It’s been more than 6 years since I first wrote about Michael Jordan’s house being on the market. I wrote that post (check it out because it has a slideshow with the original 29 photos) on the day the listing went live and on that day it came out of the gate at $29 MM. 2270 days and 3 price changes later the house at 2700 Point Ln in Highland Park now tops the list of celebrity homes that nobody wants to buy and it’s now listed at $14,855,000. Add those numbers up for a little surprise. Yeah, it’s a bit gimmicky.
But only 3 price changes in more than 6 years? That could be part of the problem. Actually, there are probably many problems.
For one, in the last 11 years the most expensive home sold in Highland Park was an 11,000 square foot lakefront home built in 2006 on a 2.7 acre lot at 1141 Sheridan Rd that sold in 2011 for $5.1 MM. Before that several homes sold above $5 MM, the most expensive of which was the home sitting on a 17 acre lakefront lot at 405 Sheridan Rd which sold for $17.6 MM in 2006 (a very different time). According to tax records the home was almost 22,000 square feet – assuming they haven’t added onto it since then. As an interesting side note, it was the DOJ that sold that home because the insurance executive owner was indicted for fraud.
Needless to say there just aren’t that many homes selling in Highland Park in this price range so it’s hard to figure out what the Michael Jordan house is worth. By comparison it’s 32,683 square feet on 7.4 acres but it’s not lakefront property.
Of course, the fact that not many homes are sold in this price range also means there just aren’t that many buyers out there that might want something like this. Which brings me to the next problem…
The house is highly personalized. Check out those photos in my first post on the house. How many people are going to value a full size basketball court, a full size gym, and a 15 car garage?
So they’ve tried every play in the book. They tried auctioning it in 2013 but didn’t reach the minimum bid. And they even brought in a fancy-schmancy Los Angeles realtor to the celebrities to assist the local realtor (not sure how that was supposed to work) but, despite much bravado, they didn’t produce any results either. As part of that effort they produced this gimmicky video.
I can’t believe that video didn’t do the trick for someone willing to pay close to $15 MM for a house. But it did get close to 1.9 MM YouTube views. Actually, that’s one of many videos of the house produced over the years – some even in Mandarin to reach Chinese buyers.
Fortunately, Michael has remained loyal to a single realtor. I say “fortunately” because at this point she has a lot invested in the process and as long as she’s putting on a full court press you can’t blame her for it not selling. She’s faced with a unique problem and it’s most likely a market problem rather than a problem of her dropping the ball.
The fact of the matter is that you can talk all you want about “marketing” a property and “finding the right buyer” but none of that matters because clearly everyone in the world knows that this home is for sale. The story of Michael Jordan’s house proves a couple of truths about real estate that all sellers should take note of: 1) Quite often nobody really knows what a home should be priced at and 2) Sometimes the only gimmick left is to lower the price.
It’s been 3 years + 1 day since the last price drop. Hmmm. What does that tell you? In another 30 days the home will have been on the market for 2300 days. With the significance of that number I think it would be a good time to lower the price.
#MichaelJordan #MichaelJordanHouse #CelebrityHomes
Gary Lucido is the President of Lucid Realty, the Chicago area’s full service discount real estate brokerage. If you want to keep up to date on the Chicago real estate market, get an insider’s view of the seamy underbelly of the real estate industry, or you just think he’s the next Kurt Vonnegut you can Subscribe to Getting Real by Email using the form below. Please be sure to verify your email address when you receive the verification notice.