Historic Rancho Latigo, a colossal property near Santa Barbara, sells for $21 million
Rancho Latigo, the huge horse ranch spanning 4,700 acres in the rolling hills of the Santa Ynez Valley near Santa Barbara, has been sold via auction for $21 million, according to a representative of the Hall and Hall real estate firm.
The price for Rancho Latigo was reduced to $24.5 million earlier this year before Hall and Hall got the listing and decided to take it to auction on October 20, 2020. The $21 million sale closed November 6.
The seller, Fred Steck, a retired partner at Goldman Sachs who purchased the property in 1999, was only the fourth owner of the ranch since 1868. The property had listed for as high as $45 million in 2017.
”I have been tracking Rancho Latigo since it first came up for sale six years ago, so I was naturally excited to hear from Mr. Steck last summer and eager to visit,” Bill McDavid, director and real estate partner at Hall and Hall, told the Sacramento Bee in an email. “From the moment I drove through the gate, I knew this ranch was special.”
It’s easy to see why.
The property, which is located just 13 miles from Michael Jackson’s former Neverland Valley Ranch, offers a custom, 14,000-square-foot Spanish colonial-inspired main residence with six bedrooms and 11 baths, a guest house, helipad, oversized swimming pool with a 25-yard lap lane, 10,000-square-foot barn, equestrian arena, horse trails and lots of solitude, if one wishes.
There’s also a 10,000 bottle wine cellar and a movie theater.
Architectural elements of the residence are impressive, too: soaring ceilings, imported and hand-carved materials, hardwood floors and reclaimed wood beams and French doors throughout allowing seamless indoor-outdoor living.
The house was designed by David L. Leavengood, a renowned ranch architect.
“This trophy property is a family legacy waiting to happen,” the official listing stated.
Rancho Latigo was originally part of a Spanish land grant, dating back to the 1800s. Today, the land includes independent water sourcing, arable land and tax-incentive conservation opportunities, according to the listing.
Steck had transformed the land into “an equestrian paradise,” according to a representative of Hall and Hall.. The property was previously owned by Jean Claude Brouillet, a French freedom fighter who founded National Airways in the west Africa nation of Gabon.
“It’s bittersweet to leave it,” Steck told Mansion Global in an article. “I will miss the opportunity to share the property with my family, and I will miss the sheer beauty of it: The snow on the upper ranch during the winter mornings, or the sunsets during the summer evenings.”
Santa Ynez, one of only two east-west running valleys in California, is only a short drive to the beaches of Santa Barbara, and two hours from Los Angeles.
This story was originally published November 11, 2020 at 9:22 AM with the headline "Historic Rancho Latigo, a colossal property near Santa Barbara, sells for $21 million."
