Rodeo Realty Agents Ben Bacal and Josh Flagg are Interviewed by Yahoo Real Estate About the Playboy Mansion
The famed Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles’ Holmby Hills is for sale: all 5 acres, 29 rooms, the storied grotto, a zoo license, and Hef himself.
The former playboy who founded Playboy almost 63 years ago comes as a package deal with the mansion: As part of a “life estate,” any buyer would have to rent the home to Hugh Hefner until he dies. Hefner, who turns 90 in April, rents it from mansion owner Playboy Enterprises.
The property is being listed at $200 million, which makes it the most expensive home on the market. A sale at anywhere near that price would make it the most expensive known home sale in U.S. history. (The record is thought to be Connecticut’s Copper Beech Farm, which sold in 2014 at a reported $120 million.)
We asked a few local luxury real estate agents – unaffiliated with the property listing, which is held by Drew Fenton and Gary Gold of Hilton & Hyland as well as Mauricio Umansky of The Agency – what they thought of the price and the property.
Catherine Marcus of Sotheby’s International Realty didn’t flinch a bit. She’s one of the agents who brokered the deal for America’s first $100 million house, billionaire Yuri Milner’s Silicon Valley purchase.
“I think it’s absolutely worth it — that land and that location alone is phenomenal.” She said the buyer will be a guy who says, “I want to live in this trophy property” (and yes, she definitely thinks it’ll be a man; “I can’t imagine a woman buying it”).
“Think about it! Right? You know: the mentality of ‘I want all the toys.’ … The guy who gets it, gets to be that guy.”
We asked her about TMZ’s report that local agents say it’s a teardown.
“I think it IS a teardown, but nobody is going to tear it down.
“I think it’s going to be the tackiest house ever” – but it’s a trophy. Maybe the buyer will build elsewhere on the property, since it’s plenty big enough at 5 acres. “That’ll be their party house and they’ll have their real home.”
“I guarantee you the place is in a state of disrepair,” she said, but “that’s what makes it so great, that it hasn’t been touched in that whole time.” In fact, “if anyone remodels it, it won’t be worth as much.”
In that case, is this what passes for history in Los Angeles?
“Of course!” she said. “Anything over 30 years old we knock down.” But this house is “part of Americana, when you think about it. … Every one of these tour buses, they drive by the Playboy Mansion.”
Josh Flagg, star of Bravo TV’s “Million Dollar Listing,” said the mansion is “one of the trophy properties of California” and “one of the top five great estates of Los Angeles,” so he thinks it’s conceivable that the home could attain the asking price. But he’s skeptical.
“Last year I had an adjoining 10 acres – the largest residential property in Holmby Hills – listed at $150 million,” and it’s still available, he said.
For the Playboy Mansion, “I could see someone paying possibly $100 million because of the cachet along with the value of the land. With the price of $200 million they will still receive offers and likely go with the best terms for the seller.”
He has visited the mansion and says that while “it’s a very dated home, the bones are incredible.”
“Anyone who says it’s a teardown is crazy,” Flagg said. Of course someonemight tear it down, and “it definitely needs some remodeling and some cleaning up,” but “it’s not a teardown by any means.”
Ben Bacal of Rodeo Realty, on the other hand, thinks $200 million is wildly optimistic. He too has been to the mansion himself. “It’s pretty old and grimy,” he told Yahoo Real Estate. “It’s dated. It doesn’t have a cool factor.”
The lot is “terrific,” he conceded. “It’s very difficult and rare to find that much acreage in Bel Air.”
But the mansion?
“Yes, it’s a teardown.”
And the Hef factor – the pesky “life estate” contingency?
“That doesn’t help,” he said.
“I think [the price is] a little high. It’s probably worth a little less than half that,” maybe in the neighborhood of $70 million, he said. He compared it to the estate next to Minecraft founder Notch’s new mansion (dubbed “L.A.’s most extreme home”); that promontory estate, which once belonged to comedian Danny Thomas, is “worth what they’re asking”: $135 million. “That is just an unreal property. … If somebody remodels it, it could be worth $300 million.” He called it “one of the last epic view properties – actually, maybe it IS the last one” in L.A.
