Designing a Dream Home for a Celebrity Kid

Designing a Dream Home for a Celebrity Kid

Several A-list celebrities -- Gwyneth Paltrow, Sandra Bullock, Jessica Alba and, of course, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie — either have adopted young children or have one on the way.

With these lifestyle changes in mind, what do celebrities want in a home? While they may have wanted a swim-up bar and sauna 10 years ago, many celebs now are looking for family-friendly homes with swing sets, playhouses, and giant kids rooms.

Unless you've been to the Jolie-Pitt compound in France, no one can say for certain, but here are some ideas for dream spaces for Suri, Apple and other celebrity kids.

Designer Bedrooms
First and foremost, parents are concerned where their kids lay their head at night. Not only does the room need to be safe and comfortable, but if you're a celebrity, it needs to be stylish as well.

Most little boys like boats so we can picture someone with a bunch of boys — we're looking at you Mrs. Beckham— to opt for bedroom with an ever-so-proper nautical theme, like the home pictured below on the Mercer Island real estatemarket. All you need is a boat bed, some paddles and buoys and you have a room that any sailor would be proud of.



9020 SE 47th St, Mercer Island WA(above)

For Sale: $1,299,000

We can't forget about the little princess in the family which is why this home listed on theOldsmar real estate market in Florida is a must.

One of the six bedrooms has been outfitted for a little princess, complete with a castle tower built into the room. And of course, pinks and purples rule the color scheme.



1734 E Lake Woodlands, Oldsmar FL (above)

For Sale: $1,395,000

Playroom

A celebrity kid can't be expected to play in their room all day, which is why the next requirement for a celebrity kid's home is a giant playroom perfect for Matchbox cars, dress-up and hide-n-seek.

Who says you can't have kids in the city? Still within the Chicago city limits in the upscale Roscoe Village neighborhood, this townhouse has a basement area perfect for kids to romp, as well as enough space to hang all of their art work. Median Roscoe Village home values are presently $350,000.



1833 W Roscoe St, Chicago IL (above)

For Sale: $1,200,000

Backyard

A celebrity kid's backyard just wouldn't be complete without a proper fort.

For the more adventurous kind, the best fort would be a treehouse — especially like the one seen in the backyard of this Scarsdale home for sale. The wooden structure sleeps 12 and is outfitted with comfy bean bags, a sleeping loft and paper lanterns for light.



9 Sundale Pl, Scarsdale, NY (above)

For Sale: $3,450,000

We can't forget the playhouse though—especially one with Craftsman details like shutters and Gingerbread trim in the backyard of a home for sale in Mamaroneck, NY.



14 Carriage House Ln, Mamaroneck NY (above)

For Sale: $1,695,888

Pool

The last element for the perfect celebrity kid's home is a pool —but not just any pool. The pool not only needs to be big enough for some major Marco Polo action, but it most likely will need at least a slide.

But if we're like any doting celeb parent, we'll need to do a little better on the slide and get one that wraps around the side of a rock wall, as is seen in this North Carolina home for sale, not to mention a pool basketball hoop and fountain to round things out.



7800 Clover Vale Dr, Waxhaw NC (above)

For Sale: $1,999,000

Walt Disney's Mansion For Sale

Walt Disney's Whimsical Los Feliz House for Sale

By Ann Brenoff

Could this be your happiest place on Earth? It was the house that the man himself builtfor himself in 1932 for $50,000. It's now on the market for $3.65 million.

The 12-room mansion has a feature rare for its era: A projection and screening room. But what else would you expect from the man who brought the world Mickey and the gang? The studios would send over daily takes for Walt Disney to review. It was an early work-at-home office! 


The four-bedroom gated home is in the trendy Los Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles. The Mediterranean-style entry has a circular rotunda and painted ceilings. Who knew that Walt had a thing for old world styling? There is a double-story living room with vaulted beamed ceilings and wrought-iron spandrels. The home, which sits on an acre, has the original leaded stained glass.

Disney lived in this home for about 18 years, although he had several other Los Angeles homes, including his better-known one on North Carolwood Drive. Even in real estate, it's sometimes about building a better mousetrap.

Vacation like a celebrity in a real star's home for a week

Vacation like a celebrity and actually sleep in the same bed that they do by taking your next vacation in the homes owned by these stars, as some of the biggest names have offered their vacation homes up for rent.

If you think living like a celebrity in a sprawling seaside or country home with a view only afforded to the very rich, sounds grand but impossible, think again. You can actuallyvacation in a home owned by some of the biggest stars and enjoy all the amenities that the celebrities enjoy in their vacation digs. Some of these celebrity rentals even come complete with a full staff to wait on you.

