The Mountain of Beverly Hills is a property of superlatives: the highest point in the 90210 zip code, the most expensive listing in Los Angeles’ history and, perhaps, the most over-priced.
With its $1 billion price tag, the question is whether or not it will actually sell at a price even in the ballpark of what its seller is asking.
“It will set the world on fire if it sells for a billion,” Hall & Hall’s Tim Murphy, a specialist in large ranch and farm properties, told the Los Angeles Times. “That may be the end of real estate.”
Listing agent Aaron Kirman of Pacific Union Real Estate acknowledges the challenge–“To be impressed by dirt is hard,” as he told the New York Times–but he’s meeting it head-on with color-coded spreadsheets of the billionaires he’s targeting and a nebulous marketing budget of $400,000 to $1 million (or more).
Though the property is divided into 17 parcels that could be sold off individually or, in theory, built up and then individually sold by a developer, Kirman is targeting one ultra-wealthy buyer.
“There are 2,800 billionaires in the world,” he told the LA Times. “We realized there are 100 of those that could and would want to buy the property.”
So far, Kirman’s been in touch with five billionaires and is planning to make trips to London, Qatar, Russia and China to meet with others.
Meanwhile, back on the Mountain, he’s got plans to construct an all-glass cube where he can host would-be buyers and he’s looking into ways to allow interested billionaires to stay on the property for a night or two.
The property, formerly known as Vineyard Beverly Hills, has changed hands many times without any of the grand plans of its former owners being realized. The current owner is Secured Capital Property, an LLC managed by Victorino Noval’s son, Victor Franco Noval. [LAT] — Erin Hudson