celebrity homes

Flashback to First Class Friday

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As nice as it is to drool over the multi-million dollar homes of the rich and famous and clutch your pearls in shock at the amazing prices that are being asked, it is also reassuring to realise that the people buying and selling these homes are still subjected to the challenges of trying to move real estate (there are just a few more zeros on the end of their checks than you or I would most likely write). A few posts that I put up in the past are worth going back to and seeing what the outcome was.

The Liongate Estateliongate that I wrote about last month was up for sale for a cool $65 million. Coming fully furnished throughout it’s 23,000 square feet and featuring 11 bedrooms, 17 bathrooms and even it’s own panic room it’s an absolute steal at that price. Amazingly though, someone thought that was too expensive and decided to bargain with the vendor. Lucky they did because they were obviously a motivated seller and subsequently dropped the price by a whopping $19 million (that’s almost a 30% discount!). So the lucky purchaser picked up the property for $46 million and although heavily discounted, the owner has still made a nice little profit considering their original purchase price of 12.2M.

HPEarlier this year I wrote about Harry Potter actor Daniel Radcliffe putting his local Toorak penthouse up for sale. After owning it for 10 years and originally purchased when he was filming a movie in Australia as a teenager, he hoped to make a nice little $600k profit. After what would likely have been an expensive marketing campaign and also having moved his furniture out and getting the property professionally styled for sale he has recently pulled the property from the market. Rumor is he has another film project in the pipeline locally and might need to keep a place to unpack his carry-on luggage.

MJIf you’ve been saving your dollars for either of these previous gems, don’t be upset that they are now off the market. There are still two properties that you can pick up. Michael Jordan’s house that I wrote about in November 2013 is STILL on the market after failing to sell at auction last year (it may have been the $250k registration fee that put people off). Originally for sale at $29 million, you can now pick it up for $16 million!

2Or if you want to live beach side in Australia then you may recall the stunning Mandalay House that I wrote about in January 2014. $25 million is what the vendor originally wanted for this tropical paradise but now it’s being marketed as ‘price reduced’. Whilst no figure is being attached to this campaign I’m sure it will be enough of a saving to get that private helicopter that you can land in your front yard!

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First Class Friday

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To finish off the working week let’s see what you could spend your spare money on. Realistically most of us could barely afford the letterbox of this place but if you have a spare $65 million lying around you might be interested in the Liongate Estate. Built in the 1930’s you could live it up like the Fresh Prince in this Bel Air mansion. 24,000 square feet provides you with a generous 11 bedrooms but you may struggle to locate a toilet as there are only 17 bathrooms. The swimming pool (with fountains), tennis court, movie theatre, massage room, gym and ballroom all add up to plenty of work for your team of housekeepers. Kenny Rogers owned this house in the 1970’s but since he moved on it’s expanded in size considerably. Check out the before and after pics below. The videos are enough to make you run to your Bentley and get the cheque book out of the glove box!

Before the renovations
After the renovations

And this video is worth watching simply to see them getting their money’s worth out of the flying drone mounted camera!

Harry Potter lists his Melbourne home

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Always a sucker for some celebrity real estate, I was interested to see something close to home. Actor Daniel Radcliffe purchased in the local blue-chip suburb of Toorak in 2005. Radcliffe’s parents reportedly spotted the apartment while looking at Australian property on the internet in London. The home was transferred to Radcliffe when he was 18, in 2007. The flat at 98B St Georges Road is expected to sell for about $2.5 million reflecting a respectable capital gain on the speculated $1.9 million the Radcliffes paid in January 2005. The three bedroom apartment is one of two in the development, occupying the complex’s entire upper level. The apartment is accessible by lift and has views of the city skyline, the Yarra river and Hogwarts.

The promotional video below gives an idea of the boy-wizard’s digs.

Daniel Radcliffe selling Toorak penthouse

First Class Friday

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Here’s a little bit of property porn to finish off the week. It may not be to everyone’s taste but I wouldn’t say no to sleeping in one of the spare bedrooms. If you’re a regular Bravo watcher you may recognise the property developer Mohammed Hadid who when not designing mega-mansions is usually seen hanging out with one of the housewives of Beverly Hills.

And looking at the footage below it appears that they didn’t use their phone to take the footage. I guess when it’s on the market for $195,000,000 you can afford to get a proper film crew in, it is LA!

