Koteles’ finance, strategy background sets her apart

This year’s recipient of the Atlanta Commercial Board of Realtors Rookie of the Year award, Liz Koteles, brings a background in finance and corporate strategy to bear in her role as an office landlord representative.

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Serta Simmons HQ move to Assembly honored

The Atlanta Commercial Board of Realtors’ prestigious Alvin B. Cates Award goes to “a transaction that is considered to be outstanding, noteworthy, and is based on creativity, ingenuity and skill, rather than on volume,” with the size or dollar volume of the transaction “not of special importance.” This year’s winner is a corporate office consolidation with a lot of moving parts that will help launch the first phase of a potentially game-changing mixed-use community in the northeast Atlanta community of Doraville.

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Historic Baldridge House in Texas Comes With Converted Bank Vault

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The Baldridge house in Fort Worth, TX, has been restored and modernized into a lovely Lone Star State jewel.

The energy industry bigwig and his wife, who oversaw the home’s overhaul, are downsizing and have recently put the historic home on the market for $7.95 million.

Built in the early 20th century for banker Earl Baldridge, the grand, three-story home is fashioned out of limestone and includes notable features such as huge columns, carved wood paneling throughout, and even a bank vault in the basement, a nod to its Wild West pedigree.

All of those distinct features remain after the estate’s remodel, including the original vault, which now houses a media room.

Exterior

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Plaque on home’s history

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Vault door

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Over the decades, the mansion fell into disrepair. It was in foreclosure in 2007 when Paun Peters, president of Western Production Co., an oil and gas company, and his wife snapped it up for about $3 million.

“My wife, dare I say, lusted for that house,” Peters said in an interview with Bloomberg. “She always dreamed of having herself in there and walking around on one of those balconies.”

It’s understandable, because those balconies are of the most romantic variety. When the couple bought the home, it desperately needed work. The renovation took years and $4.5 million, including $500,000 just for the landscaping.

Fountain

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“We had an almost unlimited budget on what we needed to get done,” Peters said. “We even got in Italian cypress trees from California.”

The result is an 11,725-square-foot masterpiece with six bedrooms, six baths, and two half-baths. The acre-and-a-half property is surrounded by a privacy fence and hedge.

The home remains true to its roots, while featuring a few modern amenities. They include a two-level garage for 11 cars, a dive pool, and an outdoor pizza oven.

Living room

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Garage

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Not surprisingly the Peters family used the property for extensive entertaining, including weddings and fundraisers.

Peters told Bloomberg he felt like he and his family were “good stewards of the house.” Now he’s ready to hand off the home to a lucky new owner looking to own a piece of Texas history.

The post Historic Baldridge House in Texas Comes With Converted Bank Vault appeared first on Real Estate News & Insights | realtor.com®.

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Fabled Beverly Hills Home Once Owned by Ellen Degeneres Is Listed for $34M

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Luxury home pedigrees don’t get much loftier than this. The Skouras residence in Trousdale Estates was originally built in 1956 by celebrity architect Hal Leavitt and has had a number of notable owners in the past couple of decades.

The fabled Beverly Hills, CA, home was restored and redecorated by noted designer Kelly Wearstler, then briefly passed through the hands of real estate aficionado Ellen DeGeneres. It’s currently in the possession of Roger Birnbaum, former MGM co-chairman.

Birnbaum has now put the 8,055-square-foot home on the market for $33,750,000.

The privacy of this gated home has appealed to celebrities for decades.

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The classic five-bedroom residence was built in the ’50s for Diane and Charles Skouras Jr., who was part owner and president of a major movie theater group.

Public records indicate it stayed in the Skouras family until 2002, when it was sold to Wearstler and her husband, property developer and hotelier Brad Korzen, for a mere $4,025,000.

Kelly Wearstler–designed living room

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The couple proceeded to redo the house from top to bottom in their signature style, and sold it in 2006 to Hollywood producer Robert Cort.

Music room with natural lighting

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Cort and his wife, media executive Rosalie Swedlin, then sold the storied home to DeGeneres and her wife, Portia de Rossi, in 2012 for $17,400,000.

