Smaller estate with a very small staff. 10 landscapers, 6 housekeepers, 4 PA/EA, 2 building engineers, 2 AV/IT engineers, 3 finance. Just the daily staff. About a million in annual payroll, over 100k in regular monthly utilities for one property.
On the other hand, one person who travels on her yacht takes about 50-60k to fuel the craft. Her Landscapers keep massive greenhouses so they can plant her favorite flowers so they will be in bloom when she arrives at each home. There is always someone standing off to one side waiting….
It can be a bit boggling.
But if you have a wall of flat screens all playing your favourite sitcoms simultaneously? You'd probably need multiple accounts.
Do you think Queen Elizabeth had Netflix? Do you think Netflix employees ever snooped to see what she watched?
You’re lowballing the house staff rate. In that area and for that house alone an Estate Manager would be paid close to $400k-$600k/yr if not more. Also not counting personal chefs, house keepers, and possible security.
Yeah I caught that and it's not necessarily true. Even if the costs of purchasing that home are equal to the home itself, you still have a billion dollars to spend on upkeep. If taxes and upkeep are $10 mil per year, it would still take 100 years to run out of money.
Is it an exorbitant waste of resources? Unquestionably. But that's sort of what billionaires do.
In theory 2 billion would be enough, but noone with 2 billion in net worth would actually spend 1/4 on a single investment - I think that's what they meant.
And that's just it - it's not even an 'investment' because as it appreciates (if it even does) then the pool of potential buyers will continue to shrink. It's only worth what someone is willing to pay for it, and since at $500 million there are no takers, there's no way it will actually go up in value.
What's wild is that even more expensive homes exist and have owners, though I don't think the prices they paid for these places was anywhere near their modern day worth. I've spent like 30 minutes looking into this and I'm convinced that the guy who built this house is an idiot expecting to build something so wild and huge while expecting someone to jump on it. The people who own these stupid expensive properties either had a hand in the design or bought them because they were already built the way they were. If I had $500m to spend on a house I'd either want to buy something historic I already like, or have something designed for me personally.
Let's face it:
If you had $500 million to spend on a home would you buy something someone else designed or would you have the home designed to your own specifications in a location you chose?
Which is usually one of the most cited reasons celebrities and pro athletes go broke: building a ridiculously expensive custom home.
They say all the specific details not only make it hard to sell, but distort the value as the owners see it as plus, while in reality it's a liability. You think a cigar bar adds 2 million to the value? Well, nobody else does. So when it goes on the market and just sits, the owner is baffled nobody is willing to pay for all the things he specifically thinks make a dream home.
Also, people building a house like this rare take into account the crazy amount of money upkeep and taxes are gonna cost.
So they end up with a nightmare money pit which will never sell close to whatever you paid to specifically meet your taste and desires. If you are in moentary pinch, it's even worse, as it's a drain and an asset you will never get your investment on back.
Exactly why Michael Jordan STILL can’t sell his old home… https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2021/03/michael-jordan-cant-sell-mansion-highland-park-illinois-chicago-bulls-nba/amp
This makes sense for a lot of celebrities homes actually. Have a housekeeper, whore out your 2nd and 3rd homes to diehard fans.
Taylor Swift has 7 ready at any given time for fans to lose their minds in.
I mean, in chicago having the #23 all over the house may not be the detractor you think it is. Now having everything custom built for someone who is 6’6”…
Yeah.
I made my work bench in the shed. It's the perfect height for doing things on, and I genuinely had a "so this is what it's like" moment when I realised. This must be why short people do work standing up, because it's comfortable and convenient for them!
My wife literally can't use the bench, it's at her nose height. We have seriously considered having multiple heights of benches in our kitchen even though it would be ridiculous.
> Using the bathroom sink, countertops, and being able to see myself in all the mirrors is awesome.
LOL
I remember talking about this at a friend's house ("it's better being tall because you can reach things") and I went into her own kitchen and showed her that I couldn't reach anything. Taps, benches, stove controls, the fridge handle. All out of reach unless I crouched over.
Did you know that a lot of people can get a spoon out of their cutlery drawer without bending over? That blew my mind when I learned that. Want a spoon? Just pull on the drawer and take one, no need to do the limbo to get it, it's just right there.
Ever been in a house where the occupant has shit loads of framed pictures of themselves on the walls? Like, just them, no one else in the pics.
I have, and it freaked me out.
It's a freaky ass McMansion is the real problem.
Rich people who want their own home need to stop with these mansions that look like ass, but have everything they wanted like an indoor pool. Instead, hire a talented architect to create something for them, with only minimal input. Also pick a style, jesus.
There's a $40 million house in Chicago that's absolutely gorgeous, looks like a diplomatic compound. It has imported Italian marble and European everything. The owner is a rich CEO and admitted that it's probably worth $10 million less than he put into because it's his customization. It doesn't matter how nice it is, big expensive houses will never be bought for what you paid because everyone that rich has distinctive taste and if you're paying an enormous upkeep it's going to be completely customized.
> They say all the specific details not only make it hard to sell, but distort the value as the owners see it
I was at an open house inspection once. Place was ok, not great, but pretty good. A lot of people at the open inspection.
And right there, in the middle of all that, the owner was berating the real estate agent for not showing enough people that the kitchen sink had one of those extendable hose things so you could rinse your dishes like in a commercial kitchen.
It seemed like in her mind the only reason the house hadn't sold at that point was that no-one had truly understood the genius of a kitchen sink that has an extendable hose you can use to rinse your dishes. She pulled it out and waved it around for everyone to see, as if she could magically make us realise how much it was worth by sheer force of will.
So, a $100 faucet? People are insane. A faucet is the easiest thing to change.
Show me state-of-the-art wiring and plumbing, a *completely* new roof with solar panels, and maybe I will take a second look.
>Also, people building a house like this rare take into account the crazy amount of money upkeep and taxes are gonna cost.
That's all I could think. There's so few people who could even afford it in the first place, but then the amount of money for staff and up keep. Just baffling. I think when they showed the candy room was when I officially WTF'd, who in that house is going to eat hundreds of pounds of candy before it goes bad?
I am guessing (no idea) that in a house that big you expect to have a LOT of sycophants hanging around. Looks to be a Playboy mansion type thing with loads of women around the pool and "pals" hanging around 24/7. A massive party house.
