NFL linebacker Ryan Shazier of the Pittsburgh Steelers has purchased a suburban Pittsburgh home for $2.6 million. The seven-bedroom, seven-bathroom house he scored in early August is located just outside Pittsburgh, in the suburb of Fox Chapel, PA. The spacious home offers up 4,248 square feet of living space on a large 9.3-acre lot. It is surrounded by a thick wooded forest and offers the privacy a pro athlete craves. Thanks to the dense greenery, the Colonial-style home offers beautiful natural views, visible from a multitude of windows. Amenities include a marble entryway, a living room with detailed crown molding and hardwood floors, and a kitchen with granite countertops and bronze-style appliances. Shazier will be sleeping in comfort as well—the first-floor master bedroom has a private deck, steam shower, attached office, jet tub, and heated floors. The lower level features a private patio, luxurious bath, home gym, and wine room. The second floor features five bedrooms and a Jack and Jill bathroom. Take the stairs to the third level and you’ll find two game room areas. Outside, you’ll be treated to an oversized heated pool, covered wet bar, outdoor fireplace, and a poolhouse with its own full bath. Shazier was drafted 15th overall in the 2014 NFL Draft by the Steelers, after starring in college at Ohio State. After he played in the Steel City for three seasons, the Steelers opted to pick up Shazier’s fifth-year contract option, which means he’ll be settled into this gorgeous home for at least a couple of seasons. The post Steelers Linebacker Ryan Shazier Settles Down in $2.6M Suburban Mansion appeared first on Real Estate News & Insights | realtor.com®. via https://www.realtor.com/news/celebrity-real-estate/ryan-shazier-buys-mansion/
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Even the most glorious Hollywood stars require a makeover from time to time. This storied Los Angeles mansion was no exception. Once a favorite filming location for eerie films like “Ben,” “Willard,” “The Addams Family,” and a Halloween episode of “Beverly Hills 90210,” the historic home known as the Hiram Higgins Mansion was sold in January 2017 for $3.2 million. It’s since undergone an extensive renovation and has landed back on the market for $9 million. The work done on the mansion was completed by award-winning architectural conservator and designer Xorin Balbes. Balbes made quick work of the storied structure—his stunning reimagining of the home was accomplished in a mere nine months. “Xorin infuses a deep spirituality and a timeless design aesthetic into all that he does,” says listing agent Billy Rose, founder and president of The Agency. The stately Victorian mansion has a unique history to preserve. It was designed in 1902 by John C. Austin (famous for designing L.A. landmarks like the Griffith Observatory and the Shrine Auditorium), for a wealthy Chicago grain merchant by the name of Hiram Higgins. It was originally located on what was at the time a posh section of Wilshire Boulevard, at Rampart Street. Higgins only lived in the home for about four years, before he passed away in 1906. At the height of the roaring ’20s, the home’s new owner decided the mansion would be better located several blocks away in Windsor Square. To make the move, he had it cut into three pieces and hauled away, on three trucks, to its current location on Lucerne Boulevard. But after the move, the Great Depression arrived and the grand old house fell into disrepair. The Los Angeles Conservancy reports that the building was used as a retirement home for nuns, a mission, and an office, among other things, until Perry and Peggy Hirsch bought the historic mansion in 1986. The couple began restoring the place, and in 1988, it was declared Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument No. 403. Fast forward 30 years, and the Higgins Mansion has undergone yet another stunning renovation. The dark wood was swapped out for a lighter hue, and the floor plan is now wide open. Even with extensive renovations, the home hasn’t left its history behind. “Xorin has an incredible ability to reimagine a property, such that it retains the essence of the period character and yet also works for, and feels like, today,” says Rose. It still has the intricate woodwork, the leaded glass windows, and the elaborate fireplaces. Traditional rooms like a library, an enormous formal living room, a formal dining room, and a billiards room are still intact. Other rooms have been tastefully modernized, and include a gourmet kitchen with