Michael Jackson home on market
Michael Jackson’s last Los Angeles-area residence, a French chateau in Holmby Hills, is back on the market at $23.9 million — $400,000 above what it was listed for last summer.
The pop icon was leasing the 17,171-square-foot mansion for $100,000 a month when he died there in 2009 after receiving the surgical anesthetic propofol for insomnia. His doctor, Conrad Murray, was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in November and sentenced to four years in prison.
“Crime scenes have a perceived stigma,” said real estate consultant and appraiser Randall Bell, whose work has taken him to the homes of O.J. Simpson and Jon Benet Ramsey. Such houses take longer to sell, he said, and usually close at a market discount of between 10% and 50%.
In the short term, they are always easier to lease than to sell, he added. “After five to seven years, you are typically going to see a full recovery.”
The property was purchased in 2004 by Hardy chief executive Hubert Guez and his wife, Roxanne, for $18.5 million and had been priced as high as $38 million in 2008.
The Richard Landry-designed estate, built in 2002, has a theater for screenings, a wine cellar and tasting room, an elevator, an art studio and a gym with a spa. The guesthouse has stained-glass doors leading to the pool and gardens. There are 11 fireplaces, 7 bedrooms and 13 bathrooms. The 1.25 acres of gated grounds include a swimming pool.
Mauricio Umansky of the Agency in Beverly Hills is the listing agent, according to the Multiple Listing Service.
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