How about living like a rock star in Keith Richards vacation home or a movie star at the seaside vacation home of Bruce Willis? What about relaxing in the beautiful airy home of Christie Brinkley or enjoying the never ending ocean view at the home of fashion designer Donna Karan, which are locations that scream elite and luxury? These celebrity homes are all for rent at Parrot Cay, Turks & Caicos.

The four celebrity vacation homes are available for the public to rent, when their owners are not taking up occupancy on a vacation of course. All of these homes offer a 360 degree ocean view, private infinity pools and Balinese furniture to die for. This doesn’t come cheap, it costs $24,000 a night, but for a group of friends all chipping in, this could be and extravagant, but affordable vacation for a long weekend.

Frank Sinatra designed his own home in Palm Springs and everything about it says “old blue eyes” was here, including the recording studio that he had built and used to record many of his great hits. It is now available for vacationers to rent. This desert oasis has four bedrooms and seven baths in this very modern home that was way ahead of its time when it was built in the middle of the last century. Everything from a gourmet kitchen to the modern amenities is offered at this vacation spot.

If the country and open space is more your idea of a vacation, Clint Eastwood’s Mission Ranch in Carmel, California is the place you want to go. Eastwood purchased the land years back to save it from developers and he has turned it into a ranch resort. This spot offers cabins and even reverted barns for their guests to stay in. The different accommodations offered range from cottages to lofts and barns to cabins.

Clint’s Mission Ranch awards you with a taste of the old west, but offers most every modern amenity available today. The Restaurant at Mission Ranch is second to none when it comes to its American flare cuisine, with a piano bar and jazz brunch offered to the patrons.

Eric Clapton’s vacation home in Stanfast Point, Antigua is available to rent, which is nestled on 45 acres on the ocean. This rental property comes with four buildings that will sleep 14 people in luxuries only available to rock icons until now. With this property, you get a full staff including a chef to prepare all your dinners.

Clapton’s place is reasonable when taken in the scope of other celebrity homes, as it costs $50,000 for the week. This split between 14 people is a vacation possibility for many hard working baby boomers and their friends.

If an entire private island is your idea of a vacation spot, you could live like Sir Richard Branson on Necker Island, British Virgin Islands. This globe trotting billionaire rents his Island home when he is away, it is a great place to plan a wedding. At $56,000 a night, it is a get away like no other.

Justin Timberlake Experiences Real Estate Loss

Justin Timberlake Experiences Real Estate Loss
By John E. Miller

Even celebrities don’t always make it big in real estate. Just ask Justin Timberlake.

Justin Timberlake has drastically expanded his singing and acting career since parting from the 1990’s and early 2000’s boy band *NSYNC. Timberlake, like many other boy band sensations from the 90’s, decided to hit the solo career route and released his first single in 2002.

Since then, Timberlake has experience incredible career success. Along with his flourishing musical career, Timberlake has more than dabbled in Hollywood. First appearing in Edison Force, Timberlake has moved his acting career forward at lightning speed, having a major role in several films including the 2010 The Social Network and this year’s Friends With Benefits.

However, Timberlake’s life outside of his career has include several loses ranging from relationships to the most recent—real estate.

Timberlake’s first album Justified included numerous songs that were inspired by the ending of his chemistry-driven relationship with pop star Britney Spears. Upon the relationship ending, Timberlake expressed his hurt and loss in song.

Now, Timberlake is experiencing another loss—this time involving the recent sale of his apartment in New York. In October, 2010, he listed the TriBeCa property for $5.25 million, which would represent a nice gain since he purchased the home in 2008 for $4.77 million. However, the final sale had Timberlake taking a loss of $700,000 for his approximately 3,000 square-foot pad that only sold for $4.7 million.

This represents a 10% drop from his original asking price, which can’t be pleasing to Timberlake – especially since he recently signed a contract for $6.6 million for a penthouse in SoHo.

Hopefully Timberlake will prove to be more successful in his future real estate initiatives, success that may rub off from his hot singing and acting career that continues to grow.

What Slump? Blackstone Raises $3 Billion for Real Estate Fund

What Slump? Blackstone Raises $3 Billion for Real Estate FundBy Craig Karmin

Blackstone Group has raised about $3 billion for a new real-estate fund, another sign that the private-equity industry’s dominant players are attracting new capital while many of the smaller funds struggle to attract new money.

Blackstone, which reports second-quarter earnings Thursday morning, expects a first closing for its seventh real-estate fund in the third quarter, according to people familiar with the matter. Overall, the firm has indicated, it is targeting about $10 billion for the fund.

The private-equity titan has brought in that amount even though it only began its money-raising for the fund in the early spring. But it is not the only big firm on the real-estate fund-raising trail.

Carlyle Group, the Washington, D.C.-based private-equity firm, has raised about $2 billion so far for what will be its sixth U.S. real-estate fund. Lone Star Funds in Dallas, meanwhile, raised $5.5 billion for a second real-estate fund that closed in May, exceeding its initial target of $4 billion to $5 billion, say people familiar with the matter.