professional-quality appliances, a media lounge, screening room, wine cellar, and a yoga/meditation room. The main house has five ensuite bathrooms and a master suite with a luxurious bathroom and walk-in closet. There’s also a two-bedroom guesthouse. In total, there are eight bedrooms and eight full baths, plus two half bathrooms, in 12,147 square feet of living space. A new pool and spa have been installed, and the landscaping has also been refreshed on the almost half-acre lot. In addition to enjoying a one-of-a-kind restoration of a one-of-a-kind mansion, the new owners will also enjoy significant property tax benefits granted by the Mills Act, a city economic incentive program for historic buildings, as well as a conservation easement qualifying for additional federal tax benefits. What’s old is new again, and all the benefits of both historic architecture and modern design have created a winning package. The post Once Hacked Into 3 Pieces, This Historic L.A. Mansion Gets a Massive Makeover appeared first on Real Estate News & Insights | realtor.com®. via https://www.realtor.com/news/unique-homes/historic-los-angeles-mansion-modern-makeover/ Through some twist of fate, maybe you’ve found your own buyer without the help of your real estate agent. And now you finally have an offer in hand from a friend of a friend (of a friend?). Congrats, my friend! But does that mean your agent will take less commission? It’s a common misconception that landing a buyer all by yourself means you’re off the hook for paying your listing agent. Sure, the goal of selling a home is to find someone to buy it, but a lot goes into actually finalizing the sale—most of which is facilitated by that agent. So if you’ve signed a contract with an agent that outlines the terms of payment, there’s a good chance you’re beholden to that amount. And that includes the commission as stipulated therein—even if you’re the one who finds the buyer. You could ask your agent to reduce the commission, but be aware that he or she is not obligated to do so. Why your agent should still get some commissionBesides finding you a buyer, real estate agents do a lot to earn their keep. In fact, finding a buyer is only one of many responsibilities an agent has. “They can spend thousands marketing a property,” says Rachel Collins Friedman, a Realtor® with Sotheby’s International Realty in San Diego, CA. This means placing newspaper ads, hiring a photographer and home stagers, and paying for premium placement on listing sites. In other words, making your home look its best. After you accept the buyer’s bid, the agent is doing all the paperwork, including liaising with the buyer’s agent or legal representatives. Don’t underestimate the amount of detail that goes into a sale and the amount of expertise you need to navigate a sale smoothly. All of that effort takes time. Negotiating an agreement with a real estate agentBefore signing an agreement with an agent, you have the opportunity to discuss the services that he or she will provide for you and how much you will pay for that help. If you’re set on paying a lower commission fee, make sure it’s outlined in your listing agreement, but keep in mind, if you’re planning on paying less, your agent may only be able to help you with a limited number of things. As with everything in life, you get what you pay for. The agreement should outline the commission you agree to pay (a typical real estate commission is 5% to 6% of the house’s sale price, with about 3% going to the seller’s agency), whether you can cooperate with other agents, the agent’s responsibilities, the length of the contract, and whether you can cancel the contract. “Many of these things are negotiable,” says Denise Supplee, a Realtor and co-founder of SparkRental in Doylestown, PA. You can also arrange for a transactional agreement in which the agent helps you set an asking price, facilitates communication between you and the buyer, writes the contract, and helps move the process along to closing. But Supplee says this all must be done up front. And when it comes to the commission, it’s important to agree on everything in writing before the selling process begins. The post If You Find Your Own Buyer, Will Your Real Estate Agent Take Less Commission? appeared first on Real Estate News & Insights | realtor.com®. via https://www.realtor.com/news/ask-a-realtor/if-i-find-a-buyer-for-my-home-will-my-agent-take-less-commission/ Sometimes, the upstairs suite in Mike Stolarski’s home in North Augusta, S.C., is an office. Sometimes it’s a TV