Dentist and gold crowns

My wife's ownership guesses in this order: Russian Mafia, Italian "family", Trump.....before I pointed out it is a Ukrainian cosmetic dentist with stories of insurance fraud etc.

But I did notice that one of the bedrooms doesn't have direct access to a bathroom. And master bedroom is a little on the small side.

Vodka infused nightmare

In Bay Ridge? Yikes.

"We make your dreams come true"

Ha. I remember that ad. Too bad they couldn't make enough money to sustain that venue.

I follow Manny Khoshbinyt for his car collection. But he had similar tastes when he purchased and renovated his last headquarters. He also appears to have done very well with commercial real estate.

https://youtu.be/HfQtClcpDIA?si=qIkQacaROGv6n2mK

For those that like that sort of thing, that's the sort of thing they like!

Disappointed that there are no photos of that cellar 'ballroom'. Watched the video to see if there were any hints, and nearly got motion sickness.

Not too far from my home in Florida, a man had a dream of wanting to live in a castle. So he built one on a quiet hilltop in Juno Beach overlooking the lake. It even has Knight's armor displayed inside! Let's just say it looks a little bit out of place... However, when it recently came up for sale, it actually found a buyer!

The heart wants what it wants : )

Not what I would have chosen for a new home build in Bayridge... And maybe I'll get flamed for saying this, but it looks very well done.

Ha.

It is not the quality of construction. Clearly every thing is very expensive and good quality. The exterior is actually rather nice in my opinion including the copper look doors and windows.

It is the gaudiness of the interior. Of course, the floor plan for the bed-room floor is sub-optimal. Closets in master bedroom for this size of home. Missing closets in one of the bedroom etc.

But it is what the owners liked and paid for. Source of funds has been debated in the courts.

My thoughts:

- The primary bedroom size seems fine to me. I’ve had primary bedrooms that run the gamut in size, from comically small to comically large. If you can fit a king bed and a chair or two, it feels generous enough IMO.

- The “bedroom” missing closets and a bathroom isn’t really a bedroom. It’s probably an upstairs reading room, TV room, sitting room, etc. that someone felt would be better used to increment the “bedroom” count for some silly reason.

- The Grand Chateau thing is fun, but it feels out of place in this lot / neighborhood.

- How come the garage is only for 1 car? Is that a code thing? I get that there’s no room for anything more than 1 car’s worth of width, but why not cover more of the driveway? I would want neither my white Maybach nor my white Ferrari exposed to the elements.

- Lemme know when this thing comes up for rent. I’ll work on my wife in the meantime to get her to understand a gaudy chateau in Bay Ridge as part of life’s adventures.

Ha. I think garage size is likely code related. Guessing the same for the height which made them dig down to get extra space.

What would you pay in rent?

I do think some of the wood floor inlay work looks pretty sharp, and all of it seems to be done to a fairly high quality standard. And I appreciate the effort to go green with the solar panels. But it's certainly bucking the trend toward pared down spaces, and will probably struggle to find a same-minded buyer (Liberace, Siegfried, and Roy are all dead, perhaps some Housewife Of Trenton is looking to move back closer to the folks?). On top of the very functional points 'nada raises, those who aren't maximalists will be resistant to the *idea* of pulling all that decor out, let alone the actual cost. What I dislike is the 6-story apartment building behind the lot. Not much privacy there. And the house suffers from being an outlier on the block - how many others in that 'hood are going for even half of $25m?

>> What would you pay in rent?

You know I like good deals, and a white (and gold) elephant in Bay Ridge would not be an exception! I’m totally uncalibrated on this sort of thing, but a rule of thumb is getting the fancy place at the same ppsf as normal places? Bay Ridge seems to go for $30-40 ppsf per year for normal places. At 14K sq ft, that works out to $35-46K/mo. Maybe kick it to $50K, seems only fair for the gold.

Nada, You got tricked by the listing square foot inflation. Generous foot print is 60x60. It is around 5500 sq ft not counting the double ceiling twice plus 3600 basement. Let us call basement 2000 sq ft to discount below ground space. So 7500 sq ft. Add in 1500 sq ft garage and out door space allowance. 9000 sq ft eqt. I think they will be lucky to get $35k per month.

You are starting to become too generous to the owners.

This is the most ridiculous house I have ever seen. Thanks for sharing. Curious what it will go for.

$10mm ish is my guess which means they may not sell. This gives buyers a chance to spend some money to change decorative non structural elements which can be done for well under $1mm. But then they may find some one who likes the decor and pay more. Market value range for this kind of property is really wide.

>> You are starting to become too generous to the owners.

I think I’ve gotten soft with age ;).

More seriously, the market is the market, and I’m happy to pay what the market demands. People individually do what makes sense for them given the options, and I do the same. I probably wouldn’t rent from this owner at any price though, assuming the sketchy history you alluded to is accurate. Life’s too short to deal with sketchy people, even more so when you have the means to avoid them.

That is a good philosophy!! Clayton..

The situation there did not seem sketchy going in, although I would have sniffed something had I been more careful. Ultimately, the owner’s sketchiness there was in pursuit of what amounted to peanuts. Meanwhile, their net worth—mostly elsewhere—has collapsed rather spectacularly.

I see.

I had called Clayton O for a listing with fake unbuilt square footage and he immediately pretended that he got another call with an offer he needs to take. The listing is still on the market. Mis-information in 1-3 family listings is out of control.

The owner on that townhouse will be taking a pretty spectacular bath. Can you understand what’s going on with the mortgages? Seems like a lender that’s related to the equity owner, but I can’t really figure out what fraction of the purchase price was mortgaged.

I see different parties. Believe the owner passed away.

https://vimeo.com/1071468738

Multiple mortgages may be some sort of filing error which was corrected leading to multiple filings on the same day but I don't have much expertise.