Homes of the top billionaires - Posted by Jack

Real Estate Investing
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Posted by Freduardo on September 29, 2005 at 21:56:31:

Indeed, I read it too hastily and assumed he was talking about the $10 billionaire divided by 1,000 which I thought many people would have a problem computing.

In any case, did anyone see Pierre Omidyar (founder of Ebay)'s house? Worth billions and he lives in a standard 3 car-garage neighborhood. Huh? Are these pictures outdated?

And how did they get a picture of the Mars family home? They are Incredibly private, no one has a picture of them, let alone where they live.

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Homes of the top billionaires - Posted by Jack

Posted by Jack on September 29, 2005 at 12:53:05:

http://www.forbes.com/2005/09/22/cx_05rich400_homeslide_28.html?thisSpeed=6000

A forbes slide show of the top 25 or so richest people in the US.

note: Although the legend that Warren Buffet lives in a house he bought for $38,000 in 1958 may be true, the house has most likely undergone considerable upgrade and addition, it is now assessed at $700,000, and probably worth much more, quite a lot of a house in Nebraska.

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The ultimate rehab. - Posted by Drew

Posted by Drew on September 30, 2005 at 17:01:50:

Also check out:

http://www.forbes.com/2005/09/22/cx_05rich400_homeslide_28.html?thisSpeed=6000

which is the link ?Most expensive homes in America?Northeast? from Jack?s page.

Take a look at #2, the Penthouse at the Pierre in NYC, priced at $70 million. This is the highest-ever asking price for a New York apartment (current record is $42.5 million for a duplex condo at the Time Warner Center). The monthly maintenance fee is $47,700! You can see the sale listing at:

http://www.brownharrisstevens.com/detail.aspx?id=364979

and a better description at:

http://www.christiesgreatestates.com/properties/view_5556/

But what?s really interesting about this apartment is that this is a rehab job done by NYC hedge-fund manager Martin Zweig. Zweig purchased the apartment in 1999 for $21.5 million from Australian publishing heiress Lady Mary Fairfax. Prior to the sale, Fairfax spent $12 million acquiring the abandoned ballroom at the top of the hotel and adding it to her apartment, thus creating the triplex. At the time of the sale to Zweig, it still had ?deferred maintenance? issues.

Zweig spent several million (the exact amount is undisclosed) fixing the place up and getting it ready to go to market. Although it has not yet sold, insiders have indicated that this is less because of the price and more because the building is a co-op, and thus requires board approval of potential residents. This requires full financial disclosure, something that many buyers in that price range are unwilling to do. (For example, Michael Eisner is another resident of the Pierre. Imagine if all the corporations he represents knew the intimate details of your net worth.)

Current speculation is that Zweig will split the Triplex up, separating Lady Fairfax?s original apartment and the ballroom/condo duplex with price tags of $11 million and $59 million, respectively.

Regardless, assuming he will snag $70 million eventually, it seems a pretty nice haul for a ?fixer-upper? acquired for $21.5, with how much invested in the fixup? What would you guess, $10 million? Plus the carrying costs, of course.

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Re: Homes of the top billionaires - Posted by Cletus

Posted by Cletus on September 29, 2005 at 18:27:09:

Didn’t see my house on the list. I must have been at the laundramat that day…

;o)

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Re: Homes of the top billionaires - Posted by steve

Posted by steve on September 29, 2005 at 15:04:06:

you should not elaborate about warren buffets house, if you do, then you misunderstand the man.

he is not flashy, although he could afford more, he lives in the same house he always has, wears second hand suits and drives himself everywhere.

it is his mentality, he is not about money, but the thrill of the chase.

do some research, you’ll see

sam walton drove a pick up truck and wore jeans, his hobby was taking care of his dogs

would i be like this? maybe to a degree, but i’d love to have one of the other houses…one day

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Keeping it in perspective - Posted by gerald(tx)

Posted by gerald(tx) on September 29, 2005 at 13:51:19:

When a billionaire worth, say $10 billion, spends $10 million on his ultra fabulous home, he is only spending 1/1,000th of his net worth.