room, or an entertaining space for friends. Once a year, it’s a bedroom rented to golf fans in town for the nearby Masters Tournament. And in the future, it might become a game room, so there’s space for a pool table. When building their 4,200-square-foot, three-bedroom home, Mr. Stolarski, and his wife, Tracy, kept their options open. The design drew inspiration from a charming, 1892 bed-and-breakfast in Charleston, S.C. But their home had to accommodate 21st-century lifestyles, so they asked the architect to include undesignated flex space equipped with ample square footage, electrical and plumbing for multiple uses now and in the future. The Stolarskis—she’s 56 years old and he’s 47—own a medical-services company, Premier Shockwave, and moved into their $1.4 million home in January. Home builders and designers are seeing a resurgence in demand for flexible-living spaces, also called bonus rooms or multipurpose rooms. In ultracompetitive real-estate markets, flex rooms that serve multiple purposes appeal to buyers looking to trade up for more space but unable to afford the extra square footage. At the same time, younger home buyers see flex rooms as a way to customize their homes. And baby boomers, hoping to age in place, are asking for flex rooms that could someday be a main-floor master bedroom or a suite for a live-in health aide. Forward-looking home designers now plan for all those stages. “I ask clients how long they see themselves living in the house,” says Dan Sater, whose Bonita Springs, Fla., firm designed the Stolarskis’ home. “I talk to them about spaces that may have a changing purpose over time and create the provisions so they can easily be changed.” If a future function requires a wall to be removed, for instance, Mr. Sater ensures it isn’t a structural wall to begin with. Mr. Sater’s own home includes a multipurpose room that the family uses as a music room. Just in case, Mr. Sater installed enough wiring to turn it into a second home office or guest room if needed by aging parents. Of the 20 top-selling floor plans on houseplans.com, 13 include bonus rooms, even though only 14% of all the plans on the overall site have designated bonus or flex rooms. Flex rooms are typically located off the entry hall, near the main living space and a bathroom, so they can easily morph into bedrooms down the road. Sometimes, a flex space is located above the garage to be used as a home theater, in-law suite or bunk room for grandchildren—or all of them in succession. Leaving the label off the space helps with sales and resale, they say, because it lets buyers assign their own. “When you name it ‘dining room,’ they will always see it as a dining room; they will never get it out of their mind,” says Mark Mathis, co-owner of House Plan Gallery, a home-design firm in Hattiesburg, Miss. “We have found that labeling this type of area as flex space on our floor plans best allows homeowners to decide how a particular space can be used to fit their specific family’s needs. ”In their Libertyville, Ill., home, Lisa Steinke and Matt Dannenfeldt wanted a dining room—just not all the time. When they bought their four-bedroom, 2,500-square-foot house for $750,000 in 2012, they were drawn to a library alcove off the main living area that could fit all of Ms. Steinke’s books but become a dining space if there were too many guests to fit in the eat-in kitchen. Ms. Steinke, a 44-year-old novelist, and Mr. Dannenfeldt, 43, who owns a logistics company, also like another space in their home that the architect, Sarah Susanka, calls the “away room.” It’s a 9-by-12-foot ground-floor retreat off the main living area where the couple’s three children go to do homework. For occasional guests, the room has a built-in wall bed and small closet. In the powder room across the hall, a pocket door hides a shower. “We all have spaces in our homes that are rarely used, such as a guest bedroom or formal dining room,” says Ms. Susanka, architect and author of a book series called “The Not So Big House.” “I love spaces that do double duty.” The couple is planning to move back to California, Ms. Steinke’s home state, where their daughter wants to attend college. The family has listed their Libertyville home for $950,000, and marketing materials tout the home’s main-floor flex room and its potential for “maximizing room space through flexible options.” Daryl Weil, 67, persuaded her husband, a 76-year-old former newspaper executive, to change their lifestyle and surroundings before they were too old to enjoy them. They chose to remain in Paradise Valley, Ariz., but traded their traditional-style home of 25 years for a light-filled, contemporary house—with rooms that are ready to change functions in the future. Constructed by Scottsdale, Ariz.