From the LA Times Hot Properties:
--Actor Christopher Lloyd has put his smaller house in Montecito, shown above, for sale for $3.6 million. The elegant home has two bedrooms, bamboo floors and a raised bamboo pergola overlooking the pool and spa. His other home in the area which was listed in 2007 for $11.27 million and was an estate of the day, has been taken off the market.
--Mark Wahlberg has listed his house in Beverly Hills at $15.9 million. The listing is here.
--Basketball player Elton Brand has sold his Hollywood Hills home for $4.55 million.
--Buffy the Vampire Slayer creator Joss Whedon has listed his home in Brentwood. it's our estate of the day later today.
Another "Buffy" and "Angel" veteran, writer David Greenwalt, recently sold his house in the Pacific Palisades for $2.958 million.

From the NY Post's Gimme Shelter:
--The asking price for the triplex penthouse at artist Julian Schnabel's, pink Palazzo Chupi building in the West Village has been cut by $5.5 million to $24 million. It was our estate of the day earlier in the year.
--Quarterback Tom Brady has cut the price on his Time Warner Center apartment from $18.29 million to $17.75 million. We'll be checking this one tomorrow.
--Cosmetics mogul Adrien Arpel and her husband, Ronald Newman, have paid $5.9 million for a seven-room co-op at 900 Fifth Ave.
--One of the Hamptons' premier properties, Fordune, will be listed for rent next year. This may be the first time since Henry Ford II owned the 42-acre oceanfront Southampton property. it will rent for $600,000 to use it from August through Labor Day next year and has 12 bedrooms, 12 bathrooms, a game room, a library, a large formal dining room, staff rooms and a commercial kitchen.

From Berg Properties Big Time Listings:
--Cher has paid $1,400,000 to purchase a two-bedroom, 1,455-square-foot house in West Hollywood,California. It may be a house for her daughter, Chastity.
--Regis Philbin has put his Greenwich, Connecticut home on the market for $5.4 million. It was our estate of the day on Friday.
--Brad Garrett finally has sold his 10,223-square-foot mansion in Hidden Hills, California. The most recent listing price was $8.35 million.
--Little more than a year after he sold it for $2.9 million, the former house of fashion critic Steven Cojocaru in the Hollywood Hills is back on the market, for $3.695 million. The property website is here.

From the Wall Street Journal's Private Properties:
--The home used to film ABC's "Bachelor" shows is for sale and the price has been dropped to $8.75 million, down from just under $13 million. You can see listing pics from when the home was listed at $11.5 million here.
--Last month, philanthropist Carroll Petrie sold a Palm Beach, Fla., house for $3 million, $500,000 less than she paid less than a year earlier, to investor John D. Firestone, of the tire-manufacturing family. In May, she paid $7.45 million for a 6,700-square-foot, five-bedroom home about a mile farther south.

From Newsday's Real LI:
-- A 4.08-acre property on Meadow Lane in Southampton will be listed soon for $38 million. According to public records, the oceanfront mansion was owned by Virginia Salomon, who died last month. She was married to Citigroup's honorary chairman William R. Salomon (and former managing partner at Salomon Brothers, Inc.) for more than 70 years. The 6,000 square foot house, built in 1992, has six bedrooms and eight baths, with a gunite pool and is located just west of designer Calvin Klein's home.
--Hairspray actress Nikki Blonsky may or may not be leaving Great Neck. Her family's home was recently seen on the Multiple Listing Service of Long Island for $649,000.
--Hilary Duff's longtime boyfriend, New York Islanders center Mike Comrie has purchased a condo in Garden City.


From the Real Estalker:
--Former Green Bay Packer quarterback Brett Favre has listed his Wisconsin home for $475,000. It was our estate of the day on Saturday.
--Technology guru Halsey Minor is not only trying to sell his home in Bel Air, he is said to be spending $15 million to renovate Le Petit Trianon in San Francisco, which he bought in 2007. The home was on the market for a while (I first got wind of it in 2005) and is said to be in some disrepair.
--The listing for the $24 million Goldwyn mansion has been temporary pulled from the market so that it can be renovated.
--Baseball player Tom Glavine and his wife Christine have put their home in Alpharetta, Georgia on the market for $3.75 million. We'll be looking at this one as an estate of the day on Monday.
--Cameron Diaz is said to be house shopping in Beverly Hills.
--More Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner real estate rumors, this time it is said that they have put their home in Brentwood on the market for around $8 million.
--Tae-Bo king Billy Blanks is getting a divorce and has put his Hidden Hills home on the market for $11.5 million. The listing is here.

