Luxury Custom Home Builder
Marilynn & Co. designs and builds luxury custom homes throughout Southern California. From the first site visit to the final walkthrough — one team, one standard, 32 years of experience.
32+
Years Experience
500+
Homes Built
6
Counties Served
5.0
Client Rating
What We Build
Marilynn & Co. is a luxury custom home builder serving Los Angeles, Orange County, San Diego, the Inland Empire, and the desert communities of Palm Springs and the Coachella Valley — with 32 years of experience building homes that are designed for the places they sit, not applied over them.
A luxury custom home is not a production build with upgraded finishes. It is a home designed around a specific site, a specific client, and a specific way of living — built once, built right, and built to hold up for decades in one of the most demanding climates in the country. That distinction matters more in Southern California than almost anywhere else. The terrain here is varied and often challenging. The fire environment is real and permanent. The regulatory landscape — permitting, coastal commission, HOA review, local ordinances — adds layers that require a contractor who has been through it before.
Marilynn & Co. has been through it. We have built contemporary estates on coastal bluffs where the Coastal Commission review added six months to the pre-construction phase and every material had to be specified to survive salt air. We have built hillside homes in Los Angeles where the structural engineering for the site was as complex as the architecture above it. We have built estate homes in Rancho Santa Fe and Fairbanks Ranch where covenant review required documentation our clients never had to touch because we handled all of it. And we have built homes in the wildland-urban interface communities across the region where fire-resistant construction is not optional — it is the difference between a home that survives and one that does not.
Every luxury custom home we build goes through the same process: a thorough consultation, a design phase that resolves every detail before construction starts, a permitting process we manage completely, and a build executed by crews who have been doing this work for years. The result is a home that looks the way the design said it would, finishes on a timeline that was communicated at the start, and performs the way a well-built home in Southern California should.
Architectural Styles
One of the things that separates a genuine custom home builder from a production builder is the ability to build across architectural styles rather than defaulting to a single look. Marilynn & Co. has built luxury custom homes in every major style found across Southern California.
Clean lines, open floor plans, large glass panels, and indoor-outdoor flow. Designed for Southern California light and the connection between interior space and landscape.
Stucco exteriors, terracotta rooflines, arched openings, and courtyard living. A style built for the Southern California climate that has defined the region's residential architecture for over a century.
Board and batten siding, metal rooflines, covered outdoor living, and interiors that balance warmth with clean detail. Popular across Los Angeles, the San Gabriel Valley, and coastal San Diego.
Rich material detail, exposed structural elements, covered porches, and proportions that honor the streetscape. Well suited to the older established neighborhoods of Pasadena, Brea, and Fullerton.
Classic proportion brought into modern daily life. Transitional homes blend the scale and detail of traditional architecture with open plans and contemporary material palettes.
No category required. If you are working with an architect or have a design vision that does not fit a named style, we build to the plans — whatever they call for.
Our Approach
One of the things that separates a genuine custom home builder from a production builder is the ability to build across architectural styles rather than defaulting to a single look. Marilynn & Co. has built luxury custom homes in every major style found across Southern California.
Fire-Aware Construction Every luxury custom home Marilynn & Co. builds incorporates fire-resistant materials and construction methods developed from 25+ years of frontline Southern California firefighting experience. Class A roof assemblies, ember-resistant vent detailing, non-combustible exterior materials, and defensible space built into the site plan from the start. Not an upgrade — our baseline.
We manage the entire process under one roof — design, structural engineering, permits, and construction. One team, one point of contact, no gaps between the design and what gets built. Clients who have worked with a separate architect and a separate contractor know how much can go wrong in that handoff. We eliminate it.
No category required. If you are working with an architect or have a design vision that does not fit a named style, we build to the plans — whatever they call for.
Custom home construction has a reputation for running late and over budget. We communicate the timeline at the start, flag anything that could affect it before it becomes a problem, and finish what we said we would build, when we said we would build it.
Our Founder
Anthony Ferro spent 25 years as a Southern California firefighter before founding Marilynn & Co. He has worked fires in Los Angeles, Orange County, San Diego, and the communities along the wildland-urban interface across the region. That experience is the reason fire-aware construction is not a line item at Marilynn & Co. — it is the foundation of how we build every luxury custom home we take on.
The company was started with a simple premise: Southern California deserves a luxury home builder who understands Southern California. The terrain, the climate, the fire risk, the permitting complexity — all of it. Not a builder who applies a national template to a local market, but one who has been working this region for three decades and knows what it takes to build something here that lasts.
That is what Marilynn & Co. is.
