A Danville home sold by cybersecurity CEO David DeWalt is the East Bay town’s highest-priced sale ever, outside of its Blackhawk gated communities, according to public records and MLS data.
The house on 3 acres sold for $8 million, due in part to a major refresh after it failed to land a buyer last summer, when it started with a price tag of $10 million.
Listing agent Carolyn Gwynn of The Agency said the rare combination of 804 Pintado Road’s acreage combined with its location two miles from downtown was a big reason it was able to set a new high.
“I’ve been selling luxury properties for 15 years and have never seen anything with this desirable combination of proximity, views, land and privacy,” she said.
DeWalt worked as CEO of security software company McAfee when it was acquired by Intel for $7.7 billion in 2010. He is currently the CEO of a cybersecurity investment fund called NightDragon.
He bought the Danville property with his wife Mary in 2005 for about $2.4 million, according to public records. The couple spent years designing and constructing the 9,000-square-foot main house around its views of a large heritage oak tree and Mount Diablo.
The estate also comes with a 630-square-foot one-bedroom, one-bath in-law, a pool and spa, a loggia with a fireplace and outdoor kitchen, a putting green with sand trap, and a 1,500-square-foot five-stall horse barn and riding arena.
Now that the sellers have raised their family, they plan to “enjoy their next phase of life, splitting time between their vacation properties,” Gwynn said.
The buyer is 804 Oak Grove LLC, which lists its mailing address as that of a financial advisor in Portsmouth, New Hampshire in state filings. Kelly Wood with Stable Properties represented the East Bay-based buyers and said she had worked with them for years to find a home in neighboring Lafayette. But with inventory tight, she encouraged them to branch out to Danville and Alamo and they fell for the six-bedroom, seven-bath property’s size, location near downtown and quality construction.
The home “had everything they needed and felt like a staycation,” Gwynn said, adding that the only change they plan to make is putting a double oven in the kitchen.
They did not see the 2008 custom-built home when it first listed, and only viewed it after a facelift on the property that Gwynn led after taking it off the market last year.
Telling sellers of custom luxury homes that their property needs an update with “clean lines, light tones and light furniture” to appeal to today’s buyers can be “difficult,” Gwynn said, but “painting, purging, changing hardware and light fixtures makes all the difference.”
She spent three months working with her team on the renovation, which culminated with new staging and photographs. She also posted fewer pictures to intrigue buyers so they would come out and see the home in person, she said. The new look led to a lot more showings than the first time around, even though it came back on the market with the same $8.8-million asking price where it ended after a series of price cuts last year.
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“We could have simply lowered the price, which would have been easier for me, but I knew the net proceeds would be significantly higher for the sellers if we updated,” Gwynn said.
The home went into contract about two months after it listed in mid-February and closed May 3.
Gwynn said the luxury market in Danville hasn’t changed much since the home listed in early spring, with just “a trickle more inventory coming on.” Interest rates don’t really factor into the high-end market as purchases at this price point tend to be all cash, she said, but insurance is proving to be “very challenging” for luxury homes in the area.