Posted on 07/15/2007 5:43:49 AM PDT by PJ-Comix
I remember when Jackie Kennedy passed away, her apartment in NYC was gutted by the buyer because it had never been updated.
A buddy of mine said his parents used to live in a house on Star Island back in the 1950s. When I asked what his father did for a living back then I expected him to say something like corporate CEO or something like that. Imagine how amazed I was when he told me his father was a Post Office carrier. Apparently back then it wasn’t unusual for “regular” people to live on those Biscayne Bay islands. I guess the home prices were a lot lower then. WAY lower.
eBay - capital idea!!!
A multi Million dollar home and THAT is the picture they put up of it????
No wonder it hasn’t sold!! You can’t even clearly SEE the thing!!! I was right Kennedy = Stupid.
Assessed value: $9.2 million
In that area five acres is not an unreasonable size for a lot. And there is no such thing as a fifty-acre piece of private residential property in McLean, VA. You need to go further out west, to Loudoun and Fauquier Counties, to buy that. But even there, few of the large houses on large pieces of land are selling, or selling only very slowly.
I’m afraid that Mrs. Kennedy has been deluded by her real estate agent. It’s not 2005 anymore, kids, and the local real estate market is no longer going up. In an area where most of the houses are not selling for more than $5M, asking $25M or even $12.5M is unlikely to get an enthusiastic response. In this market nobody is going to pay millions extra because Bobby Kennedy used to live there. She is going to be humiliated when she has to cut the price further to get it sold.
What do you think the final selling price will be?
Ethel Kennedy was and is a mad woman. She always had arguments with tradesmen, carpenters, caterers, you get the picture. Lots of them got stiffed. Just from the character of that family I know that house is a dump with all kinds of “deferred maintenance”. Anyone who buys it will be spending millions on it. Far better to buy it for the land value and tear it down
Fair price is one million for the land and you tear it down. The house has zero value
I don’t know. If she’s lucky some Arab may come along and give her six or seven million, maybe. Depends on whether the place needs another two million dollars’ worth of renovations.
But it may never sell. Some people just take their houses off the market and decline to sell if they don’t get an offer they consider acceptable. If you were anticipating 25 million dollars, a sum which, invested, could give you a fine Kennedyesque lifestyle, and you had to contemplate settling for $6 million, which (less realtors’ commissions, closing costs, and capital gains) will not, you might say “screw it” and decide not to sell.
It’s important to remember that at this price point, a buyer is going to have to spend seven or eight figures getting the house suitably repaired and decorated. That figures into potential buyers’ calculations. So if the Kennedy place is down-at-heel, it may discourage potential buyers. You’d be really surprised at how many of these beautiful places are a mess inside.
Arab is the key. This place is close enough to DC that an oil baron may buy it for a little getaway, or the Russians could use it as a dacha. The Kennedy name still has some cache for some folks, especially Europeans. The same people who pay $20 Million for a Van Gogh might lay the cash out. No need for them to use a bank.
Here’s what eventually will happen. All the taxpayers will own a piece.
http://www.petitiononline.com/hickhill/petition.html
Turn Hickory Hill into a Museum!
I am in the business of selling high-end residential real estate and I remember seeing this advertised for $25 million and commenting that it was insane to think even the most sentimentally-blinded Kennedy worshiper was going to pay that kind of money for the property. Old Ethel thinks it’s still the 1970s when her family’s name was worth something. Maybe you could add $1 million to the price due to the history but no more. Probably worth in the $10-11 million range.
ahhnald should buy it, he collects old kennedy stuff
TT
Now now, Maria had a face lift. Besides I’ve felt sorry for her ever since McCain snapped at her.
I think the asking price was WAY too high. Sounds like some realtor was trying to make the deal of a lifetime!
I think the Kennedy mystique is over, so if that was part of the cachet of the place, no wonder no one bit. Maybe at 12.5mil it will go. Someone could always divide the property and sell off 2 acres, if they wanted to recoup some of their money. I'm sure there are not a whole lot of buildable lots in the McLean area these days.
I'm sure there have been some updates since then.
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