No Love For This Home on Strait Lane

This home has been on the market since November of 2007 and I blogged about it back in January when it fell out of contract. The day before Valentine's Day the home went under contract again (V-Day gift for someone special?) and I quietly cheered this "little" house on thinking, "Good for you! You deserve someone special to fix and repair all 16,000 of your square feet." But the relationship was not long for this world and as of today the home has fallen out of contract yet again. I'm guessing the buyer's fear of commitment has a little something to do with it. I'm still rooting for this house to find it's soulmate though!

$1.5 Million Dollar Price Reduction

Remember my post about this $12 million home on Strait Lane that is virtually a deteriorating shell ? Well we know it went under contract and fell out of contract a week or so ago. Today they reduced the price to $10.5 million. That's a $1.5 million price reduction! But it needed to be done. I assume the home was under contract around this price or maybe closer to $11 million when the buyers got the home inspected and probably found a slew of maintenance issues. My guess is that when the buyers saw what needed to be done just to repair this monstrosity and they either couldn't agree on a repair allowance with the sellers or just didn't want the hassle of it anymore. The repairs I would guess were to the tune of $500,000 which would bring us to the new asking price of $10.5 million. But what do I know?

$12 Million Strait Lane Home Back On Market

They don't get much bigger than this house featuring almost 16,000 square feet, 7 full baths and 6 half baths (seriously, 6 half baths?), 5 car garage, tennis court and an elevator that takes you to the wine room all on 2.38 acres on one of the most expensive streets in the country when it comes to real estate. But here's the kicker. This thing isn't even completed! The landscaping and pool is flawless but the interior was never completed. I've walked through this one and it was definitely left high and dry by the owners. I heard from the listing agent that the husband became ill and the house dropped to the bottom of life's priority list which is certainly understandable. But with virtually no flooring or ceilings in the place I can imagine someone is going to have to spend a pretty penny finishing this one out. The other thing is that when homes have been left vacant for as long as this one has (close to a year I think) and has never been lived in I can't imagine what is in need of repair. That's just wrong when it comes to "new construction". This is an estate in the truest sense of the word and I'm not sure why the contract just fell out but I'm sure it had something to do with the cost of deferred maintenance and the costs associated with that. But I hope someone will hurry and snatch it up. Another vacant year and this home is going to be racking up more deferred maintenance costs. And when you're talking about cleaning up 16,000 square feet of sheet rock or lack thereof, that can be pretty pricey I would imagine.

Why not just buy this one? It's practically right next door!

Phil Romano's $17.5 Million Dollar Home

One of my new favorite blog authors, Your Mama the Real Estalker, shamelessly rips apart Mr. Romano's Strait Lane pad in this post. Park Cities People and Dallas Dirt caught wind of it but I saw it first thanks to my source. Thankyouverymuch. Although I think Candy Evans over at Dallas Dirt is being a little too harsh on Your Mama in this post...and this one...and this one. It is commonly known that very personalized homes take longer to sell because they naturally appeal to a smaller pool of buyers. Yes. Even at this price range people watch the dollars. That's how they got to be rich in the first place. Think about how much it will cost to change 15,000 sf of crazy ceilings! I have seen $50,000 coffered and hand carved mahogany ceilings in dining rooms and I guarantee you no one is going to change that. But the decor and ceilings in the Romano house are pretty personalized and I can see someone spending a pretty penny changing them. Now is that a reason someone isn't going to buy this house if they have the cash? Probably not. But having $50K ceilings in the first place that are going to appeal to pretty much everyone in the first place couldn't hurt could it?

Oh, and thanks to Dallas Dirt for the breaking news about the reason the Romano's are selling. Big 'D', indeed.