Posted by Annalisa Burgos | July 9, 2009
Las Vegas visionary Steve Wynn’s Manhattan home is just as luxurious as the world-class resorts he builds.
The mind behind such Sin City landmarks as the Bellagio, Wynn and Encore has listed his seventh-floor condo at 817 Fifth Avenue (at 63rd Street) for $25 million. Furniture included.
Wynn reportedly paid $7 million for the unit in late 2000, but made some extensive renovations. The 3,500+ square foot luxury home features nine rooms, including a master suite and bath fit for a billionaire like Wynn.
The original living room, formal dining room and library were combined to form one massive living area and media center.
The unit has a new formal dining room and a state-of-the-art electronics system. And check out the breathtaking views from those windows — beautiful Central Park and New York City.
See more pictures of Wynn’s home for sale in the Sotheby’s International Realty listing on FrontDoor.com.
Posted by Annalisa Burgos | July 7, 2009
NFL fans are mourning the loss of football great Steve McNair, who was tragically killed on July 4.
The former quarterback of the Tennessee Titans and later the Baltimore Ravens was found in a Nashville condo he rented, shot dead, along with his 20-year-old girlfriend Sahel Kazemi. Police ruled McNair’s death a homicide and are investigating the case as a possible murder-suicide.
According to reports, the then-married McNair had planned to divorce his wife. The couple had listed their 9-bed, 9.5-bath mansion in the Green Hills neighborhood of Nashville for $3 million.
The 14,000+ square foot home in Woodmont Estates features 26 spacious rooms, vaulted ceilings, a theater room, pool, sauna and hot tub/spa.
See more pictures of the inside and outside of this 1.33-acre estate in the listing on FrontDoor.com.
Perhaps a die-hard Titan fan will find value in walking the halls McNair once did.
Posted by Annalisa Burgos | June 23, 2009
Wanted: Architecture buff with deep pockets willing to put in some elbow grease.
Frank Lloyd Wright’s famous and endangered Ennis House in Los Angeles is on the market for $15 million.
The 6,000-square-foot Mayan-inspired estate, which lies on a hilltop in the Los Feliz neighborhood north of downtown L.A., is falling apart from earthquake and rain damage and desperately needs restoration.
The legendary architect built the home in 1924 in the experimental “textile block” style using 27,000 16-inch concrete blocks.
The current owner, the Ennis House Foundation, has already invested $6.5 million to stabilize the property. The new owner would need to put in an estimated $5 million to $7 million to restore the home, in addition to the $15 million purchase price. One condition of the sale will be a conservation easement to ensure that the public has access to the house a few days each year.
The main house features three bedrooms, an elevated dining room with massive fireplace, high ceilings, numerous art-glass windows, a rare Wright-signature glass-tile mosaic fireplace, billiards room, pool and small Japanese garden.
The sale is being handled by Hilton & Hyland and Dilbeck Realtors, with marketing services by Christie’s Great Estates.
The Ennis House has appeared in film and TV, including “Blade Runner,” “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and “Twin Peaks.”
Posted by Annalisa Burgos | June 17, 2009
You’ve probably heard about the marital problems of Jon and Kate Gosselin, who along with their eight children (fraternal twins and sextuplets), star in the popular TLC reality show “Jon & Kate Plus 8.”
The couple recently celebrated their 10-year anniversary, but apparently not together. While raising a huge family is stressful enough, imagine having to deal with the media and allegations of extramarital affairs and child abuse. And to add insult to injury, the couple can’t seem to sell their former home in Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania.
The 3,446-square-foot, 5 bedroom, 2.5 bath Cape Cod has been on the market for four and a half months, and counting.
On average, similarly priced homes in the county take about 116 days to sell, according to Lancaster Online.
The Jon and Kate house is listed for $325,000 and features new bamboo hardwood floors, a security system, large rear deck and laundry room with two sets of washers and dryers.
The Gosselins paid $280,000 for it in 2006 and made some improvements to it during their TV show.
Judging solely on these pictures, I’d suggest the home needs some staging to compete in today’s challenged real estate market.
My tips? Remove the dreary blinds and bring in bright window treatments. Replace outdated fixtures and ceiling fans.
You can kind of see the deck through the blinds in this picture. Why not open them, so we can get a great view of the outdoors? Let the sunshine in!
