The Menendez house at 722 North Elm Drive in Beverly Hills is now owned by the Lahijani family, a prominent Iranian-American real estate family based in Los Angeles. They closed on the seven-bedroom, 9,063-square-foot Mediterranean villa in March 2024 for $17 million, taking title through a California limited liability company called LAHA ELM. The sale closed on March 20, exactly 28 years to the day after a jury convicted Lyle and Erik Menendez of murdering their parents inside the home.
Who the Lahijanis Are
The Lahijani family has deep roots in Southern California real estate investing, with a portfolio that reportedly includes both residential and commercial properties across Los Angeles. Rather than buying 722 North Elm Drive in their personal names, they formed LAHA ELM LLC in California in February 2024 and used it to close the deal the following month.
Buying through an LLC is standard practice for wealthy purchasers in Los Angeles. It keeps individual names off the grant deed, so public records searches and property databases don’t immediately reveal who lives at the address. It also creates a liability shield: if someone is injured on the property and sues, the LLC is the defendant rather than the family’s personal assets.
The structure of the purchase suggests a long-term play rather than a straightforward move-in. Families with this kind of real estate background often target properties where renovations and holding time can push values well above the purchase price, and a stigmatized home in a premium Beverly Hills location fits that strategy.
What They Paid and Why It Sold Below Asking
The home was listed on December 1, 2023, at $19,999,500 and sold roughly four months later for $17 million. That’s a discount of about 15 percent from the asking price, which isn’t unusual for properties with violent histories. Appraisers and brokers who work with stigmatized properties note that crime-related devaluation is real but tends to shrink over time, and a desirable location can offset much of the effect. A tree-lined street north of Sunset Boulevard is about as desirable as residential real estate gets.
The seller was Sam Delug, a telecommunications executive and attorney who had owned the home since 2001, when he bought it for $3.7 million. Even at the negotiated price, his 23-year hold produced a substantial gain.
How the House Got to the Lahijanis
The property has changed hands only a few times since José and Kitty Menendez were killed inside it on August 20, 1989. After the Menendez estate was settled, the first notable buyer was William Link, the television writer who co-created both “Columbo” and “Murder, She Wrote.” Link bought the home in the early 1990s and lived there for roughly eight years. His willingness to move in mattered at the time, because the property was still closely associated with the murders, and his presence helped normalize it as a residence again.
Link sold to Delug in 2001. Delug’s two-decade-plus ownership was by far the longest stretch since the crimes. He remodeled the interior, raised his children in the house, and hosted community events and holiday gatherings there throughout his tenure. By most accounts he did more than anyone to redefine the property as a living space rather than a crime scene. By the time he put it on the market, it was still “the Menendez house” in headlines, but to the neighbors it was the Delug house.
What the Lahijanis Can Do With the Property
The villa was originally built in 1927 and went through a significant redesign in 1984 before the Menendez family moved in. By the time the Lahijanis acquired it, the interior still carried some of the heavy wood paneling and closed-off floor plans typical of 1980s luxury homes. Reports since the 2024 sale indicate a more thorough renovation is underway.
Any major work at this address runs through Beverly Hills’ detailed permitting process. The city’s Building and Safety Division enforces the 2025 California Building Code and a suite of related codes, and a licensed contractor is required for any project valued at $1,000 or more. Because the home sits in the city’s Central Area, exterior changes visible from the street are also subject to a design review process, which can add time and cost to façade or landscaping work.
One question that comes up repeatedly about this house: could it ever become a true-crime tourist destination? Beverly Hills zoning strictly limits properties in this area to single-family residential use. The regulations govern maximum floor area, building height, setbacks, parking, fencing, and landscaping, and they effectively rule out converting the home into a museum, commercial attraction, or anything else that would generate high-traffic or high-density activity. Whatever the Lahijanis do with 722 North Elm Drive, it has to be a house.
Why the Owners Weren’t Required to Disclose the Murders
Buyers sometimes wonder whether the sellers of a home with a violent history are legally required to say so. In California the answer is narrower than most people expect. Under Civil Code Section 1710.2, a seller or landlord does not have to volunteer that a death occurred on the property if it happened more than three years before the buyer or tenant makes an offer. Since the Menendez murders took place in 1989, no seller of this home has been legally obligated to raise them for decades.
The statute does carry one exception. If a buyer directly asks whether anyone died on the property, the seller cannot lie; intentional misrepresentation in response to a direct question is not protected by the three-year safe harbor. In the case of 722 North Elm Drive, disclosure is academic. The house’s history is so widely known that every buyer since the 1990s has walked in knowing exactly what happened, and every sale price, including the Lahijanis’ $17 million, has reflected that knowledge to some degree.