For a family of (say) five (or ten) it is absurd. 95% of the home would go unused.
This is why almost every house on Extreme Home Makeover went into foreclosure - they built these grand homes for people down on their luck, and then expected a down on their luck family to figure out how to pay the water and electric bill on a house 4x their budget.
And they can't even sell the house for much because of the ridiculously themed kid's rooms, where they go *way* over the top modeling the room after some dumb and soon-forgotten whim of a 4-year-old.
Shit you just reminded me of a British TV series I watched as a kid where they would take the parents away for a week and let the kids make all these crazy design changes to the house.
In one episode the kids wanted the kitchen to be exactly like a Burger King. When the parents got home and saw this monstrosity the mum burst into tears.
As well as the shock of your family home being ruined like that, your comment has only now got me thinking that it would’ve been impossible for them to then sell the house later! Poor bastards.
Guesttimating, I'd be unsurprised if that house costs over $5mil per year. Probably also why it never sold, instead the guy [went bankrupt and the house was sold at bankruptcy auction back in May](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/mar/04/mega-mansion-los-angeles-real-estate).
List price: $295m
Actual sale price: $141m
There's really no worse investment than having something custom made for your own personal specifications--Unless you are absolutely sure that you will never sell that item. Custom items are always the most expensive way to acquire anything. When I worked in music retail, I'd have people come in trying to re-sell their custom guitars, drum sets, amps, etc. And they almost always looked goofy and had certain features that most people wouldn't care about or even want. But since they paid like double what a standard instrument of the same quality would cost, they expected to get a lot more back. But I couldn't offer that. Because it's value is just what I think people will buy it for. And from my perspective, the highly custom nature of the instrument made it less valuable to me, because chances were greater that it would spend more time taking up floor space than something with much wider appeal.
So do not buy custom unless it is absolutely necessary.
MC Hammer went broke because of the indoor fountains he installed all over his house. His water bill was larger than several US townships.
Indoor.
fountains.
PLURAL - FOUNTAINS
There was a $30M house in my community that sat on the market for years. No takers. But it became a problem as they didn’t maintain it. In the end they sold it for $5M which was below the land value. New owner ripped it down (roof had failed) and rebuilt from scratch. Probably worth $15 to $20M now. After investing $10M. That’s not a bad profit.
> Which is usually one of the most cited reasons celebrities and pro athletes go broke: building a ridiculously expensive custom home.
I for one am excited to watch Drake go broke after making that tacky eyesore he made. Dude's got no class.
The other problem is this is a monstrosity with zero taste where they took everything and scaled it up by 10x. If it were an actual beautiful estate I could see someone paying out the nose for it.
This is the best comment in the thread so far. If I had all the money in the world, I still wouldn't buy it - it's just too *over*.
Seven pools? No. A nightclub for a **thousand** people? No. A wine store for 5,000 bottles? No, no, no.
None of it makes any sense at all. Who the fuck would want all this shit? If I want a nightclub I’ll buy a damn nightclub, or I’ll rent out an entire nightclub. Why would you want one in your house? So many dumb things in this place. Why is there a running track that doesn’t even go in a circle? Who is that for exactly that likes running enough to build a running track, but it only goes 1 direction halfway around the house. Who the fuck wants a kitchen in their bedroom? So weird. The infinity pool is neat, but if you’ve got 7 pools why not make some interesting features? I’d have waterslides and stuff like that at least.
This place is nuts but really not all that nice. I’ve seen places 10000x better than this for a fraction of the price. Could buy 10 mansions in beautiful places around the world for less than this one monstrosity. I don’t understand why the builder would think this was a good idea given how few people could afford it period, let alone would want to buy it.
The only thing this place could reasonably be is a resort. If you turned it into some kind of experience specific retreat, it could function. But it's not a home... not even for the Kardashian clan.
Ok. Maybe for the Kardashian clan.
Better question:
If you have $500 million to spend on a home, would you intentionally pay to have to walk that much to get a midnight snack? To go from your kitchen to the car?
Nobody wants to live this way!
Loan small, build, sell, earn. Loan a bit more, build, sell, earn. Loan a bit more, build sell, earn. Loan decent amount, build, sell, earn. Now you get a good credit score. Loan shitton, build, file for bankruptcy.
Wow, that sounds exactly like the owner of the company I worked for. Loan, build, sell, repeat. Eventually he started a factory building modules (where I worked), bit off *way* more than he could chew and the company went bankrupt.
Nile Niami had had a long successful career building spec homes. He was an entirely self-made millionaire. This was his first failure. And it was a spectacular one, also wiping him out financially having put in approximately $40 million of his own money.
https://www.mansionglobal.com/articles/how-the-one-was-won-the-saga-behind-what-could-have-been-americas-priciest-home-01659034299
Nah he [had a previous foreclosure on another spec](https://www.wsj.com/articles/l-a-megamansion-developer-nile-niami-places-spec-home-in-bankruptcy-11607542932) home in W Hollywood, and another before that.
The WSJ has been following this guy closely even before "The One"
In the video it said the guy defaulted on it at the end of sept 2021 which kinda coincides with the peak of the insane housing market. It’s like this was a harbinger of things to come economically lol.
Apparently it sold for 141 million (126 at auction + 12% commision) in March of this year. It cost $196.4 million in secured debt to make.
https://fortune.com/2022/03/04/bel-air-mega-mansion-the-one-sold-141-million/
There's a Maya Rudolph TV show called "LOOT." Watching the trailer they had an exterior shot of "The One" and I was like "Whoa! I know that house!"
As the trailer goes on, it looks like they shot a lot of the show inside the house, which is a pretty good idea since nobody will ever live there, lmao.
They learned how in Walking Dead S1E1. Even turned doorknobs a bit. And then they forgot.
Edit- maybe episode 2? I don’t remember. Zombie picks up a rock or cinder block or something and smashes the department store window.
They shot *some* of it inside the house, but I believe the majority of the interior shots are still on a sound stage.
It's... an alright show. The secondary characters and their story arcs are more entertaining than Maya's character.
Hahah I knew I recognized that house from somewhere lol. They could film 3 movies consecutively in that house without interrupting each other. That’s fucking wild!
