Last month, a historic home in Ponte Vedra Beach, California went up for sale. The Milam Residence, designed by architect Paul Rudolph and built-in 1961, is a beautiful real estate work of art. The asking price is $4.445 million.
The list price is the least of the problems for the seller. There are people who can afford it. The issue is the home design.
Featuring four bedrooms and four baths, it also has a guest house and a very spacious courtyard, a useful feature for entertaining. The building encompasses more than 10,000 square feet on a 2.11-acre lot and includes an in-ground swimming pool as well as a three-car garage.
While these are all great features, the problem with unique real estate designs like this is that such properties are difficult to sell. Just ask any real estate agent.
The reason this home may not sell quickly is that most home buyers want to be able to design their homes to suit themselves. If a house design is already so unique that adding a homeowner’s personality doesn’t make it any more unique or personable, then it’s likely to attract a lot of eyeballs but not as many wallets. Even architectural beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
Mesa Vista Ranch: $250 Million Worth of Beauty
If you’ve been keeping up with the news, you may have heard that legendary Texas oil tycoon T. Boones Pickens passed away last week, at 91. Pickens was known for his flare. He left behind a beautiful ranch in Pampa, Texas, on the block for $250 million. It’s been listed for almost two years.
The ranch sits on 100 miles of land and features an airport with a 25,000-square-foot hangar, a wedding chapel, 20 lakes, four houses, a 400-square-foot building just for guns, a tennis court, a golf course, and an 11,000-square-foot dog kennel. It’s an amazing piece of property, but will it ever sell?
The jury is still out on the Texas panhandle property, but I suspect it will remain listed for a few more years. There are only a handful of people who can afford a $250 million piece of real estate, to begin with. And, as stated before, the uniqueness of the property itself leaves little room for the next landowner to make it their own.
The Property Listing Reality: What’s Good for Traditional Real Estate is Good for RECF
Selling real estate follows the same general principles whether we’re talking about listing on the MLS or listing through a real estate crowdfunding portal. If a property is going to sell, it’s got to sell on the merits of what is in demand. For that reason, real estate developers should pay attention to the trends in real estate, what home buyers are interested in, and what the market will bear.
By the same token, investors looking for a good deal would do their portfolios a favor by studying the market. What are homebuyers buying? What are developers building? Where is the market headed? These are the questions you should be asking.
A real estate crowdfunding platform that isn’t asking the same questions of the market is probably one that you should steer yourself away from. It’s important that the platform offer deals that are in concert with the supply and demand wave of the market. A home may be beautiful by aesthetic standards, but if it’s too impractical for the average homeowner, it likely isn’t a good investment.
