Original Paypal investor linked to deal for ‘Western White House’

We may not know who will be sitting in the White House come January, but property records and state filings give us a pretty good idea of who will be residing in the so-called “Western White House,” a 1930 Julia Morgan-designed mansion built to resemble the presidential residence at the behest of George Hearst. 

Scott Banister, the first investor and board member at PayPal, and an early investor in Uber, SpaceX, Postmates and more, is listed as a manager of Willowmoss LLC, which purchased the historic Hillsborough home for $23 million last week. Banister is also a venture partner in Long Journey Ventures, which was co-founded by his wife, Cyan. In addition to investing in other companies, Banister also co-founded anti-spam company IronPort, which sold to Cisco for $830 million in 2007. 

The 2012-formed Willowmoss LLC has been on a bit of a buying spree as of late, according to property records, picking up not only the 11-bedroom, 24,000-square-foot home on three acres with its own wood-paneled “Oval Office” on the Peninsula, but also a $6.2-million San Rafael mansion that also has an Georgian architectural style on 1.7 acres in September. Before that, the same entity bought a smaller San Rafael home for $1.9 million. It has also owned a condo in the Lower Haight and a single-family home near Alamo Square in San Francisco for over a decade.

Marin-based agent Greg Browman of Corcoran Icon represented the buyers on all three deals this year. Browman did not immediately reply to a request for comment. 

Alex Buljan of Compass represented the seller of 401 El Cerrito Avenue in Hillsborough, which is an LLC tied to real-estate investor Mehrdad Elie. Elie bought the home in 2022 for $15 million, TRD reported at the time. 

The home first hit the market for $38.9 million in June 2023, after a brief stint up for auction. Buljan said his sellers are “happy” with the price even though it was nearly $16 million off the initial ask–and “more importantly, that the property found a buyer that really appreciates the house and all of its history.”

Hearst, the son of newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst, had political aspirations when he commissioned Hearst Castle architect Morgan to transform the existing 19th-century home on the property into an estate befitting his presidential ambitions, complete with a rose garden and cherry blossom trees. 

Though the 2024 election is less than one week away, Buljan said that wasn’t sure whether or not the national political scene played into the sale, but “the coincidental timing with the election perhaps brought added exposure to the property because of its connection to the Washington DC White House.”

Banister has certainly shown an interest in politics in the past. He donated $2 million to a SuperPAC supporting Rand Paul in the run up to the 2016 election, as well as $25,000 to Ron DeSantis’ campaign in 2021, according to campaign finance records. He’s also donated nearly $500,000 to state campaigns in Arizona and Colorado to legalize marijuana. 

Many of his political donations use the same Half Moon Bay P.O. Box as the Willowmoss LLC, and he also owns a home in the coastal community that he bought in his own name in 2003. Records show he also has another LLC that he started in 2010 with the same business partner as Willowmoss, Heather Cannon. It currently owns another 10 properties that are located around the Bay Area, outside San Diego and outside Banister’s hometown of Kansas City, Missouri, according to property records.