Fun fact: They never got the "nightclub" permitted as part of the house. So the big fancy hallway and entry to it had to be close off with a concrete wall, creating a big dead end hallway next to the bowling alley. Now, the only way to allow the nightclub to remain and be accessible is to have all your guests walk out on the "ground floor", past the pool and behind the poolhouse structure, and down some steps behind there.
Neighbours are probably happy. Even the uber wealthy probably don’t want to have a venue with thousands of douchebags visiting to party next to their home that they spent millions on.
Yes. This would have been a great hilltop citadel. Defensive walls, some grounds and a more reasonable house for one fifth the price and some rich paranoid billionaire would have been all over it.
Yea, my I won the jackpot plan is to build a defensible concrete walled installation with an interior courtyard the size of a half football field with a greenhouse glass roof. Ultimate privacy, a pool with a jungle, and loads of seeds and farming equipment if the world goes to hell...
When the building started, it was still an actual hill. They had to remove hundreds of truckloads of dirt in order to gain the building platform for the mansion.
Used to be an even nicer hilltop then. Still, great views, lovely place for a mansion that has a more vertical element to it and smaller, terraced footprint.
Was wondering how far i’d have to scroll for this.
Before even watching the video i was like “wait so is it 500 mil or 5 billion?”
Cause that’s a substantial difference
I strongly recommend watching the original film YouTube tour with the guy who built it and the follow up interview he did a few months later.
Original creator was coked up to the gills, keeps talking about his ex wife actress who he married after knowing a few months and how the house will be a beacon for the world. While being interviewed by this really bizarre British guy.
Honestly the whole video plays out like some kind sketch that's half way Tim and Eric and half way UK office
https://youtu.be/_H2xmRseiDw
In the nightclub VIP area "TV's in the VIP area so you can see in the nightclub if you want to pick up somebody." Immediately cut to "Unfortunately in LA a lot of the dudes are scumbags here and I'm going to change that" Proceeds to talk about putting cameras in the bathrooms...
Skip to 21:45 to see some coked up madness and just watch for a few minutes
I've had some really nice tables at clubs and you kinda just look out over the dance floor. Never had a room though, don't know or maybe it's extra exclusive to have VIP rooms at night clubs.
ProduceMichael is a scam artist just like nile. This is two scammers talking to eachother which is why it sounds like two bots lost half way down a markoff chain dialogue.
good news! if you want to look like a retired predatory porn producer, it appears he has a shop where he sells those gaudy shirts for $600 and shades *starting* at $3.6k. the best part is the "best sellers" section. [check it out.](https://producermichael.com/collections/best-sellers)
I was thinking that as well. Seems like you could get it re zoned since lots of nice neighborhoods have businesses like this in them. Who knows what that process would take though.
You're not thinking big enough. The target clientele who need to go through massive amounts of rehab all already live right in that neighborhood.
You just market it as a private resort, and then every billionaire's daughter who's off on another coke binge gets to 'rehab' in style.
I'm sure there's a tax write-off you can build into somewhere too
“It’s a rehab clinic”
NOT IN MY BACK YARD!
“a rehab clinic for billionaire heiresses struggling with sex addiction.”
YOU DIDN’T LET ME FINISH! It’s not in my backyard but if you need room to expand feel free to use my pool.
Living there would basically be like living in a resort that's empty. I feel like even if I had the money I wouldn't want to. It's basically a place to throw parties.
The video editing is what I imagine the onset of dementia must feel like, kinda blurry transitions, the running track gets mentioned twice as if it was the first time each. Very disturbing.
The smart billionaires who don't realize they're just building a bunker for the most popular guy on their ex-military security detail when it all goes to shit.
It sold a couple months ago for only 126m lmao
[https://www.businessinsider.com/photos-225-million-mansion-the-one-biggest-modern-home-us-2021-9](https://www.businessinsider.com/photos-225-million-mansion-the-one-biggest-modern-home-us-2021-9?international=true&r=US&IR=T)
"In December, Niami made another public proposal to keep the house, this time [calling for a partner to create a cryptocurrency](https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2021-12-27/the-one-auction-february-despite-nile-niami-cryptocurrency-plan) called The One Coin that would be backed by the house and pay off its debts. However, that plan wasn’t successful either."
LOL
> "No one has ever asked for help like this before. I’m the underdog. I came from nothing,” he said. “I have very few haters, and the world is rooting for me.”
Priceless
The fight was over a few days after that. The fashion nova guy won.
The issue with the house was nobody has any clue how it was built as it hasn’t received a certificate that the building is up to code. There is risk there due to how sketch the builder dude is.
Imagine going to the pool and seeing 25 empty lounges. It would have the ambiance of a morgue.
Now imagine those lounges full of 25 people you don’t really know. I’d go hide.
Imagine getting up early at 6am and skimming debris from the pools so it looks nice for your morning swim and you look up when you're done and it's 11:45 at night.
It’s entirely too much. I don’t even know if I’d want to have a bowling alley in my house because it takes the appeal of bowling away. When something is always there and readily available it makes me not appreciate it or do it.
Reminds me of when my dad bought a new house and put a pool table in the bonus room, and said that he always had wanted to be rich enough to have a pool table. In the ten years he and my mom lived in that house, I maybe saw him actually play pool three times. When he upgraded and bought his most recent house, they gave the pool table away.
Bill kinda nailed it at the beginning there. I grew up in a wealthy area (we lived on the other side of town) and there were plenty of these mansions built in the 80s that are a garish version of the sleek modern look. It looks dated in the video, like that look has been scaled up, and some features are head scratching like that dumb cigar bar that tried to be warm and inviting but it’s sterile like the rest of the home.
Yes, the builder went bankrupt and it got foreclosed on and auctioned. Now the creditors are fighting over that money which only covers something like half of what was owed.
According to this [LA Times article](https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2022-03-15/the-one-nile-niami-auction-sagnhian-fashion-nova), the creditors were/are trying to block the sale from going through, because they feel it was grossly under bid at $141M. This shit show couldn't get much worse. Everyone wants their money out in a hurry, but no one wants to accept the market conditions.
I think the builder had a history of building luxury mansions and selling them for a profit.
With that track record he was able to secure loans to buy the land and start building.
There's videos floating around touring the mansion. Here's part 1: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=\_H2xmRseiDw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_H2xmRseiDw)
You can tell that the builder is not all there during the interview (whether it's drugs or something else it's hard to say).
