Wednesday, March 19, 2014

Midweek Mash Up: The Brady-Bündchens

The latest West Coast celebrity real estate scuttlebutt (via celeb gossip juggernaut TMZ) is that super-compensated supermodel Gisele Bündchen and prodigiously paid pigskin tosser Tom Brady have quietly spiraled their recently completed, custom-built mansion in L.A.'s Brentwood area on the open market with an super-sized asking price of $50 million.

While it's somewhat unexpected it isn't much of a surprise, perhaps, to those of us real estate watchers who remember that the comely couple recently had the Richard Landry-designed and Joan Behnke-decorated faux-French chateau profiled in the glossy pages of Architectural Digest (October, 2013). Because, of course, ehver-bahdee who knows a damn thing about celebrity real estate knows that that when a famous person's private residence pops up in Architectural Digest it's a pretty good bet the property soon pop up for sale. (We don't make the rules, hunties, we just follow the patterns. Anyhoo....)

Digital marketing materials show the limestone-sheathed residence sits on close to four mostly flat and painstakingly landscaped acres and encompasses 13,980 square feet with five bedrooms and nine bathrooms. There's a moat, a wood bridge, a motor court paved in reclaimed cobblestones, and an infinity pool befitting a five-star island resort.

Your Mama spoke on the telly with a real estate acquaintance of ours who has first-hand knowledge of the Brady-Bündchen mansion and s/he snitched that the guest house structure (mostly) houses a huge fitness facility and, as large as the house may be, there is not a dedicated staff bedroom or a screening room. We just about fell off our bar stool when we heard that, too, children. Who builds a gigantic house in Los Angeles and does not put in a screening room and then puts a $50 million price tag on it? Pleeze. Anyways...

Other homeowners in the guard-gated enclave include philandering former governator Arnold Schwarzenegger and supermodel turned reality television mogul Heidi Klum who, even though last fall she spent nearly $10 million on another, equally large red brick neo-Georgian mansion on a gated cul-de-sac in Bel Air, still owns a nearly 12,000 square foot Euro-villa across the road from the Brady-Bündchens.

So the stories go, the Brady-Bündchens plan to take their babies and settle in the upscale suburbs of Boston where they're presently building another 14,000 square foot estate on five acres.

listing photo: Westside Estate Agency

24 comments:

برنامج مجانى said...

niiiiiiiiiiiice thank you

Anonymous said...

Can we say Overpriced by over $20 million, I don't think they'll get anything near asking price, but I think they will get what they really want for the property which is $15-25 Million. It's beautiful but certainly not worth $50 million.

Anonymous said...

There is just no way this house is only 14k sf. I get it that it reads better in AD to say that, but that's real commitment when the listing also unrepresents it by 8k SF or so....


Anonymous said...

this house is worth 30M easy in this market. Not a chance on earth it sells for 15-25M...

Anonymous said...

@Anon:11:22
$30 million? I doubt it, maybe you should look at the comps, Mandeville Canyon is having a tough time selling, it's on price reduction downhill. Like I said it'll sell for $15-$25M. This is Brentwood not Beverly Park, even in Beverly Park this would be overpriced. Get real!

Anonymous said...

@1120
Wtf is Unrepresents?

Anonymous said...

Anon 11:39 - is a prime example of why some people shouldn't talk without any knowledge.

This is Brentwood Country Estates--- the most elite gated community of the far westside. The land alone is worth WELL over $10m.

12700 Sold for $26m and was hideous
12705 Sold for $18m and was also hideous

The house is overpriced, because that is what all mega-mansion owners do in LA. But--- the house will sell for around for high $20's to low $30 millions. Whether you realize it or not the market is WAY up from when those other two homes.

Anonymous said...

That didn't take long. They were in it for such a short time when the Architectural Digest article ran, that I let the typically telling cue slide.

To settle the argument, let's split the difference and set the eventual sales price at $27.5MM. You're welcome.

I'm kind of amazed that high profile people aren't the least bit embarrassed to list a property so grossly overpriced. Class is a nearly dead concept.

lil' gay boy said...

Uglier than two sins and a lie; typical Landry mis-proportioning.

And it appears to have been built in a ditch; that rear slope will give way at some point.

Anonymous said...

It will easily get over $30 million. It is just weird though that they would build this and then sell it so fast. WTF?

Anonymous said...

Eric Schmidt just paid over 20m for the late Veronique Peck's house on S. Mapleton. It's a very beautiful property, but I'm almost sure its system are all very old school -- so essentially unrenovated. Also it's on an open street and relatively busy street.

Then there's Ellen who paid, what, 40m up the way --exactly next door to the neighborhood blight which is the Playboy Mansion. Yeah, I know, its a very important house.

Yeah, I also know, they're both in uber-exclusive Holmby Hills, not Brentwood.