Christophe Choo of Coldwell Banker Previews International has sold a couple of homes on Mapleton Drive, which backs up to the property and is (Choo says) “the best street in L.A.” He says he’d “be surprised if it got that price, let’s put it that way,” but he conceded that a buyer might want the property “just for the cachet of owning the Playboy Mansion.” He said he could see maybe a “very wealthy Chinese, where $200 million is nothing,” wanting to say he owns the Playboy Mansion.
As far as the property’s teardown potential, he said someone might wantto, but he thought the L.A. Historical Society and other groups would make that very difficult. “Architecturally, it’s quite beautiful and significant,” he said. The mansion was built in 1927 by architect Arthur R. Kelly for Arthur Letts Jr., a department store heir.
The life estate, meanwhile, is “pretty unusual, and it does make for a very difficult sale.” Choo said he knows someone who bought a celebrity property with a life estate more than 10 years ago, and the elderly occupant survived for quite a long time. Such a situation “can be very challenging,” he said.
Playboy and Hef bought the mansion in 1971 for $1.01 million, a price that listing agent Gary Gold of Hilton & Hyland says was then “the largest real estate transaction in Los Angeles history.”
Oddly enough, in 2009 the company claimed the home was only worth $1.2 million, a number questioned by a shareholder lawsuit two years later, when the home was appraised at $54 million, according to Bloomberg.
Playmates who used to live there have described its rundown state.
In 2010, Hefner’s former girlfriend Izabella St. James wrote in her memoir, “Bunny Tales”: “Everything in the mansion felt old and stale, and Archie the house dog would regularly relieve himself on the hallway curtains, adding a powerful whiff of urine to the general scent of decay.”
She said most of the girls’ dogs were similarly un-housebroken, including those of Hefner’s then-“No. 1” girlfriend, Holly Madison. Madison’s two dogs moved into Hefner’s room with him. “They weren’t house-trained and would just do their business on the bedroom carpet,” St. James wrote. “Late at night, or in the early hours of the morning — if any of us visited Hef’s bedroom — we’d almost always end up standing in dog mess.”
A few months ago, Playmate Carla Howe said the house was in need of a makeover, but Hefner “refuses to change anything in the mansion and the whole place feels like it’s stuck in the 1980s,” she says.
Vice Magazine visited the mansion for a film screening in 2013 and found the place was “really, really sad” and “smelled like an old man.” The grotto was “rundown and depressing” and had mismatched, sloppy towels stacked haphazardly outside it. Another room, which the article’spseudonymous author Jamie Lee Curtis Taete muses may once have been an orgy room, is piled with shiny brown pillows atop a teal green carpet.
“Wandering through the house gave me a feeling not too dissimilar to when a relative dies and you have to go to their place and figure out what to do with their things,” Taete wrote.
For what it is worth, the 20,000-square-foot mansion sits on slightly more than 5 picturesque acres in L.A.’s Platinum Triangle, the commingling area of ultra-wealthy neighborhoods Holmby Hills and Bel Air as well as the city of Beverly Hills.
The press release boasts that the mansion has every amenity imaginable, including a “catering kitchen, wine cellar, home theater, separate game house, gym, tennis court and freeform swimming pool with a large, cave-like grotto. The property also features a four-bedroom guesthouse andthe property is one of a select few private residences in L.A. with a zoo license. So there’s that.
The property is being listed jointly by Drew Fenton and Gary Gold of Hilton & Hyland as well as Mauricio Umansky of The Agency.
Article courtesy of Yahoo Real Estate
Rodeo Realty Agent Mel Stewart Was Interviewed by 89.3 KPCC About the Porter Ranch Gas Leak
Real estate broker Mel Stewart of Rodeo Realty in Northridge said price-gouging by landlords has been rampant for months. He said fellow brokers told him about a property where the landlord waited with his agent as would-be renters descended.
“The landlord and their agent are standing there basically auctioning to the highest bidder,” Stewart said.
One and two-bedroom apartments can be found in the area for under $2,000. But many Porter Ranch households have children and are used to the larger homes commonplace in their planned community, Stewart said.
Stewart is helping some families look for rentals and said getting price-gouged hasn’t been a top concern.
“For the most part, they want to get out of these hotels and they’re stating, ‘Well, I’m not breaking the law but the landlord is,” Stewart said.
