Matchmaker Attracted To Real Estate

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Celebrity matchmaker Melanie Mar of the service Melanie Mar Love isn’t just connecting people with their perfect partner. The professional cupid and dating coach, who’s appeared on reality TV shows “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” and “The Millionaire Matchmaker,” has expanded into the business of matching people with the perfect home.

Mar was a runway and editorial model in her native England from ages 18 to 21 before moving to Italy to pursue her career.

“I had moved to Italy for fashion and I was really bored,” she said. “But I knew that I loved design, whatever form it came in.”

After moving to Los Angeles, Mar switched careers and became a matchmaker. She’s been doing it for 10 years and founded her Beverly Hills company in 2013.

But her passion for design never went away and led her to real estate.

“If you can put together an outfit, putting together a house is not that dissimilar,” she said.

Over the past decade, Mar has developed eight homes in or near her hometown of Sheffield, England. Now, she’s taking on the lucrative L.A. market.

Her first project was a Hollywood Hills home at 1489 Stebbins Terrace that will hit the market Jan. 18. The modern contemporary house, with sliding glass doors to showcase the view and 14-foot-high ceilings, will be listed at $7.5 million. She called it a sexy property that lends itself to “a bachelor … or a gay couple.”

Mar designed and built the home from the ground up along with a contractor and architect, which she used mostly as an usher through the city approvals process.

“I knew when I was buying this (plot), I was buying the view,” Mar said, adding that she went door to door asking nearby residents if she could trim their trees. “I probably spent $10,000 chopping down neighbors’ trees.”

While she took a quick break from matchmaking to develop the property, Mar is fixing up couples again while she waits for her next project to get approved.

“It’s a skill that never goes away,” she said. “It always knocks on my door and finds me.”

– Hannah Miet

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