I think he meant for this sort of interview/home thing.
Doesn't want to track shit into the house.
The likely alternative is what you said. Dude's a fuckin weirdo.
> since it apparently did cost 190 Million to make
If that's what he spent on it, I feel like he shot himself in the foot by pricing it at $500M. I imagine he could have sold it for $200-300M.
Honestly looking at that behemoth, I kept thinking "How they hell do you keep the pools watered and cleaned, and the grass green? This would be like taking care of a resort grounds, with none of the income that comes with it. Like forget staffing, and the cost to keep the bastard clean. How do you keep the green bits from dying without getting fee'd up the ass for using too much water?
It's not a golf couse, it's not a business, you're not getting a break without directly paying doe.
Also there's like zero security besides a gate it looks like. I'd be afraid to live there, it's like living on a giant target. Who the hell wants to be the guy sitting on the biggest house in Belair?
In one of his specials he talked about wanting to learn to fly a helicopter 'cause it's the ultimate zombie apocalypse vehicle, i.e. trying to get out of LA would be impossible but helicopters just take off and go.
[Apparently the truth is closer to him getting scared in 2008 recession and worried about how he'd have to get out of LA if society started to collapse.](https://youtu.be/0EEDMfjASiM)
He also speaks French and plays the drums. If you follow his podcast long enough you realize he’s a really interesting and bright guy though he plays up the Masshole persona as part of his comedic act. Not saying he doesn’t have anger issues but he’s also a real person with dimensions.
If you ever listened to his podcasts he talks about it quiet a bit that he took classes to fly a helicopter just as a hobby
I’m not sure if he’s allowed to pilot one by himself yet but he has loads of stories about him flying. He has a couple of bits in his stand up specials about flying helicopters too
For those wondering what actually happened to this house and its builder:
https://www.inman.com/2022/03/09/fast-fashion-tycoon-revealed-as-buyer-of-the-one-las-biggest-home/#:\~:text=The%20buyer%20of%20the%20Bel,its%20asking%20price%20at%20auction.
Did the Saints Row crew model the "one man shouldn't have all that power" penthouse raid on this mansion? I feel like I know where to run for ammo and the elevator just looking at the thumbnail.
If you are so rich that you want to throw down 500 million dollars on a house, you are gonna want to have that house built and customized to your own exact specifications. Nobody is gonna want to spend 500 million dollars on a house that somebody else designed with nobody in particular in mind.
It’s so ugly too, white everything, glass everything, umm can I fart in this room? All that money and not an ounce of creativity. No one should be able to live there and not feel like an asshole every day. You’d be inhuman if you could.
"if you had 2 billion dollars you couldn't afford this."
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Staff would be closer to 15 (people) at a minimum. Insane.
Smaller estate with a very small staff. 10 landscapers, 6 housekeepers, 4 PA/EA, 2 building engineers, 2 AV/IT engineers, 3 finance. Just the daily staff. About a million in annual payroll, over 100k in regular monthly utilities for one property. On the other hand, one person who travels on her yacht takes about 50-60k to fuel the craft. Her Landscapers keep massive greenhouses so they can plant her favorite flowers so they will be in bloom when she arrives at each home. There is always someone standing off to one side waiting…. It can be a bit boggling.
Do you think at that point you’re also buying double Netflix because you’ve got so many devices you exceed the cap?
5.5m$ per year I can handle but double Netflix? That will ruin anyone.
That's a lot of accounts to keep track of
That's it.. I am no longer interested in buying the mansion I don't like having too many accounts
You can have as many devices added to the account for access as you want. You can only *use* up to 4 at once.
But if you have a wall of flat screens all playing your favourite sitcoms simultaneously? You'd probably need multiple accounts. Do you think Queen Elizabeth had Netflix? Do you think Netflix employees ever snooped to see what she watched?
She just watched The Crown on repeat
I would assume super wealthy people can have special accounts.
You’re lowballing the house staff rate. In that area and for that house alone an Estate Manager would be paid close to $400k-$600k/yr if not more. Also not counting personal chefs, house keepers, and possible security.
Seriously. I have a client in 4 story townhouse in NYC who spends about 120k a year on help that I know of.
irk, I'd rather just buy Dollywood
Id rather just buy 100 $5million homes and party around every incredible city on earthknowing i had like 3 choices of house at each.
Yeah I caught that and it's not necessarily true. Even if the costs of purchasing that home are equal to the home itself, you still have a billion dollars to spend on upkeep. If taxes and upkeep are $10 mil per year, it would still take 100 years to run out of money. Is it an exorbitant waste of resources? Unquestionably. But that's sort of what billionaires do.
In theory 2 billion would be enough, but noone with 2 billion in net worth would actually spend 1/4 on a single investment - I think that's what they meant.
And that's just it - it's not even an 'investment' because as it appreciates (if it even does) then the pool of potential buyers will continue to shrink. It's only worth what someone is willing to pay for it, and since at $500 million there are no takers, there's no way it will actually go up in value.
What's wild is that even more expensive homes exist and have owners, though I don't think the prices they paid for these places was anywhere near their modern day worth. I've spent like 30 minutes looking into this and I'm convinced that the guy who built this house is an idiot expecting to build something so wild and huge while expecting someone to jump on it. The people who own these stupid expensive properties either had a hand in the design or bought them because they were already built the way they were. If I had $500m to spend on a house I'd either want to buy something historic I already like, or have something designed for me personally.
How the hell did he get financing for this? Saudi’s?
That's kind of it right? Why the fuck would you spend that much on someone else's dream "house".
Net worth of the wealthy are ever increasing. Look at the richest person net worth and the total number of billionaires. The pool is growing
Let's face it: If you had $500 million to spend on a home would you buy something someone else designed or would you have the home designed to your own specifications in a location you chose?
Which is usually one of the most cited reasons celebrities and pro athletes go broke: building a ridiculously expensive custom home. They say all the specific details not only make it hard to sell, but distort the value as the owners see it as plus, while in reality it's a liability. You think a cigar bar adds 2 million to the value? Well, nobody else does. So when it goes on the market and just sits, the owner is baffled nobody is willing to pay for all the things he specifically thinks make a dream home. Also, people building a house like this rare take into account the crazy amount of money upkeep and taxes are gonna cost. So they end up with a nightmare money pit which will never sell close to whatever you paid to specifically meet your taste and desires. If you are in moentary pinch, it's even worse, as it's a drain and an asset you will never get your investment on back.
