House Hunting in… Los Cabos, Mexico
Originally Published on January 25, 2017 in the New York Times by Author, Vivian Marino.
A FOUR-BEDROOM VILLA NEAR THE BEACH IN LOS CABOS
$2.9 MILLION
This hacienda-style house, known as Villa Miguel, is in the gated Cabo del Sol golf community on the southern tip of Mexico’s Baja California peninsula. The 180,000-acre resort was built along a two-mile stretch of the Sea of Cortez coastline, just minutes from downtown Cabo San Lucas. It includes several subdivisions with custom houses and condominiums facing the ocean or the fairway.
Villa Miguel, which has four bedrooms and four and a half baths over 3,800 square feet, offers both gulf and golf. Built in 2001 in the Buena Vista subdivision, the concrete two-story house has a terra-cotta tile roof and a two-car garage, and faces the beach as well as part of the eighth fairway. The home is being sold fully furnished and “totally turnkey,” said Andrew Stephenson, a sales executive at Engel & Völkers Snell Real Estate, which is listing the property.
The villa served as a vacation home for Kathy Christopherson and her husband, Michael, and after his death in 2007 was primarily rented out. “I didn’t want it to sit empty,” said Ms. Christopherson, a retired business owner from Lilydale, Minn., who built a smaller home for herself on a nearby lot. “It’s kind of like having our little boutique hotel.”
Villa Miguel offers many hotel-like amenities in addition to the resort community’s golf and tennis facilities. The house is just over a tenth of a mile from the beach and has an L-shaped infinity pool with a Jacuzzi, along with an outdoor kitchen, firepit and seating areas on an expansive terrace. Each of the four spacious en-suite bedrooms has private outdoor space facing the ocean.
The property is entered through a wrought-iron gate that opens to a large landscaped courtyard with a traditional Spanish colonial fountain, in “truly authentic Mexican hacienda style,” Mr. Stephenson said.
Inside, through a carved antique mesquite front door from Guadalajara, is the foyer, with a curved staircase and striking brick domed ceiling. Two master bedrooms are upstairs, while a third master suite, a smaller bedroom and a half-bath are downstairs. The lower level, with double-height vaulted ceilings, also contains the living room, dining area and kitchen in an open floor plan that connects to the terrace.
The home’s rustic aesthetic continues in the living room, with exposed beams and columns and a double-height stone wall that holds a gas fireplace. If you look closely at the locally crafted Saltillo terra-cotta floors, Ms. Christopherson said, “you can actually see animal footprints in them.”
Cabo del Sol is in the “Golden Corridor,” which extends about 20 miles from Cabo San Lucas to San José del Cabo and has several championship golf courses and resort developments. The Los Cabos area is known for its warm, sunny climate and outdoor activities like fishing, scuba diving and whale watching.
Villa Miguel is about seven miles from Cabo San Lucas, a popular tourist destination that offers a lively night life, and around 25 miles from the Los Cabos International Airport.
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