Queensland luxury for $25,000,000

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It’s been a while since I’ve posted an ‘in your dreams’ property and a lot of those in the past have been from the USA. It’s great to find a good local one and this one hits just the right spot. Located a stone’s throw from the Great Barrier Reef in Airlie Beach you’ll find the amazing Mandalay House and it can be all yours for just $25 million AUD. What do I get for my hard earned millions I hear you say? Well once you fly in to your private heli-pad or sail in to your own personal marina with space for a 24m yacht as well as your 2 jet skis you can casually stroll up you your 2629 sqm (over 28,000 sq feet!) luxury home. Even before you get inside you will have passed your massive pool, huge outdoor entertaining areas, caretakers cottage and personal water desalination plant (some would say the desal plant is excessive but you can’t go washing your diamonds in salt water). Once inside you have the choice of 6 king size bedrooms (the master bedroom covers 144 sqm with lounge room & separate 52 sqm walk in dressing room) , 9 bathrooms, cinema, gymnasium and pool room, a climate controlled cellar with dining space for 12, your own internal elevator and car parking for 6 or your luxury cars if you didn’t get the helicopter here. Top all of this off with breathtaking views out over the Whitsundays and you’ll be rushing off to get your checkbook from the glove box of the Aston Martin. Still not convinced? Just check out the marketing video below…butterflies appear to be included with the price.

Invest in some political history.

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art-gillard-620x349mainIn early August I published a post about our former Prime Minister Julia Gillard snapping up some new multi-million dollar digs in South Australia. Not surprisingly a few months later we hear that the PM’s former house in suburban Altona is now on the market. Our first female PM purchased her modest Altona home for $140,000 and now it’s expected to sell in excess of $600,000. Not surprisingly the internet listing has had a huge amount of hits with thousands logging on to have a look. The first open for inspections are occurring this weekend with the Auction scheduled for Saturday December 14th. So dust off your empty fruit bowl and get the cheque book ready, Julia and Tim’s love nest could be yours if the price is right!

You can also view the DOMAIN Video by clicking here.

It’s real estate reality!

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I’m a sucker for some reality TV and when it’s combined with real estate I’m in heaven. I’ve been addicted for a good while to Million Dollar Listing which is an American reality series filmed in a similar way to the Real Housewives series (they may not admit it but I know several readers that are regular viewers), There are series set in both LA and New York and each feature a range of over the top and outrageous properties being sold by even more over the top and outrageous real estate agents. Below are a couple of clips from previous seasons. If you love big properties and big personalities then I’d recommend getting into what some would describe as real estate porn!

A slam dunk for around $29 million

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It’s been a while since I’ve come across a stunner of a celebrity property but I’m thinking that if this one doesn’t fit the bill then I’ll never find one that will. Offered up for sale in February last year at a measly $29,000,000, Michael Jordan’s custom designed home of 20 years failed to find a buyer. Now it’s up for auction this time and if you can cough up the $250,000 just to register as a bidder then you could be in the running!

The home itself is a massive 56,000 square feet and is located on 7.39 acres of land about half an hour outside of Chicago. Whilst there is no shortage of space to sleep with 9 bedrooms available, you could go for almost 3 weeks without having to use the same bathroom twice (there are 19!) and 2 weeks without having to park your luxury car in the same spot (there are 15 heated car spaces!). Check out the agent’s video below to see more of this amazing home and not surprisingly it comes with it’s own basketball court.

Want to add some sparkle to your life?

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So I realised that one of my previous posts about the $190 million property might be a bit outside of the budget for the average person so I’ve discovered something else that could be of interest to those that like a bit of glamour and history behind their bricks and mortar. What more could you ask for then than picking up Liberace’s former house for an absolute song? (Pardon the pun).

Currently under foreclosure and quoted at $529900 USD it’s not in the most desirable area of LasVegas from all reports but with a coat of paint and some new gold swan taps in the bath tub it would scrub up just like new. Seriously though, when you watch the video (below) and compare some of the original footage to the pictures on the realtor.com website (click on the picture above) it’s actually quite sad to see the state that the property is now in compared to what it used to be like…regardless of whether it’s your taste or not.

The Google street view image below gives you an idea of the surrounding neighborhood, possibly not what you would be expecting.

As an interesting side note, in the new movie about Liberace the house that was utilised as the exterior set for Liberace’s house was actually the former home of Zsa Zsa Gabor that was sold earlier this year. I have a feeling that they may have shared the same interior decorator over the years so I’m sure it made sense…