Besides, they are not paying the bulk of the rent. Southern California Gas Company is picking up much of the relocation fees, paying out thousands of dollars to each family who has been affected.
The Minecraft Estate Sold by Ben Bacal of Rodeo Realty featured in Yahoo Real Estate for Kicking off the Trend of "Gargantumansions"
It seemed like an insane gamble: Spend millions upon millions of your personal fortune to build a house that’s so off-the-charts indulgent – $200,000 “candy wall,” $1 million-plus security system, quarter-million-dollar sculptures (plural) – that the Los Angeles Times won’t feel too hyperbolic declaring it “L.A.’s most extreme home.”
Then charge $85 million for it and let the market have its way.
That the market certainly did. The 23,000-square-foot Beverly Hills gargantumansion notoriously sold a year ago for $70 million — cash — to Minecraft founder Markus “Notch” Persson, a Swede who sold his Mojang game company to Microsoft and crossed into the billionaire club. Notch reportedly outbid Beyonce and Jay-Z.
Yahoo Real Estate spoke at length with Bruce Makowsky, the ultra-rich man who put a sizable chunk of his personal money and reputation on the line to build the spec house.
And we have to say, the way Makowsky explained his venture, we started to see his logic (though we wouldn’t have gambled our millions … lesson one, perhaps, in why we still don’t have any).
But first you had to think like a billionaire.
More Money Than Time
Makowsky had no problem thinking like a billionaire. He wasn’t one, but he wasn’t far off, members of his team told Yahoo Real Estate. He made his fortune in handbags and other women’s accessories, which you might have seen everywhere from QVC to Bloomingdale’s.
“I have a big mega-yacht and toys and planes,” Makowsky told us. “I kind of understand what very wealthy people want.”
Take yachts. (Bear with us, because this circles back to his real estate thinking.) He sat in the Beverly Hills gargantumansion with a prospective buyer who had a mutual interest in boats – who had, in fact, ordered up a 300-footer, at a cost of about $200 million. Makowsky asked how often the visitor sailed. About eight weeks a year, the visitor replied. The operating costs on that yacht were about $8 million a year, or a million for each week of use.
Admittedly, we’re not sailors, but that seems mind-boggling: a boat that’s about twice as expensive as the most expensive mansion ever sold in America (and a mansion comes with land!).
What is so special about a $200 million yacht? we asked Makowsky.
He said that, in a nutshell, “every detail inside that boat is spectacular.” Every single detail. You don’t spend a couple hundred million on a yacht, hire a world-class chef and then tell a guest who wants pizza that you’re out of pepperoni, he said. On a billionaire’s yacht, you can’t ever be out of pepperoni; your fridge had better be big, and it’d better be stocked with every staple imaginable, plus some ingredients you’d barely dream of.
We’ll be honest. We weren’t entirely convinced that 24-hour personal pizzas equal $200 million of special. So he cited too the punishing saltwater, the unremitting barrage of ocean waves, the systems and craftsmanship required to keep the boat afloat.
As he spoke, though, it dawned on us that maybe the truth is something he can’t say out loud, at least not to a non-billionaire: Maybe yachtsaren’t exactly $200 million worth of special, but to a billionaire, does that really matter?
“A lot of the wealthy people have more money than time,” he said, and “wealthy people are getting wealthier.”
There’s a backlog for mega-yachts that’s “incredible right now,” Makowsky told us. “I have a big boat – and I take it down to St. Bart’s and I’m the smallest boat in the marina.”
The Lure of the New
So you’re a billionaire, and you’ve spent $200 million on a yacht and $100 million on a jet and maybe a few million on your car collection. By now you may be making money almost faster than you can spend it: At a measly 1 percent interest, a billion dollars would generate $10 million a year.
Your real estate agent, meanwhile, keeps showing you houses that are $20 million, $30 million, maybe $50 million. They don’t knock yourCervelt socks off. Compared to the kind of money you’ve been spending, they might even seem a little, well, piddling.
And while 10,000 square feet may have been considered a big house a decade ago, that attitude has changed among the super-rich, who now demand “super-large,” Makowsky said. The mansion he built is more than twice that size.
There are “a lot of nice homes” out there, “but they’re tired,” he said. “Nothing brand-new.”
Is newness that important to the ultra-wealthy? we asked.