The home was featured in the coffee table book “Home,” written by DeGeneres. In the book, she elaborates on her ideas about design and style, and shares intimate photos of a number of the fabled homes she’s owned, including the Skouras residence.

Entryway to the house featured in Ellen DeGeneres’ book “Home”

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Two years later, according to public records, DeGeneres and de Rossi sold the home to Birnbaum, who owns Spyglass Entertainment and has produced dozens of films.

Under Birnbaum’s ownership, the house has bounced on and off the rental market for around $50,000 per month. It was recently taken off the rental market and put on the block for the aforementioned price of nearly $34 million.

Dining room

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The home is attractive to Hollywood types thanks to its privacy—it’s located behind gates on a large lot in the Trousdale Estates neighborhood. The property measures nearly an acre in size and offers grand views of the hills, the city, and the ocean beyond. It features a sunny pool and lounge area with a bar and barbecue, and a number of private swimming and sunning areas.

Pool

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The remarkable interiors are oh-so-appealing to deep-pocketed buyers. The home features an open floor plan and is flooded with light. Inside you’ll find a music room, library, game room, and gym among many other flashy features.

Modern library

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It also boasts a stainless-steel kitchen and a master suite with a private courtyard and fountain, as well as his-and-her baths.

Stainless-steel kitchen

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The home’s price has increased exponentially since DeGeneres sold the Skouras residence four years ago, but celebrity interest in Trousdale Estates remains high.

The stars have come and gone from the gleaming Skourdas residence, but the home remains the same—with some key updates from its notable celebrity designers and owners.

That’s a prime view of the swanky SoHo House in the distance.

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Smelly Wallpaper? Soda Baths? Earth’s Most Awesome Home Trends, Guaranteed!

realtor.com; caesarstoneus.com

Home trends change so fast: Once upon a hot second, wood paneling and popcorn ceilings were all the rage; next thing you know, it’s all about she sheds and shiplap!

So what’s next? If your home must be hip to the latest and greatest trends, what must you run out and get right now?

Look no further than this list of some of the hottest home products slated to hit it big this April. They’ll make your home smell better (no candles required), add pizzazz to your bath (sans jets), and even amp up your productivity while you sleep (in case you’re struggling to keep your eyes open through “A Brief History of Time”—RIP, Stephen Hawking!).

Read on to see how helpful your home can be. For real.

Scented wallpaper Why just look at flowers when you can smell them, too?

Wayfair.com

Haven’t you heard? Wallpaper is back—in modern metallic and even digital prints. But even these cutting-edge trends feel a little been there, done that if you’re willing to take your walls to the next level: scented wallpaper.

That’s right, Wayfair has just released its Scentsible Wallpaper line, “the world’s first  aromatic wallcovering.”

Because why just look at lilacs on your walls when you can smell them, too? Wouldn’t it be nice if your kitchen carried a whiff of Cinnabon rolls all the time, no messy baking required? And your bathroom, well, it needs all the help it can get in the scent department. Rather than lighting scented candles or spritzing Poo-Pourri, just let your walls do the work.

SodaStream for your bathtub

Countless homeowners have a SodaStream in their home so they can turn regular old water into seltzer in seconds. Well, why stop there? With the company’s newest product, SodaSoak, you can take a bath in the bubbly stuff.

Talk about invigorating! Think of it as the newest iteration of those Jacuzzi jets, without the jets—just pure carbonation, baby.

Memory foam pillows that help your memory

Memory foam mattresses are comfy, sure, but according to a new memory foam product called the Chegg Osmosis pillow, “Memory foam shouldn’t just remember you—it should remember everything FOR you.”

Chegg, a company behind online study and tutoring tools, has invented a memory foam pillow that does just that: Stash whatever tome you’re trying to read under your pillow, and overnight, a process called “learning via osmosis” helps those complicated ideas and algorithms sink in.

And students say it really works. Heather P. at Silver Springs College says, “Thanks to the Chegg Osmosis Pillow, I finally slept more than three hours for the first time since freshman year. And I had a dream about a poodle playing the piano, so that was cool.”