32+
Years Building
25+
Years Firefighting
6
Counties Served
Our Work
A selection of custom homes built by Marilynn & Co. across Southern California.
How It Works
01
We start with the site and the vision. Bring us the lot address, your ideas, and your questions. We walk the property, talk through what is realistic for the budget and timeline, and give you a straight picture of what the process involves before you make any commitments.
02
We work with your architect or ours to develop plans built around the site and around how you actually live. Every material, structural system, and construction detail gets resolved in this phase — before a shovel breaks ground.
03
We manage the full permitting process across every jurisdiction we work in. City planning, building permits, coastal commission review, HOA and covenant design review — all of it handled by our team so you do not have to track any of it.
04
Our crews build with the same attention we bring to design. We communicate throughout the build, surface problems before they become expensive, and hand over a finished home that looks the way the design said it would.
Where We Build
Marilynn & Co. builds luxury custom homes throughout Southern California from our base in Covina. We serve clients across six counties and do not subcontract projects to regional crews when the job is outside our immediate area — the same team builds in Beverly Hills and in Palm Desert.
We serve communities throughout Los Angeles County including Beverly Hills, Bel Air, Brentwood, Pacific Palisades, Malibu, Calabasas, Hidden Hills, Pasadena, Arcadia, San Marino, Altadena, Manhattan Beach, Palos Verdes, and Rolling Hills.
In Orange County we build throughout Newport Beach, Corona del Mar, Laguna Beach, Irvine, Mission Viejo, Yorba Linda, Anaheim Hills, Huntington Beach, and Coto de Caza.
In San Diego County we serve La Jolla, Del Mar, Rancho Santa Fe, Solana Beach, Encinitas, Carlsbad, Poway, and surrounding communities.
We also serve the Inland Empire including Rancho Cucamonga, Chino Hills, Upland, Claremont, Temecula, and Riverside — Ventura County including Thousand Oaks, Westlake Village, and Moorpark — and the desert communities of Palm Springs, Palm Desert, Rancho Mirage, and La Quinta.
Common Questions
A luxury custom home is a home designed and built specifically for one client on one site — not a production model with upgraded finishes, and not a spec home built on speculation and purchased finished. Every decision, from the floor plan and the architectural style to the structural system and the material selections, is made for that project. The result is a home that fits the site, fits the client, and was not built to a cost formula that compromises the outcome.
In Southern California, luxury custom home construction typically ranges from $400 to $900+ per square foot depending on location, architectural complexity, site conditions, and finish level. Coastal sites in Malibu, La Jolla, and Newport Beach tend to run toward the higher end. Hillside lots with significant structural engineering requirements add cost. Desert builds in Palm Springs and the Coachella Valley have their own cost profile. We provide a detailed project estimate during the consultation — a real number based on your actual site and program, not a range pulled from a website.
From permit approval to move-in, most luxury custom home projects take between 12 and 24 months. The pre-construction phase — design, engineering, and permitting — typically adds another 6 to 12 months before that clock starts. Coastal projects requiring Coastal Commission review and projects in HOA communities with design review add time in the pre-construction phase. We communicate the full expected timeline at the start of every project.
No. Marilynn & Co. offers full design-build services — we can handle the design process with architects we work with regularly, or we can build to plans you bring us from your own architect. Either way works. If you are early in the process and have not engaged an architect yet, we can talk through the design direction during the consultation and connect you with the right people for the project.
Yes. We manage the full permitting process for every project we build — city planning, building permits, Coastal Commission review where required, and HOA or covenant design review in communities that require it. Permitting in Southern California is one of the things that adds the most uncertainty to a custom home timeline. We manage it completely.
We build luxury custom homes throughout Southern California — Los Angeles County, Orange County, San Diego County, Riverside County, San Bernardino County, and Ventura County. Our base is in Covina in the San Gabriel Valley. Full service area details are on our Southern California page.
Client Reviews
"Marilynn & Co. handled everything from permits to final inspection. The attention to detail was incredible, and the finished home exceeded what we imagined when we first broke ground."
Sarah M.
Manhattan Beach
"After getting quotes from five contractors, Marilynn & Co. came back with the most thorough plan and the most transparent pricing. The project finished on time and on budget."
Michael R.
Orange County
"The construction quality is unlike anything we have seen. Professional, responsive, and they delivered exactly what they said they would. We would build with them again without hesitation."
Jennifer L.
Los Angeles
Get Started
Tell us about your project. Whether you have a lot and a vision or are still in the early stages of planning, we want to hear from you. Consultations are free and there is no obligation.
Phone
(909) 599-0033
Address
5135 N Valley Center Ave
Covina, CA 91724
