Listed for $19.988 million in January, the asking price for the 14,000-square-foot Los Altos Hills home owned by Jeff Skoll, the first employee and former President of eBay, was reduced to $16.75 million in March.

And on Monday, the sale of 27040 Old Trace Lane closed escrow with a reported contract price of $16,500,000.

Skoll, who’s now primarily a producer and philanthropist and owns a couple of homes in Beverly Hills, purchased the gated estate for $14.25 million in early 2013, at which point it was listed for $16.8 million having been reduced from $19.88 million in 2012.

The sale represents total appreciation of 15.8 percent for the property since 2013, or roughly 4.8 percent per year.

14 thoughts on “First eBay Employee’s Home Fetches $16.5 Million”
  1. Kinda OT but, I used eBay last week to sell something for the first time in many years (maybe even over a decade) and was shocked that they now take a 10% cut off of everything, not including the additional listing, insertion fees, etc. It used to be around 2-3% which I find much more reasonable. I will definitely not be using eBay again.

  2. repulsive. who buys/builds/wants to live in hideous places like this? I don’t understand the appeal at all.

    1. There’s a reason why McMansions look like McMansions – most people, when given the choice:

      a) want to fit in (bland)

      b) maximize for space, not for architecture

      The rich really aren’t that different from the rest of us.

    1. Maybe that’s the point. If you get tired of business travel you yearn for home. Enter the “homestyle” hotel complete with fresh baked cookies.

      To really cancel out homesickness, make your own home look like a hotel, blurring the distinction. I wonder if the home office here has a 2000s era windows PC and is labeled “business center” on the door. Accessible with your room keycard.

  3. I love it when people criticize things they can’t afford to feel better about the fact they can’t afford them.

    1. Guffawing at our “betters” has been a sport of us plebes for thousands of years. And when the Lord and Ladies deserve it, so what?

  4. Why is the indoor basketball court so narrow – it’s as if it was included just to check off a box, rather than having someone who actually, you know, plays basketball tell the architect what to do in that space.

  5. Once the last workman had left, Mr. Skoll slowly surveyed the quiet of the entry hall and began to wonder if the charming fun of buying each furnishing on eBay itself had left the project, somehow, lacking….

  6. I wouldn’t mind being rich, but the thought of having to support an entourage big enough to fill all those spaces doesn’t appeal to me.

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