All of this sounds pretty sweet … but before you run out and buy these things, you may wanna test your memory by asking yourself: Which holiday kicks off April?

The post Smelly Wallpaper? Soda Baths? Earth’s Most Awesome Home Trends, Guaranteed! appeared first on Real Estate News & Insights | realtor.com®.

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Cash-Out Mortgage Refis Are Back. Will Homes Become ATMs Again?

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As interest rates rise, fewer households refinance their mortgages. And the refinances that do get done are often very different than those initiated during low-rate periods.

“When rates are low, the primary goal of refinancing is to reduce the monthly payment,” wrote researchers for the Urban Institute in a recent report. “But when rates are high, borrowers have no incentive to refinance for rate reasons. Those who still refinance tend to be driven more by their desire to cash out.”

“Cashing out” is shorthand for taking out a new mortgage that’s bigger than the remaining balance on the old one and using the money that makes up the difference for discretionary purchases.

As of the fourth quarter of last year, the share of all refinances that were cash-outs rose to the highest since 2008, according to Freddie Mac data. Rates have churned higher since the presidential election in late 2016, though they spent much of 2017 reversing the immediate post-election surge.

It’s not clear whether the overall volume of cash-out refinances is rising. Right now they’re making up a bigger share of the pie because traditional lower-monthly-payment refis are plunging.

Tapping into home equity is often a good way for owners to consolidate or manage other, more expensive, forms of debt like high-interest credit cards or bills for higher education.

“As people stay in their homes longer we see people reinvesting in their homes by using equity to update their homes and do repair work,” said Rick Sharga, executive vice president for Carrington Mortgage Holdings and an industry veteran.

That’s especially true for older Americans, he added. “We’ve seen a huge expansion of the types of retirement options people have. One is aging in place and retrofitting your house.”

The challenge will be making sure that the new wave of equity cash-outs isn’t like the one that helped torpedo the financial system a decade ago. (The Urban Institute and others have shown that refinancing activity, not home buying, was responsible for inflating the housing bubble.)

In the last go-around, many homeowners “blew the money,” in Sharga’s words, on splashy purchases like vacations and boats. But lenders were complicit too, offering loans that were as much as 120% of the existing value of the home.

In the wake of the crisis, lenders and consumers alike are much more aware that home prices can also go down, Sharga noted.

He also expects to see more cash-out refis as homeowners shift away from home-equity loans and lines of credit, which no longer carry the same tax deductibility they once did.

The post Cash-Out Mortgage Refis Are Back. Will Homes Become ATMs Again? appeared first on Real Estate News & Insights | realtor.com®.

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Top of the Market: Germantown and Collierville sweep top five spots

This week's home sales roundup is dominated by Germantown and Collierville, as the two municipalities continue to be some of the most desired by rich Memphians. A new Germantown home took the top spot, selling for $1.2 million. Located on Radford Ridge in ZIP 38138, the home holds five bedrooms and five-and-a-half bathrooms in 5,600 square feet. The photo of the home, above, was provided by Realtor.com. A 2002 home on Groveway Drive in Germantown's ZIP 38139 took the No. 2 spot, selling for $780,000.…

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Comedian Mike Myers Finally Sells Soho Penthouse for $14M

Steve Zak Photography/WireImage/Getty Images; Compass

Groovy, baby. Comedian Mike Myers has finally sold his SoHo penthouse for just under $14 million, as reported by 6sqft.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the “Austin Powers” star bought the 4,200 square-foot Manhattan abode with a private roof deck back in 2007 for $7.9 million, just after it was built. The comedian initially listed the duplex in 2015 for a hefty $16.95 million, the first time this apartment was offered.

The funnyman may have justified the massive price hike after undertaking a renovation of its current sleek and modern interior, including floor-to-ceiling custom bookshelves, a custom sound system, and a landscaped outdoor space that includes a dining area with pergola, trees, and roses.

After the property bounced on and off the market, with a price drop to $15.95 million, the winning number appears to be the current asking price of $13.95 million. The listing is currently in “pending sale” status on realtor.com®. Even with the price drop and renovation bill, Myers still brings the mojo when it comes to real estate.