From The Sun:
--Robbie Williams has picked up a seven-bedroom mansion in the Beverly Park community in Los Angeles for over $20 million.

From ONTD:
--Lauren Conrad of The Hills has been spotted house shopping in her home town of Laguna Beach.

From the NY Observer's Manhattan Transfers:
-- Kurt A. Locher, formerly a Lehman Brothers managing director recently bought a $5.25 million apartment at 500 West End Avenue. His old place on Park Avenue is still on the market for $2.495 million. We discussed this one earlier this week.
--According to numbers prepared for The Observer by research site StreetEasy, the days of easy luxury apartment sales are over. As of Monday, Manhattan had 168 super-luxury listings asking at least $15 million each which is nearly twice the number from autumn 2006.
--Former investment banker Jack Grubman has put his New York City townhouse on the market for $32 million. It was our estate of the day on Thursday.
--Sarah Allentuch, a former assistant to Woody Allen, and her husband, Greg Mottola, who directed Superbad recently bought a $2.6 million apartment at the new One York condo.
----An East River mansion, 7 Sutton Square, has sold for $32.5 million, well above its $25 million asking price. The seller is William F. Reilly, a retired magazine mogul and the buyer is listed anonymously, though a billing address is given care of Wildenstein & Co., which suggests that the house now belongs to the art collector Guy Wildenstein.

Here we are again with another sports celebrity selling a home in the town they used to play for. You might think that former Green Bay Parker quarterback Brett Favre would have one of the most lavish homes in the Green Bay area. You would be wrong. The Real Estalker Mama led me to the listing for Favre's home in Ashwaubenon, Wisconsin which reveals a simple ranch style home in a quiet neighborhood.

One of the Real Estalker's able commenters reports that Favre's main manse is in Hattiesburg, Mississippi and this is just the home he stayed in during the football season. He and his wife, Deanna bought the four-bedroom home in 2005 for $416,000 so it was likely just a temporary home in a town that he was planning not to stay in after he retired from football. This likely explains the decor which seems to have been shipped straight from the local furniture store. It is listed at just $475,000.

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One of Colorado's historic lodges is up for sale. Grand Lake Lodge has been in the same family since 1953 and is a unique piece of vacation property. The lodge is located in the town of Grand Lake and above Grand Lake, Colorado's largest natural lake and has beautiful lake and mountain views. The 54-acre property includes 100 cabins and outbuildings and has been open as a lodge since 1919. The property also includes a restaurant, gift shop, heated swimming pool, playground, picnic area and volleyball/basketball court. Over the years it has been used as a venue for events such as company parties, family reunions and weddings and is a registered National Historic Landmark. It is listed at $15.16 million.

I've been missing the real estate intelligence of Bob Goldsborough over at Big Time Listings after the site was unfortunately hacked. But now he's back with a vengeance, dishing out an impressive amount of celebrity scoop. One of the biggest is the listing for Regis Philbin's Greenwich, Connecticut home. Regis has been saying for a while on his show that he was selling his home but no one had dug up the listing until now. The home was built in 1980 and is on 5.68 acres that include a tennis court, pool, gazebo and gardens. The house itself was featured in 2002 in Architectural Digest, and includes a formal dining room, paneled living and media rooms, a library with a wet bar, a family room, a gourmet kitchen and a breakfast area that opens to a covered terrace. There are four bedrooms including a master suite with a sitting area, fireplace and his and hers baths. The lower level of the home includes exercise and recreation areas. Regis bought in 1992 for $2.5 million and is now asking $5.4 million for the home.

Experience more lush living in luxury homes and mansions or see the stars living large with celebrity homes galleries at AOL Real Estate.

On Sunday evening, a select group of Los Angeles design luminaries will converge at the intersection of fashion and architecture -- Katy Rodriguez's show at John Lautner's Harpel residence. Models and It Gals like Chloe Sevigny and Christina Ricci will be wearing Rodriguez's latest designs and mingling with guests including artists Shepard Fairey and Raymond Pettibon.

Judging from the collection, it feels like the perfect setting -- the clothes have an architectural quality, and they're filled with the rich, subtle detailing that distinguishes good design from the ordinary, or the ostentatious.

The Harpel house has been meticulously restored by Rodriguez's business partner Mark Haddawy. He's spent the past two years removing a superfluous second story and bringing the house back to its original, sublime logic.

Between the high fashion and the cityscape below, the views should be pretty spectacular. Check out the gallery to see a few images of the Harpel house and more pieces from Rodriguez's Spring/Summer 2009 collection.

