We love poking our noses into the lives of the rich and famous. When the homes of celebrities and captains of industry go on the market, the properties are often regarded with more anticipation and excitement than those of their neighbors — even if the bragging rights of stardom don’t add to the price a home will ultimately fetch or even make it easier to sell.
First come the house paparazzi. Media outlets like HGTV.com’s Cool Houses Daily buzz, touting the likes of designer Vince Camuto’s seven bedroom historic oceanfront Tudor poolhouse turned mansion in Southampton, N.Y., which was recently listed for $48 million.
Even before Ellen DeGeneres and Portia DiRossi’s listed their dreamy Thousand Oaks, California ranch recently for $10.995, according to Zillow.com, it was featured in the pages of Elle Decor. Was that merely coincidence, or part of a marketing strategy?
“Piano Man” singer/songwriter Billy Joel recently listed his seven bedroom, 8.5 bath waterfront Mediterranean Revival mansion amid the palm trees on Miami Beach’s gated La Gorce Island overlooking Biscayne Bay for $14,750,000. But it remains to be seen whether he fares any better trying to sell this Sunshine State mansion than he did with his $42 million waterfront chalet in Centre Island, N.Y., which was on and off the market for years without selling. Perhaps if he had offered potential buyers a bottle of red, a bottle of white…
Regardless, selling a celebrity home can be a fine balancing act.
Privacy and security concerns keep real estate agent Kayrn Rotter from using a former Stanley Cup winner’s name these days when showing the former New York Islanders’ $1,750,000 equestrian-themed home in Oyster Bay Cove, Long Island.
“When you walk in there, you know it’s his house,” Rotter said. “They don’t want people coming to the house just because it’s his house.”
Still, a room full of his ice hockey trophies provides one clue; photos of his children, the Stanley Cup and a big portrait when they retired his number make it a cinch. Another giveaway is the collection of shirts from every NHL team hanging on the wall of his son’s childhood room. Now grown, his son is also a professional hockey player.
“They think it’s very cool,” Rotter said of the potential buyers. At least one looker “loved the idea that it was his house.” But when an offer came from Rangers fans, the agent gently asked them to switch loyalties. They passed.
It took 266 days for Grammy Award-winning musician Alicia Keys’ 9,000-square-foot home in Muttontown, NY, to sell two years ago. Meanwhile, the original $3.85 million asking price dropped twice, finally selling for nearly million dollars less.
Even more distressing was the sale of the late comedian Alan King’s home. After his death nine years ago, his widow put their charming 6,457 square foot Tudor mansion on 2.39 acres on the Long Island Sound on the market, asking $22 million for the lush Kings Point, NY, property that also include a pool, a tennis court, a guest cottage and a private rocky beach.
The property’s provenance was superb. The lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II built the residence in 1926, a year before he penned “Show Boat.” Among the guests at Hammerstein’s soirees were F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald and the singer Eddie Cantor. Still, King’s home fetched only $12.75 million, and the new owner, a businessman, knocked it down and replaced it with a far grander mansion.
According to the real estate website Curbed.com, celebrity homes often seem to sit longer on the market and they seem to “have more trouble than the regular old plebs do.” It could be the stratospheric prices or that the rich and famous can afford to let a house sit on the market. Christina Aguilera’s glitzy Beverly Hills mansion, for instance, was listed in March, 2011 for $13.5 million. Though it was previously owned by Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne and boasted a private beauty salon, a gift wrapping nook and a guest house with a recording studio, it languished on the market for two years before selling for $13.5 million, according to AOL Real Estate. In April, Aguilera purchased a relative bargain, a $10 million six bedroom home in L.A.’s gated Mulholland Estates.