Apparently Zillow co-founder and former CEO Spencer Rascoff likes L.A.’s Brentwood neighborhood. Four years after settling into his $20 million Brentwood Park mansion, the tech guru has expanded his holdings, buying another house just one block away. Records reveal the 45-year-old Harvard alum wanted the second place quite badly — he paid $5.7 million, or over a million dollars more than the home’s current Zillow Zestimate.
Set on a petite quarter-acre lot, with a house that’s significantly smaller than his towering main residence, it’s likely this purchase was made for Rascoff’s extended family. Listing materials accurately describe the idiosyncratic stone-covered house as being “reminiscent of a Sun Valley lodge,” and the lodge theme continues inside — where there are vaulted, wood-beamed ceilings with interspersed skylights.
The single-story structure was built in the 1950s and offers three bedrooms and 3.5 baths in about 3,200 square feet of living space. While the place has good bones — there are hardwood floors and multiple sets of French doors, not to mention pricey upgrades like a glass-fronted SubZero refrigerator — the copious subway tiles and dated fixtures make it clear this place is in need of decorative rehab.
But the star of the real estate show is undeniably the property’s painstakingly manicured grounds, which are essentially a Thomas Kinkade painting brought to life. The lush gardens include grassy lawns, bright bunches of bougainvilla plants, and a spray of well-fed white roses, while mature olive trees shade their more height-challenged flora friends. From the street, a whimsical wooden gate leads to a wooden bridge that ends just before the custom-carved front doors. Out back, there’s sparkling lagoon-style pool.
Rascoff, previously based in Seattle but now living in L.A., founded Hotwire.com before co-founding Zillow, serving as CEO of the latter from 2010 until 2019. The $25 billion tech company now sports more than 5,000 employees worldwide, while Rascoff has moved on to dot.la, a news organization he founded, and a blank-check company (SPAC) through which he plans to invest in a tech unicorn and take it public.
Mary Lu Tuthill of Coldwell Banker held the listing; Josh and Matt Altman of the Altman Brothers team at Douglas Elliman repped Rascoff.