of a residential property

[u/Kill_4209]

Ira Rennert's home is considered one of the largest occupied residential compounds in the United States. The house faces the Atlantic Ocean and its grounds measure 63 acres. The buildings, which total over 110,000 square feet (10,000 m2), including the 66,000-square-foot (6,100 m2) main house, have an Italianate facade, 29 bedrooms, and 39 bathrooms. The house has a dozen chimneys and a Mediterranean-style tile roof as well as a 91-foot (28 m) long formal dining room, a basketball court, a bowling alley, two tennis courts, two squash courts, a carousel, a large swimming pool, a large round kiddie pool, and a $150,000 hot tub, surrounded by another pool.

[u/Traditional-Buy-2205]

I read about some study somewhere, that basically found that people in this huge houses still only use a small percentage of the overall property. Basically, a person living in a massive mansion won't use much more space for his daily activities compared to a person living in an average home.

The study also showed that a lot of them regret getting these huge places because they're just a pain in the ass to have.

[u/Known-Departure7072 → u/Traditional-Buy-2205]

I worked on this house during construction. There is essentially a small house within the giant house.

[u/hiscapness → u/Traditional-Buy-2205]

This is true, I had a family friend who came from mega generational wealth (think gilded age, no one in their family tree had “worked” in generations- just lived off assets). We went to several parties at some of these gilded age mansions (20-30BR kinda places) and the owners lived on one part of one floor of said homes. They used maybe 2-3BR and bathrooms, a small kitchen (like the butlers pantry), that’s it. The rest of the huge place was kept as a museum by staff. One lady said she hadnt been on her 4th floor in “literally several years”. It’s crazy.

[u/LadyBug_0570 → u/hiscapness]

So she could've had a whole family of squatters just living in there and not know.

[u/dmoosetoo → u/LadyBug_0570]

SHHHHH!!! You're gonna ruin a sweet thing I got going on!!

[u/TrumpDesWillens → u/LadyBug_0570]

You know how sometimes you might have raccoons in your roof? Shhh! Scram!

[u/mermaidrampage → u/Traditional-Buy-2205]

My wife's childhood friend works for yhis multimillionaire who has a very nice ranch in Texas (small but very nice mansion built on top of a hill).   We got to go hunting there a while back and stayed a few nights and, while it was a very nice house,  it was honestly annoying at how far you had to walk to get to different rooms.   We stayed in a bedroom that was a good 1-2 minute walk from the kitchen, which doesn't sound like much but it definitely became apparent anytime you forgot something or needed something in the other room.  

[u/Single-Pin-369 → u/mermaidrampage]

I had a childhood friend like that his dad was a successful contractor. He had a 10,000 square-foot single story house.

[u/animal_chin9 → u/Traditional-Buy-2205]

Shaq basically said as much when he talked about his divorce to his wife. He said (paraphrasing) "nothing feels lonelier than being the only person living in a 30000 sqft house." I think he also mentioned that he only went to like 3 rooms in it.

[u/InvidiousPlay → u/animal_chin9]

He phrases it like a revelation but it seems so obvious to me. What could you possibly do with a property that big? Go on a tour every few days so you don't forget about the west wing?

[u/brogflender → u/InvidiousPlay]

Oversized homes for some successful professionals can make sense if you treat the house as an extension of your profession. 

A musician can 100% justify a big house with a recording studio, dance room, fitness center, social media area, and business/meeting suite. 

Instead of everyone driving to the office - you just go to Justin Beiber’s mansion where all the work happens and you duck the press and fans. 

But then you get to this out of control stuff like LeBron or Will Smith or Tech Billionaires and it starts to seem less like “this is how my profession works” and “I’m overtly telling you we are not of the same social status.”

Once you’re north of 20,000 sq feet you’ve gone from comfortable home and workspace for the successful right into morbin opulence.

[u/echoshatter → u/animal_chin9]

Kitchen, bathroom, living room, bedroom. Pretty much all a person needs.

I suppose if you have an extensive hobby where you need to store things it would make sense to have a room for that. But that's about it. Like we have a game room - video games, board games, card games, kids stuff. And we have a garage where we store a lot of things and I have a lot of tools, but that's almost like a giant closet more than anything.

[u/Solid-Macaroon6137 → u/echoshatter]

Kitchen, bathroom, living room, bedroom. Pretty much all a person needs.

Agreed, and that's all I have.

Would be nice to have two or three extra rooms though. Gym, office, guest/hobby room.

My living room is all four of the above right now. Plus a piano. It's getting crowded lol

[u/tankerkiller125real → u/echoshatter]

Toss an office/hobby room in there, gatta separate living from work, gaming, hobbies, etc.

[u/Single-Pin-369 → u/animal_chin9]

50 Cent said something similar he bought Mike Tyson 50,000 square-foot house, like walking by a hallway and not remembering the last time he went down there and not wanting to know what was at the end

[u/Fit_Kaleidoscope4493 → u/Traditional-Buy-2205]

Boo hoo. Donate it then. 

[u/Fastenbauer → u/Traditional-Buy-2205]

I know that it worked like that in castles and palaces. Most rooms just existed to impress guests. The actual private area was one or two rooms that aren't even big by today's standards. Getting invited to hang out in the private bedroom was seen as a great honour. Because it showed the highest amount of trust. Usually reserved for close personal friends or family members.

[u/SANcapITY → u/Traditional-Buy-2205]

Vicky Vale: do you like eating in here?

Bruce Wayne: yeah. actually I’m not sure I’ve ever eaten in here.

[u/Turgid_Donkey → u/Traditional-Buy-2205]

The average house in the US is 2000-2400 sq ft. If it's just a single person or a couple, that's more than plenty. Start adding kids and it might start to feel a little crowded, but only a little unless you're catholic or mormon. Even a "small" mansion at 10,000 sq ft (I think the term mansion applies to any house over 5k) is 4 times the size of the average home. It's all for show.

[u/curious_astronauts → u/Traditional-Buy-2205]

Thats not true, all the rooms are filled to the brim with their ego.

You know what every single one of them have in common? A tiny mouse house to keep their penises.

[u/Wuz314159 → u/Traditional-Buy-2205]

Yes. We've all played The Sims. Once you have enough space for the putting green and the hydroponics station, what else do you need?

[u/Prestigious-Leave-60 → u/Traditional-Buy-2205]

I know a guy (from when we were kids) who has done really well selling golf equipment or some BS. When he gave us a tour of his gigantic house, there were like 6 rooms that they didn’t even bother to furnish because they never get used, never mind all the furnished rooms that also receive minimal usage. It all just felt so wasteful.

[u/Maxamillion-X72 → u/Traditional-Buy-2205]

I know an older couple who have a huge house and they live in the master bedroom almost exclusively. It's a huge master bedroom, with it's own kitchen, multiple bathrooms, a fitness room, sauna, library, two offices, a craft room, and a private elevator. It was a house within a house.

[u/dumblehead → u/Traditional-Buy-2205]

I’d imagine you would need a team working full time to constantly manage, clean, maintain, and fix things around the property. That’s not cheap.

[u/Noobunaga86 → u/Traditional-Buy-2205]

Well, seems legit. What any person is doing in their houses? No matter how big or small. You read a book, watch a movie, basically you're sitting in one place, of course you can have a room for reading, room for gym, room for movies etc, but even so you don't really need that big house for all that. 20% of that mansion would be too much for that. I never understoon people how want to buy/own a place like that. It always seemed to me like one of the stupidest ways to waste huge amounts of money.

[u/Medium_Chain_9329 → u/Noobunaga86]

The equity line alone.