While the market downturn hasn’t prevented several of the most sizeable and established real-estate funds from raising fresh capital, consultants say that newer funds are facing challenges in persuading pension-fund investors to take a chance with less-proven managers with fewer resources.

Blackstone is expected to raise the most of its peer group and often deploys that money in particularly large, sometimes complex transactions.

This year, for instance, Blackstone paid $9.4 billion in a deal for the U.S. malls of Centro Properties Group, an Australian real-estate investor. Blackstone also purchased Chicago developer Sam Zell’s Equity Office Properties Trust in 2007 for $39 billion, then sold about 60% of the portfolio to other investors.

This post first appeared on the WSJ’s Deal Journal blog, which has more about Blackstone and private equity.

How a High Roller Really Lives

House of the Day: Vegas Penthouse a High-Stakes Winner

By Ann Brenoff 


If you spin the roulette wheel in real estate today, Las Vegas might wind up being an investor's lucky number. Take this 6,779-square foot, two-story penthouse in the prestigious high-rise at 1 Hughes Center Drive that's on the market now at $10 million. In 2009, it had a price tag of $15 million. That's a lot of poker chips.

Finished with rich woods and exotic stone work, the four-bedroom unit has a home theater, gourmet kitchen with dumbwaiter and lavish master suite that includes a large office. There are floor-to-ceiling windows that overlook the neon lights of Vegas below.

Shapiro & Sher Group of Prudential Americana, Las Vegas, have the listing.

When Celebrity Real Estate Goes Wrong

When Celebrity Real Estate Goes Wrong: Why Star Residences Fail To Sell
John E. Miller

The real estate market hasn’t been kind to most people in the country (with the obvious exception of investors and homebuyers). Celebrities and the rich and famous, though, seemed to have largely dodged the bullet because their properties usually sell, sometimes even for a profit.

The celebrity effect has long been an acknowledged factor in real estate. In most markets, even during the typical down cycles, real estate associated with celebrities usually benefits from being associated with genuine star power. Buyers notice these hot properties before other homes because news gets out and tends to raise the profile of these star-crossed homes. Plus, the homes themselves are often luxurious, with state-of-the-art amenities and dynamite locations.

Of course, these days, in this market, even celebrities aren’t immune to real estate problems.

Remember Home Alone? It turns out the stately colonial home that was featured in that movie – located in an upscale village just to the north of Chicago – has been on the market for quite a while and recently saw its listing price cut by 10%, to $2.175 million.

Another celebrity home – this one owned by America Ferrera, the star of the hit TV series “Ugly Betty” – is also on the market but hasn’t gotten any takers. The Beachwood Canyon home is listed for $1.395 million, less than the $1.415 million it cost in 2008, and hasn’t had any bites. The price is almost $250,000 less than the original asking price in 2010.

There’s also the case of celebrities who are facing foreclosure on their homes and are trying to avoid that unseemly fate through short sales and other deals. Just over the past year, celebrities like Mel Gibson, Timbaland, Sergei Federov, JaMarcus Russell, Allen Iverson, Wayne Newton, and R. Kelly have faced foreclosure or have had their properties foreclosed by the bank.

What gives?

Well, in terms of celebrity homes that are on the market and can’t find buyers, a lack of privacy may be the culprit. The Home Alone property and the house owned by Ferrera both do not afford the level of privacy that affluent homebuyers want. If you have millions to plunk down on a hot property, you probably want your privacy intact – not violated by star-gazers or tourists. If you are in a top location, like secluded portions of Los Angeles that are star friendly, you probably don’t mind – which is why homes in those specific areas still sell well.

In terms of the other cases – situations like the list of celebrities above in which homes just don’t sell at all and face foreclosure – the reason is probably because the home was overpriced to begin with. Even celebrities can be victims of paying too much for a property. In fact, because they have so much discretionary income, they are more likely to overpay – which results in higher-than-desired asking prices that scare buyers away.

What can buyers and investors learn or gain from this situation? For starters, the market is full of prime real estate – real estate that can be purchased for significant bargains and resold at a later date, when the market recovers, for a nice profit. If you can find celebrity real estate, so much the better, but even if you can’t, “normal” real estate is still a prime opportunity.

Another lesson to be learned is that buying in the right timeframe is crucial to the success of any real estate venture. These celebrities obviously made the wrong call, but that doesn’t mean you have to repeat their mistake. Waiting too long will have you buying on the upswing of a recovery, in which the balance of the market begins to tilt toward sellers. With low interest rates and an abundance of available property, you can find an attractive bargain in virtually every market.

And might pick up a celebrity home or two while you’re at it.