©julius sherman, the getty museum
Buying and selling
Stewardship Over Ownership
Buying (and preserving) a house with provenance
As the Generational Wealth Transfer continues to gain steam, some of the most significant homes and estates in the US are changing hands. Sophisticated buyers who value history and provenance are becoming the new stewards of legacy properties.
Take the Stahl House, a Modernist house designed by architect Pierre Koenig in Los Angeles’ Hollywood Hills and completed in 1960. Also known as Case Study House No. 22, it is the only residence built as part of that program that can claim single-family ownership, according to William Baker, Southern California-based Architecture Director for The Agency, who listed the property late last year for US$20 million. “That’s about as rarefied as you can get,” he says. “It’s really one of one.”
The famous Case Study Houses were experimental homes built as part of a program sponsored by Arts & Architecture magazine in the mid-20th century. Twenty-five homes were created by the likes of Richard Neutra and Charles Eames, most in the Southern California area, in hopes of offering high design at a low cost during the post-World War II housing boom.
The Stahl House was built for Buck and Carlotta Stahl; today, their children, Bruce Stahl and Shari Gronwald, maintain the iconic glass-and-steel home and keep it open to visitors.
Now, they are ready to pass on the responsibility for the home, which is a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument and on the National Register of Historic Places. “They decided if they’re going to find the next custodian, let’s do it now so they can enjoy the proceeds with their children and grandchildren,” Baker says.
Legacy homes like the Stahl House are prized by buyers who see these residences as “functional art,” says Billy Rose, The Agency’s Co-Founder and Vice Chairman. “These homes from a different era— they’re pieces of art that aren’t easily replicated,” he explains. “The value could come from the architect, the original owner, or the cultural moment in which it was built. It could be the craftsmanship or the role the property played in the history of the neighborhood or the city. Age alone doesn’t create pedigree. A house becomes significant when its design, its provenance, and the physical integrity come together.”
Legacy properties also carry a particular level of responsibility and stewardship—plus a hefty maintenance budget—that other homes don’t, Rose notes. The owner “absolutely should enjoy it,” he says. “Live in it, make it work for your life, but youʼre also caring for something that belongs, in a broader sense, to the architectural and cultural history of the community. The most successful owners understand that they’re not the final chapter; they’re part of the continuum.”
A Labor of Love
Significant prestigious homes often stay in the families for generations, according to Pasadena, California-based Rita Whitney, Managing Director, Estates Division at The Agency.
When they do come on the market, they often need to be updated and the family may not have the resources to properly do so. Increasingly, those homes are ending up for sale, the agent notes. “It takes a lot of dough-re-mi to have one of these properties,” she says, noting that the step-up in basis alone can save heirs US$100,000 to US$200,000 in taxes on a prestige estate.
For clarity, the key benefit of inheriting a significant estate is the step-up in basis. If an owner dies, the property’s tax basis resets from its original purchase price to its market value at the time of their death, wiping out the capital gains accrued during their lifetime. If a home is sold while the owner is still living, the owner pays tax on all that appreciation. If someone inherits a home, the heirs are taxed only on growth after that date. “You have to make it make sense in terms of what the home was. Restraint can be worth more than extravagance,” says Rose. “The market will reward authenticity, as long as it’s still livable for today’s standards.”
From the outset, buyers need to ask the right questions about any historic home they are considering purchasing. That means looking at floor plans and foundations, and asking about systems upgrades and other parts of the home that they can’t see, according to Whitney. “They need to know about the roof, the HVAC system, the plumbing—when were they last updated?” she explains. “A lot of our clients are fire victims, so they are concerned about the brush around the home and insurance costs. And if the home was built between 1900 and 1935, the sewer lines become an issue.”
Clients looking for legacy properties are usually experienced buyers, Whitney notes, and often have a sense of what goes into maintaining them. “Usually they have a second—or third or fourth—home in another location. They’re not always architecturally significant homes, but they are always unique.” Still, Whitney and her team have a roster of builders, landscapers, and other workmen to aid new owners with period-sensitive repairs and restorations.
On the seller’s side, although they love their home, many older owners don’t notice things that are outdated, according to Alison Melton, Managing Partner of The Agency Hilton Head, The Agency Savannah, and The Agency Beaufort. So, before she lists a home that dates to the 1800s, she has a prelisting inspection done. “I always advise them to do that, to pull all the permits, and get me all of the information,” she says. “It might take them a month, and we’ll have it as a ‘coming soon’ listing or as an off-market pocket listing during that time. But all of that information is being prepared to answer those questions for potential buyers—because they are asking.”
“It takes a lot of dough-re-mi to have one of these properties...”
rita whitney
Managing director, estates division at the agency
The Right Staging
Staging is an important part of selling a historic home, but it’s important not to overwhelm the period details of the property, Melton explains.
“We do modern staging in a historic home. No one wants to see grandma’s 100-year-old couch in there,” she says. “Some of the wooden antiques, especially in Charleston, are just phenomenal. You want to keep the overall original character of the home as much as you can. But in terms of actual furnishings, you’re going to want to move out those heavy furnishings and put in light, neutral coastal furnishings. You want to appeal to the buyer, and the buyer of this is someone in their 40s or 50s.”
