Realty Check

Record Price
The biggest real estate news is November’s listing of another record-breaking property price… with countless media outlets covering it from the Los Angeles Times to the New York Post. Just before Thanksgiving media and education guru Chris Whittle and his wife, Priscilla Rattazzi, photographer and niece of Fiat head Gianni Agnelli, put their 11-acre estate on the market for $140 million. It boasts a quarter-mile of frontage on Georgica Pond, but without oceanfront only time will tell if it can garner so many shekels. Peter M. Turino, President of Brown Harris Stevens of the Hamptons, is the exclusive listing broker.

It is “the most expensive home for sale in the region, and likely on the East Coast,” according to Forbes. The West Coast has us beat. Also in November, real estate billionaire Jeff Greene, who has a house in the Hamptons, listed his 25-acre Beverly Hills estate, Palazzo di Amore, for $195 million. The immense Mediterranean-style property includes a 35,000-square-foot main house plus a 15,000-square-foot entertainment center and a vineyard that produces six wines. The most expensive home sold in the U.S. is still the $147 Further Lane property purchased by Barry Rosenstein in May.

One of the most historic properties on the South Fork, Briar Patch – a humble name for such an exalted property – is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The six-bedroom, 10,000-square-foot main house, a Georgian Revival built originally in 1931 with French doors in all ground-floor rooms leading to spacious porches, was renovated by biker-chic starchitect Peter Marino, as was the 3,500-square-foot, four-bedroom guesthouse with a double-height master bedroom. The power couple told the Wall Street Journal that they hoped to launch “a new chapter of our lives as empty nesters,” a feat that will go smoothly if they get any near asking price.

Star Power
Last month we reported that Renee Zellweger had put her Egypt Lane farmhouse on the market for $4.45 million. According to the New York Post, “once Zellweger was unmasked as the home’s true owner, a bidding war began.” Less than a month after being listed the property sold for circa $250,000 above asking. A tiny house by Hamptons’ standards – only 2,000 square feet – some speculate that the high price was paid for the Tinsel Town provenance. The buyer is orthopedic surgeon Jeffrey Geller and his wife, Leigh Geller, a former assistant district attorney for Manhattan.

Fall is the New Spring
While the first half of the year is traditionally the hottest house sales season, realtors are reeling with the news that four properties have sold for more than $30 million… since Labor Day. And the scuttlebutt has it that four more are in contract. The four that closed included two Meadow Lane properties. The house of electronic dance music czar Robert Sillerman, listed by Corcoran’s Tim Davis, went for $37.5 million while another property at number 576 went for $41 million. Last year only five South Fork sales exceeded $25 million.

Russian Roulette
Janna Bullock, a Russian blonde real estate honcho who is down on her luck, is selling two Meadow Lane properties. A three-acre lot with an 8,500-square-foot manse, which she bought in 2005 for $14.8 million, is listed at $29 million. A five-acre parcel with a 3,500-square-foot home, which she bought in 2008 for $20 million, is asking $22. The socialite, who hit the jackpot by trading up on Manhattan townhouses, most likely needs the cash for payments on her two townhouses on East 82nd Street for which she “has been accused of skipping out on loan payments,” according to the New York Post.  Anthony Cerio and Michael Natter of Brown Harris Stevens have the listings.

Good as Goldman
Corcoran’s Susan Breitenbach has the $43 million listing for the five-acre Bridgehampton compound of Jonathan Sobel, the former head of the mortgage division at Goldman Sachs. Sobel purchased the Highland Terrace property, with three waterfront acres, three years ago for only $13 million. The 15,000 square-foot manse features 30-foot ceilings graced with floor to ceiling glass walls, which command generous water views. Sobel has been busy, recently selling his Sagaponack estate for $20 million. He bought the land in 2003 for $2.58 million, before having renowned architect Charles Gwathmey build the house. “He also sold his penthouse at the Tony Verona building on the Upper East Side for $21 million in 2012 after buying it for just $9 million,” according to the Daily News.

Hot Listing
An exquisite ivy-clad house known as “the castle,” because of its prominent turret, which houses a master bedroom, is on the market for the first time since 1999. Built in 1911, the Southampton arts-and-crafts style house was lovingly updated by its current owner, who bought the 3,000-square-foot gem for $830,000. The spectacular gazebo pool house features carved windows and doors. $4.3 million. Represented by Harald Grant of Sotheby’s.

Zoe Langstrom is a former public relations exec turned Hamptonite who can be found hiding out in Sag Harbor, dining at the American Hotel, swimming at a secret bay beach, and attending everything at Guild Hall.