Luxury Homes of the Rich and Famous

The housing market stinks right now and in some parts of the U.S., new homes have been reduced by a whopping 50%. While lots of foreclosures are going on, there are still people spending multi-millions of dollars buying ultra-luxury homes:

• $103 million for 40 acres of East Hampton oceanfront property.
• $49 million for a 29-room townhouse in Manhattan.

But that’s peanuts compared to the 29-bedroom, 40-bath (!!) home that’s on the market for $165 million. It’s a home once owned by William Randolph Hearst.

Now maybe it’s just me, but if I had $165 mil, I wouldn’t use it to buy one home. I mean, who would I sell it to later? Wouldn’t it be better to use that money to buy 165 $1M homes and flipping some or all of them? Even at a 5% gain, that’s $50,000 per home x 165 homes = $8.25M profit, minus land transfer taxes and broker/ realtor commissions (unless you have the time and inclination to be your own realtor.)

Of course, you’d have to hire someone to manage the properties, find tenants (if you plan to rent), flip the properties. Nice to be rich, either way.