Some agents may only stage one or two rooms to give the home more of a modern feel, says Whitney. For a recent Pasadena listing, she added a loveseat and chair to the breakfast room to make it feel like a family room, she explains. She also created an upstairs office area, and repurposed the actual downstairs office—which was like a “Russian palace”—as a guest suite. “We might paint a wall white if it’s a color,” she says. “Other than that, we just do minor repairs.”
As always, imagery is very important in a historic home. But instead of focusing on photos and videos of the kitchen, the architectural details should sing, says J. Bradley Wolf, Managing Partner of The Agency Birmingham in Southeast Michigan. “You have to do a little more for these,” he says. “We focus on the architectural pieces within the house to create a feel of what it’s all about. Maybe it’s a banister down the main staircase, or the plaster moldings throughout the house that were done by an Italian artisan 100 years ago. It’s not always all about square footage and acreage. It’s about the details.”
His colleague, agent Cindy Obron Kahn, notes that significant estates in Michigan have been easier to sell in a post-Covid market. A legacy home might be a 1920s estate, perhaps built by an executive in the auto industry, that has original fireplaces and other details, plus acreage. Those have typically been more difficult because sometimes they’re not kept up, she notes, but that’s changing. “People have put more emphasis on their homes since the pandemic,” she says. “Maybe before they would have downsized, but a lot of their kids and families moved back to town, so now I have some clients upsizing. They are buying larger legacy homes and homes on lakes, and they are spending more money on their homes.”
“[Pricing] is one of the most difficult parts of the whole process. It's like, what do you price a Monet at?”
Billy rose
co-Founder + vice chairman, The Agency
Telling the Right Story
There’s also more research that goes into marketing historic homes, explains Beth Caldarello, Managing Partner at The Agency Santa Fe. In addition to getting information from the seller, she relies on town records, books, the University of New Mexico library, and other locals to help suss out the history of a property. For example, in Galisteo, New Mexico—once home to artists like Agnes Martin and Judy Chicago—what was once the jail or local watering hole are now private houses.
Properly conveying the historic nature of the property is really important, she adds. “That’s really what people are buying in this scenario: the history of something, what it meant, who was there, when it was built, who built what, what room was the stable, and so on,” Caldarello explains. “If you have that provenance for the property, then people get really excited. Sellers really want to make sure you communicate that.”
That history is also part of finding the right price, which can be difficult for these unicorn properties that don’t always have comps. “I call them ‘heart properties’ a lot of times because they’re kind of those properties that are very unique and specific,” Caldarello says. “People always are like, ‘Well, how do you do comps for these offers?’ I’m like, ‘they’re heart properties. You just pick a number.”
Rose notes that finding the right price is “one of the most difficult parts of the whole process. It’s like, what do you price a Monet at?”
The process does include looking at other historic home sales, as well as asking “how important is this compared to that?” he says. “And then, you know, location and amenities, and condition. There are so many factors, and, like we say, there’s no two that are the same.”
And finding the right buyer for a property like the Stahl House is not always finding the highest bidder, Baker adds. “Part of my responsibility representing the seller is trying to determine what we believe this buyer intends to do with the property,” he says. “Because it is money, but it’s not just the money. It’s history and it’s legacy.” ■
• market insight
How to Be a Good Steward
Keep up with the systems
One of the most important—and least interesting—aspects of homeownership is maintenance. Understanding that systems need to be updated every 15 to 20 years is crucial to keeping the home in good condition, according to Rita Whitney. “In Pasadena there are no teardowns. If you’re buying a US$10 million home, you may be putting US$2 million to US$6 million into it if the maintenance has been deferred.”
modernize without erasing
Most buyers, even those interested in historic property, don’t want to go through the process of replumbing the house or replacing the electrical system. In places like Charleston or Savannah, the best homes have been renovated to 2026 standards but still have their character, Alison Melton notes. “You have these heart of pine floors throughout and these incredible ceiling medallions that lead you into a small room that’s been retrofitted as a red light sauna.”
Get to know the property first
The last thing a buyer should do is make a quick decision without getting to know the property. “Once the defining elements of a house are removed, they’re often extraordinarily difficult, if not impossible, to recover,” Billy Rose says. “Owning an important pedigree home is both a privilege and a responsibility.”
know what your home needs
Owners need to understand the unique needs of a property, whether that’s a slate roof on a Michigan mansion, the gunite facade of a Pasadena home, or the adobe walls of a Santa Fe home. “Every location has different wear and tear,” says Beth Caldarello, noting that the New Mexico sun can do a number on stucco facades and the adobe needs extra care when it gets wet.
If you're away, have someone there
For buyers who collect homes and won’t be at the property full time, a manager is also a must, Melton adds. “It’s not buying a condo at the beach and just taking the kids; they’re not turnkey properties. If it’s the second, third, fourth home for them, you have to have a local property manager.”