The buyer must have gone wild for the well-appointed boutique building from 2006, the high-floor views that rise above roof levels on the seventh floor, and loft-style living with 14-foot-high ceilings.

Living room with custom built-ins and floor-to-ceiling windows

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Open kitchen

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Terrace with covered dining area

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Master bedroom

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Landscaped garden

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The elevator opens directly into the apartment, with a living room that wows with floor-to-ceiling windows, a fireplace, and an adjoining kitchen with maple and aluminum cabinetry and stone counters. A powder room and an additional bedroom suite that could also be used as an office, plus a balcony, all grace this floor.

Stairs with an overhead skylight lead to a rooftop terrace with multiple seating areas, landscaping, and outdoor dining, along with panoramic views of the city. The lower level houses the master suite, complete with closets and bathroom. Two more bedrooms and a laundry room complete the home. White oak floors run throughout the unit.

SoHo is certainly a draw, known for its cobblestone streets and cast-iron facades. It offers not only the old and historic but the chic and new, with high-end shopping and dining, and markets like Dean & Deluca, along with art galleries. Now, of course, there are also the wealthy celebrities. The lively neighborhood is close to Tribeca and the West Village.

The actor also reportedly engaged in a less-than-successful real estate flip in Tribeca, unloading a never-lived-in condo for $14 million in March 2017 that he had purchased the previous December for $14.675 million, the Real Deal reported.

With real estate transactions out of the way, the Canadian star may now decide to focus on his day job in the movies. He is set to appear in the thriller “Terminal,” and stars in the biopic “Bohemian Rhapsody.” It’s also rumored that there will be an “Austin Powers 4.” Shagadelic!

The post Comedian Mike Myers Finally Sells Soho Penthouse for $14M appeared first on Real Estate News & Insights | realtor.com®.

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Most Admired CEO Awards: Anne Marie DeCatsye, Charlotte Regional Realtor Association/Carolina Multiple Listing Services Inc.

CBJ's newest awards program recognizes established local leaders who have a strong vision for their companies, have shown commitment to culture in the workplace and made significant contributions to the community.

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The Only Dome Home in New Orleans Can Be Yours for Just $399K

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A new listing in New Orleans is truly one of a kind. The only dome-shaped home in the Big Easy is on the market for $399,000.

Based on designs by R. Buckminster Fuller, the spherical shape is a rarity for this part of the country, according to listing agent Patty Willhite. This dome home was built in 1975 and has had just three owners.

The sellers, who have children and are looking for more space, purchased the place in 2006 for $238,119. They listed the home last summer for $425,000, but there were no takers.

Although dome homes aren’t proliferating in this era dominated by McMansions and tiny homes, they deserve a second look. The geodesic design Fuller created in the ’50s was proposed as a money-saving solution to an impending housing crisis. The homes are built strong and make efficient use of space and energy.

Although this one hasn’t been specially fortified to handle a natural disaster, these odd-shaped abodes reportedly withstand hurricane gales and even earthquakes better than conventional builds, thanks to their geometric design.

Open layout

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Kitchen

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Staircase

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View from the second floor

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Patio

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One big selling point of this home is the surprisingly spacious interior. It’s quite unexpected given that the door to this dome home looks gnome-sized.

“You walk in, and it’s just this big, open space,” Willhite says.

Another plus? It’s a perfect party pad!

“It’s got a lot of entertaining space, especially opening up to the side patio,” adds Willhite.

The 1,608-square-foot home has two bedrooms and two baths. The open layout features two large skylights, and living, dining, and kitchen space with access to a side patio. There’s also a grassy backyard.

A bedroom suite is on the main level, while the second level holds the second bed and bath, along with space for an office or sitting area.

The white interior has been freshly painted. The kitchen has been updated with stainless-steel appliances and granite counters, and the baths are relatively new, although the next owners may want to spruce them up a bit.

The charming abode is tucked away in the quiet Black Pearl neighborhood, between the Mississippi River and St. Charles Avenue, blocks from the street car line.

