It took a whole lot of burritos and guacamole (which costs extra) to build Chipotle founder Steve Ells’ house, but if you’ve got about $4 million just collecting dust in your bank account, his former Denver home can be yours. [More]
real estate
Report: New Owners Closing Waldorf Astoria Hotel For 3 Years To Turn 1,100 Rooms Into Condos
By 6.27.16
A New York City landmark will be shutting down for three years before re-emerging with a new look under its new(ish) ownership: the Waldorf Astoria Hotel will close in spring 2017 for renovations, and will emerge with about three-quarters of its rooms turned into luxury condominiums. [More]
Punch Up Your Real Estate Listing By Posing In A Panda Costume In Every Photo
By 6.16.16
If you’ve ever spent hours online looking for a home — especially in a region where most of the properties have similar layouts and designs — your eyes might glaze over as you skim through countless nearly identical photos. Then, wait — was that a woman in a panda suit? [More]
No, This Denver Broncos Fan Isn’t Trying To Sell His House For Super Bowl Tickets
By 1.27.16
In yet another example of why you can’t trust everything you read, a Colorado man is trying to set the record straight so his phone stops ringing: despite an ad in Denver-area papers that indicated otherwise, he is not selling his house in exchange for a pair of tickets to Super Bowl 50. [More]
3 Reasons Why ‘House Hunters’ Will Likely Outlast The Apocalypse
By 1.25.16
Centuries from now, when the only beings roaming the scorched earth are heavily irradiated ghouls and super mutants, all great literature, music, and art will be lost but somewhere a gaggle of radroaches will be gathered around a TV watching reruns of HGTV’s House Hunters. [More]
Family Caught In Battle Between HOA & Developers While Their Yard Falls Into Pond
By 1.22.16
So you come home one day to find that the slope at the back of your yard has begun to slough off into the pond behind your property. You call your homeowners association, which is supposed to handle such disasters, but they do nothing because the pond in question still technically belongs to the developers, who also do nothing. Meanwhile, that slope become more and more like a precipice while the two possible responsible parties do everything but take responsibility. [More]
Selling “Silence Of The Lambs” Killer’s House Not As Easy As You’d Think
By 1.12.16
As we saw with the prolonged attempt to sell Cameron’s house from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, having your property featured in a famous movie is no guarantee that it will be snatched up at a good price. Just ask the owners of the Pennsylvania home used in the Oscar-winning horror film Silence of the Lambs. [More]
Hotel That Inspired “Fawlty Towers” To Be Torn Down
By 1.7.16
More than 45 years ago, the uptight manager of an English hotel inadvertently inspired Monty Python’s John Cleese to create a comedy legend. Now comes news that this landmark of sitcom history will soon be demolished. [More]
South Dakota Ghost Town Is Still On The Market, Could Be Yours For A Mere $250,000
By 11.30.15
If you’re in the market for a new home, you could surely find something for $250,000 — heck, why settle for looking for a house when you could just buy an entire ghost town? An abandoned South Dakota town that was on the market for $400,000 back in 2014 is still up for grabs, and now at a bargain price. [More]
Homeowner Goes Away For 8 Months, Returns To Find Town Has Demolished His House
By 11.3.15
When you leave home for an extended period, you probably lock the doors up tight, maybe turn on an alarm, and expect that the house will still be standing upon your return. Which is why one Long Island homeowner was shocked, to say the least, when he returned after eight months away to find his home had disappeared entirely. [More]
New Homeowner Apparently Doesn’t Mind If Auctioned Property Comes With Free Booby Traps
By 10.23.15
We can think of many reasons not to buy a home — cracks in the foundation, snake infestations, a satanic murder pit in the basement, what have you — but apparently the possibility that a house might be booby-trapped wasn’t a deal-breaker for one new property owner in New Hampshire. [More]
If You’re Having An Open House, Don’t Leave Pills In Your Medicine Cabinet
By 10.7.15
As we’ve already shown today, some folks will go to great lengths to steal prescription medications. But why deal with having to pry open a security door when a wannabe pill thief can just go to an open house and hope to score in the unlocked medicine cabinet? [More]
Chicago Residents Want City To Buy Their Homes, Claiming Living Near O’Hare Airport Is A Noisy Nightmare
By 10.2.15
A group of residents living near O’Hare International Airport are suing the city of Chicago, seeking to make the city buy their homes. They claim their houses have become unlivable after a spike in jet noise from O’Hare, after a new runway opened two years ago. [More]
One Detroit Neighborhood Actively Looking For Squatters
By 9.18.15
Some neighborhood groups would look at squatters — people who live rent-free in vacant buildings — as a negative to be shooed away in favor of paying tenants. But the folks in one part of Detroit would rather have squatters occupying the empty homes in their area than see these buildings stripped or burned to the ground. [More]
House Couple Was Buying To Tear Down Over Fire Hazard Concerns Catches Fire While They Sign Deed
By 8.27.15
Sometimes, bad things happen pretty much exactly when you’d expect them to, in a bit of unfortunate happenstance. Does it make you mad? Yes, maybe, but it was just meant to be. To wit: a couple in Pennsylvania who were buying a vacant house next door to tear it down because they were worried it was a fire hazard were proved correct when the home did, indeed, catch on fire… while they were signing the papers to become the owners. [More]
Create A Delicious Dessert, Win California Woman’s $390K Home
By 7.21.15
In the latest string of popular “create something, win huge reward” contests, a California woman is offering up her refurbished 1906 Craftsman home — valued at $390,000 — to the person who can come up with a winning dessert recipe. [More]
In India And China, You Can Buy Your Next Home Without Leaving Home
By 7.17.15
Depending on how you feel about the way real estate works now, the idea of sticking a house in your Internet shopping cart and clicking “Buy” may or may not appeal to you. Advances in technology mean that you can buy a new house without even going outside, and get a discount for doing so…in India. [More]
Sears-Affiliated Real Estate Investment Trust Raises $1.6 Billion
By 7.7.15
If you’ve always secretly wanted to be the partial landlord of a Sears or Kmart store, you have some unusual and specific life goals. You can also achieve your goal as of this week. The real estate investment trust spun off from Sears Holdings, Seritage Growth Properties, is now selling shares to the public, and the offering has been successful so far, raising more than $1.6 billion. [More]