And you can rest assured that the kitchen can handle a lot of cooking. That’s a picture of Kate with her eight children when they used to live in the home.
Last October, the couple moved 40 miles northeast to a $1.35 million, 24-acre estate in Wernersville, Pennsylvania, where they can spread out and have more privacy. (You can see the new home in that last picture.)
Posted by Annalisa Burgos | May 29, 2009
I’ve been looking for a place to buy in Manhattan for about three months now. Today, my real estate agent tells me that during the summer, open houses shift from the weekends to weeknights. Or you have to set up an appointment to see the place during a weekday.
What?! That means I have to dash from the office to a property crosstown or wherever during my lunch hour (which I don’t normally take). What a major inconvenience.
According to rule #57 in the home seller’s handbook, sellers should make their homes as accessible as possible to attract as many buyers as possible, especially in a buyer’s market. Okay, there’s no handbook per se, but think about all the foot traffic you’ll miss out on. Don’t sellers want to sell their properties quickly? Manhattan is so weird.
In addition to inconvenient open houses, here are a few more pet peeves I’ve had during the house hunting process (and things sellers and agents should keep in mind when marketing their properties):
1) Not posting pictures of the inside of your home online. I’m one of the more than 80 percent of buyers who search for homes for sale online and if you don’t have pictures, I move on to the next listing that does have pictures. These days, your agent should be insisting you include pictures with your listing. If he/she doesn’t, ditch the agent.
2) Posting blurry pictures or ones that are so small you need a magnifying glass to see anything. That’s almost as bad as not having pictures at all, so take clear, appealing pictures. And get rid of the clutter so buyers can see the space, not your stuff.
3) Exaggerating what your home has. One listing I saw read “HUGE terrace.” Since outdoor space is something I want in my new home, I set up an appointment to see the place. To my dismay, the “HUGE terrace” was neither huge nor a terrace! It was a railing that ran along the outside of the bedroom with barely enough room to fit one person! I refused to deal with that listing agent again.
4) Not being prepared for the home tour. I’ve toured properties where the agent doing the showing had no idea what the house or building offered. It was a case of the blind leading the blind. Each time I would ask a question, the agent would give me a blank look and say “I’m not sure about that. I’ll look into it and get back to you.”
What are your biggest pet peeves with the house hunting process? Post your comments below and share your stories with us!
Posted by Annalisa Burgos | May 28, 2009
Ferris Bueller was that teen every kid wanted to be. Cool without trying and got away with everything.
I never dared to try anything Ferris did, but watching “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” was like my own way of vicariously playing hooky from school, driving a 1961 Ferrari 250 GT California and singing on a parade float.
Well Ferris fans, you too can own a piece of pop culture history. Remember Ferris’ best friend Cameron? His Chicago-area home in the movie is listed for $2.3 million by Sudler Sotheby’s International Realty.
You also get the adjacent auto pavilion, which housed that infamous Ferrari that took a sad plunge into the ravine.
Located at 370 Beech St. in Highland Park, an affluent suburb on Chicago‘s North Shore, the 5,300-square-foot, contemporary-style house was designed by architects A. James Speyer and David Haid.
It features four bedrooms, four full baths, a fireplace, a three-car garage and incredible views of the surrounding woods. Vintage Ferrari sold separately.
As for the Bueller home, that house is actually in Long Beach, Calif., and not for sale as of yet.
Posted by Annalisa Burgos | May 19, 2009
Let’s face it. Sellers in this market need as much help as they can get. When you’re competing with foreclosures and heavily-discounted new construction, your home needs to stand out. Play up your strengths, whether it’s a great view or amazing kitchen. And if you’ve got a REALLY unique feature, FrontDoor.com is the perfect place for you to market your one-of-a-kind property!
FrontDoor’s Cool Houses Daily (www.frontdoor.com/coolhouses) highlights the coolest, kookiest and most unique homes for sale across the U.S., from a custom-built grown-up treehouse for sale in Texas to the former home of gangster Al Capone listed in Chicago.
Each day, we showcase one new property that has a great story or very unusual selling feature, chosen from our more than 3.6 million for sale real estate listings.
Each Cool House is featured for about two weeks and actively promoted through FrontDoor’s weekly newsletter sent to 400,000 engaged home lovers and via various social networks such as Facebook (www.facebook.com/FrontDoor) and Twitter (www.twitter.com/HGTVFrontDoor), plus throughout the Web site itself.