There are only six pictures of this New York City townhouse but they are a very evocative six pictures. This is the home of Jack and LuAnn Grubman. He's the former lead telecom research analyst for Citigroup's Salomon Smith Barney and as the New York Observer's Manhattan Transfers column puts it, "a star in its telecom investment banking." Grubman ended up banned from the industry amid a scandal involving shady dealings and had to pay a $15 million fine. He may be counting himself lucky now that he got out in 2001-2002 and isn't a Wall Street player today.

It seems that the he managed to squirrel away plenty of money (he did after all have a $30 million severance package). Grubman's home is a neo-Federal mansion built in 1883. The home is a five-story mansion located steps from Fifth Avenue and the Metropolitan Museum. It has been completely renovated and includes a marble entrance hall, iron and bronze adorned staircase, 13' high ceilings in the living and dining rooms with full-height oak paneling and period plaster moldings, an elevator, and an eat-in chef's kitchen that has a dumb-waiter to the butler's pantry off the dining room. There are two planted terraces as well as an ivy-covered south-facing garden. It is listed at $32 million.

I'd usually save a piece like this for the Sunday Real Estate Round-Up but I'm a bit fascinated by New York real estate greed this week. The New York Observer's Manhattan Transfers column reports that Kurt A. Locher, formerly a Lehman Brothers managing director and the head of its mortgage banking, isn't trading down in these tough times, he's trading up to a more expensive apartment. He recently bought a $5.25 million apartment at 500 West End Avenue. The five-bedroom apartment includes a formal dining room, a maid's room, a living room, a library, and a windowed, eat-in chef's kitchen. It makes Mr. Locher's old place on Park Avenue and listed with Prudential Douglas Elliman, is on the market for $2.495 million look small by comparison.

Today's home introduced me to the small lakeside community of Long Beach, Indiana. The town is a popular vacation spot for those looking for a quick getaway from Chicago, which is an hour away. Today's home is one of the most lavish in the area. It sits right on the water with lake and Chicago skyline views and has 280 ft. of private beach. The four-bedroom home was built back in 1927 with a Mediterranean style that seems more suited for a warm weather location. The home has a great outdoor terrace, wine room, a gym that looks to be tucked into a porch-like space and has had its classic style updated with granite countertops in kitchens and baths and those glass box showers that are currently so popular. The home has retained its beautiful beamed ceilings and original fireplaces. It is listed at $6.24 million.

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Flamboyant Chanel designer Karl Lagerfeld has bought a historic mansion on an island in Vermont's rustic Lake Champlain. Lagerfeld never visited the 1840 six-bedroom landmark in person, but made the purchase based solely on photographs. "I love it. It's very much Emily Dickinson," Lagerfeld told WWD backstage at the Chanel show in Paris. We suspect he may be referring to the poet's picturesque houses in Amherst, Mass.

Lagerfeld tells the paper the Lake Champlain landscape reminds him of Northern Europe, and says he's planning an elegant yet still fashionable New England-appropriate décor rather than his usual Sun King splendor. He did not reveal the property's price, but declared, "I'll start doing the Chanel campaigns there" - so he obviously plans to write it off as business expense.

Four Chimneys on the island of Nantucket was built in 1835, long before Nantucket was a thriving tourist destination and was still a community based on the whaling economy. Like many of Nantucket's older houses, this grand four-story home has since served as one of the island's many bed and breakfast inns. The home was renovated in 2003 and with new electrical and plumbing systems. The first floor includes the stairway with a decorative painted floor and two parlor rooms with high ceilings and fireplaces. There is a large kitchen and a dining area with wide, plank floors, fireplace and a window seat. There is also a bedroom on the first floor and a large covered porch. The second floor includes more bedrooms and a master bedroom with access to a large deck which provides ocean views. The basement includes a two-bedroom ground floor apartment with an open living and kitchen area. This home listed at $6.495 million.

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A luxurious villa in St. Barth's has just been sold by the local affiliate of Sotheby's Int'l Realty for $39 million, setting a new record for the swank French West Indies resort. Villa La Grande Maison des Etoiles, situated in an exclusive gated mountaintop community, sets a new standard in luxury for the famed getaway. The seven-bedroom, seven-bath estate features panoramic views of the ocean, neighboring islands and incoming megayachts, as well as multiple in- and outdoor living and dining areas, several pools and lush gardens, all bordered by magnificent stone walls handcrafted from volcanic rock. There are Louis Vuitton and Hermes-themed guest suites with views as well. If you missed out on this elegant property, don't despair; the villa will be available for rent a few weeks out of the year for pre-qualified individuals, at a cost of $193,550 per week during peak season.

