Brad Pitt Quietly Lists Longtime L.A. Compound for $40 Million: Source https://t.co/D8XhVubz5M
— People (@people) January 17, 2023
Brad Pitt is looking to let go of a Los Angeles property he's owned for nearly 30 years.
The Babylon star, 59, quietly listed the expansive property located in the Los Feliz neighborhood for about $40 million, a real-estate source confirms to PEOPLE.
Pitt first called the space home after buying the original mansion from Elvira, Mistress of the Dark star Cassandra Peterson in 1994 for a reported $1.7 million. Since then, the Academy Award winner has purchased multiple lots adjacent to the original home and filled them with a swimming pool, tennis court and skating rink.
According to the source, Pitt's reason for selling the 1.9-acre property is because he's "looking for something smaller" in the L.A. area.
The sprawling home is where he and ex-wife Angelina Jolie, 47, raised their six children — Maddox, 21, Pax, 19, Zahara, 18, Shiloh, 16, and 14-year-old twins Knox and Vivienne — before splitting in 2016.
Following their split and since being ruled legally single in 2019, the former couple have been in ongoing negotiations regarding the custody of their children and the divvying of their financial assets, such as their South of France estate Château Miraval.
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Updated: 10:47 ET, Oct 10 2022
In July, Pitt spent $40million on American author D.L James' former home, known as “Seaward,” in Carmel, a luxury coastal town in California.
Carmel-by-the-Sea is a favorite for aging stars like the late Doris Day, Joan Fontaine, and Betty White. Clint Eastwood also calls it home.
Moving also makes life a lot more difficult for Pitt to see his six children while living a five-hour drive up the west coast.
The surprise move by Pitt, who used to share the compound with Jolie and the kids while they were together, has been discovered through a publicly-available mortgage agreement.
His management has completed the agreement with the Canadian bank, City National Bank (CNB), nicknamed the "bank of the stars.”
In June, Pitt’s long-time manager, Cynthia Pett-Dante, signed a "deed of trust and assignment of rents" with CNB.
The “assignment of rents”, is a special type of mortgage solely for rental properties, allowing the bank to collect the rent directly from a tenant if Pitt fails to keep up with the loan repayments.
As part of the deal, Pitt has also agreed to a $17.5million line of credit with CNB - called a "Home Equity Line of Credit Agreement."
This means he’s allowed to borrow any amount from the bank up to that agreed figure.
Realtor Billy Rose is a former real estate attorney and celebrity agent, who's co-founder of The Agency, which buys and sells high-end property across the globe.
Rose explains that such a line of credit isn’t uncommon for the rich and famous, especially if it’s secured at a low-interest rate.
This is because it can be used to purchase assets or property, which will rise in value at a higher rate than the interest charged.
It’s unknown if Pitt funded the Carmel purchase with this line of credit.
He says: "You have an asset, which you use as security for a loan, and during the days of two or one percent [interest], then you have a line of credit where they’re not really charging you anything in interest.
"For some people, it’s a way of making money - I can take out the money that I’m paying one percent on, then I can use it to buy something, an asset or property."
Forbes valued Pitt’s net worth at around $300million, but it doesn’t always mean a celebrity has tens of millions in readily available cash, Rose said.
Rose, who’s not connected to the Pitt deal, added: "Banks take pretty high risks, they’re going to appraise your house and give you a percentage of its value.
"A lot of wealth is tied up, but it's maybe where they [a famous person] think: 'I want a line, I’m going to take it, if I should ever want it or need it.’"
Like most celebrities, Pitt has bought his properties through trusts.
His Los Feliz compound is owned by The Briarcliff Trust and Pett-Dante is the trustee.
Pitt began building his compound in July 1994 when he purchased a six-bedroom, Craftsman-style house for $1.7million.
Two years later, he purchased a small house for $380,000 at the back of his land and, in 1998, acquired another neighboring house for $475,000.
When he was with Jolie, Pitt bought another small property in 2008 for nearly $1.3million.
Finally, he purchased a huge barn structure with a secret cave and its own bar for $1.1 million in 2009.
In 2014, Pitt and Jolie installed a skatepark by the side of their main villa, which now wraps around one side.
There are three pools and Pitt also purchased land across the road for a tennis court.
Pitt, who has always taken an interest in architecture, wanted to create a free-flowing compound, which was in keeping with the original houses in the area, dating back to 1915.
