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    This 137-Acre SoCal Estate Has a Massive Car Museum. Now It Can Be Yours for $125 Million.

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    An extravagant estate long owned by the late Orange County Air Force major general turned homebuilder and civic leader William Lyon has roared onto the market in Southern California. The asking price? A jaw-dropping $125 million, though that amount might seem far less outrageous when you consider the property’s lavish features—a 24,000-square-foot car museum, a private gas station, and a helipad, just for starters.

    Should the place go for anywhere near that amount, it would set a record for the most expensive residential real estate transaction ever recorded in the area—eclipsing the $61 million sale of a Newport Coast mansion to LoanDepot founder Anthony Hsieh in 2020. Waiting in the wings, however, is the 42-acre Casa Grande estate in San Juan Capistrano that’s currently listed for $150 million.

    “Whoever gets the opportunity to own this piece of real estate history will be owning one of the most iconic properties in America, said Mauricio Umansky, CEO and founder of The Agency, who shares the listing with Josh Altman of Douglas Elliman Real Estate.

    The car museum is augmented with taxidermy specimens from a family game-hunting trip in Tanzania.

    Gavin Cater

    RELATED: A Rare Coastal Compound in SoCal’s Orange County Just Hit the Market for $50 Million

    The founder of William Lyon Homes—which was acquired in 2020 shortly before his death at age 97 by Taylor Morrison as part of a cash and stock deal valued at around $2.4 billion, including debt assumption—and his wife Willa Dean designed and built the spread in the 1980s. Sited in the affluent guard-gated community of Coto de Caza, where The Real Housewives reality TV franchise made its debut in 2006, the estate includes a Georgian-style main mansion and multiple other structures spread across 137 acres, replete with scenic views of the Saddleback Mountains.

    The hilltop compound is perhaps most famous for its car museum, a nearly 24,000-square-foot showstopper built to house Lyon’s epic personal collection, with room for 70 vehicles (none included with the sale, unfortunately), as well as an auto shop and wash and gas stations. Among the slew of other perks are a private helipad (sans the helicopter) and equestrian facilities encompassing a 10-stall barn and riding arena. Adding to the abode’s appeal is its list of distinguished visitors through the years, most notably President Ronald Reagan and First Lady Nancy Reagan.

    A portrait of Major General William Lyon hangs over the fireplace in the wood-paneled library.

    Gavin Cater

    Steps off a circular courtyard sweep up to the front entrance of the eight-bedroom, 11-bath primary dwelling, which was inspired by the family’s previous home near Mount Vernon in Virginia and offers 21,000 square feet across three levels. Standing out is an elegant fireside living room, as well as a chandelier-topped dining room lined with murals and an opulent primary bedroom adorned with a tracery ceiling. There’s also a brick-clad wine cellar and a handsome wood-paneled library warmed by a fireplace.

    Additional structures include three guesthouses—one with two bedrooms, a bath, and a full kitchen, and the other two each offering a single bedroom and kitchenette. The spectacular resort-inspired grounds are showcased by several patios ideal for grand-scale entertaining, a pool and spa, a sauna-equipped pool house, a championship lighted tennis court, a greenhouse, two irrigation lakes, a pond, and a 41-acre orange orchard with 4,500 trees planted more than 30 years ago.

    A resort-style pool offers up picturesque views of the Saddleback Mountains.

    Gavin Cater

    RELATED: Minnesota’s Most Expensive Listing Is This Massive $55 Million Waterfront Estate

    A particularly enticing bonus: The sale comes with pre-approved plans for a 64-acre development of 25 homes in a new gated enclave at the southern end of the land.

    Per The Wall Street Journal, which first reported the listing, the family is selling because it’s “not the same place” since their parents passed away. The family has a lot of good memories at the property, the couple’s son Bill Lyon said, but after his mother’s death in 2024, they feel it is time to move on.

    Click here for more photos of the Orange County residence.

    Gavin Cater

    Authors

    Wendy Bowman

    Wendy Bowman is a real estate writer at Robb Report. Before that, she was a freelancer for Modern Luxury and several other media outlets, where she primarily covered luxury properties for…

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      A Celebrity Doctor Just Paid $27 Million for a Bayfront SoCal Mansion

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      He’s been labeled the “most popular psychiatrist in America,” with millions of followers on social media and 12 New York Times-bestselling books under his belt, and now Dr. Daniel Amen has the house to reflect that success. The 69-year-old mogul recently recently paid exactly $27 million for a bayfront mansion in Newport Beach, Calif., not far from the Costa Mesa headquarters of his Amen Clinics empire.

      Built on speculation by a developer, the Tuscan-style house spans nearly 9,500 square feet of living space and was completed in 2006. Later that same year, it was sold to auto tycoon Fletcher “Ted” Jones Jr., owner of the world’s largest Mercedes-Benz dealership by volume, and his second wife Kimberly.

      After the Joneses divorced about 10 years ago, records indicate Kimberly kept the lavish Newport marital home, though the waterfront property was on and off the market for much of the last seven years at prices fluctuating between $30 million and $32 million. At least two buyers’ offers were accepted during that time, but both deals eventually fell through before Dr. Amen stepped up to the plate.

      Most of the home’s Old World-style finishes are antique and imported. Numerous French doors open to covered terraces.

      Andrew Bramasco

      Sited on a third-of-an-acre lot, large for tightly-packed Balboa Peninsula, the estate is fronted by a detached four-car garage complete with an upstairs guesthouse. From the street, visitors heading to the main house must travel via a gated walkway that passes under the guesthouse before spilling into a tranquil courtyard accented by a large central fountain flanked by grassy lawns.

      Beyond that, the main house features antique finishes, imported stone from Italy, and a mixture of hardwood and limestone flooring. There’s a gourmet kitchen open to a bar seating area and a fireside dining area, plus a separate formal dining room with bay views.

      Open to the kitchen, this fireside dining area overlooks Newport Harbor.

      Andrew Bramasco

      Other amenities are not limited to an upstairs master retreat with dual bathrooms and dual private terraces, a movie theater with seating for 10 lucky viewers, and a backyard with an infinity pool and two ancient olive trees. In addition to a wine cellar, the house also boasts what the listing describes as a “subterranean wine room” with space for entertaining. But perhaps the property’s most notable features are its panoramic coastline views and a massive private boat dock, the latter capable of mooring two 60-foot yachts.

      Over the course of his 40-year career in psychiatry, Dr. Amen has built a majorly profitable business that now includes numerous books, dietary supplements, speaking engagements, television appearances and more than 200 employees. He was prominently featured on a recent episode of “The Kardashians,” and is perhaps best known for his usage of SPECT imaging for diagnostic purposes — the Los Angeles native’s clinics have performed some 200,000 of these $3,500 brain scans over 30 years.

      Andrew Bramasco More