Residents of the Emerald Bay community in Laguna Beach can rest assured they’ll be getting some solid lifeguard services this summer. Or at least they’re getting a new neighbor with a sense of humor.
The priciest home sale in Orange County last year was for a an oceanfront, 3,920-square-foot home with beach access at the exclusive 509-home community. It sold for $43 million.
The buyer also put some money into ensuring extra privacy at the gated community. All records tied to the sale list the buyer of the home as Mitch Buchannon LLC, and the true owner’s identity hasn’t been disclosed.
Mitch is the fictional lead character in the TV show “Baywatch,” played by David Hasselhoff.
There’s been no signs of the actor/singer—still very popular in Germany—at Emerald Bay, which counts several billionaires, including German businessman Hasso Plattner; the SAP founder is said to own several homes in the community.
See page 30 for our list of Top Home Sales of 2023, as well as Kaitlin Aquino’s front-page feature for more on the status of the ultra-luxe housing market.
Ferreting out the true buyers of other properties on this week’s Top Home Sales of 2023 was a mixed bag: locals that we identified buying pricey homes in the area include real estate investor Russ Fluter, retired media investor Gordon Crawford, and William Doddridge, CEO of the Jewelry Exchange.
There are also numerous buyers from out of town. At least one potential billionaire we identified was Wong Luen Hei, the head of building materials firm China Lesso, which has its U.S. base in Corona. He snapped up a home in Newport Beach, records indicate.
There are also newsmakers on the list. A $31.5M home in Dana Point’s Monarch Bay community was bought last year by an entity listed in property records as 39MB LLC.
State filings show that auto dealer magnate David Wilson heads that LLC; for more on Wilson’s latest big transaction, see Emily Santiago-Molina’s front-page story.
Given the commissions paid for the deals on this week’s Top Home Sales of 2023, it’s safe to say the residential brokerage business has come a long way since 1953, when Forest Olson borrowed $500 and started his own firm.
He grew Forest E. Olson Real Estate to 450 people and 30 sales offices by the late 1960s, when Coldwell Banker, then with a focus on commercial real estate, came knocking, looking to expand into the residential business.
A merger took place, followed by a public listing in the early 1970s; Olson served as chairman of Coldwell Banker Residential through 1985.
“While under Forest’s leadership, the franchise program was launched and is largely responsible for Coldwell Banker’s nationwide presence,” noted an obituary for Olson, who died in January, at the age of 97.
A celebration of life service was held for him last month at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, along with a reception at Big Canyon Country Club, where he was a founding member.
