Unique Listing—with History - Page 2

"If I owned the property, I'd live in the Neutra," Sigoloff says confidently, even though its 1,845 square feet is about one-quarter the size of the newer house in the compound. "It's what's always drawn me to the real estate business, houses like that."

"Smallness may be stretched by skill of space management and by borrowing space from the outside in several directions," Neutra himself wrote in Art and Architecture about the house. "Case Study House No. 20 is predicated on a prefabricated utility core, a ready-delivered packaged mechanical unit that contains the centrally amassed plumbing and heating installations."

After buying the Neutra next door for $3.95 million in 2004, Simon merged its lot with his and hired architects Marmol Radziner to renovate the house faithfully. He lived in the Bailey House for a few years after the fire at his other house, then used it as offices and a guest house.

"It's really kind of an unusual listing in that sense," Sigoloff says of the two houses, which he said retain separate assessor's parcel numbers. The broker, who recently represented the buyers of a $4.7 million Neutra in Encino, said the combined property is unique in his career, adding, "It's just not easy [to do] given the codes."

Sigoloff said Simon divided one of the Bailey House's two bedrooms and turned it into "really nice offices," a change that he says any buyer could easily reverse. The other house has four bedrooms and 7,124 square feet in addition to a stone deck with an infinity pool.

"It's just an amazing space. It's incredible," Sigoloff says of the Neutra, all the while conceding of the estate, "It's not for everyone."

Although Sigoloff hosted an open house at the property on Sept. 29, he says, "We're not going to have periodic 'opens' for every lookie-loo around."

Working with fellow The Agency agent Billy Rose, Sigoloff predicted, "I think we'll do everything by appointment."

For more on the 14800 Corona Del Mar property, click here.