“It’s the kind of house that’s going to take the right buyer who wants something fun and different, and doesn’t want a cookie-cutter house,” Willhite says. Plus, bragging rights for being (probably) the only person in NOLA with a dome home.

The post The Only Dome Home in New Orleans Can Be Yours for Just $399K appeared first on Real Estate News & Insights | realtor.com®.

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Weidman property auction listing in Wichita makes national news

A unique Wichita property was one of the most popular listings on the website Realtor.com last week.

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Oceanfront Malibu Estate for $49.5M Is This Week’s Most Expensive Listing

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A brand-new estate in Malibu, CA, is willing to make your acquaintance for $49.5 million. This week’s most expensive listing on realtor.com®, it’s also the site of a home formerly owned by “Friends” co-creator Marta Kauffman, according to the Real Deal. The TV producer sold the property in 2007 for $10,725,000, and the 4,400-square-foot home on the premises was razed.

In its place is a new Cape Cod–style compound designed by Malibu-based architect Doug Burdge. The property was initially listed a year ago for a hefty $57.5 million. It’s now back on the market with a reduced price.

But it’s fair to be bullish on this property in the exclusive coastal town, which has attracted the rich and famous, including celebs such as Edward Norton, Julia Roberts, and Robert Downey Jr.

This waterfront home offers plenty of room to entertain an entire cast of friends and family.

Malibu estate is this week’s priciest listing.

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Great room with french doors looking out to the ocean

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Kitchen with island and banquette

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Owner’s suite with wraparound deck

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Grassy yard overlooking the ocean

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Sitting behind gates on 1.72 acres of prime oceanfront land, the home has six bedrooms and 7.5 baths. A one-bedroom guesthouse and deeded beach rights to the cove below are included.

The two-story main home features high-end finishes, including oak flooring, multiple french doors, a bright-white interior, and jaw-dropping views of the ocean.

The open plan includes a great room with fireplace and built-ins; chef’s kitchen with stone counters, marble island, and banquette; formal dining room; elevator; and office. The second level features the owner’s suite with a wraparound oceanfront deck, dual closets, and luxe baths.

Outdoor amenities include a covered pavilion with fireplace, kitchen with pizza oven and grill, two stone bars, pool with spa, sunken lounge area, pool bath, and fire pit. Chris Cortazzo holds the listing.

The post Oceanfront Malibu Estate for $49.5M Is This Week’s Most Expensive Listing appeared first on Real Estate News & Insights | realtor.com®.

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6 numbers to know in Columbus housing

The Columbus housing market has been roaring this year, and plenty of data are pouring in to illustrate the market's accelerated pace — and sometimes strain. Here are a few numbers to keep in mind as 2018 moves into its second quarter. 1. Prices are bubbling up Average home sale prices in Central Ohio have jumped 10.4 percent in just a year. Homes sold in February for an average of $210,791, and the median sales price jumped up 9.3 percent to $177,000. The Columbus Realtors attribute…

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A home sold almost every day: How Realtor Sijo Vadakkan taps Indian roots, tech connections to be a linchpin in N. Austin

This insightful real estate agent, who sells an unusually large amount of homes in North Austin and its suburbs, sat down with ABJ recently to discuss his influential role among the area's booming tech population. His stable of businesses includes a full-service real estate brokerage, a property management firm, a travel company, and even a satellite television channel.

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Rent Break: New Startups Help Remove Financial Hurdles to Finding Dream Apartments

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Mike Catanzariti and his fiancée were relieved when they found an apartment they liked near his new job at an investment management company in Manhattan. There was just one catch: The midtown building required two months’ rent as a security deposit, or over $6,300.

“That’s just too much money to just put up into a [landlord’s] savings account,” says Catanzariti, 26, who is trying to bank some savings to help pay for his upcoming wedding. “I basically called up my broker, and I was telling him, ‘let’s find someplace new.'”

Instead, his real estate broker and the building’s management company came up with an alternative solution: security deposit insurance.

In lieu of handing over all that cash, Catanzariti will pay $26 a month over the life of his lease to Rhino, a startup insurance company. The company guarantees that if the couple violate their lease or trash the apartment, it will reimburse the landlord for any damages. As an incentive for the landlords to accept the insurance, the insured amount is double that of the security deposit. In turn, the tenants are expected to reimburse the insurance company for any damage they may incur, or a broken lease.

