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Notch Buys Beverly Hills Mansion
- gmays 12y agoWhat cracked me up is if you watch the video advertising the home on the website (http://1181hillcrest.com/video.html http://1181hillcrest.com/video.html) the guy's contact email address is a Gmail address. If you're offering a home at $85,000,000 (the original list price) and you even create a website for the property, at least spring the extra $12/year for your own domain name.
- ema 12y agoExcept it's not just $12/year for the domain name but also all the hassle of having to administrate it or dealing with someone who administrates it for you. Gmail does have a big convenience bonus.
- asantos3 12y agoExcept Google does offer gmail for work that lets you add a custom domain name.
- marktangotango 12y ago>>Beverly Hills recorded the highest-priced sale in its history Thursday at $70 million for an 8-bedroom, 15-bath home in Trousdale Estates. I've often wondered what Notch intends to do with his Minecraft millions. Looks like he's "loading up the truck and movin to Beverly, Hills that is". Sounds like a nice house, kind of an odd bedroom to bath ratio though.
- 67726e 12y ago> kind of an odd bedroom to bath ratio though. The bedroom/bathroom metric is probably a sub-optimal frame of reference for size when you have a mansion with a dedicated candy room, and thus lots of large non-bedroom rooms. The room/bathroom metric is probably a little closer less skewed. Opulent none the less.
- waterlesscloud 12y agoFrom what I've seen about it online, it's designed from the ground up to be optimized for entertaining. In other words, a party house. In that case having plenty of bathrooms makes more sense!
- topbanana 12y agoI suppose it would depend on the type of party
- atgreen 12y ago> odd bedroom to bath ratio though This is a house for entertaining. The ratio makes sense.
- nly 12y ago> John Aaroe said, “I have been in this market for over 30 years and have never seen the level of growth that the luxury market has experienced in the past year, with no end in sight.” Hyperbole, or truth? and why?
- jahnu 12y agoThe top 0.1% are doing really really well http://equitablegrowth.org/research/exploding-wealth-inequality-united-states/ http://equitablegrowth.org/research/exploding-wealth-inequal...
- pgl 12y agoI think the top 0.1% are always doing really well, by definition, no?
- crispweed 12y agoNo. If all were equal the top 0.1% would be doing exactly as well as everyone else.
- icebraining 12y agoThen how why would they be the "top" 0.1%? If everyone is equal, there is no "top".
- b3tta 12y agoSssh! Don't disturb their precious dreams. The patriarchy will win if you do!
- ema 12y agos/equal/almost equal/. There still can be a top 0.1% even if they only make 101% of what the bottom 0.1% makes.
- lultimouomo 12y ago
- pgl 12y agoThis is almost like an article from The Onion: Rich Person Buys Big House In Expensive Neighbourhood.
- yuvadam 12y agoHere's what this tasteless piece of real estate looks like: http://vimeo.com/102897742 http://vimeo.com/102897742
- staffordrj 12y agoI thought that candy bar looked familiar https://twitter.com/notch/status/545729155359207426 https://twitter.com/notch/status/545729155359207426
- Kiro 12y agoNot trying to be snarky but the pic was posted in connection with the news being out.
- geophile 12y agoWasn't this the house owned by the douchebag director in Mulholland Drive?
- waterlesscloud 12y agoNo, but it does very vaguely remind me of the house in THE LIMEY. http://www.estately.com/listings/info/2210-astral-drive http://www.estately.com/listings/info/2210-astral-drive
- sdfjkl 12y agoConsidering it's brand new, no.
- crispweed 12y agoFaçade seems kind of blocky. ;)
- CmonDev 12y agoIt was an easy sell once they figured out that he is afraid of creepers: https://www.google.com/search?q=creeper+suit https://www.google.com/search?q=creeper+suit
- wtf_is_up 12y agoNo surprise that the mansion looks like it was made out of blocks. Also amusing to see a nerd outbid entertainment megacouple JayZ/Beyonce.
- georgespencer 12y agoGood for him. I also enjoy the fact that he's bought something which I can imagine would be relatively straightforward to recreate in the game which got him there. People saying it's a "tasteless piece of real estate" seem misguided. It's a lovely building, architecturally. I don't think the furnishings do it justice (it's all too plush and nouveau) but it's a really lovely design.
- Kiro 12y agoAlready done: http://www.geek.com/games/notchs-70-million-beverly-hills-mansion-now-exists-in-minecraft-form-1612164/ http://www.geek.com/games/notchs-70-million-beverly-hills-ma...
- georgespencer 12y agoHa! That's great.
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- Fuxy 12y agoTo be honest it's probably not something I would do. I mean it's certainly a lovely house but it is 70 million worthy? A slightly more modest but spacious house on the outskirts of the city is more my style. I mean imagine how many other cool things you could do with that money instead of having sit in some house. Well regardless it's his money and he can do whatever he wants with it although i wish he would invest it in something more interesting.
- blakecaldwell 12y agoWhen you're a billionaire, you can buy a $70M house and do all the things you're thinking of. There's no downside to buying this if you have that much money - more than you could reasonably spend in several lifetimes.