-based builder Cullum Homes, the Weil house is configured so that if either spouse became ill one day, he or she could move from the first-floor master bedroom to an upstairs guest room. A live-in caregiver would then move into what is currently Ms. Weil’s home office, which has a full bathroom. For now, the Weils live only with their two cats, Bobby and Pearl, but they made additional arrangements for aging at home, including an elevator and extra-wide doorways to accommodate a wheelchair. Including modifications, which added $400,000 to the cost, the couple paid $3 million to build the 4,400-square-foot, five-bedroom house and moved in late last year. “I was thinking about getting older and the maladies one looks toward,” says Ms. Weil, a retired interior designer. “I have been forward-looking with the design.” Cullum Homes project architect Lindsay Cullum Colwell says the firm is incorporating flex spaces in homes throughout the luxury development, called the Village at Mountain Shadows. An optional daylight basement, its website says, gives homeowners the flexibility “to add a game room, wine cellar, children’s play area, additional bedrooms, home gym or extra storage.” Flexibility helps young homeowners who are unsure of a growing family’s needs. When Jacob and Rita Barker from Greenville, S.C., started looking at house plans in 2014, Ms. Barker was pregnant with their third child, James, and the couple didn’t know how the kids would want to room. Would sisters Madeline and Eliza share a bedroom? Would the children want a play room or play in their own rooms? Would their preferences change as they grew up? The Barkers chose a floor plan by Home Patterns, a home-design firm in Hastings-on-Hudson, N.Y. The owner, Brooks Ballard, says he includes a flex room in 80% of the plans he sells online. “A few years ago, people started to not want to pay for a formal living room, but builders still wanted to build the square footage,” he says. “The flex room is the room that has replaced the formal living room.” In the Barkers’ 3,100-square-foot, five-bedroom home, an upper-level playroom might someday turn into a bedroom if the girls want more privacy. Mr. Barker, a marketing strategist at Clemson University, and Ms. Barker, a 38-year-old environmental lawyer, use the ground-floor flex room as their master bedroom to be near their 15-year-old dog, Marley, who has trouble climbing the stairs. The original master bedroom upstairs is currently used as the girls’ dance studio in their $350,000 house, says Mr. Barker, 43. “Especially for us as a young family, building a house for the first time, not really knowing where life was going to take us, flexibility was huge,” he says. The post Forward-Looking Homeowners Want Rooms That Do Double Duty appeared first on Real Estate News & Insights | realtor.com®. via https://www.realtor.com/news/trends/forward-looking-homeowners-want-rooms-double-duty/ Ivanka Trump’s title of special adviser to the president hasn’t lent much cachet to the Park Avenue condo she’s been trying to sell. With no nibbles on the sales front, the president’s daughter has also been trying to rent out the place she owns on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. Located in the Trump Park Avenue building in the Lenox Hill section of Manhattan, the unit went up for sale in December 2016 for $4.1 million. No buyer stepped up, so the first daughter pulled it from the sales market and began searching for a tenant. Earlier this year, she was asking for $15,000 per month, but the price was reduced to $13,000 a month in July. Now this week, the two-bedroom, two-bathroom property had its rental price sliced yet again, this time to $10,450 a month, according to Bloomberg. The 1,549-square-foot apartment offers a split bedroom layout, corner living room/dining room with open city views, and kitchen with white marble counters. Upscale finishes include built-up moldings, herringbone-pattern oak floors, and handcrafted Italian brass doorknobs. Trump originally purchased the property for $1.52 million in 2004. However, this unit isn’t where Trump and her family called home before renting a place in the Kalorama section of Washington, D.C., earlier this year. The young family was living in a four-bedroom penthouse in the same full-service, pet-friendly building where the two-bedroom is now available for rent at a discounted price. The post Ivanka Trump Slashes Rental Price—Again!