Listing of the Week: Handyman special for $75 million
'The largest family house in America,' built in the style of the French palace at Versailles, is ready for your finishing touches — like walls and floors — outside Orlando.
We decided to go for wretched excess for this Listing of the Week: a home in the style of the French palace of Versailles outside Orlando, Fla. It's offered at $75 million.
Despite its hefty price tag, this Florida palace is not even completed — though for an extra $25 million, the builder will finish it for you. It's your choice whether you want it finished Versailles-style or to your own specifications.
The plan to build "the largest family house in America" was announced in 2003 by David Siegel, CEO of the Westgate Resorts time-share company, who has 12 children. But when hard times hit, the Siegels ceased construction in early 2009 and put the house on the market in 2010. Even though it has been for sale for more than a year, the price has not been reduced.
"This mansion is a great anecdote of the overconsumption that led to the housing bust, and it might be the poster child of such overindulgence," South Florida real-estate analyst Jack McCabe told The Associated Press last year.
The house has 13 bedrooms and 23 baths in 90,000 square feet, making it the largest home for sale in the United States. It's on 10 acres on Lake Butler, in the town of Windermere, about 20 minutes from Orlando.
The unfinished Versailles-style palace, as planned, has 10 kitchens (maybe you can rent out apartments), a bowling alley, indoor roller rink, two-story movie theater, video arcade and fitness center, plus a 20-car garage, three pools, two tennis courts and a baseball field. The listing website has more details, photos, videos and renderings.
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It's hard to visualize a house that big. It's twice the size of the White House and 36 times the size of the average American home.
The master bedroom alone is 6,000 square feet, and it was supposed to have a rotating bed under a skylight.
"It's like a living piece of art," listing agent Lorraine Barrett told The AP.
Though the house is the largest one for sale in the United States, it is not the most expensive – unless you want it finished. The most expensive home for sale in the United States, according to Zillow, is the Frank Woolworth mansion in New York City, a seven-story home with 10 bedrooms and 11.5 baths in 19,950 square feet for $90 million.
Take the tax write-off and give it to our program of providing safe housing for single mothers and we will have enough space for 50 mothers and children and room for child care, education, and exercise facilities. What we do with it would enhance the value of the surrounding properties, not ruin them.
We do not offer opinions on what people do, we only do our best to pick up the pieces of shattered lives and interrupt the cycle causing them.
Robin
They article says the plan was to build the largest family house in America....sounds like someone strutting their stuff and flaunting their cash instead of just building a house large enough for their family.
...and then hard times hit...gee, really? Fools. No one thinks about the long term or what the taxes on such a monster would be.
Please, take a 90-minute tour of this property and we will give you two tickets to Disneyworld. Of course, at the end of the presentation, which really lasts longer than 90 minutes, we will bring in the "closer" to try and convince you that you need to buy, and if you don't buy, the "closer" will stomp off and complain that you just took the tour for the tickets. Westgate Resorts - Ha, ha - I just heard a good joke...
it lowers the value of the houses around you and lowers the value of the house built-if that big.
so the real kicker here is that the house is for sale, so far over the comps. in the neighborhood or "surrounding houses" that is isn't really worth anywhere near what he's asking for. its only worth the cost of construction minus the devaluation for being a catastrophe. Half finished houses spell
"something went wrong here" and will have every buyer 2nd guessing.
that a 3,000 sq.ft. home (2 stories) typically has 5 bedrooms(with baths), that would mean that if we wanted 12-13 beds (as described in the above article) we would be at about 6,000 sq.ft. to 6,500 to achieve bedrooms with accompanying baths. this does not include the basement space. -What went wrong- I am sure when this guy walked into this architects office it was angels from heaven. My biggest problem is the fact that so many architects are taught to sell their idea, not design with reality and traditional forms. I also have a feeling that this is just another concrete/stucco disaster design. This design probably broke the project. If you keep hiring these big guys, your setting yourself up for failure before you even begin.
About Teresa Mears
Teresa Mears is a veteran journalist who has been interested in houses since her father took her to tax auctions to carry the cash at age 10. A former editor of The Miami Herald's Home & Design section, she lives in South Florida where, in addition to writing about real estate, she publishes Miami on the Cheap to help her neighbors adjust to the loss of 60% of their property value.
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