Dean Koontz wrote a bestseller in Orange County.
The author sold his 2.5-acre home in Newport Coast to mortgage firm head Glenn Stearns for $50 million, making it one of the priciest sales in the area, according to the Wall Street Journal.
It was an off-market deal that closed in the spring, making it one of the last few big off-market deals in the area before the National Association of Realtors’ ban on pocket listings took effect on May 1.
Koontz was represented by Evan Corkett and Steve High of Villa Real Estate, while Rex McKown and Marcy Weinstein of Compass represented Stearns.
Koontz and his wife Gerda Kootz built a 30,000-square-foot main house on the property in the early 2000s. The home has Art Deco-style interiors and a Frank Lloyd Wright-inspired movie theater, complete with an entrance styled after traditional theaters.
There are also two outdoor swimming pools. Koontz called building the home “an insane undertaking,” in 2014.
“I had been waiting my entire life to build a house that I would never want to leave,” he told the Journal.
The couple is downsizing and owns other properties in the area.
Stearns said that Koontz is his mother’s favorite author and heard he was selling the home on her birthday in January. The two had previously met. Stearns said it “couldn’t be worse timing” to spend $50 million on a home, but coronavirus didn’t stop him from closing. [WSJ] — Dennis Lynch