Now if you are a typical upper middle class American with a net worth of say $100,000, then this is the equivalent of you buying this same ultra fabulous home for yourself for the paltry sum of a thousand bucks.

gerald(tx)

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Re: Homes of the top billionaires - Posted by Levi

Posted by Levi on September 29, 2005 at 13:27:21:

Those huge houses are unreal! I couldn’t imagine trying to heat, maintain, clean, and furnish houses that size. Not to mention pay taxes and insurance.

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click: “return to first slide” - Posted by Jack

Posted by Jack on September 29, 2005 at 12:55:37:

not here, on the link

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Mobile Homes of the top hundredaires - Posted by John Behle

Posted by John Behle on September 29, 2005 at 22:27:11:

That’s in a different section of the site. Mobile Homes of the rich and famous. It’s called “Great Mobile Homes of the Mississippi” at:

http://www.drbukk.com/gmhom/park.html

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Re: Keeping it in perspective - Posted by Tom(MI)

Posted by Tom(MI) on September 30, 2005 at 14:48:17:

After reading all of the posts I forgot what you were talking about. Oh yeah, it was the amount of money spent on their houses was nothing in comparison to their net worth. Don’t you just love message boards and analretentive people.

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I might as well clobber you too, Gerald… - Posted by JT-IN

Posted by JT-IN on September 30, 2005 at 03:55:37:

Gerald:

It seems that the team has piled onto your faupaux over the relative comparison of the 10 bn net worth and a comparison of spending… so I’ll let that one alone…

What I was surprised at was your definition of an “upper middle class” persons’ net worth, being $ 100K… I thought that was quite low, but never really thought much about it… So I did a couple little web searches on the term, “average net worth of upper middle class american”. As with about any subject, there is any number of answers available on the web…

According to Answer.com, this is their definition:

“A net worth- what a person’s total material assets are worth, minus their debt. Most economists define “middle class” citizens as those with net worths of between $25,000 (low-middle class) to $250,000. Those with net worths between $250,000 and $500,000 typically are categorized as upper-middle-class.”

So there Gerald… you have been piled on now from all sides regarding your post… LOL Not to hammer you with minusha here, but your definition and my impression were quite different, so I spent a minute to see if there was any standard curve for the term, and apparently there is…

Hope you are drying out in TX…

JT-IN

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Re:Better Check your Math - Posted by Sean

Posted by Sean on September 29, 2005 at 17:37:24:

Hmmm…Hope you don’t teach math class

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Re: Mobile Homes of the top hundredaires - Posted by Cletus

Posted by Cletus on September 29, 2005 at 22:58:02:

One of us is going to Hell. You should have given me a heads-up, I could have flossed…

;o)

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Re: Keeping it in perspective - Posted by gerald(tx)

Posted by gerald(tx) on September 30, 2005 at 18:41:34:

Your point is well taken, Tom. Seems like it’s hard to keep in perspective the point of keeping things in perspective.

I just made a simple, hasty, unresearched statement…

gerald

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oops! - Posted by gerald(tx)

Posted by gerald(tx) on September 29, 2005 at 22:13:09:

You caught me. Should be a paltry hundred bucks.

Anyway, you get the idea.

gerald

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Re:Better Check YOUR Math el morono - Posted by Freduardo

Posted by Freduardo on September 29, 2005 at 20:00:25:

Hmmm… Hope you don’t invest in real estate:

$10,000,000,000 ($10b net worth)/ 1,000 = $10,000,000 ($10m home)

OR

1,000 x $10,000,000 ($10m home) = $10,000,000,000 ($10b net worth).

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Re:Better Check YOUR Math el morono - Posted by JohnBoy

Posted by JohnBoy on September 29, 2005 at 20:46:18:

Now if you are a typical upper middle class American with a net worth of say $100,000, then this is the equivalent of you buying this same ultra fabulous home for yourself for the paltry sum of a thousand bucks.

My math shows 1/1000th of a $100,000 is a hundred bucks, not a thousand bucks. A thousand bucks is 1/100th of a $100,000. No?

So I’d say Sean was correct that he needs to check his math.