—on Luxe Manhattan Condo appeared first on Real Estate News & Insights | realtor.com®. via https://www.realtor.com/news/celebrity-real-estate/ivanka-trump-slashes-price-manhattan-rental/ Driving the most views on realtor.com® this week is an unassuming ranch-style residence. But this otherwise ordinary home is, in fact, a true football fan’s fantasy, thanks to its close proximity to Lambeau Field, home of the beloved Packers. Home prices near the place in Green Bay, WI, where the Packers play have spiraled upward this year. We recently reported on a similar-style home on the same block going for a whopping $800,000. Now, this week’s most popular listing in the country is raising the stakes, with a $1 million asking price. And remember, this is in Green Bay—not the San Francisco Bay. In addition to being within leaping distance of the stadium, the house is also in close proximity to a new Packers-themed development named Titletown. Plus, the home has been “professionally decorated in unique Packer theme and sleeps up to 16 people,” according to the listing description. Perhaps a bunch of die-hard Cheeseheads could pool their funds for this pricey pad. Coming in at No. 2 this week is a one-of-kind design in Joliet, IL, asking $799,900. Built in the 1980s by the owners, the offering is a contemporary standout for the area. “It’s definitely a very modern and progressive home for the time that it was built,” says listing agent Ellen Williams. We were also introduced to a lovely Waco home that hasn’t been featured on “Fixer Upper,” an intriguing opportunity in New Orleans, and a coastal getaway in Oregon. For the full list of this week’s most popular places, simply scroll down… 10. 504 S Bonner Ave, Tyler, TXPrice: $129,900 ——-- 9. 1606 Salmon Harbor Dr, Winchester Bay, ORPrice: $325,000 ——-- 8. 3200 Windsor Ave, Waco, TXPrice: $369,900 ——-- 7. 820 Octavia St, New Orleans, LAPrice: $699,000 ——-- 6. 458 Wolf Run Rd, Portville, NYPrice: $2,100,000 ——-- 5. 1162 W El Burn Dr, Peru, INPrice: $489,900 ——-- 4. 474 W 92nd St, Indianapolis, INPrice: $545,000 ——-- 3. 2802 Fairhope St, Houston, TXPrice: $1,225,000 ——-- 2. 4 Eden Ln, Joliet, ILPrice: $799,900 ——-- 1. 1261 Shadow Ln, Green Bay, WIPrice: $999,999 The post All Kneel: Football Fantasy Home Near Lambeau Field Is The Week’s Most Popular Listing appeared first on Real Estate News & Insights | realtor.com®. via https://www.realtor.com/news/trends/green-bay-lambeau-field-most-popular/ If you ever dreamed of opening a fun little inn to bring in extra cash, we have a warm spot to start your search. Palm Springs—a desert destination just 120 miles from Los Angeles—is desirable not only for blissful winter weather but also adorable vintage inns rented out by the night. It’s an awesome Airbnb ownership opportunity and—bonus!—design fans love the Mid-Century Modern appeal of the area. Is buying a multi-unit dwelling in the desert a savvy investment? Turns out the timing is perfect. What used to be mostly a haven for elderly snowbirds is now attracting a younger demographic in search of Coachella-type weekends and a party vibe. If you’re in the room-booking business, that means serious cash flow. Even with Coachella seven months away, the average price of a room in April 2018 on Airbnb is $418 per night. Other peak-tourism times in Palm Springs coincide with the film festival (January) and Modernism Week (February). “We’ve been targeting the driveable market and people (who) come here for pool parties or quick weekend getaways—so far, that has really been working,” says Nicky Faeth, communications manager at the Greater Palm Springs Convention and Visitors Bureau. “We’re seeing a lot of restaurants that used to close down for the summer staying open year-round. Hotels are occupied (year-round) and their numbers are up drastically from years past. We’re seeing a shift from a seasonal destination to a year-round destination.” In fact, the number of room nights has spiked, according to the destination bureau’s 2016 annual report, which reveals that 12.9 million people visited the Palm Springs area last year. Despite this year-round hype, the winter season (October through April) continues to be the busiest, says Faeth. “A lot of the snowbirds are here from November for about six months. You’ll really see the entire valley is thriving during that time,” she says. Here are six Palm Springs properties that could be your next vacation home—and pull