Price of 'Bachelor' and 'Bachelorette' pad reduced by one-third

Even splashy homes featured on television shows are having a tough time selling.

Villa de la Vina, the six-bedroom, 7 1/2-bathroom estate used for two seasons of the ABC reality show "The Bachelor" and last season's "The Bachelorette," is now listing for $8.75 million, down from $13 million earlier this year.

This is the Agoura home in which "Bachelorette" contestant DeAnna Pappas sifted through the contestants, finally choosing Jesse Csincsak as her one true love.

The owner of the 10-acre estate, contractor Marshall Haraden, used materials from Morocco, India and Mexico to give an authentic look to the 8,000-square-foot home. The exterior walls are constructed of dye-infused concrete, and the interior has terra cotta pavers and tile from Guadalajara. The doors are from Mexico and India, and some fixtures are from Morocco. He sought to achieve "a rural, rustic hacienda" sensibility.

Haraden created a 2,000-square-foot solar field to house panels to heat the pool, also featured in the TV shows.

The property has a 4,000-square-foot finished building for use as a hobby studio (and was used to house last season's "Bachelorette" contestants).

--Diane Wedner

Your thoughts? Comments?

Photo: Jeff Elson

Comments

[rickstar1]

I thought there were a plethora of overseas buyers for the high end properties due to the weak dollar?? Woops... looks like their markets have crashed now too. There goes the so-called "bullet proof" west-side/upscale home values...

[stan derrin]

HIgh end real estate is about to fall off a cliff this week.The mass collapse of the financial markets and banks in the last week is going to hit real estate asap.And extremely hard.
Cher's was asking 45 million dollars for her ugly mansion on the pch.An outlandish sum that 10 years ago wouldnt have commanded more than 3-4 million.
The mania in real estate and recently in high end RE was fueled in large part by foreign billionaires who's new found wealth came from the oil mania.Now that that ponzi scheme has imploded it has taken away many potential buyers-if not all.
MAny wealthy billionaires are no longer as of this month,week.MAny wealthy people have seen their entire
fortunes disappear because they were leveraged.The ceo of chesapeake energy today was forced to liquidate his entire 33million share holding of chesapeake because of a margin call-he had actually bought much of his shares on margin and the stock imploded from 70 to 12 today.He lost billions.This is just 1 man.He is the guy who is on those tv ads pushing natural gas and boone pickens "pickens plan".Yes, that guy.In fact pickens himself has lost billions and his whole plan is probably dead as of the last few weeks.
I doubt you'll see those guys on tv pushing the 'Pickens Plan'.The repercussions of the financial implosion will send a tsunami across the economy.

Figure this: the dow30 is at 8400.The first time it was at that price was in 1998 or so.I would think home prices should be at 1998 prices based on the current value of the financial markets since homes are a component of the economy like stocks and should reflect that.Seems like re prices have a lot of catching up to do with other markets.

[tew]

Amen rickstar1.

I honestly didn't think that the entire global economy would fall so far so fast and so I thought our high end real estate would fall modestly but would get substantial support from kleptocrats and commodity rich oligarchs and newly rich entrepreneurs worldwide.

I also didn't think the panic would actually drive the dollar higher in the short term.

Let's take a would be buyer, call him newly minted mogul X. He was worth $50,000,000 six months ago. He visited L.A. and told his real estate agent to find something amazing. But, being conservative, he wants to keep it under $10,000,000. He'll overpay for something if he loves it.

The collapse in commodity prices has slashed his net worth by 60% (he's lucky he diversified). The rise in the greenback has reduced his dollar wealth by another 15%. So now he's worth $17,000,000. Suddenly $10,000,000 doesn't seem like chump change. If he can find something amazing for $4,000,000 he'll buy, otherwise, don't bother.

[msprompt]

This is interesting. I rent a ramshackle shack in a private, gated beach club in rancho palos verdes. ABout 70 or so houses dot the hill above a lovely cove, right next to trump's course. it's a nice palce, if you aren't afraid of land movement. One of the few houses that is actually down on the sand was foreclosed on in June (I heard it took the realtors $800K+ to get it out of hock) and went on the market at $1.2. It recently went down to $999 and it still sits. I'm dying to see how far it goes down.

This place is a 750 sq ft former mobile home. It is a one bedroom that the former owner, from what I've heard, turned into a studio. It's small. And the great irony is that while the house is literally on the beach, it has no ocean view!! It sits in the shadow of a giant pile of scree, a result of the huge Crenshaw Blvd. slide in the '50s.

Ck it out at
http://www.redfin.com/CA/Rancho-Palos-Verdes/
45-Seawall-Rd-90275/home/7740429

[GDC]

This board is too one-sided in hoping for a crash. I want lower prices too but let's be objective. The smart money is always making money. Right now, they are shorting stocks like crazy and making millions. And there are many of them.

[Tokyo Renter - Ex Culver City Renter]

Stan,
I'd have to agree with you. I work with a lot of wealthy foreigners at an investment bank in Tokyo and there not happy right now.

Lakshmi Mittal of Mittal Steel lost over $16B in the last few
weeks alone. I'm sure he's not alone in losing vast amounts of their fortune.