Brad Pitt says he’s been in love with new Carmel home since the 1990s

CARMEL – Brad Pitt said of the Carmel Highlands property overlooking the Pacific he recently shelled-out $40 million for, “It’s a place I have been in love with since the ’90s.”

The 58-year-old actor bought the D. L. James House in the Carmel area of Monterey County, adding another significant real estate gem to his portfoliom which he said could be his new bachelor pad.

“I guess I am (a bachelor),” Pitt told Extra at the Los Angeles premiere of his new movie “Bullet Train.”

“It is a pad. Why not …? It’s a place I have been in love with since the (1990s) and it was a lovely owner … The opportunity came up, and I couldn’t pass it up.”

Pitt bought the house that sits on a cliff-side perch high above the ocean in an off-market purchase that is said to be one of the priciest sales in one of the most sought-after locations in the country.

A Monterey County property characteristics record describes a parcel of 2.51 acres that consists of land with two dwellings, the largest being a 3,793-square-foot structure of three bedrooms and four bathrooms constructed in 1914.

It reflects a second 695-square-foot structure built in 1940 consisting of one bedroom and one bathroom. Other attributes on the county document list a total of five fireplaces, a 550-square-foot greenhouse, a 504-square-foot garage, and a 588-square-foot basement.

The house is named for D.L. James, an American writer who commissioned Charles Greene to design the house. The home, dubbed Seaward, has an exterior of golden granite that was quarried from nearby Yankee Point, giving the structure a look of emerging from the cliff where it sits, according to the Craftsman Bungalow. The Craftsman-style home’s stonework was said to be inspired by the ruins of Tintagel in England.

Greene, along with his brother Henry made up the influential 20th century architecture firm Green and Green. They were proponents of the Arts and Crafts movement. Charles Greene moved to Carmel around the time he was commissioned to design Seaward where he lived until his death in 1957.

An “off-market property” refers to a house that sells without ever being publicly marketed. The seller either advertises the home privately to a select group of potential buyers or negotiates with the buyer directly without ever advertising the property is for sale.

According to the National Association of Realtors, off-market property sales happen more frequently than many realize. It says that 10% of all sellers find a buyer without listing on the multiple listing service, or MLS. The number of home sales that do not involve MLS listings varies tremendously by region. It tends to be highest in areas where the local housing market is hot.

“Golden Girl” Betty White’s Carmel Meadows home sold this year for nearly $3 million more than the asking price.

Before Pitt, the house was owned since 1999 by an LLC linked to Chicago Research and Trading founder Joe Ritchie, who died earlier this year, according to Architectural Digest.

In 2001, Ritchie received an OK from the Monterey County Planning Commission to drill and blast an access tunnel through the cliff under the house to the rocky beach below, but the California Coastal Commission appealed that decision.