Rhino is just one of a wave of new startups trying to address some very old problems: the staggering costs and financial hoops that renters in the most expensive cities face trying to get into apartments.

For would-be tenants who don’t have thousands of dollars for a security deposit or who have lousy or no credit, these tech-savvy companies will step in to help—for a fee.

But critics warn these services could promote poor financial planning as renters might take apartments they really can’t afford. Are they worth the risks?

The security deposit hurdle

A traditional security deposit is usually equivalent to one month’s rent, although in some markets (and buildings) it can be higher. And making it all even more onerous, it’s usually due at the lease signing—along with the first month’s rent and potentially a real estate broker’s fee, which is usually about another month’s rent. Phew.

Jetty is another company that has stepped into the fray to help renters deal with the challenge. Rather than a monthly fee, the company charges renters a one-time, upfront fee of 17.5% of the value of their security deposit. So for a $1,000 security deposit, the fee is $175.

Security deposits are “a massive amount of money that many people don’t necessarily have on hand,” says Patrick Briggs, vice president of growth at Jetty. “This is really a good way for people to access the apartments they don’t have the upfront cash for.”

Such services aren’t just for those on a limited budget—they’re also being made available as a perk by landlords of newer, luxury buildings who are competing for a limited number of wealthy tenants. They’re currently offered by some large New York City real estate companies, including Stonehenge Partners and Tishman Speyer.

“At first I wasn’t sure if [the security deposit insurance program] was real. It was too good to be true,” says Catanzariti, who eventually signed up for the service. He plans to move from his nearly $1,400-a-month, one-bedroom apartment in Philadelphia to a studio for $3,000-plus a month in New York on April 1.

“I only have to pay a little over $300 a year to keep control over $6,000 a year,” he marvels.

Currently Jetty operates in 45 states and Rhino serves only the New York City metro area, including parts of New Jersey. While both plan to expand, they were not the ones to come up with the idea of security deposit insurance. In 2000, SureDeposit launched its program, working with landlords of larger buildings across the country, many in the Midwest.

“It effectively allows a renter to move in at a lower price point,” says Kyle Gelsthorpe, vice president of the company, which was acquired by insurance company Assurance in 2011.

If the landlord says you can’t afford the apartment, get a guarantor

Another major hurdle for many renters is the income requirement. In cities such as New York, most landlords require tenants to have an annual income that’s 40 times their monthly rent. (In other parts of the country, the multiplier is a bit lower, usually in the mid-30s.) Do the math—that can be a heavy lift. The alternative is to find a guarantor who will ensure that the rent is paid every month.

Even renters who can afford high security deposits may have trouble moving into their rentals of choice. New York City restaurateur Giles Russell, 30, ran into problems when he and his wife wanted to upgrade from a one-bedroom apartment in Manhattan to a two-bedroom apartment across the river in Brooklyn to accommodate their growing toddler.

The couple, who both hail from Australia, could afford the more than $5,000 monthly rent on their apartment in the Williamsburg neighborhood. But because Russell is self-employed—he co-owns two Australian restaurants and his wife stays home to take care of their 18-month-old—they didn’t meet the income requirement.

So their landlord suggested The Guarantors.

The Guarantors, which launched in 2016 and serves the East Coast, guarantees a rental for a one-time fee. Within 24 hours of filling out an online application, Russell was approved. And in September, he and his family moved into their new apartment building, which features views of the East River.

“It was 100% worth it,” says Russell, who paid the company close to one month’s rent for the service. “Otherwise, I wouldn’t have been able to rent this apartment.”

The Guarantors’ founder, Julien Bonneville, moved to New York City from France to attend business school. Because he didn’t have a U.S. credit history, he needed a guarantor to get an apartment. And the idea for the company was born.

The company caters to foreigners, students and recent graduates, the self-employed who don’t have much of a credit history, and those with spotty credit issues. Clients are charged about 5% to 10% of their annual rent through the term of their lease for the service; rates vary depending on how risky the client seems. The company also offers rental insurance.

