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Ellen DeGeneres Sells $34 Million Montecito Home to Netflix Exec

The talk show host has bought and sold more than $76 million in real estate over the past year

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The home sold for $11 million less than Ellen DeGeneres originally wanted for the property.

Composite: Brian ZAK / Getty Images; Sotheby's International Realty
The home sold for $11 million less than Ellen DeGeneres originally wanted for the property.
Composite: Brian ZAK / Getty Images; Sotheby's International Realty

Ellen DeGeneres has bought and sold more than $76 million in real estate in Southern California over the past 12 months, including her latest sale of a near 17-acre estate in Montecito for $34 million to Netflix executive Ted Sarandos, according to property records.

A deed recently filed with the Santa Barbara County recorder shows the daytime talk show host and her wife, actress Portia de Rossi, have unloaded the secluded six-bedroom stone villa built in the 1930s that the couple had once listed for $45 million. The off-market deal between the TV personalities and a curiously named trust tied to Mr. Sarandos, chief content officer at Netflix, closed last month, the records show.

Ms. DeGeneres, 60, and Ms. de Rossi, 45, serial big-ticket house flippers, bought the mansion in Montecito for $26.5 million in 2013 through a private trust and their financial adviser, records show.

The Tuscan-style villa designed by architect Wallace Frost is crawling with ivy and features a red-tile roof, rustic stone interiors and exposed ceiling beams. The property encompasses stone terraces and walkways, a recently built entertainment pavilion, a tennis court and two pools, according to the most recent listing with agent Suzanne Perkins of Sotheby’s International Realty.

Mr. Sarandos, 53, and his wife, Nicole Avant, the daughter of a former U.S. ambassador to the Bahamas, bought the picturesque estate through the same trust under which they owned a Malibu home, which they sold for $21.25 million in May, records show.

This most recent sale marks at least the third home Ms. DeGeneres and Ms. de Rossi have sold in Southern California in the last 12 months. They sold another Montecito home for $11 million to Tinder founder and chairman Sean Rad only a few months after purchasing it. In Los Angeles, they sold a two-bedroom condo last fall for $5.85 million, Mansion Global previously reported.

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They also purchased an $18.6 million beach home in October, which, going by their turnover rate, we can expect the stars to list any day now.

Reps for the actresses and a media contact at Netflix did not immediately return requests for comment.