Having hit the market with a bit of fanfare and an $88 million price tag back in 2015, the 21,400-square-foot Los Altos Hills home at 27500 La Vida Real was quietly listed behind an undisclosed address for $68 million early last year and subsequently reduced to $55 million this past May.
Built for Kumar Malavalli, the co-founder of Brocade Communications Systems and current VC, features of the five-bedroom home include a 3,000-bottle wine “cellar” adjacent to the main dining room and 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.
And despite the original $88 million price tag having “reflect[ed] the cost of construction and the price of land,” at least according to the listing agent at the time, the list price for 27500 La Vida Real has just been further reduced to $49.99 million and roughly $38 million (43 percent) below its original ask.
Bloat and excess. Ugly too.
It makes better sense to divide up the land into smaller parcels and build an upscale home with nice finishes on each parcel.
Difficult to find a single buyer who wants to spend this much money on one home, as opposed to have multiple homes internationally for business and leisure.
Needs more parking. People have maids and assistants and a whole staff to “be in town” and the wife’s staff too. That ain’t a bachelor compound.
But, I’d live there if you gave it to me.
that kitchen gives me a headache
“reflect[ed] the cost of construction and the price of land”
Of course savvy people know the worth of something is only what people are willing to pay for it…regardless of what it actually cost.
The FT had an article this past weekend on the growing popularity – or so it claimed – of auctions as a way of price setting, as opposed to this ridiculous cycle of offering > withdrawal > relisting ( and the accompanying spurious claim of “xx vs. asking” )….though the examples presented made clear delusional (initial) prices are a global phenom.
I don’t think of those overly high initial prices as delusional but instead aspirational. The seller probably realizes the price is inflated but why not give it a try? There’s a small chance that the offering timing is right to capture a buyer who either think’s it is worth the bloated price and/or is not price sensitive.
Perhaps – tho I imagine the step between “delusional” and “aspirational” is even smaller than that b/w ridiculous and sublime – but there’s a cost to letting a property sit empty for years and years (not that that is the case here…yet) so at some point the behavior crosses from one to the other.
That has to be one of the biggest architectural clunkers I’ve seen in a long time.
It would make a very nice desert rehab facility in NM.
88 Million
For a Comfort Suites(TM) Motel
Aspirational
UPDATE: Tech Mogul’s Silicon Valley Lair Now Listed for 55 Percent Less