“Landlords just look at surface-level finances like credit score and income. We dig a bit deeper to understand the real financial picture,” says Michael Mirandi, chief of staff at The Guarantors. The company looks at bank statements and assets, as well, and then uses a proprietary algorithm to assess risk.

Jetty offers similar services, as does Insurent, a New York–based company that has been around since 2008.

“The different people we assist are [often] college and professional school grads entering the workforce who don’t meet the 40” times the monthly rent requirement, says Jeffrey Geller, chief operating officer at Insurent. “Think of us as the institutional Mommy and Daddy.”

Is it really worth it to get around rental restrictions?

Despite the potential that these programs offer, would-be tenants should proceed with care.

“I’d caution people [against] using these services,” says Roger Ma, a certified financial planner and real estate agent based in New York City who runs the financial planning company lifelaidout. “Doing so may allow you to overextend yourself [financially].”

If tenants don’t fork over a deposit and their dog ruins their apartment or there are other unexpected damages, they could be on the hook for quite a bit of money they don’t have.

Similarly, the requirement of earning 40 times the monthly rent isn’t just a mean rule to keep folks from renting. It’s a measure to ensure they aren’t spending too much of their income on rent, at the expense of daily living costs and savings for emergencies and retirement.

“Find a less expensive alternative, whether that’s moving to a different area that gives you more bang for your buck or having a roommate or multiple roommates or finding a cheaper apartment,” Ma says.

The post Rent Break: New Startups Help Remove Financial Hurdles to Finding Dream Apartments appeared first on Real Estate News & Insights | realtor.com®.

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Bill and Giuliana Rancic Selling Impeccably Renovated Chicago Victorian for $6.8M

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Bill Rancic rose to fame by winning the first season of “The Apprentice” and earned a chance to manage the construction of Chicago’s Trump Tower.

Now the handsome builder and his wife—queen of the red carpet Giuliana—are selling their Victorian row house in Chicago for $6.8 million. Recently renovated down to the studs, it’s a stylish, luxurious mansion filled with modern comforts while not sacrificing an iota of vintage charm.

Less than four years ago, the celebrity couple purchased the Gold Coast home for $2.1 million. Since then, Rancic has overseen every detail of bringing the 1886-built mansion into the 21st century, including the addition of a third-floor master suite.

“He’s the CEO of the rebuild,” says listing agent Laura Rubin Dresner. “It’s all his vision. He makes the decisions down to the tiniest details.”

Exterior

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A big challenge with older row homes is the lack of natural light, Dresner says. To address the issue, Rancic added skylights and a glass second floor, allowing light to stream in.

Now sitting atop the renovated home is a dreamy dressing room fit for a princess.

Penthouse dressing room

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Master bedroom

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Master bath

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Family room

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Kitchen

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The reconfigured 8,000-square-foot home now has five bedrooms, five bathrooms, and two half-baths. New features include radiant floor heating, a media room with cashmere-lined walls, two full-height wine coolers, and a custom bar.

Media room

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The large back deck just off the family room is an ideal space for entertaining on warm Chicago days. There’s also a roof deck with lake and city views.

Patio

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“It’s just beautifully designed and executed,” Dresner adds.

This house also has a special add-on that will make every Chicagoan jealous: a heated, two-car garage and 24-hour valet parking just across the street.

Garage

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The Rancic home is hitting the market amid tabloid speculation that their marriage is on the rocks, after Giuliana was spotted on the Oscars red carpet without her wedding ring. Her camp dismissed the rumors, saying the ring didn’t fit with her outfit.

According to Dresner, the gorgeous home no longer fit the couple’s needs. Giuliana and Bill have a son, Edward Duke. They are partners in two restaurants in the area, RPM Italian and RPM Steak.

Regardless of the reason the Rancics are parting with this pristine piece of the Windy City, some lucky buyer will enjoy the home—and that heated garage—for many years to come.

The post Bill and Giuliana Rancic Selling Impeccably Renovated Chicago Victorian for $6.8M appeared first on Real Estate News & Insights | realtor.com®.

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