I bet the Brady/Bundchen house sells fast and for 30+. It may not be to your taste, but it's a very well thought out and very well built house that's going to have a lot of appeal to the demographic that can afford it. And as someone else mentioned, it's on a gated street.

Anonymous said...

Why would you spend all of that time and money, having made numerous decisions, move in, and then sell it essentially right away? I don't get it. It's a very different mind set than someone like Bunny Mellon who cultivated her beautiful residences. She developed her gardens and actually lived in those spaces.

Yes - Architectural Digest publishing means "for sale soon" or "getting a divorce, so for sale soon."

lil' gay boy said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
lil' gay boy said...

Anon 1:27,

Like most of Landry's compositions (and I've mentioned this ad nauseum before), it seems he typically designs for his stature (he's well over 6 foot), with the result that his façades appear tall & compressed; in this case, in order to minimize the house's total height, the slope of the mansard-like roof has a short rise that makes it appear stunted in proportion to the overall height.

The open arches also seem too low for the interior height as well, and the dropped sashes on the second floor give the house hunched appearance.

As for what will "give", this aerial view during constructions shows just how massively the site was excavated.

Anonymous said...

The site engineering here must have cost them 5m. They had to create this huge platform on which to plop that house because they apparently had no interest in building a house that might have some relationship to the actual topography of that site.

If you want to see another massive site construction project, take a look at an aerial of the land next to the Reagan's house in Bel Air -- north of St. Cloud, west of Nimes.

Can anybody shed any light on what the hell that is (or was) all about?

Hopefully, Mrs. R's hearing is not what it used to be, because that must have been years of sheer torture for the neighborhood listening to the endless beeping of earth moving machinery backing up.

Anonymous said...

And btw, did Cheryl Tiegs ever manage to sell her house which also adjoins that excavation site on Nimes? I can understand why she wanted to get out of there, if not why anyone else would want to live there. . . Unless of course they too were embarking on a five year construction project. The construction noise in rich neighborhoods is never ending.

Sandpiper said...

Hi 11:56, yah, unrepresents?? Sounds like Cliff Clavin just stopped by.

Hi 12:14 -- RE reaction to 11:39 -- loved it. Precious.

As for my paltry two cents, seems they moved in last week. It's sharp, moat and faux limestone aside.

For a Landry, the old boy must have fielded this project over to a new hire with fresh eyes and ideas, cause this sure doesn't resemble the plethora of column-jammed, gaudy beasts attributed to him around town.

Tyler said...

I'm surprised they're selling. I recall when they bought the land, literally years ago. It took so much time and effort and money and now that it's done they don't want it anymore? All I can think is they've decided they don't want to raise their kids in L.A.

Anonymous said...

The only reason Tom built this home because his first son (the kid he had with actress Bridget Moynahan) lived in LA at the time. And of course, he can't move his son across the country so he wanted a home base in LA for his family.


Now that she and her kid moved to New York City, there is no need for this house now which is why they immediately listed it. And surprise, they just bought a new apt in NYC for $20mm or so I think.


Anonymous said...

Why don't people in California build houses with reinforced-concrete framing and brick and mortar?

Instead it's all timber framing and I don't know what to fill the frame.

Mr DHH said...

When I pay 50 million dollars for a house in this area I expect a little
bit more in square footage 23000 or more,more flat land- 4 acres and up,indoor and outdoor pool and mandatory tennis court.Amber Hills just up due north of this (widow of KB Homes)is sitting at 29 million and that is a spread-land,view,buildings,etc.
What makes me wonder is not even a year old why are we selling it (let alone for that off the chart amount unless that is their costs-yikes).David Kelley's old house-who sold to Les and Julie who sold it again.Long story short house marketed for 7 years for both and made 1 million, last sale was
26 million.17000 square feet with
and acre of vineyards(5 acres total).According to my sources it
appears we have some grading and other land issues in the development of Brentwood Country Estates that are coming back and biting people in the butt and due to the fact it is all a gated development the owners are all responsible for their infrastructure and grading.

I will control my own access through my own electric gate that empties out to a public street
thank you very much (low traffic
of course).Remember boys and girls
in any type of planned unit development,when access is limited by either a gate or guard house so are the public utilities and services (fire,police,ambulance).
As well when buying land always have it checked by a surveyor or engineer for what you intend to due with it.This will save you a lot of time,money and heartache especially when you find out surprises-trust me there always will be some.

Anonymous said...

12:47, eletronic gates if they don't have a physical guard, have a box that opens the gate up with the sound of a siren from an emergency vehicle, plus you can put those boxes you see with the red tabs on businesses that have keys in them for emergency people to get in, so gates are not an issue.

Anonymous said...

Seems like way too much money, however If my booze soaked memory serves me, they have had the midas touch in real estate before?

Anonymous said...

Are we back to your "memory serves me" again? You're sitting on links and can't wait for a taker so you can close the loop on that tease.

If my memory serves me, you're @2:11 McCourts, no?