Comedian Craig Ferguson Flips Out in Malibu

SELLER: Craig Ferguson
LOCATION: Malibu, CA
PRICE: $7,195,000
SIZE: 3,184 square feet, 4 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms

YOUR MAMA’S NOTES: Whether he’s caught a hardcore case of The Celebrity Real Estate Fickle or simply sees an opportunity to rake in a million dollar-plus profit, Scottish-born comedian and veteran late night chat show host Craig Ferguson has flipped an ocean-front house in a much coveted gated Malibu enclave on the market for $7.195 million after he acquired it just 16 months ago for $5.6 million. A cursory comparison of current listing photographs and those from the time of his purchase suggest the brutally self-deprecating satirist, currently the host of “Celebrity Name Game” game show, didn’t make any significant cosmetic alterations to the rough-shingled and vaguely Cape Cod-style residence but he does appear to have made a handful of not particularly expensive improvements. The interiors of the 3,184-square-foot two-story were slathered in a coat of bright white paint; all-new medium-grade stainless steel appliances installed in the kitchen; a built-in storage and entertainment unit added in the family room area next to the kitchen; the glass wind shields on the ocean-side balconies cleaned or changed out; and, perhaps most importantly, the residence’s beach-side windows were replaced, including the glass sliders in the main living area that lead to a house-wide deck that cantilevers over the sand and — at high tide — surf.

Originally built in the early 1970s and set behind a street-facing two-car garage and a wind-protected red brick entry courtyard, the four-bedroom and four-bathroom beach house is fitted on both floors with knotty, extra-wide floorboards including in the spacious L-shaped main living space that also benefits from a row of floor-to-ceiling bookshelves and a raised hearth fireplace for foggy mornings and chilly evenings. The kitchen, around the corner from the den/family room area, is certainly sizable if not exactly as stylish or state-of-the-art as one might hope or expect in a seven-plus million dollar house and leads back to a hall bathroom and exterior access to private steps that lead down to the beach. An open-tread switch back staircase ascends to the upper floor where the master bedroom and an en suite guest bedroom both have newly installed glass sliders to a shared ocean-side balcony. A roof terrace atop the garage is a bonus though not ideally accessed through a bathroom and somewhere there’s a long and narrow gym fitted with a giant mirror, hardwood floors, and leaded glass accented doors that look to this sometimes persnickety property gossip like they were picked up on the cheap at a big box home improvement store.

A property gossip column staple the last few years, Mister Ferguson sold a 1930s Mediterranean in the Beachwood Canyon area of the Hollywood Hills in May 2013 for $1.74 million to comedian and “Undateable” actor Chris D’Elia and the year prior, in the in the spring of 2012 he shelled out $4.1 million for a double-gated, multi-residence Craftsman-style compound in the Bronson Canyon area of the Hollywood Hills that he first put on the market in June (2015) for $5.5 million and price-chopped to $4.7 million before taking it off the market late last month.

Listing photos: Sotheby’s International Realty

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