In the 1996 movie “The Nutty Professor,” Eddie Murphy plays title character Sherman Klump, the entire Klump family, and Klump’s evil alter ego, Buddy Love.
But even Murphy didn’t play as many roles as Chris Cortazzo when it comes to Malibu luxury home deals.
The Compass agent/land investor is at again, purchasing a 3,556-square-foot home at 28936 Cliffside Drive in Malibu for $20 million, according to Los Angeles County property records.
Cortazzo also represented the seller, the JW Seybold Family Trust. And Cortazzo is noted by the Multiple Listings Service as representing the buyer on the deal — in other words, representing himself.
Unclear is what commission Cortazzo and Compass collect on such sales. Both Cortazzo and a spokesperson for the brokerage declined to comment.
The 28936 Cliffside Drive purchase comes just a month after Cortazzo sold for $39 million a home on the very same block in Malibu’s Point Dume neighborhood, at 28848 Cliffside Drive. Cortazzo repped himself as the seller in that deal, though Westside Estate Agency’s Kurt Rappaport negotiated for the unidentified buyer.
Also, Cortazzo represented himself in another Malibu home deal last month, selling an abode at Bonsai Drive for $9.9 million. Cortazzo’s Compass colleague, Alexander Pureval, represented the buyer.
Not including his most recent purchase, PropertyShark pegs Cortazzo as the true owner of 12 single-family properties, eight of which are in Malibu and two a few miles east in Venice and West L.A. (Cortazzo also owns homes in Tampa, Florida, and Reading, Pennsylvania.)
The data does not account for Malibu properties that Cortazzo has recently sold.
Arguably Compass’s biggest L.A. recruit, Cortazzo came over from Coldwell Banker in August of last year.
He has maintained an elite sales pace with Compass, leading all L.A. County agents in on-market home sales for the six months of 2020. Cortazzo’s end-of-the-year sales volume numbers will be boosted by multiple sales the agent has done on his own behalf.