Gideon Raff Wraps Laurel Canyon Sale

After about 1.5 years on and off the sales and rental markets, Israeli film and television polymath Gideon “Gidi” Raff has sold a hillside home in L.A.’s storied Laurel Canyon neighborhood for its full asking price of $1.745 million.

Raff, who served as an assistant director on the 2005 film “Mr. & Mrs. Smith” and co-created, co-wrote and directed the Sacha Baron Cohen starring 2019 Netflix espionage miniseries “The Spy,” is best known as the creator the award-winning Israeli series “Prisoners of War” and the two-time Emmy winning co-creator, writer and executive producer of its equally popular American version “Homeland.”

The sale price is profitably above the $1.4 million Raff paid for the multilevel 1920s Spanish bungalow about 7.5 years ago, but significantly less than the almost $2.4 million price the home was saddled with when it first popped up for sale in 2019. Shortly after the three-bedroom and 2.5-bath spread came up for sale in 2019 it was also set out as a rental at $8,500 per month.

A fenced and gated courtyard entry enveloped in a tangle of trees and foliage leads to the front door of the 2,345-square-foot home. Set into a deep porch with a tiled fireplace and stone steps to the garage, the front door abruptly opens directly in to the living room that sports polished and inlaid terra-cotta floor tiles, antique light fixtures, a huge fireplace emblazoned with a baronial crest, and a soaring exposed wood ceiling that showcases thick, hand-carved beams.

A minstrel’s gallery-like lounge overlooks the living room, as does the dining room that flows through an arched doorway to the somewhat compact kitchen where gunmetal grey cabinets are complemented by stainless steel appliances and a practical mix of grey granite and butcher block countertops.

Guest bedrooms are average in size and share a deluxe marble bathroom, while the primary bedroom is privately positioned on the uppermost floor atop a two-car garage with a small balcony, plus a bathroom flooded with natural light thanks to a large skylight over the double vanity and glass-enclosed steam shower.

A small patio off the living room includes a hot tub, and the courtyard entry includes a snazzy outdoor kitchen/bar under a bougainvillea-draped pergola.

The property was jointly represented by Richard Ehrlich of Westside Estate Agency and Barbara Palmer of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices California Properties; The buyer was handled by Sevan Sean Baroni at NextHome Luxe Group.

Raff and his husband, Udi Peleg, upgraded their residential circumstances in 2016 with the $2.8 million purchase of a comprehensively updated and casually luxurious 1920s Saltbox-style Colonial of about 3,800 square feet that’s tucked behind a high hedge and secured gates in a leafy and quietly well-to-do neighborhood just south of hoity-toity Hancock Park.