Realtors and brokers can add value to their clients’ listings with CHD. Just go to the CHD page (www.frontdoor.com/coolhouses) for details on how to submit your cool house for sale. “Our audience appreciates a good story and we are always on the look out for new and unique ways to highlight homes available through FrontDoor,” says Rich Lacy, vice president and site director of FrontDoor.com. “This feature showcases additional dimensions to a listing.”
And for home lovers like me, it’s cool just to see what’s out there.
Posted by Annalisa Burgos | May 12, 2009
Model/actress Milla Jovovich may be known for killing zombies, but it seems she won’t be making a killing in real estate.
It’s been about a year since the Resident Evil actress first listed her four-story, four-bedroom home in the West Village for $8.75 million. Today, it’s listed at $7 million, about 600K more than what she paid for it. She’s cut the price twice already, and if she doesn’t get any bites, she may have to do it again.
The Greek revival townhouse features an extravagant master suite, walk-in closets behind mirrored French doors, cast-iron railings, mahogany banisters, five fireplaces, stone heated floors, solarium and roof terrace.
Plus, you’re on trendy Greenwich Avenue, which is packed with great bars and restaurants.
Jovovich, known for her roles in action and sci-fi films, is engaged to writer/director Paul W. S. Anderson and has an 18-month-old daughter Ever Gabo Anderson.
To see more fascinating homes for sale, check out Cool Houses Daily. Browse more listings on FrontDoor.com and explore the neighborhoods in New York City.
Posted by Annalisa Burgos | May 8, 2009
My mother-in-law and I get along well, but I’m not sure how I’d feel about her living with me and my husband. Sure we’d get a babysitter and homemade enchiladas whenever we want. But there’s just something disconcerting about having your husband’s mother so close — the potential for power struggles and disagreements on how the household is run and how the children are raised. Not to mention the possibility that your husband will have to choose sides during an argument.
That said, many families across the country live happily with their mother-in-laws, and in a recession, sharing one roof to save money may not be such a bad idea. Which is why I expect a growing demand for “mother-in-law suites” or accessory dwelling units, as some cities call them.
A brief background — zoning and land use laws typically ban multiple dwelling units on one property, but some cities allow a relative or guest to live in secondary units, hence the term “mother-in-law suite,” or as I’ve heard here in the Northeast “a mother/daughter home.” You essentially have a separate living area, with its own kitchen and bathroom, connected to a single family home. They come in various forms, often a finished attic or basement or a detached building elsewhere on the property.
As more extended families and relatives move in together, properties with mother-in-law suites will become more appealing. Real estate agents already call out the feature in their listings. Before you buy one, make sure you check your local laws — you may or may not be able to rent out the space.
Check out these pictures of an awesome Craftsman-style home with mother-in-law suite (more like house!) for sale in Redmond, Oregon. It’s like getting two homes for the price of one! It’s listed for 390K.
If this one isn’t for you, don’t worry. We’ve got tons more on www.FrontDoor.com. And if you do decide to have your mother-in-law live with you, good luck with that.
Posted by Annalisa Burgos | May 7, 2009
During the height of the real estate boom, pricing a home was more like a technicality in the selling process, a suggestion to buyers. More often than not, the home would sell for more than what it was listed for, especially in hot markets. Back in the good ‘ol days, selling a home for at least your asking price was a sure thing.
Welcome to 2009. Pricing is no longer just a technicality. It means the difference between getting multiple showings or none. A home’s price can make or break a deal and affect whether your home will sell quickly or languish on the market for months.
FrontDoor’s new Pricing Guide (www.frontdoor.com/pricing) breaks down the various pricing strategies and factors you should consider to determine what your home is worth and get it sold.
One of the most common pricing faux-pas sellers make is getting emotionally involved. Sure, you may have invested a lot of time, sweat and money into your home, but if you’re selling in this market, forget about getting any love back. Pricing it below your competition will help you get it sold quickly. Learn how to avoid six common pricing mistakes and get solutions to four pricing dilemmas.
Also, special thanks to Nancy Spearrin, a seller from Solon, Maine, who shared her selling nightmare. Read her story in “My House is Worth What?” And if you’ve got a story to share, let us know by posting a comment.
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