“They want to feel like they’re the first person in that house. … They want to feel like it’s theirs,” he said. That’s why, he said, he didn’t hold any open houses, or even one of the parties that’s become more common for high-end L.A. real estate. He wanted to preserve its untouchability.
Makowsky was emphatic. “People. Want. New.”
The natural conclusion might seem that they should build their own dream house, tailored to their tastes and desires. But remember to think like a billionaire who has more money than time. (And remember, too, that billionaires might easily own a dozen ultra-luxury properties at once; that’s how many homes most Americans have in a lifetime. As ultra-high-end developer Nile Niami says: “Nobody buys a 100,000-square-foot house as their principal residence to use every day.”)
They’d have to scout out the perfect lot – and in Los Angeles, promontories with downtown-to-ocean views are so coveted that a nearby family reportedly refused an offer of $75 million for their house, which developers intended to bulldoze. Then they’d have to get all the necessary local permissions and build the place. It takes “four to six years to do what we did here,” Makowsky said.
Not only that, they’d have to devote time and attention to all the hundreds of details that accumulate as luxury. On a yacht, luxury is made up of sea-hardiness, of masterful design in deceptively limited space, of laid-in pizza supplies. At the mansion Makowsky built, it’s mirrors placed so that wherever you are in the master bath, you can see downtown Los Angeles behind you, right down to the mirror backing within the medicine cabinet; it’s the drawers you open to discover they’re lined with crocodile; it’s “the most beautiful hangers” dangling in the closet.
Makowsky’s idea, in other words, was to “bring mega-yachts to land,” packaged up and ready to go, right down to the administrative staffing.
Which was an interesting proposition, because if billionaires were willing to spend $200 million plus $8 million a year on a boat they rarely used, what would their limit be for the right house?
‘The Air Is Absolutely Thin Up There’
The particular audacity of Makowsky’s venture is that the spec house Notch bought represented only Phase 1. Two more estates were in the works, and he said they’d be even more expensive. “I want to be like the Four Seasons of residential building,” he told us.
We think it’d take nerves of steel to build one spec house priced so high. How many billionaire prospects could there be?
“The air is absolutely thin up there,” he acknowledges, but he says 4,000 people worldwide are worth at least $500 million. Forbes counts a record 1,645 billionaires on the planet.
Meanwhile, brand-new, ultra-high-end houses like his are scarce. “Other than Donald Trump building something down in Palm Beach, this is the second-highest[-cost] spec house ever built in the United States.” We checked with Zillow, and only about 30 homes nationwide are publicly listed at more than $50 million. Just seven of them are asking $75 million or more. (Important caveat: This doesn’t include so-called “pocket” or “whisper” listings, or any other kind of off-market listing.)
So maybe Makowsky is onto something. His fellow L.A. developers sure seem to think so: Locally, there’s a bit of a stampede toward gargantumansions asking $100 million or more.
And one of them, Nile Niami, is expected to list a 100,000-square-foot spec house at half a billion dollars in the next year or so.
Article featured on Yahoo Real Estate
John Galich of Rodeo Realty Sales the Hollywood Hills Home Where Harrison Ford did Carpentry Work
A Hollywood Hills house once owned by “MASH” star Sally Kellerman has sold for $4 million.
During the actress’ ownership, she hired a young Harrison Ford to do construction work on the 4,412-square-foot home. Ford would go on to star in the “Star Wars” and “Indiana Jones” film series.
Since early 2014 the property has changed hands for $1.402 million and $1.9 million, public records show. The renovated home was listed in November for $4.199 million.
Built in 1940, the traditional-style house also has an architectural pedigree of note. The home was redesigned in the 1980s by architect Frank Gehry, known for his distinctive work on Los Angeles’ Walt Disney Concert Hall and the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain.
He added loft-like contemporary spaces to the house with large windows and French doors bringing in natural light and looking out onto the swimming pool area.
A living room, two family rooms, a large kitchen and dining space, five bedrooms and six bathrooms are among the living spaces.
David Kramer of Hilton & Hyland, an affiliate of Christie’s International Real Estate, and John Galich of Rodeo Realty were the listing agents. Tracy Bunetta and Patricia Cali of Coldwell Banker represented the buyer.