in some sweet, sweet income… 1821 E. Amado RdPrice: $1.8 million ——-- 754 E. San Lorenzo RdPrice: $3.86 million ——-- 888 N. Indian Canyon DrPrice: $1.99 million ——-- 220 S. Patencio Road #8Price: $2.5 million ——-- 200 S. Cahuilla RdPrice: $2.25 million ——-- 221 E. Sonora RdPrice: $2.19 million The post These 6 Desert Dwellings Offer Hot Income Potential in Palm Springs appeared first on Real Estate News & Insights | realtor.com®. via https://www.realtor.com/news/trends/desert-dwellings-income-potential-palm-springs/ New York City’s Upper East Side is once again the location of this week’s priciest new listing on realtor.com®. This time around, it’s a massive apartment with Central Park views on the market for an eye-watering $46 million. Located on the 12th floor of a 1925 building on Fifth Avenue, between 84th and 85th streets, it is situated directly across from Central Park and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The palatial place has a private elevator that opens directly onto a gallery and three rooms. There’s a walnut-paneled library and a large dining room, which both look out to Central Park, for a total Central Park frontage of roughly 55 feet. A corner living room features additional skyline views. These public rooms, intended for entertaining on a grand scale, provide unobstructed vistas over the cityscape, park, and treetops. Standout architectural details include 10-foot-high ceilings, hardwood floors, hand-carved moldings, and wood-burning fireplaces with period mantelpieces in four rooms, including the master bedroom. The bedrooms, separate from the public space, include a huge, south-facing master bedroom with ensuite bath and dressing room, plus three additional ensuite bedrooms. Private quarters include an eat-in kitchen, a pantry, a separate breakfast room, and a laundry room. Additionally, there are two staff rooms and a staff bath, plus a family room currently used as a gym. If the next buyer so desires, that suite of rooms can be reconfigured “to recreate two further principal bedrooms,” according to the listing details. No square footage information is available, but the total number of rooms comes to a whopping 14, with 6 beds and 5.5 baths. Serena Boardman of Sotheby’s International Realty represents the listing. The prewar, white-glove building has only 13 floors and 16 units. Designed by noted “luxury apartment house architect” J.E.R. Carpenter, the apartments are known for their size and grand proportions. Amenities include full-time doormen, a fitness room, and a laundry room, and the building is pet friendly. Notable residents of 1030 Fifth Ave. have included Diane Sawyer and her then-playwright husband Mike Nichols, who snapped up a penthouse once owned by Robert Redford. And producer Wendy Finerman and her husband David Peterson paid for a duplex in the building in 2007, according to Variety. The post Palatial $46M NYC Pad With Central Park Views Is the Week’s Priciest New Listing appeared first on Real Estate News & Insights | realtor.com®. via https://www.realtor.com/news/trends/central-park-views-most-expensive/ Jacksonville Jaguars head coach Doug Marrone is trying to sell his Ponte Vedra Beach, FL, home. It was initially placed on the market in March for $2 million, but the home’s price has since been reduced to $1.85 million. Located in suburban Jacksonville, the luxe home covers 5,329 square feet, with five bedrooms and 5.5 bathrooms. Originally built in 1999, the house underwent extensive renovations and upgrades in 2016. There’s a spectacular kitchen remodel with Calacatta Michelangelo marble countertops, updated cabinetry, plumbing, and backsplash. The master bathroom updates include painted cabinetry, new fixtures, hardware, plumbing, and light fixtures. Also included is a guest suite with private entrance and an owner’s retreat with nearby study. The second floor has three large bedrooms, three ensuite baths and a bonus room. To enjoy the outdoors, there’s a new balcony and covered porch, an expansive deck, a pool, and spa. With no neighbors to the west of the property, a buyer can enjoy some of the most private views of the waterfront. Prior to becoming the head coach of the Jaguars, Marrone served as the Jags’ assistant head coach and the offensive line coach. Before he landed in Jacksonville, he was the head coach of the Syracuse University football team for four seasons, and spent two seasons as the boss of the Buffalo Bills.