Exactly why Michael Jordan STILL can’t sell his old home… https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2021/03/michael-jordan-cant-sell-mansion-highland-park-illinois-chicago-bulls-nba/amp
I’m turning into my dad. “How could anyone afford to heat that?!” The first floor is all open, with all those windows. No doors anywhere!
Proceeds to turn the thermostat back to 79° in the summer even though no one asked for it.
Looks like a business resort to me. Maybe it could be repurposed.
Yeah I watched a video about that his house has tacky “23” numbers all over and is just way too specifically MJ for anyone to buy it
Rent it out to fans to bang in.
Modern problems require modern solutions! COME ON AND SLAM
AirjordanBNB
BNB is short for Bang&Bang
This makes sense for a lot of celebrities homes actually. Have a housekeeper, whore out your 2nd and 3rd homes to diehard fans. Taylor Swift has 7 ready at any given time for fans to lose their minds in.
Careful, though, or you'll end up in one of her songs.
"Heart Aches and Reddit Comments"
This is high level problem solving in action
I mean, in chicago having the #23 all over the house may not be the detractor you think it is. Now having everything custom built for someone who is 6’6”…
Would be a wet dream. I'd sell my children's feet for that
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Yeah. I made my work bench in the shed. It's the perfect height for doing things on, and I genuinely had a "so this is what it's like" moment when I realised. This must be why short people do work standing up, because it's comfortable and convenient for them! My wife literally can't use the bench, it's at her nose height. We have seriously considered having multiple heights of benches in our kitchen even though it would be ridiculous. > Using the bathroom sink, countertops, and being able to see myself in all the mirrors is awesome. LOL I remember talking about this at a friend's house ("it's better being tall because you can reach things") and I went into her own kitchen and showed her that I couldn't reach anything. Taps, benches, stove controls, the fridge handle. All out of reach unless I crouched over. Did you know that a lot of people can get a spoon out of their cutlery drawer without bending over? That blew my mind when I learned that. Want a spoon? Just pull on the drawer and take one, no need to do the limbo to get it, it's just right there.
Ever been in a house where the occupant has shit loads of framed pictures of themselves on the walls? Like, just them, no one else in the pics. I have, and it freaked me out.
Maybe they had a twin that died
Miley Cyrus could make it work
It's aggressively 80 / 90'ies but better than many other high end idiocies.
It's a freaky ass McMansion is the real problem. Rich people who want their own home need to stop with these mansions that look like ass, but have everything they wanted like an indoor pool. Instead, hire a talented architect to create something for them, with only minimal input. Also pick a style, jesus.
There's a $40 million house in Chicago that's absolutely gorgeous, looks like a diplomatic compound. It has imported Italian marble and European everything. The owner is a rich CEO and admitted that it's probably worth $10 million less than he put into because it's his customization. It doesn't matter how nice it is, big expensive houses will never be bought for what you paid because everyone that rich has distinctive taste and if you're paying an enormous upkeep it's going to be completely customized.
Building for more than 1 generation would be nice.
> They say all the specific details not only make it hard to sell, but distort the value as the owners see it I was at an open house inspection once. Place was ok, not great, but pretty good. A lot of people at the open inspection. And right there, in the middle of all that, the owner was berating the real estate agent for not showing enough people that the kitchen sink had one of those extendable hose things so you could rinse your dishes like in a commercial kitchen. It seemed like in her mind the only reason the house hadn't sold at that point was that no-one had truly understood the genius of a kitchen sink that has an extendable hose you can use to rinse your dishes. She pulled it out and waved it around for everyone to see, as if she could magically make us realise how much it was worth by sheer force of will.
So, a $100 faucet? People are insane. A faucet is the easiest thing to change. Show me state-of-the-art wiring and plumbing, a *completely* new roof with solar panels, and maybe I will take a second look.
>Also, people building a house like this rare take into account the crazy amount of money upkeep and taxes are gonna cost. That's all I could think. There's so few people who could even afford it in the first place, but then the amount of money for staff and up keep. Just baffling. I think when they showed the candy room was when I officially WTF'd, who in that house is going to eat hundreds of pounds of candy before it goes bad?
I am guessing (no idea) that in a house that big you expect to have a LOT of sycophants hanging around. Looks to be a Playboy mansion type thing with loads of women around the pool and "pals" hanging around 24/7. A massive party house. For a family of (say) five (or ten) it is absurd. 95% of the home would go unused.
Reminds me of house tours of rappers or athletes where it seems like there's always 50 people hanging around.
"Oh, they'll be around, but when yo' paper get low - Just like Master P said, "There they go, there they go"...
You could live in this house with a family of ten and still only run into everyone once a week.
This is why almost every house on Extreme Home Makeover went into foreclosure - they built these grand homes for people down on their luck, and then expected a down on their luck family to figure out how to pay the water and electric bill on a house 4x their budget.
And they can't even sell the house for much because of the ridiculously themed kid's rooms, where they go *way* over the top modeling the room after some dumb and soon-forgotten whim of a 4-year-old.
Shit you just reminded me of a British TV series I watched as a kid where they would take the parents away for a week and let the kids make all these crazy design changes to the house. In one episode the kids wanted the kitchen to be exactly like a Burger King. When the parents got home and saw this monstrosity the mum burst into tears. As well as the shock of your family home being ruined like that, your comment has only now got me thinking that it would’ve been impossible for them to then sell the house later! Poor bastards.
Guesttimating, I'd be unsurprised if that house costs over $5mil per year. Probably also why it never sold, instead the guy [went bankrupt and the house was sold at bankruptcy auction back in May](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/mar/04/mega-mansion-los-angeles-real-estate). List price: $295m Actual sale price: $141m
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Ya makes me wonder about all those mansions on Long Island for the robber barons. None really exist anymore expect as museums. Fascinating stuff.
I believe Mike Tyson just abandoned a mansion he could no longer afford. It's in the middle of nowhere, and people take trips to wander around inside.
