Built for Kumar Malavalli, the co-founder of Brocade Communications Systems and current VC, the 21,400-square-foot home at 27500 La Vida Real in Los Altos Hills hit the market with a bit of fanfare and an $88 million price tag in 2015.
Features of the five-bedroom, 2010-era home include a 3,000-bottle wine “cellar” adjacent to the main dining room.
There’s an indoor swimming pool with a retractable roof, spa and swim-up bar.
There’s a freestanding 1,024-square-foot executive center with a conference room and kitchenette, not to mention a six-car garage and 12 outdoor fire pits sprinkled across the eight-acre estate.
According to the listing agent, while the $88 million price seemed like a big number, it “reflects the cost of construction and the price of land.”
And with a little less fanfare and hidden behind an undisclosed address, the “resort-like estate in Los Altos Hills” was quietly listed for $68 million as of this morning.
I always felt that hot tubs belong outside, not indoors. Especially at a place with great views.
I love looking at these big, extravagant homes. Some of the spaces and features of this house are really nice and I would love to spend time in them. But then when I imagine actually owning and living in something like this, and having friends over and entertaining, I end up feeling shame or embarrassment. I just can’t empathize with the motivations/feelings of someone who wants a 21,400 square foot home, something that I think contributes a lot to personal identity. And with that, the fantasy is ruined.
I suppose that might mean I have no idea what type of lifestyles people of this level of wealth live, and why such a house would make sense (hence the lack of empathy).
Two cases I know of:
– family likes to entertain a lot and accommodate overnight guests
– really big family. Like 10+ kids
I agree with your hypothetical cases in the abstract, but this house doesn’t make sense for them. There are only five-bedrooms, one less bedroom than garage spots, so the original owner was making an implicit statement that cars are more important than children when they (singular, gender-neutral usage of “they”) signed off on the plans.
A large family isn’t going to live here comfortably. Haven’t seen a 20,000+ square foot place on socketsite that has a double digit number of bedrooms in a long time, if ever. David Duffield’s $39 million 21.5 acre estate in the far East Bay had a main residence over 20,000 square feet and still only had eight bedrooms.
If I had this kind of money, I’d build a mansion more like the one featured in the The Dark Knight Rises and then it would be totally easy “having friends over and entertaining ” because I’d have my own ballroom. And enough remaining space that the kids could sleep through the party going on it.
I love the dowdy living room furniture. Nice rugs, though.
“I’ll just hire the same guy who did our corporate campus and tell him to give me a nice big house!”
All that money and they can’t hire a decent interior decorator do their house? Furnishing looks atrocious to say the least.
100%
There’s no accounting for taste.
I like hearing about the cool stuff a “cost no object” property has that is unique to the personal interests of the person who built the home. A dedicated music making room. A car lift to work on cars. A wood shop. A photography studio. Anything.
I just see the standard rich person touchstones here. Yawn.
I have inside information, I know the previous owner. They sold their house and 5 acres to Malavalli in 2003 for $5M. Said people originally purchased the entire 22 acre parcel in Los Altos Hills, known as the Briggs farm, in 1972 for $125K. That owner, recognizing how absurd it would be to own 22 acres, put in the street (it means “The Royal Life”), subdivided the land into 5 parcels, and nice, normal people purchased land and built their homes there – they were affluent people but nobody went for massive mansions. People didn’t do that in the 70’s and 80’s…
Fast forward to 2003 when after 27 years the original buyer of the 22 acres decided to sell. Malavalli offered the full asking price in cash within a week of the property coming onto the market, he then went to the neighbor and said he wanted to buy their home and land. They replied it was not for sale. He made them an offer they couldn’t refuse, thusly he acquired both properties (8 acres in total) for about $8M. He tore both homes down and built this extravagant display of wealth for two people – I understood their one son was grown and living abroad.
It’s still not gonna sell for $68M, guaranteed. Anybody who has that kind of wealth would want to build their own palace, not take over someone else’s, especially one this specific in it’s design presentation – it’s more of a mini-Hyatt than it is a home, IMO…
So – what’s the property taxes on $68M?…
BTW, SocketSite, it’s not a 2010 era building – please do your research. Property was sold in 2003, design and construction took about 3 years…
Thanks for the personal insight and perspective. We’re not guessing with respect to “2010,” that’s based on public records (which isn’t to say the public records are always correct, and could represent that date that all construction on the estate was formally completed, but that’s the date we’ll stick with for now).
UPDATE: Tech Mogul’s Silicon Valley Estate Now Listed for $33 Million Less