- georgespencer 12y ago
- mike-cardwell 12y agoI know this is primarily a forum for American capitalists, but am I the only person here who would feel utterly ashamed of myself for spending 70 million dollars on a house? I'd feel outright embarrassed to admit it to any of my friends. The good you could do with that sort of money... And then to just blow it on a house.
- krig 12y agoI think it is difficult to imagine what it would actually be like to have that kind of money, the Minecraft success is such a ridiculous outlier. He pretty much went from being an average swede with little savings to having more money than everyone. At this point, he can give away millions of dollars every month and still end up having more money than he started with. In theory I agree with you in your sentiment, but I have a hard time truly imagining my life with that kind of money.
- rertrree 12y agoI'd be careful if I were him. His income is gone as far as I know. Unless he does some smart investing with the current cash reserve he could be broke in ~10 years. Just an interesting observation; Minecraft was sold for 2.5B $, let's assume Notch got 1.5B $ out of it. Buying that house alone cost him 5% of his entire wealth.
- arfliw 12y ago>Unless he does some smart investing This is an investment. He didn't throw a $70 million party, he bought an asset he can sell in the future and which he presumably thinks will increase in value over time. And anybody who just became a billionaire is not going to stick that money into a savings account, they will get hooked up with a very good financial advisor who will help them to grow their wealth. Say he has $1 billion, a decent but not great return on that would be 8% a year. That's $80 million! He could buy one of these every year, spend $5 million and still have $5 million left over. And that's exactly how he should and presumably will manage his wealth. You don't spend your wealth, you grow it and spend some of the income it produces. Which is precisely what any rookie financial advisor would teach him on day 1.
- johnyzee 12y agoI freaking love everything about the story of Notch and Minecraft, including this. I want to live in a world where a geek can sit in his bedroom and create some cool shit, that enables him buy a $70 million mansion in Beverly Hills.
- rertrree 12y agoDon't correlate creating games with money. He was really lucky; there were other very similar games on the scene at that time, his just happened to stick. The observation should really be: creating anything interesting gives you potential to be wealthy.
- Torgo 12y agoYeah, how is the guy who made Infiniminer doing?
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- Udo 12y agoThere are certain aspects about Notch's rise to fame and fortune that make his story more inspiring to me than practically any other celebrity. He got wealthy doing what he loved, he never bullied anyone or got into any kind of real drama, he didn't need to build an oppressive empire, his product was something that enabled and inspired people in itself, and when it wasn't fun anymore he just quit and is (from the looks of it) currently enjoying life. It's immensely comforting to know that this is possible, unlikely and unconventional as it may be. I'd much like to see more Notches out there making it big, as compared to the flood of Steve Jobs-wannabe assholes who are on a perpetual mission of conquest and destruction.
- boracay 12y agoI would imagine the biggest opportunity of "unexpected wealth" is that you have the benefit of knowing better. As in that you don't have to value the same things as society at large and can go on and do things that really matter. Seems like he's wasting that opportunity.
- Udo 12y ago> As in that you don't have to value the same things as society at large He's not from a rich background, is not well-connected, is not a business person, is not stunningly young or good looking, is not being sponsored by a media conglomerate - he is just a nerdy nice guy. I'm having trouble seeing the conformity you ascribe to him. In fact, he started out by being different. > can go on and do things that really matter. Seems like he's wasting that opportunity. It's depressing but interesting that big-time CEOs who are unpleasant in every way imaginable are somehow beyond reproach as long as they make a big show of donating a bit to charity here and there, but when someone who's not "a captain of industry" or a line-manufactured superstar buys something extravagant, people's propriety alarm bells start going off. You also seem to imply that his wealth is somehow random and undeserved, and that he should retroactively work on deserving it - as if Minecraft didn't have an enormously positive impact on many people (including children) already.
- boracay 12y ago
- easytiger 12y ago> When the home was purchased, the Minecraft creator also purchased all of the furniture for $6 million. I know good furniture is expensive, but seems like a lot!
- johnyzee 12y agoI think, when you have the kind of money that Notch now does, your time becomes by far your most precious asset. Saving the hassle of interior decoration probably makes it well worth it for him. Tangentially, it is probably a lot of pressure to be that rich. Must be easy to feel that you are not making the most of it, when at any given moment you could be doing whatever ridiculously expensive thing you can imagine, rather than sitting in a dentist's chair or being stuck in traffic somewhere.
- jonlucc 12y agoRight, but surely if he wanted to, he could hire someone to do it his way for $5 million. He probably just likes the way the furniture fits the house or something like that.
- thrillgore 12y agoHe totally just should have gotten some wood and built some out of stairs and signs
- a3n 12y agoThose chairs in the first picture (city on left, chairs on right) look like pumpkins.
- unixpunx 12y agoGlad to see he made it out of Sweden in time and that this time his millions didn't go for a wife that divorced him just for the money.
- nullsocket 12y agoI'm assuming his accountant told him to make a large investment/purchase for tax reasons, homes are an easy write-off when your wealthy.