Abandoned Graffiti-Covered Mansion on Mulholland Drive Has Wealthy Neighbors Up In Arms

A home on storied Mulholland Drive in Los Angeles has been left abandoned, and irate neighbors say that squatters and trespassers have taken over.

The home at 7711 Mulholland sits high along a ridge in the East Laurelwood neighborhood of the city and offers panoramic views of the city. It has the makings of a luxury property, but it appears no one ever moved in.

Neighbors said the lot has been taken over by trespassers who are using the half-finished home as a party location.

“The house on the top of the hill has been an issue for a while,” Paul Stern, who lives nearby, told NBC Los Angeles. “Since the point when it was constructed, it wasn't constructed properly. It created a lot of mudslides. We dealt with the mudslides.”

Neighbors said they're sick of dealing with it, and they are growing increasingly concerned about the structural safety of the property.

They've have asked that the city's mayor, Karen Bass, and Councilmember Nithya Rama, who represents the district, intervene. Bass intervened in a similar situation in August, after a fire broke out in an abandoned property in Studio City.

The mayor, who is up for reelection and running against Rama, called for legal action against the Studio City owner after the L.A. Department of Building and Safety (LADBS) called the address a "present, imminent, extreme, and immediate hazard."

Graffiti is visible on the roof of the home as seen from the road, and a city contractor says fresh trash and bottles around the property are indications of recent activity there, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Realtor.com® has reached out to Bass and Rama for comment.

A house, but not a home

The history of 7711 Mulholland is somewhat murky. It was purchased by a company called Walking Media Inc. in 2022 for $1.25 million, seemingly a steal compared to other homes in the area, many of which are listed for double that or more.

But it turns out, the house was only half-finished at the time of the sale.

When it was listed in 2022, it was accompanied by a video tour that showed an expansive hillside home replete with floor-to-ceiling windows, polished concrete floors, and exposed beams. But images of the home's kitchen and bathrooms were conspicuously absent.

That's because, at the moment, they don't exist. When it was last sold, the home had no kitchen, no sewer connection, and no certificate of occupancy. It also lacked a driveway or off-street parking.

Listings described the property as a "development opportunity" requiring "extensive work" to finish.

It's possible that some of that work might begin soon. In May, the owner filed a request for and was issued a building permit and certificate of occupancy with the LADBS.

Yet, since then, two nuisance complaints have been issued against the property and are being investigated by the city.

"Once a conspicuous property appears vacant for an extended period, vandalism, graffiti, trespassing, and exposure to the elements can make an already difficult redevelopment project even much more expensive," says Amo Realty president Daniel Amodeo. Amodeo serves real estate clients throughout the Los Angeles market.

"Buyers for these properties are potentially dealing with engineering, permitting, access, utilities, fire requirements, insurance, and also substantial construction costs before anyone can actually occupy the property," he says. "A buyer can purchase what looks like a really incredible piece of prime L.A. real estate with amazing views and then discover that completing it is a much larger undertaking than buying it."

Surprisingly, 7711 Mulholland isn't the only abandoned mansion in the city. A search of nuisance properties in L.A. uncovered a dozen properties last sold for over $1 million that are either abandoned or unfinished.

Perhaps the most famous of those properties is a $6.5 million Mulholland Drive mansion once owned by John Powers Middleton, erstwhile producer and son of Philadelphia Phillies owner John Middleton.

That property and another owned by Middleton sat fallow for more than a decade, and were overtaken by a group of squatters and grafitti writers.

In 2024, Middleton issued an apology to his neighbors, saying: “What’s happened to the two properties I own is unacceptable. No matter what caused it, I own the houses.”