Not often noticed at the 30-acre Montage Laguna Beach resort is its exclusive residential compound.
The Craftsman architecture of the homes—which range from 8,000 square feet to 10,000 square feet—blend in with the resort.
In all there are 13 homes, including a few currently under construction, and 14 condominiums at the Montage Residences.
All but one were built by Laguna Beach-based Seacrest Developers Inc., which is in the midst of putting up two more homes.
“Each one is different,” said Jim Birmingham, owner and president of Seacrest. “It’s not like building production homes.”
The homes can take up to 22 months to build.
Right now, three are for sale. One of the sellers is set to move into a larger home at the Montage Residences that Seacrest is building.
The priciest of the homes for sale, at 3 Montage Way, is going for $32 million. It’s been listed since January.
A 9,000-square-foot home at 21 Montage Way is nearly finished and priced at $31.9 million.
A listing for 15 Montage Way is for $23.9 million.
“What you’re buying is a lifestyle,” said Kimberly Carter, an agent with the Montage Residences Corp., a company started in 2009 to assist owners with selling their homes.
Homes at the Montage Residences have access to the resort’s pool, restaurants, spa, room service, concierge, housekeeping and other services for an annual fee of $7,300.
A residential manager attends to the homeowners.
Many Montage homeowners are from out of state—several are couples with kids.
“Everyone knows each other,” Carter said. “They socialize together.”
Some of the owners live at the estates year-round, but for most it’s a second home.
Two of the homes for sale are co-listed to help market the residences, Carter said.
John Stanaland, an agent with Newport Beach-based Hom Real Estate Group, is the co-listing agent for 21 Montage Way.
Bob Chapman, an agent with Laguna Beach’s Coast Sotheby’s International Realty, is co-listed for 3 Montage Way.
“We’ve had a lot of interest in (the homes),” Carter said. “Every day we have qualified buyers coming through the hotel,” she said.
The resort promotes the residences.
Montage Hotels & Resorts LLC also owns Montage Deer Valley in Utah and Montage Beverly Hills, which have luxury condos at their resorts.
There still are a handful of lots at the resort that are owned at Montage Laguna Beach but don’t have houses built on them.
Some of the homes are closer to the ocean. Others are higher up on the bluff.
The homes can look deceivingly small because they usually include a spacious basement level.
They have ocean views with roll-up walls that let in ocean breezes. Many have mini-pools and custom water features.
Seacrest built a fire-and-water wall resembling one seen in an “Iron Man” movie for one owner.
Most of the homes have wine cellars and theater rooms built to the owners’ tastes. A couple of the them have elevators.
Seacrest provides maintenance service on the homes. Some get maintenance on a monthly basis, others daily.
“Some people want them perfect every day, depending on how often they use the homes,” Birmingham said.
The condos are roughly 3,000 square feet.
They typically go for $4.5 million to $8 million when they come on the market. They rent for $4,000 to $6,000 a day.
“Trophy or Trauma”
Scot Campbell, an agent for the Hunting-ton Beach office of Coldwell Banker, describes the luxury market as “trophy or trauma.”
Buyers either find the exact house they want and pay the price, or they wait it out for a lower-priced home they can renovate to their wishes.
“Thus far, most people have been rewarded for waiting,” Campbell said.
He recently represented the buyer in the sale of a trophy.
The $4.5 million home at 7202 W. Oceanfront in Newport Beach was built by a developer for himself.
Matthew Orzech of MMO Realty represented the seller.
It was a second home for the seller.
“They weren’t using it enough to justify still owning it,” Campbell said.
The home is set higher than neighboring properties, which gives it a better view of the ocean.
“It’s just a really nice spot,” Campbell said. “(The buyers) have golden retrievers and they wanted to be able to walk their dogs down in the evening on the dog beach.”
The home originally was $5 million and was listed for six months.
It has a two-car garage and a room behind the garage for surfboards and beach gear.
The buyer looked at about 10 homes altogether.
“We spent a good hour there the first time they looked at it,” Campbell said. “It has a lot of quality, high-end materials and good brainpower put into making it the most it could be.”