The post Jacksonville Jaguars Coach Doug Marrone Selling $1.85M Florida Home appeared first on Real Estate News & Insights | realtor.com®. via https://www.realtor.com/news/celebrity-real-estate/doug-marrone-florida-home/ Hugh Hefner‘s death at the age of 91 marks the end of an era. And while many are rightly lauding the Playboy founder as a cultural force who helped revolutionize publishing and bring the sexual revolution to the masses, we’ll pause to honor another, equally iconic part of his legacy: the Playboy Mansion. His 29-room home, a “Gothic Tudor”-style estate, set on 5 acres of the Holmby Hills area of Los Angeles, is an American phenomenon in its own right, sparking the fantasies of generations of men (and women). So what will happen to the nation’s second-most-famous mansion, a place where scantily clad playmates famously partied hard alongside actors, musicians, Nobel Prize winners, and other assorted A-listers? Well before Hefner’s passing, the home sold last year to Daren Metropoulos, a neighbor and co-owner of Hostess Brands, for $100 million. The catch was that Hef could live out the rest of his days in the mansion, and that major renovations would not take place while he was a tenant. Now Metropoulous is expected to move forward quickly on his plans to rebuild the place from the ground up, connecting it to the home next door, which he also owns, to create a 7.3-acre compound. “I look forward to eventually rejoining the two estates and enjoying this beautiful property as my private residence for years to come,” he said in a statement provided to The Wall Street Journal in April 2016, following the sale. But before all of the Playboy memorabilia is carted off for good, we rounded up some surprising tidbits on the mansion that we thought readers should know. 1. The first Playboy Mansion, in Chicago, is still standing—but there’s nary a bunny tail in sight. The original place, complete with a Playmate-ready fire pole leading directly into the basement-level pool, was purchased for $400,000 in 1959 in the Windy City, where Hef founded his mag. But as the editor found himself increasingly enamored with celebrities, he spent less and less time there, finally decamping to the West Coast in the 1970s. The Midwest hasn’t been the same ever since! In 1984, he leased out the mansion to the School of the Art Institute of Chicago for $10 a year. A real estate company eventually bought the home in 1993 and divided it up into seven condos. 2. Hefner bought the current fortress—at the time dubbed “Playboy Mansion West”—from the famous chess player and engineer Louis D. Statham in 1971, for $1.05 million. Statham invented a device that helped NASA ensure that its spacecraft stayed on course. Hefner invented a mass-delivery system for disseminating pictures of naked women. You make the connection. 3. Don’t get in the water! The bacteria that causes Legionnaires’ disease, a bad form of pneumonia, was discovered in the whirlpools of the mansion’s grotto in 2011. The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health had investigated after 120 guests suddenly fell ill. 4. Think the mansion was all fun and games? Think again. Hefner’s former girlfriend Izabella St. James claims that the girlfriends had a 9 p.m. curfew every night—unless they were out with the man himself, according to her book “Bunny Tales: Behind Closed Doors at the Playboy Mansion.” 5. The room where Elvis reportedly had a memorable night with eight Playboy Bunnies back in the 1970s was later dubbed the “Elvis Suite.” And in the King’s honor, it has reportedly been closed to the public ever since. 6. Talk about famous guests misbehaving! John Lennon once put out a cigarette on one of Hefner’s Matisse paintings. Hey, he and Yoko were separated at the time. 7. Hefner had the kind of private zoo on the property that may not have been appropriate for the kiddies. Rumor has is that at one time, the city removed several big game animals from Hefner’s zoo, after a llama was mysteriously found dead after an all-night rager. The peacocks, macaws, and squirrel monkeys, however, were allowed to stay. 8. The Playboy founder was clearly a fan of wild animals, so much so that one of the special rooms of the mansion was done up in full-on safari motif. That included animal skin rugs, leopard print decor, and lots of safari-themed paraphernalia. The post 8 Things You Need to Know About the Playboy Mansion Before It’s Gone appeared first on Real Estate News & Insights | realtor.com®. via https://www.realtor.com/news/celebrity-real-estate/end-era-will-happen-playboy-mansion-now/ |
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