I know Nelly has a mansion in the St. Louis area that is just been sitting there and is dilapidated
There's really no worse investment than having something custom made for your own personal specifications--Unless you are absolutely sure that you will never sell that item. Custom items are always the most expensive way to acquire anything. When I worked in music retail, I'd have people come in trying to re-sell their custom guitars, drum sets, amps, etc. And they almost always looked goofy and had certain features that most people wouldn't care about or even want. But since they paid like double what a standard instrument of the same quality would cost, they expected to get a lot more back. But I couldn't offer that. Because it's value is just what I think people will buy it for. And from my perspective, the highly custom nature of the instrument made it less valuable to me, because chances were greater that it would spend more time taking up floor space than something with much wider appeal. So do not buy custom unless it is absolutely necessary.
MC Hammer went broke because of the indoor fountains he installed all over his house. His water bill was larger than several US townships. Indoor. fountains. PLURAL - FOUNTAINS
What the fuck? He never heard of recirculating pump?
They were changing out the water frequently is what I remember reading.
You can't touch this water bill
Well I suppose once the land value goes up way past the home value, someone will buy it to demolish the house and rebuild it.
There was a $30M house in my community that sat on the market for years. No takers. But it became a problem as they didn’t maintain it. In the end they sold it for $5M which was below the land value. New owner ripped it down (roof had failed) and rebuilt from scratch. Probably worth $15 to $20M now. After investing $10M. That’s not a bad profit.
Unless of course they also run into the same problem when selling.
> Which is usually one of the most cited reasons celebrities and pro athletes go broke: building a ridiculously expensive custom home. I for one am excited to watch Drake go broke after making that tacky eyesore he made. Dude's got no class.
The other problem is this is a monstrosity with zero taste where they took everything and scaled it up by 10x. If it were an actual beautiful estate I could see someone paying out the nose for it.
This is the best comment in the thread so far. If I had all the money in the world, I still wouldn't buy it - it's just too *over*. Seven pools? No. A nightclub for a **thousand** people? No. A wine store for 5,000 bottles? No, no, no.
None of it makes any sense at all. Who the fuck would want all this shit? If I want a nightclub I’ll buy a damn nightclub, or I’ll rent out an entire nightclub. Why would you want one in your house? So many dumb things in this place. Why is there a running track that doesn’t even go in a circle? Who is that for exactly that likes running enough to build a running track, but it only goes 1 direction halfway around the house. Who the fuck wants a kitchen in their bedroom? So weird. The infinity pool is neat, but if you’ve got 7 pools why not make some interesting features? I’d have waterslides and stuff like that at least. This place is nuts but really not all that nice. I’ve seen places 10000x better than this for a fraction of the price. Could buy 10 mansions in beautiful places around the world for less than this one monstrosity. I don’t understand why the builder would think this was a good idea given how few people could afford it period, let alone would want to buy it.
The only thing this place could reasonably be is a resort. If you turned it into some kind of experience specific retreat, it could function. But it's not a home... not even for the Kardashian clan. Ok. Maybe for the Kardashian clan.
I think it has real potential for a mid-sized cult.
Yeah, no part of me wants that place. Glass blocks out front? Generic architecture? A museum sized formal living room? Blah.
If I had 500 million dollars for a house I would have the absolute nicest 3000sqft house and like 495 million dollars.
Better question: If you have $500 million to spend on a home, would you intentionally pay to have to walk that much to get a midnight snack? To go from your kitchen to the car? Nobody wants to live this way!
Oh....you missed the part where the master bedroom has its own kitchen. Kidjanot.
Big deal my apartment is the same way
Eh, at that price you can probably ask your fifth bodyguard to grab some for you. At that point you really need shitloads of staff around the clock.
how the fuck did this guy even secure the loans for this bullshit?
Loan small, build, sell, earn. Loan a bit more, build, sell, earn. Loan a bit more, build sell, earn. Loan decent amount, build, sell, earn. Now you get a good credit score. Loan shitton, build, file for bankruptcy.
Wow, that sounds exactly like the owner of the company I worked for. Loan, build, sell, repeat. Eventually he started a factory building modules (where I worked), bit off *way* more than he could chew and the company went bankrupt.
This guy develops
Nile Niami had had a long successful career building spec homes. He was an entirely self-made millionaire. This was his first failure. And it was a spectacular one, also wiping him out financially having put in approximately $40 million of his own money. https://www.mansionglobal.com/articles/how-the-one-was-won-the-saga-behind-what-could-have-been-americas-priciest-home-01659034299
Nah he [had a previous foreclosure on another spec](https://www.wsj.com/articles/l-a-megamansion-developer-nile-niami-places-spec-home-in-bankruptcy-11607542932) home in W Hollywood, and another before that. The WSJ has been following this guy closely even before "The One"
Oops. I missed those two. He had no failures prior to Covid19, 2020.
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In the video it said the guy defaulted on it at the end of sept 2021 which kinda coincides with the peak of the insane housing market. It’s like this was a harbinger of things to come economically lol.
Apparently it sold for 141 million (126 at auction + 12% commision) in March of this year. It cost $196.4 million in secured debt to make. https://fortune.com/2022/03/04/bel-air-mega-mansion-the-one-sold-141-million/
There's a Maya Rudolph TV show called "LOOT." Watching the trailer they had an exterior shot of "The One" and I was like "Whoa! I know that house!" As the trailer goes on, it looks like they shot a lot of the show inside the house, which is a pretty good idea since nobody will ever live there, lmao.
It would make for a good post apocalyptic location that people are trying to escape to.
That was my first thought lol but it might be too difficult to secure…
Hopefully the zombies don’t figure out how to break glass.
They learned how in Walking Dead S1E1. Even turned doorknobs a bit. And then they forgot. Edit- maybe episode 2? I don’t remember. Zombie picks up a rock or cinder block or something and smashes the department store window.
It sold at bankruptcy auction for $126 mil
They shot *some* of it inside the house, but I believe the majority of the interior shots are still on a sound stage. It's... an alright show. The secondary characters and their story arcs are more entertaining than Maya's character.
Hahah I knew I recognized that house from somewhere lol. They could film 3 movies consecutively in that house without interrupting each other. That’s fucking wild!
\*concurrently?
*Circumcisionly
Fun fact: They never got the "nightclub" permitted as part of the house. So the big fancy hallway and entry to it had to be close off with a concrete wall, creating a big dead end hallway next to the bowling alley. Now, the only way to allow the nightclub to remain and be accessible is to have all your guests walk out on the "ground floor", past the pool and behind the poolhouse structure, and down some steps behind there.