In the Val d'Orcia region of Italy, Massimo Ferragamo is restoring a 4,500 acre property called Castiglion del Bosco, known also as how my mind spent its summer vacation. The 800-year-old estate boasts two 14th century chapels, Gothic ruins, fields of deep red poppies, a macchia forest and vineyards where some of the best Brunello first grows. It's where parts of The English Patient were filmed. And soon enough, you can stay there, too.

Part of Ferragamo's restoration is to create an unparalleled travel experience, as he oversees the creation of 20 villas on the property and 26 additional hotel-like suites. A Tom Weiskopf-designed golf course, restaurants, infinity pool, cooking school, 12,000 square foot spa and library are either underway or in the plans, as well.

16 of the 26 suites are complete, but you can't simply book a night or two at the estate. Instead, you'll pay a fee to be part of a membership club that bestows visiting privileges. The 120 memberships have been estimated at close to $4 million each and are by invitation only. See the gallery for the breathtaking views, an original Lorenzetti fresco inside the Chiesa di San Michele Arcangelo and images to induce every kind of wishful thinking.

Today's home is listed with Kurt Rappaport of Westside Realty which as usual with him means we get a whole lot of pictures. And today's home is worth it. The Harvey Mudd estate was designed by Elmer Grey in 1922 and sits on an acre of beautifully groomed land that includes a pool. Harvey Mudd was, as the Real Estalker mentioned, a Los Angeles based mining magnate and engineer whose name may be familiar to some as adorning Harvey Mudd College in Claremont, California, a science and engineering college. I attended Pitzer College, another of the Claremont Colleges for a time, and remember fondly the students of Harvey Mudd who were known for riding unicycles, throwing wild themed parties and blowing off steam in very unique ways after exams.

Mudd's home has recently been in the hands of John Bersci, a noted house flipper in the area. The Real Estalker reveals that the home was listed for $5.95 million around the time Bercsi bought the home in 2004. The Tudor style home has seven bedrooms and many impressive details such as handcarved wood paneling and bannisters, leaded glass windows and ornate floors. As the Real Estalker points out, the weak point is the kitchen which doesn't match the grandeur of the rest of the home. I suspect also that some of the bathrooms need an upgrade. But what you are really paying for is the impressive swath of land on Benedict Canyon Drive and the beautiful bones of this older home which is not always such an easy thing to find in Beverly Hills. This home is listed at $11.495 million.

From the Real Estalker:
--Celebrity hairstylist Serge Normant has put his New York penthouse on West 16th Street, shown above, on the market for $4.49 million. The listing is here.
--John McCain's former home in Phoenix, Arizona will now be sold at auction on October 25. It was our estate of the day back in July.
--Teen actress Vanessa Hudgens has picked up a home in Studio City for $2.75 million. The home has six bedrooms and over 5,000 square feet.
--Rumor has it that Kimora Lee Simmons has bought herself new house in Beverly Hills.
--Will and Grace co-creator Max Mutchnick and his partner Erik Hyman have sold their Manhattan apartment for $4.1 million.
--The Harvey Mudd estate in Beverly Hills is for sale. It is our estate of the day later today.

From the NY Post's Gimme Shelter:
--Natali Portman has gone to contract to sell her apartment in Richard Meier's tower at 165 Charles St. The condo last had an asking price of $6.55 million.
--The price of Dunnellen Hall, Leona Helmsley's Greenwich, Connecticut home, has been lowered by $30 million to a still astounding $95 million. Check out the pictures from when it was our estate of the day back in June.
--The listing of the "Astor Suite" at the Plaza for $55 million was pulled after one day and other listings have disappeared without buyers but 26 apartments are still listed.
--The $70 million listing at the Pierre Hotel has been pulled from the Brown Harris Stevens website.

From the LA Times Hot Properties:
-- Screenwriter, crime novelist and political blogger Roger L. Simon has listed his home in the Hollywood Hills for sale at $2.625 million. The listing is here.
--A Beverly Hills home built in the 1920s for Errol Flynn and now owned by composer Lee Holdridge is listed at $3.2 million. The listing is here.

From the Wall Street Journal's Private Properties:
--Lehman Brothers Holdings' former chief financial officer, Erin Callan, is in contract to sell her two-bedroom condominium in New York's 15 Central Park West which had been listed at $12 million. Callan paid $6.48 million around three years ago.
--Ronald Tutor, chairman and chief executive of building contractor Perini Corp., paid $36.7 million for a massive, not-yet-completed house in the Beverly Park gated community which had been listed at $49 million.
--The widow of Steven T. Florio, the former CEO of Condé Nast Publications, has listed their waterfront Key Largo, Fla., vacation home on the market. We'll check this one out on Monday.

