.9 million gets you in Coto
- Spelling mansion listed at record $150 million
- Slump zaps Coto de Caza homes
18 Comments
-
ADVERTISEMENT
-
-
Blog within a blog ...
-
HOW TO TRACK US
<!--
--> -
ADVERTISEMENT
It’ll be interesting to see “if and how much” it really sold for.
the property may be held by an LLC or single asset entity. As such, it’s not the house that’s sold but entity. If that’s the case, their no transfer of a deed.
Good point, Crewman. If that’s the case, we may never know.
However, the checks I have made to date show that the property is held in the name of the owner, the Frank Wilson Pritt III Trust.
And as of June 9, Pritt was still the owner.
so in the day to day world of realtor lying….
…. is this just one of those little white lies?….
… you know, business as usual…..
anywho…..
with a mountaineous 5+ years of foreclosures…
… no end in sight for job losses, income stagnation and income declines……. the OC housing bottom is far from here…
… you would need to have a realtors knack for lying to say otherwise…… right dealeo?…..
Roger Orf spills the beans with where the housing meltdown is truly headed!
Toxic real estate mortgages are holding the global economy to ransom and the banking sector will not return to health without a purge of its distressed property the CEO of Citigroup Property Investors said.
The burgeoning economic rally could fizzle out by the end of the year unless governments take more affirmative action to protect it, by forcing bailed-out banks to sell off distressed property, Roger Orf told the Reuters Global Real Estate Summit.
“Any time that you have got clouds on the horizon, it means there is not clear sailing ahead. And these are thunderclouds, maybe even a cyclone.
“Regrettably, governments are not forcing banks to sell assets and that’s one of the fundamental things needed to restore equilibrium to property markets.
“We are all going to wake up in 6 or 12 months time and discover we’re back where we started. I’m wary that we could relapse into a significant downturn by end of the year.”
Roger Orf spills the beans with where the housing meltdown is truly headed!
Toxic real estate mortgages are holding the global economy to ransom and the banking sector will not return to health without a purge of its distressed property the CEO of Citigroup Property Investors said.
The burgeoning economic rally could fizzle out by the end of the year unless governments take more affirmative action to protect it, by forcing bailed-out banks to sell off distressed property, Roger Orf told the Reuters Global Real Estate Summit.
“Any time that you have got clouds on the horizon, it means there is not clear sailing ahead. And these are thunderclouds, maybe even a cyclone.
“Regrettably, governments are not forcing banks to sell assets and that’s one of the fundamental things needed to restore equilibrium to property markets.
“We are all going to wake up in 6 or 12 months time and discover we’re back where we started. I’m wary that we could relapse into a significant downturn by end of the year.”
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/market-data/2526315/Citi-urges-bank-foreclosures
Here’s the link……….
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/market-data/2526315/Citi-urges-bank-foreclosures
Not sure what Bill’s multiple responses have to do with this post, but anywho… I hope it’s still available. I bought another Lotto ticket!
Unfortunatley, Crewman is probably right. If a Corp owned the property, you could probably sell the LLC, and transfer ownership. I think the super wealthy have lots of tricks to keep us noseypokes out of their financial business.
Now, Jon, search for civil suits against the agent for breaching the confidentiality clause, and you might find something LOL
See my response above to Crewman regarding corporation ownership.
The property is not owned by a corporation or an LLC. It is owned by individuals.
Bills, rant, mav
Deep inside, you guys are probably depress that you still can’t afford to buy a house in OC, knowing real well that you missed the bottom 6-9 months ago. So you search and mark on sites that preach doom and gloom, trying to convince yourself that cheaper days for housing are just ahead.
But we all know you’re simply trying to cheat yourself, and are getting more and more desperate
We understand your situation, best wishes …
Yeah, you guys totally missed out 6 months ago. Prices have absolutely SKYROCKETED in the last 6 months and you missed the boat to quick, easy riches. Average prices in Irvine have tripled. Santa Ana? Doubled. We are all suckers that failed and will never own property.
DBag.
my situation is the land of milk and honey
called the drop, sold all my equities right before DOW 14,000
it’s time to face the music
the fact that I can take such glee in it
is that i warned you about it for months on end
it’s your own damn fault
man, you are funny! I just love the tongue in cheek humor on this site.
Missed the bottom? You must be talking about the false bottom, just like the sucker’s rally on Wall Street. This whole “rise” is due to artificial manipulation by the government and major lenders trying desperately to prop the market up. However, they cannot keep it restrained much longer. There will be bigger and deep losses to come, we have not come close to working through all the garbage loans originated in the last 6 years.