Hello from our new $6.4 mid-century dream house! It only needs a little bit of updating. SMS, in his role as “Old Man Menlo,” was reading our local gazette and saw a small article about Eichler’s original house being open to the public to drum up interest in having the next buyer restore it rather than raze it for a new mansion. While I think that’s nice, I also think it’s a bit rich (ha!) for sellers to try and dictate what the buyer can do. It’s like, I’m sorry, are you making more money on selling this house than seems humanly possible? And are you taking this money? Then you give up control of what happens, full stop. Of course, now the board of Atherton is aware so there may be some “historical evaluation” requirements looming. Fine, that settles it. We won’t put in an offer.
Ok, ok, alternative universes aside where we have any real ability to look at $6 million dollar homes, it was pretty cool to tour. I’m glad SMS found it. The place was mobbed!
The pool was a cool parallelogram- the above picture doesn’t really show that off.
The staging was beautiful. While there are a lot of built-ins, all the furniture was staged and perfectly mid-century.
Each bedroom (5) had its own bathroom. I love the 1950s en suite concept.
The kitchen is definitely in its original state. The stove was a real antique.
Finally, even though the house had not really been kept up, the grounds/gardens were absolutely beautiful. All in all, it was a fun way to spend some time on a Sunday afternoon. I’ve gone running through this neighborhood several times and never knew the history of this particular house. So, as with many open houses, we joined the looky-loos to be nosy and see what’s up. And, of course, comment on what we would do better, hahah.
I don’t know. I think if you own a historical property and you want it to continue to be a historical property, you should be allowed to make your preferences known to potential buyers. Of course you are right and you shouldn’t be allowed to dictate what the future of the property will be, but I don’t think it’s unreasonable. That being said, if you really want it to continue to be a historical property, you probably should create a trust to do so rather than assuming a buyer will do what you want them to do!
That is a fun Saturday activity! I love going through old buildings and seeing how things have changed and how they have not.
Oh, I definitely think the owner is allowed to have preferences and opinions. It can even affect which offer a person does/does not accept. I only have issue with trying to control things after one’s ownership is over. But I don’t know the actual situation since I don’t know people in the neighborhood. I’m just thinking of real estate drama abstractly.