Hawking luxury, and with success

Andrew Edwards

Rack up sales in the nine-figure range and people will notice.

John McMonigle, 40, of Newport Beach was recently recognized as

Coldwell Banker’s leading real estate sales agent for 2004. McMonigle

sold more than $201 million worth of residential real estate last

year, according to Coldwell Banker.

“I was so very honored to have established that level of

performance among such qualified and competitive peers,” McMonigle

said.

McMonigle received the award Feb. 11 at Coldwell Banker’s annual

conference in Orlando, Fla. He was recognized as the agent whose

sales garnered the largest commission in 2004. He declined to

disclose his exact commission.

McMonigle was Coldwell Banker’s first Orange County agent to win

the award, which tends to help agents expand their business, said

Peter Hernandez, Coldwell Banker’s Orange County president.

“It’s an absolute prestige acknowledgment,” Hernandez said. “It’s

like winning an Oscar; you don’t win money, but you get a lot more

film deals.”

McMonigle was a co-founder of Strada Properties, which in 2000

started as a boutique real estate firm that specialized in pricy

Newport Coast properties. Coldwell Banker purchased Strada Properties

in 2003, and the company’s listings have expanded to include homes in

Newport Beach, Corona del Mar and Laguna Beach. Current listings

range from a Bay Hill Drive home in Newport Beach with an asking

price just under $1 million to an Italian Villa at Pelican Crest with

a price tag of close to $18 million.

“I really perceive myself as a promoter of luxury,” McMonigle

said.

McMonigle is also president of his own development company,

Monarch Estates, which is currently marketing Villa del Lago, a

$50-million Newport Coast Estate. Monarch Estate’s website for the

12,000 square-foot Tuscan style mansion trumpets a two-hole golf

course, an orchard and a vineyard, which are included on the 12

1/2-acre lot.

“What makes it so special is it’s isolated, stands on its own,

doesn’t have any neighbors,” McMonigle said. “It’s 12 1/2 acres, has

a lake.”

Villa del Lago was tied for the No. 8 spot as the most expensive

home in the country in a feature published by Ultimate Homes

Magazine.

The magazine’s publisher, Richard Goodwin, said McMonigle is

well-known around the luxury home community.

“The industry likes him and the people like him,” Goodwin said.

“He has great properties too.”

Newport Coast, along with Crystal Cove, are among last seaside

areas of Orange County where homes are still being developed, and

real estate typically fetches big money.

“Every time I go back [to Newport Coast], there’s more being

built,” Goodwin said. “There are astounding prices that they are able

to command on that part of the coast.”