Neighbours are probably happy. Even the uber wealthy probably don’t want to have a venue with thousands of douchebags visiting to party next to their home that they spent millions on.
That is such a nice hilltop I feel they really wasted it with that house
Yes. This would have been a great hilltop citadel. Defensive walls, some grounds and a more reasonable house for one fifth the price and some rich paranoid billionaire would have been all over it.
Yea, my I won the jackpot plan is to build a defensible concrete walled installation with an interior courtyard the size of a half football field with a greenhouse glass roof. Ultimate privacy, a pool with a jungle, and loads of seeds and farming equipment if the world goes to hell...
IIRC they blasted 40 feet off the top of the hill to make more surface area for this building.
When the building started, it was still an actual hill. They had to remove hundreds of truckloads of dirt in order to gain the building platform for the mansion.
Used to be an even nicer hilltop then. Still, great views, lovely place for a mansion that has a more vertical element to it and smaller, terraced footprint.
What kind of number is 500,0000,000?
The one true comment.
Was wondering how far i’d have to scroll for this. Before even watching the video i was like “wait so is it 500 mil or 5 billion?” Cause that’s a substantial difference
Technically? 5 billion
That’s five hundred hundred-hundred thousand. Happy to help.
I strongly recommend watching the original film YouTube tour with the guy who built it and the follow up interview he did a few months later. Original creator was coked up to the gills, keeps talking about his ex wife actress who he married after knowing a few months and how the house will be a beacon for the world. While being interviewed by this really bizarre British guy. Honestly the whole video plays out like some kind sketch that's half way Tim and Eric and half way UK office https://youtu.be/_H2xmRseiDw
In the nightclub VIP area "TV's in the VIP area so you can see in the nightclub if you want to pick up somebody." Immediately cut to "Unfortunately in LA a lot of the dudes are scumbags here and I'm going to change that" Proceeds to talk about putting cameras in the bathrooms... Skip to 21:45 to see some coked up madness and just watch for a few minutes
Holy shit. It was said so nonchalantly. Is that a standard feature of VIP rooms? A TV to watch cameras of the club and pick people up?
I've had some really nice tables at clubs and you kinda just look out over the dance floor. Never had a room though, don't know or maybe it's extra exclusive to have VIP rooms at night clubs.
[ **Jump to 21:45 @** Referenced Video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_H2xmRseiDw&t=0h21m45s) ^(Channel Name: ProducerMichael, Video Length: [35:18])^, [^Jump ^5 ^secs ^earlier ^for ^context ^@21:40](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_H2xmRseiDw&t=0h21m40s) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- ^^Downvote ^^me ^^to ^^delete ^^malformed ^^comments. [^^Source ^^Code](https://github.com/ankitgyawali/reddit-timestamp-bot) ^^| [^^Suggestions](https://www.reddit.com/r/timestamp_bot)
ProduceMichael is a scam artist just like nile. This is two scammers talking to eachother which is why it sounds like two bots lost half way down a markoff chain dialogue.
> two bots lost half way down a markoff chain dialogue. Definitely stealing that line.
Just be sure to say [Markov](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markov_chain) instead of Markoff.
I am getting my super creepy old man vibes from this guy.
It's the fucking shirt and shades. Screams "Retired porn producer trying to con a movie actress into sex slavery"
good news! if you want to look like a retired predatory porn producer, it appears he has a shop where he sells those gaudy shirts for $600 and shades *starting* at $3.6k. the best part is the "best sellers" section. [check it out.](https://producermichael.com/collections/best-sellers)
Can be turned into a wellness resort. Most of the facilities are already there.
That is a classic villain mansion. It has facilities to house your minions, labs and doomsday gadgets garage.
Great idea. Builder should have thought of that.
Probably not zoned commercial.
I was thinking that as well. Seems like you could get it re zoned since lots of nice neighborhoods have businesses like this in them. Who knows what that process would take though.
I highly doubt one of the most affluent zip codes on Earth will allow them to rezone this property as commercial. #NIMBY
You're not thinking big enough. The target clientele who need to go through massive amounts of rehab all already live right in that neighborhood. You just market it as a private resort, and then every billionaire's daughter who's off on another coke binge gets to 'rehab' in style. I'm sure there's a tax write-off you can build into somewhere too
“It’s a rehab clinic” NOT IN MY BACK YARD! “a rehab clinic for billionaire heiresses struggling with sex addiction.” YOU DIDN’T LET ME FINISH! It’s not in my backyard but if you need room to expand feel free to use my pool.
Nice…. “The coolest perk to your HOA fees here, is you get rehab membership”. “They even have family plans!”
Living there would basically be like living in a resort that's empty. I feel like even if I had the money I wouldn't want to. It's basically a place to throw parties.
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Sounds like a fucking nightmare
Or a sitcom.
That house needs to be in the next GTA game!
They could just use it as the whole map.
Jeeze, whoever used the edit/transition in this video where the video signal pretends to go all bad for a second needs to have a talking to.
I think it was supposed to be a "fast forward" transition but it's so bad I wanted to punch the tv
The video editing is what I imagine the onset of dementia must feel like, kinda blurry transitions, the running track gets mentioned twice as if it was the first time each. Very disturbing.
Guys guys guys. Didn’t you hear? The house has the ability to change the world.
If I'm gonna spend half a billion on a home it better be an armored fortress of death not a gaudy showpiece.
yea we are not seeing the luxury bunkers the smart billionaires are building because they are smart enough to know half the value is the discretion.
The smart billionaires who don't realize they're just building a bunker for the most popular guy on their ex-military security detail when it all goes to shit.
"Do you FEEL in control?"
It sold a couple months ago for only 126m lmao [https://www.businessinsider.com/photos-225-million-mansion-the-one-biggest-modern-home-us-2021-9](https://www.businessinsider.com/photos-225-million-mansion-the-one-biggest-modern-home-us-2021-9?international=true&r=US&IR=T)
The creditors are fighting the sale, big time. https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2022-03-15/the-one-nile-niami-auction-sagnhian-fashion-nova
"In December, Niami made another public proposal to keep the house, this time [calling for a partner to create a cryptocurrency](https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2021-12-27/the-one-auction-february-despite-nile-niami-cryptocurrency-plan) called The One Coin that would be backed by the house and pay off its debts. However, that plan wasn’t successful either." LOL
The guy is full of great ideas! lmao
You ever hang around a bunch of coke heads? It’s a night full of great ideas and life changing experiences.