Article courtesy of the LA Times
Rodeo Realty Agent Ada Livyatan Featured in 'Los Angeles Confidential'
These nine LA listings look like homes taken straight out of a Nancy Meyers holiday blockbuster.
720 N. Alta Dr., Beverly Hills
With over 18,000-square-feet of living space, this palatial Beverly Hills home was made to entertain friends and family this season thanks to a plush theater room, wine tasting area, and a game space. $24.995 million; contact Coldwell Banker listing agent Joyce Rey, 310-291-6646
1459 Via Cresta, Pacific Palisades
This 1.25 acre custom-built estate features five bedrooms (with the option of a sixth), a wine cellar, home theater, heated outdoor living room, and a private skateboard park and batting cage. $6.995 million; contact Gibson International listing agents Beverly and Kimberly Gold, 310-496-5995
9305 Nightingale Dr., Los Angeles
Located off the Sunset Strip, this modern 3-bedroom home showcases views of the city through its floor-to-ceiling windows. An infinity-edged pool and fire pit make up the outdoor setting, perfect for merry gatherings. $17.995 million; contact Hilton & Hyland/Christie’s International Real Estate listing agent Gary Gold, 310-741-0505
9306 Warbler Way, Los Angeles
Doors manager Danny Sugerman formerly owned this sleek LA home, which boasts panoramic views of the city, hills, and ocean to rival those found in Hollywood movies. However, it’s the attention to details like luxurious Ann Sacks marble, a soaking tub, and dual shower heads that make this property fit for a close up. $3.599 million; contact Gibson International listing agent Kira Gould, 310-622-7494
21110 Pacific Coast Hwy., Malibu
There’s no need to cue the mood music at this oceanfront property thanks to the soothing sounds of waves crashing on the shore. Designed for indoor and outdoor hosting, a custom glass wall opens up on the terrace, while the master suite and guest room lead to a deck with a shower, soaking tub, and stairs to a private beach. $5.495; contact Coldwell Banker listing agents Bill Moss 310-293-5503 and Daniel Moss 310-600-6692
31381 Trigo Trail, Coto De Caza
This enormous Spanish hacienda comes equipped with a tennis court, guest house, and a recently built equestrian space with paddocks, a tack room, and turnout arenas. $5.395 million; contact Hilton & Hyland/Christie’s International Real Estate listing agents Carol Dotson 310-927-4107 and Brad Aspin 310-925-3115
1381 Belfast Dr., Los Angeles
Nestled above Sunset Plaza is this sun-soaked abode, replete with Calcutta marble counter tops, shaker and glass cabinets, and dual-master suites with walk-in closets. The impeccably manicured backyard features a built-in BBQ and lounge area, ideal for making your own holiday party memories. $3.795 million; contact Rodeo Realty listing agent Ada Livyatan, 818-919-4060
7100 La Presa Dr., Los Angeles
Built in 1989, this LA pad designed by Fred Smathers features breathtaking views spanning from downtown to the Pacific. If five bedrooms isn’t enough to fit the extended family, the home also has two separate guest suites. $5.975 million; contact Hilton & Hyland/Christie’s International Real Estatelisting agent Jonah Wilson 310-849-3215
9739 Oak Pass Road, Beverly Hills
Perched on 3.5 acres of land in a gated enclave, this Spanish-style compound features a library, great room with chef’s kitchen, as well as a two-bedroom guest house. $22.995 million; contact Jade Mills Estates listing agent Jade Mills 310-285-7508
Article featured in Los Angeles Confidential
Rodeo Realty and Josh Flagg Featured in "The Hollywood Reporter" for A-List Vacation Homes
WHICH STATES HOUSE HOLLYWOOD’S A-LIST VACATION HOMES?
Wyoming and Hawaii pull at the heartstrings (and wallets) of L.A.’s trophy hunters as snowy lodges and warm resorts vie for the industry’s elite travelers.
This 8,200-square-foot, six-bedroom, six-bathroom home on Maui is listed by Otto.
COURTESY OF MAUI.NET
A robust economy along with an increasingly wired world are inspiring Angelenos to buy vacation homes again as they flock to getaways both snowy (think Park City and the newly hot Jackson Hole, Wyo.) and steamy (Palm Springs and Hawaii, where Julia Roberts’ Kauai estate now is listed for nearly $30 million, more than double the $13.4 million she paid for the 2-acre beachside property only four years ago).
