Estate in Houston’s River Oak Hits Market Again, for $17.9M

An English-style manor in the heart of River Oaks’ Tall Timbers subdivision has hit the market again, this time asking $17.9 million.

The 18,000-square-foot Tudoresque estate, at 3996 Inverness Drive, about 2 miles west of the River Oaks Country Club, hit the market in March 2021 with a listed price of $26.5 million. It closed with a listed price of $7.75 million in 2022. That would’ve been a 75 percent discount after 200 days on market, although sources told The Real Deal at the time that it went for about $11 million.

It was sold at auction to an undisclosed buyer in November 2022. Jay Monroe of Martha Turner Sotheby’s International Realty was the listing agent.

The list price this time around comes to about $994 per square foot, and it is the Lone Star State’s sixth most expensive public listing this year. The price dropped by 10 percent, from $19.9 million, earlier this month. Nan and Co. founder Nancy Almodovar is the listing agent. The Harris Central Appraisal District assessed the property at $10.5 million in 2023.

The property was the longtime home of the late Carloss Morris, the former president of international title firm Stewart Title Company, who died in 2005. Energy industry mogul Lawrence Blackburn acquired it from the Morris estate in 2018 and built the Tudor-style house, according to property records.

The two-story home sits atop 2 acres in the Tall Timbers subdivision. It has six bedrooms, seven full baths and four half baths. It’s also outfitted with a guest suite and a separate cottage with a gym and sauna. Indoor amenities include a billiards room, theater, five carved fireplaces and an 800-bottle wine cellar.

The grounds are adorned with $1 million worth of Cotswolds-imported stonework, limestone arches, Tudor parterre gardens, disappearing fountains and a saltwater pool. The manor also features a motor court and four-car garage equipped with car lifts.

Nan and Co. is busy in the upscale River Oaks subdivision. The firm also has a $7 million listing in the same Tall Timbers neighborhood, at 9 West Lane.

Houston has had the state’s three most expensive listings so far this year, including two in River Oaks according to the Houston Association of Realtors. Topping the list is the $36 million 100 Carnarvon Drive, in Memorial, owned by billionaire Quantlab Financial co-founder Wilbur “Ed” Bosarge Jr.