> "No one has ever asked for help like this before. I’m the underdog. I came from nothing,” he said. “I have very few haters, and the world is rooting for me.” Priceless
The fight was over a few days after that. The fashion nova guy won. The issue with the house was nobody has any clue how it was built as it hasn’t received a certificate that the building is up to code. There is risk there due to how sketch the builder dude is.
Let’s stop calling these places “houses” “homes”, they’re not. They are entertainment buildings. You don’t live in these, you visit these places.
Imagine going to the pool and seeing 25 empty lounges. It would have the ambiance of a morgue. Now imagine those lounges full of 25 people you don’t really know. I’d go hide.
> Now imagine those lounges full of 25 people you don’t really know. So a cruise ship?
Imagine getting up early at 6am and skimming debris from the pools so it looks nice for your morning swim and you look up when you're done and it's 11:45 at night.
It’s entirely too much. I don’t even know if I’d want to have a bowling alley in my house because it takes the appeal of bowling away. When something is always there and readily available it makes me not appreciate it or do it.
Reminds me of when my dad bought a new house and put a pool table in the bonus room, and said that he always had wanted to be rich enough to have a pool table. In the ten years he and my mom lived in that house, I maybe saw him actually play pool three times. When he upgraded and bought his most recent house, they gave the pool table away.
My dad did nearly the identical thing for the reason that it's neat. We've played maybe half a dozen times.
Bill kinda nailed it at the beginning there. I grew up in a wealthy area (we lived on the other side of town) and there were plenty of these mansions built in the 80s that are a garish version of the sleek modern look. It looks dated in the video, like that look has been scaled up, and some features are head scratching like that dumb cigar bar that tried to be warm and inviting but it’s sterile like the rest of the home.
I thought "thé one" has been action sold months ago. The action price was 128M if i remember right
Yes, the builder went bankrupt and it got foreclosed on and auctioned. Now the creditors are fighting over that money which only covers something like half of what was owed.
According to this [LA Times article](https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2022-03-15/the-one-nile-niami-auction-sagnhian-fashion-nova), the creditors were/are trying to block the sale from going through, because they feel it was grossly under bid at $141M. This shit show couldn't get much worse. Everyone wants their money out in a hurry, but no one wants to accept the market conditions.
What a massive sunk cost fallacy that is. I'd rather have 1/3rd of my money back now than none of it ever.
The problem is that its 1/3 of the full value split between all the creditors. Not every creditor is going to get 1/3 of what they are owed.
Guess they shouldn’t of loaned the money out for such a stupid idea in the first place
It’s almost as if… extravagant loans have risk
I think the builder had a history of building luxury mansions and selling them for a profit. With that track record he was able to secure loans to buy the land and start building. There's videos floating around touring the mansion. Here's part 1: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=\_H2xmRseiDw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_H2xmRseiDw) You can tell that the builder is not all there during the interview (whether it's drugs or something else it's hard to say).
>whether it's drugs yes
Probably get some good drug connects selling houses to the richest people in the world
The interviewer: > ["I don't walk on grass."](https://youtu.be/_H2xmRseiDw?t=316) Dude was dead serious, and took a moment to get over it lol.
I think he meant for this sort of interview/home thing. Doesn't want to track shit into the house. The likely alternative is what you said. Dude's a fuckin weirdo.
It's usually cocaine.
Yea the house was sold at auction a few months ago. The buyer was Richard Saghian, the founder of Fashion Nova.
It went for 141 Million, since it apparently did cost 190 Million to make it was quite a loss.
> since it apparently did cost 190 Million to make If that's what he spent on it, I feel like he shot himself in the foot by pricing it at $500M. I imagine he could have sold it for $200-300M.
Honestly looking at that behemoth, I kept thinking "How they hell do you keep the pools watered and cleaned, and the grass green? This would be like taking care of a resort grounds, with none of the income that comes with it. Like forget staffing, and the cost to keep the bastard clean. How do you keep the green bits from dying without getting fee'd up the ass for using too much water? It's not a golf couse, it's not a business, you're not getting a break without directly paying doe. Also there's like zero security besides a gate it looks like. I'd be afraid to live there, it's like living on a giant target. Who the hell wants to be the guy sitting on the biggest house in Belair?
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Bill Burr is a helicopter pilot? That's pretty cool.
In one of his specials he talked about wanting to learn to fly a helicopter 'cause it's the ultimate zombie apocalypse vehicle, i.e. trying to get out of LA would be impossible but helicopters just take off and go. [Apparently the truth is closer to him getting scared in 2008 recession and worried about how he'd have to get out of LA if society started to collapse.](https://youtu.be/0EEDMfjASiM)
His wife wouldn't let him get guns, so this was the next thing on the list - flying helicopters.
He also speaks French and plays the drums. If you follow his podcast long enough you realize he’s a really interesting and bright guy though he plays up the Masshole persona as part of his comedic act. Not saying he doesn’t have anger issues but he’s also a real person with dimensions.
If you ever listened to his podcasts he talks about it quiet a bit that he took classes to fly a helicopter just as a hobby I’m not sure if he’s allowed to pilot one by himself yet but he has loads of stories about him flying. He has a couple of bits in his stand up specials about flying helicopters too
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For those wondering what actually happened to this house and its builder: https://www.inman.com/2022/03/09/fast-fashion-tycoon-revealed-as-buyer-of-the-one-las-biggest-home/#:\~:text=The%20buyer%20of%20the%20Bel,its%20asking%20price%20at%20auction.
Did the Saints Row crew model the "one man shouldn't have all that power" penthouse raid on this mansion? I feel like I know where to run for ammo and the elevator just looking at the thumbnail.
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Anyone else extremely bothered be there 4 zeros between the commas
If you are so rich that you want to throw down 500 million dollars on a house, you are gonna want to have that house built and customized to your own exact specifications. Nobody is gonna want to spend 500 million dollars on a house that somebody else designed with nobody in particular in mind.
It’s so ugly too, white everything, glass everything, umm can I fart in this room? All that money and not an ounce of creativity. No one should be able to live there and not feel like an asshole every day. You’d be inhuman if you could.
Looks like the house from loot