From Berg Properties Big Time Listings:
--via the Chicago Tribune, Ty Warner, founder of the Beanie Babie empire, reportedly has gone to contract to purchase the Chicago Spire's penthouse unit, which had been on the market for $40 million.
--Vivica A. Fox has her put her home in the Granada Hills area on the market for $1.45 million. Records show that the bought in 2002 for $825,500. The virtual tour is here.

From the NY Observer's Manhattan Transfers:
--Lehman's ousted president and chief operating officer Joseph M. Gregory has already his home on Park Avenue. He bought the two-bedroom apartment for $2.85 million back in 2004 and sold it earlier this month for $4.4 million. His Hamptons estate was previously our estate of the day and is on the market for $32.5 million.
--Mark Goldstein, a veteran Bear Stearns leveraged finance banker who became the co-head of its European investment banking last year has listed his apartment on Park Avenue for $12 million. He spent $5,275,000 in 2006 to buy two apartments which have now been combined. The listing is here.
--Hairstylist Guido Palau spent $1.9 million on a Chelsea brownstone duplex on West 22nd Street, according to city records
-- Democratic Party fund-raising stars Carl Spielvogel and Barbaralee Diamonstein-Spielvogel are in contract to sell their seventh-floor apartment at 720 Park Avenue for around $37 million, though they paid only $20 million just two years ago.
--Last week, while the Fed was agreeing to bailout A.I.G., recently retired AIG executive vice president Robert M. Sandler bought a $3.45 million apartment at the Hampshire House on Central Park South. He and his wife, Annette, paid in cash.

From Newsday's Real LI:
--Interior designer Lorraine Kirke has lowered the price of her East Hampton mansion to $11.5 million, the latest stop on a slide down from $14.5 million last year. The listing is here (no interior pics).

From the Daily Mail:
--The Candy brothers want to convert the US Embassy site in Grosvenor Square into luxury flats after the American Ambassador announced it was moving to south London. These could become some of the most expensive units in the world.

From the Dallas Morning News:
--An interesting piece on Terrell Owens real estate investments. T.O. owns six townhouses and condos in the city, valued at more than $2.5 million based on tax records.

Today I bring you a bumper crop of estates, five Colorado homes which will all be auctioned off via sealed bid on October 15 at the Colorado Luxury Real Estate Auction. This property auction will present over $16,000,000 in inventory with minimum bids below their appraised values. The sellers are luxury property owners who are looking a faster sale in this slow market. The homes range from a lavish mansion to several ranches with substantial acreage and a Victorian home.

Somerset Manor in Niwot, Colorado has a minimum bid of $5.395 million and was listed for as much as $7.395 million. It is on 2.5 acres in the Somerset Estates area that includes water features, a formal yard with an interior fence and a private nature area beyond with walking trails, low maintenance vegetation, a shared pond and even a putting green and a tee box. Inside there are more than 13,000 square feet of finished space on three levels that include a two-story foyer, a chef's gourmet kitchen, a main-level gym and therapy pool, an executive study and a two-story great room that walks out to the covered deck overlooking the grounds.

Turn Around Ranch in Silverthorne, Colorado has a minimum bid of $2.599 million. The home has nearly 4,500 square feet of space and gorgeous mountain views. The property includes a barn.

Saddleback Ranch has a minimum bid of $1,999,999. The 18-acre Colorado-style gated estate is on a rolling parcel amidst sandstone bluffs & gorgeous vistas. The main home has four bedrooms, gourmet kitchen, yoga studio, art studio and a 1000-bottle wine cellar with reclaimed ancient Chinese door and custom mosaic tile floor. A guest cottage has a bedroom, private kitchen & bath and the detached executive studio features a large office, library and bathroom. The spa area includes 16'x47' heated pool, six-person sauna, large pool deck and patio area.

The Mountain King Ranch in Boulder, Colorado was once listed at $2.995 million and has a minimum bid of $1.95 million. The home is surrounded by 115 acres. The main house is a 5,600+-square-foot private mountain retreat with many balconies, patios and huge picture windows. Each of the four bedrooms has either a private balcony or French doors leading to a flagstone patio and there is an outdoor redwood spa.

A Victorian home in Longmont, Colorado was listed at $739,000 but now has a minimum bid of $520,000. It is a three story home of 6,500 square feet with a new gourmet kitchen and an interior with original woodwork and columns. A private staircase leads to the newly opened attic-currently owner's art studio.