“The ultra-wealthy are buying what they want — ranches or in posh neighborhoods or in the mountains,” says Madison Hildebrand, president of the Malibu Life Team and founding partner of Partners Trust Malibu. “I go on a listing appointment almost every other day for baby boomers who are selling their big house to buy another more downsized home in L.A. and a second home elsewhere.” And with smartphones and the Internet, it’s easier than ever for buyers to stretch out their time in their vacation homes by telecommuting. “I have a client from Malibu who has a screen in his [Hawaii] house that shows a mirror image of his office in L.A.,” says Anne Hogan Perry at Coldwell Banker International Previews in Honolulu. “He pulls the screen down, and he’s at work.”
This 9,000-square-foot five-bedroom has a heated pool,12-seat theater and Teton views.
Wyoming: ‘An adventure lifestyle…a bear comes strolling down the road’
While Angelenos may pull on sweaters and boots when temperatures drop below 70, they hardly experience what most people call “winter.” Those looking for something more authentic head out of town for snow and crisp air. Wyoming, where many stars, executives and tech startup billionaires have been scooping up high-end lodges, has a unique appeal: The state doesn’t charge income tax. “If they make their second home their primary residence, it could come with great tax benefits,” says Josh Flagg, an agent with Rodeo Realty Beverly Hills. Adds Matt Faupel, owner of Jackson Hole Real Estate Associates, an arm of Christie’s International, “There’s pressure in New York, Connecticut and California, but we are a haven.”
Among the top destinations is Jackson Hole. The region, encased by Yellowstone National Park and Grand Teton National Park, is so picturesque, it’s been featured in films as varied asDjango Unchained and, in animation, Pixar’s The Good Dinosaur. Especially since California’s top-tier state income tax exceeded 13 percent in 2013, Jackson Hole real estate has been booming at the high end, with market volume up 200 percent compared with 2014 on homes priced at $5 million or higher.
The area’s laid-back culture has drawn the likes of Harrison Ford, who owns an 800-acre ranch on the Snake River, and Sandra Bullock, whose 1,750-acre property includes an equestrian center. Visitors have included everyone from Justin Timberlake to former World Bank president James Wolfensohn. There are direct flights from 13 cities, including L.A., into the tiny commercial airport, replete with wood-burning fireplace and cowhide chairs. Private jets at a nearby airfield are stacked so deep, they often break regulations. “This is the only place in the U.S. where you’ll see someone land in a private plane and drive off in a beat-up Subaru,” says one local.
“We are in our fifth year of improving market conditions since the recession, and there are pockets of the market that are actually back to peak 2007-08 pricing,” says Brandon Spackman, an associate broker with Jackson Hole Sotheby’s International Realty. Among the area’s top home listings — there currently are about 60 priced at $3 million and up — is a 6,500-square-foot Frank Lloyd Wright-inspired mountainside four-bedroom with interiors by French minimalist designer Christian Liaigre for $15 million. There also is a private resort on the East Gros Ventre hillside known as Petite Aman, styled after the Amangani Hotel, the Jackson Hole outpost of the luxury hotel chain. The 11,000-square-foot home features five bedrooms, with skiing on the property, and is listed at nearly $12 million.
Those seeking larger swaths of land needn’t look much farther than the Walton Ranch, owned by the family behind Wal-Mart. The 1,848-acre cattle ranch provides 3 miles of frontage on the Snake River as well as a 2,234-square-foot house and is on the market for $48.7 million. That’s a steep discount from the original price of $100 million four years ago.
Actor Lyle Waggoner (The Carol Burnett Show, Wonder Woman) and his wife, Sharon, were lured to Jackson Hole 15 years ago. They own about 175 acres near the Snake River Sporting Club that they haven’t developed yet as well as a house closer to town. The couple had been visiting from Los Angeles for many years — “mainly through skiing events with Connie Stevens” — before deciding to make the move permanent.
Bruemmer’s top rental property in Jackson Hole is a 16,000-square-foot log cabin on 56 acres.
