SiriusXM Host Dr. Laura Lists Gated California Compound for $23 Million

For 20 years, radio personality “Dr. Laura” Schlessinger has gazed at the Pacific Ocean while hosting live shows from her 3.75-acre estate in Santa Barbara, Calif. “During commercial breaks, I’m staring at ships going by,” she said. “It’s very relaxing.”

With plans to move to a smaller home in the area, Schlessinger is putting the gated compound on the market for $23 million. At 78, it is time for her to “whittle down” a bit, said Schlessinger, a marriage, family and child counselor who gives advice on her live SiriusXM show, “Dr. Laura.” And although it is bittersweet to think about selling, she said, “they’re going to hand me a check and I’ll change my mind.”

Schlessinger and her late husband, Lewis Bishop, paid about $6.137 million for the property in 2005, records show. Schlessinger listed the Santa Barbara house in 2021 for $22.85 million and it went into contract, she said, but the deal fell apart and she spent several years in mediation over the failed transaction.

The property is located in the Santa Barbara enclave of Campanil Hill, according to listing agent Andrea O’Loughlin of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices California Properties. The estate overlooking the ocean has a roughly 8,800-square-foot, six-bedroom main house plus a one-bedroom guesthouse that Schlessinger converted to her studio, installing soundproofing materials so she can host her live shows. A third structure on the property houses a gym and guest suite.

Schlessinger and Bishop were living in a smaller house nearby before buying this house. Nonetheless, she went to see the property at her husband’s insistence, she said, and fell in love with its ocean views even before seeing the whole property.

“The agent said, ‘Would you like to look through the house?’ and I said, “What for? It’s a nice big house. If there’s something I don’t like I’ll change it,’” she recalled.

They put $4 million into the property the first year, Schlessinger said. “I just took care of business real fast,” she said.

In the main house, the couple expanded the kitchen and added windows and french doors throughout to maximize views. On the main level, there is an Old West-style billiards room with wood-paneled walls, a wet bar and vaulted ceilings. Schlessinger said she was particular about the primary bathroom, vetoing her husband’s idea for a sauna. “One of those places you poach yourself—I said that’s a ‘no,’” she recalled. Instead, there is a two-person shower with a glass window overlooking the ocean. “I have to take showers when the guys are not working on the lawn,” she said.

In addition to renovating the interiors of the home, they did extensive landscaping, adding a pickleball court and koi pond with waterfalls. There is also a tennis court and an outdoor swimming pool. Schlessinger also created a quarter-mile walking trail around the property. “Every day I do four laps, up and down,” she said. “It’s quite a good workout.”

To maximize opportunities to be outdoors, Schlessinger said, the property has two large decks, one overlooking the tennis court and another on the roof of the guesthouse. The structure previously had a huge, sloping roof that blocked the view of the ocean. “I insisted, ‘Off with its head!’” Schlessinger said. There is a small bridge from the main residence to the roof of the guesthouse, which sits at a lower point on the property.

Bishop died in 2015. Schlessinger, an avid sailor, said she is selling in part so she can afford to bring her sailing crew to Europe to race. “I can’t do that and maintain this house,” she said.

Schlessinger was in private practice before she started doing radio segments in the 1970s. She weathered controversy in 2010 over her use of the N-word during a show. “That was all misrepresented,” she said. She was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 2018.

She said she has no intention of slowing down. “I don’t understand retiring,” she said. “I will wait until I’m dead.” Once this house sells, she said, she plans to host her show in a room of her new house.

In addition to her radio work, Schlessinger makes jewelry and glass art; she said she has donated millions of dollars to veterans with proceeds of the sale of her art.

Like other luxury markets, Santa Barbara experienced a luxury-market slowdown last year, although activity has picked up since the presidential election, O’Loughlin said. The median sale price in Santa Barbara was $1.7 million in December, up 6.3% from December 2023, according to real-estate brokerage Redfin.

O’Loughlin said the views from Schlessinger’s property, along with its size and condition, make it desirable, especially as the market has grown and opportunities to build on the coast are limited. In the nearby affluent coastal community of Hope Ranch, a home is on the market for $66 million.