“We thought, ‘This is so gorgeous; we have to have a place here,’ and we made the move,” Lyle says. “It’s a lifestyle — a Western wildlife adventure lifestyle. At our house, moose come up, there’s a herd of elk, or a bear comes strolling down the road.” It’s not an unusual story, according to Morgan Bruemmer, who owns luxury rental and sales brokerage Clear Creek Group in Jackson. “About 40 percent of our rental revenue is from repeat guests, and after about three or four years, they come to us and are interested in purchasing something,” he says.
Teton County, where Jackson Hole is located, was listed as the wealthiest in the country last year by the IRS, with the highest average income in the United States (about $300,000). “We have a lot of billionaires and extremely successful people, but you’d never know it because they aren’t showing it off,” says Spackman. “If you have a big ego and you want to be glitzy, this would not be the place. Aspen would be a better fit.”
Hawaii: ‘Relax, have a mai tai and go into a real estate office’
Otto has the listing on this 7,800-square-foot beachfront home in a gated Maui enclave.
Last year when Mark Zuckerberg purchased a 700-acre parcel of land on Kauai for more than $100 million, it started waves across the market that are continuing to swell, not just on Kauai but throughout the state. That’s great news not just for Neil Young, who sold his estate on the Big Island’s Kohala Coast for $20 million last month (one of the top sale prices in Hawaii this year), but also for other high-profile and high-net-worth names — such as Oprah Winfrey and Owen Wilson — who call the state their second home. “The real high-end is setting new ground,” says Matthew Beall, owner of real estate agency Hawaii Life. “We have far more eight-figure deals than we have had in Hawaii’s history. I think there’s about 20 listings both public and private that are north of $10 million, and that’s not counting new high-end penthouses in Honolulu.”
This Kauai home was built in 1910. The island’s Bounty House, below, is a local landmark.
On Kauai’s North Shore, Will Smith’s former home — now owned by Russian heiress Ekaterina Rybolovleva — is listed for $29.5 million (the Smiths sold the property for $20 million in 2011). In the island’s Hanalei district, the number of home sales jumped 42 percent this year over last, according to Hawaii Life data. Bidding wars are breaking out too. The “Magnum, P.I.” estate on the Waimanalo Beach garnered eight offers before it sold for $8.7 million this year to a Chicago attorney who has worked with the Obamas.
This 8,200-square-foot, six-bedroom, six-bathroom home on Maui is listed by Otto.
Hawaii “has always been a destination for the rich and famous,” says Betty Sakamoto at Sakamoto Properties Ltd. on Maui. “In the early days of Kapalua, Carol Burnett and [TV producer] Joe Hamilton bought properties.” USA exec Jackie de Crinis worked from Maui for four years before returning to L.A. last year, and still has a home there. Legendary manager and producer Shep Gordon, who’s had a home on Maui since the 1970s, is known for hosting dinner parties for the likes of Winfrey and Clint Eastwood. Another top dinner spot: the perennially booked Mama’s Fish House (stuffed mahi mahi, $56). New York Times best-selling author Susan Casey, who lives blocks away, fields dozens of calls at the holidays from VIP friends seeking help in wrangling a reservation. No luck, she says, unless you turn up at 4:30 and sit at the bar.
Lately, some of the most coveted Hawaii homes haven’t been beachside. “You have to provide public access on the beach,” says Dean Otto, also a Sakomoto agent. “It’s very rare to find oceanfront with privacy, so [buyers] are looking for larger, private estates on the hill with views.”
While Hawaii prices are peaking, they’re a value compared with similar product — if such properties even exist — on a coveted mainland beach such as Malibu. The decision isn’t always that logical, though. “Most of the people we get are buying their second, third, fourth or fifth home, and when they come to Hawaii, they generally haven’t come to buy, but they relax, have a Mai Tai and go into a real estate office,” says Coldwell Banker’s Perry. “It’s a very emotional buy.”
Article courtesy of The Hollywood Reporter
Local Market Report Westside November 2015
Below is the Westside Market Report for November 2015 detailing local real estate market statistics and including year-over-year data:
Westside
Local Market Report Conejo November 2015
Below is the Conjeo Market Report for November 2015 detailing local real estate market statistics and including year-over-year data:
Conejo
Local Market Report SF Valley November 2015
Below is the SF Valley Market Report for November 2015 detailing local real estate market statistics and including year-over-year data:
SF Valley