Mansionmania Tournament: Round 1, Heat 17
 

Mansionmania continues. I'm going to show you the most expensive homes in every state and a few territories, with a few extras thrown in from the largest states to get the tourney up to 64. It'll be a single-elimination tournament.

You will choose among each pair of houses with the following assumptions:

• The purchase price for you is $0.
• All maintenance, utilities, property taxes, HOA fees, and cleaning is included.
• You must live in the home for the rest of your life.
• You can't travel more than 100 miles from home (via google maps drive time) other than 1 two-week vacation each year.
• You get $250,000 per year as a living allowance
• You get an additional living allowance at the cheaper home, which will be valued at 1% of any cost difference annually. I will note this amount in the poll.
• You get the furnishings. If unfurnished, you get an allowance that will give you mid-grade furniture in every room.
• You get any vehicles in the garage. But only the garage - nothing parked outside.

I encourage you to click on the maps in the listings to see the general location and neighborhood.

Also, I will only enter contestants if they have a sufficient number of photos to judge, as determined by me.

Your entries in this heat are:

California:

https://www.realtor.com/realestatean...7_M18383-06951

New Mexico:

https://www.realtor.com/realestatean...5_M12941-88422

Mew Mexico easy.

I Don't Even Need to Look at the Homes to Decide
 

Who in their right mind would want to live in California now.

I looked at the Bel Aire house first, and found myself liking it.
Then I saw the Santa Fe house, and it is really beautiful, much more warm - even if some rooms looked like it might be a corporate training facility. I really liked Santa Fe the one time I visited. Santa Fe and chili verde for me!

I'm not a big LA fan, but this is the easiest one yet - LA in a landslide. House is incredible, access to a major metro and the ocean, Santa Monica, numerous state parks. The NM house does nothing for me. While the $1M stipend in NM would be nice, no idea what you'd spend it on - not much happening within 100 miles.

Oh, man. That Beverly Hills home is a dream come true.

I live in a $1500/month apartment and my cabinets look like the ones in that Santa Fe home.

$1m annual stipend would be really cool but no. Just no.

I'm not super into either house in this round but I'll take the California house if I had to choose. Reminds me of the house in GTA5.

Cali born and raised. I would do the LA home and just let all my friends move into the place. I'd hardly ever see them. plus, it has all the stuff my current home has, just bigger. (swing in the bedroom personal plunge pool, sauna with glass walls, wine tasting room---JUST KIDDING I live in a 3 br crap ranch)

New Mexico home interior just feels like the late 90's to me. Plus it has a conference room in it. yuk.

I like these areas of the country, but the Cali crib is too P Diddy for my taste, and the NM place would be a fun for a little while, no interest in being there forever.

That Cali house is extraordinarily compelling.

Stipend seals the deal. NM

That California house is a dream. I would sit in that back yard for the rest of my life.

The NM house would probably win some rounds just for being in the southwest, but not up against that $100 million complex that sits on an acre and takes up almost the entire lot.

I could definitely see taking the +$750k/year though.

The California house…. Jesus.

What do you spend $1M/yr on in Santa Fe, when you're restricted to a 100 mile radius?

In the California house you don't need money because you already have everything.

Wonder what yearly payments are on a big ass boat and a slip in Marina Del Rey...

There are no limitations on what you can bring to you so I'd imagine you can have some fun with $1m a year of spending money

That California house is just nuts. The New Mexico house just doesn’t have enough wow factor, a lot of that I think is from the mostly single level layout.

California for me.

The New Mexico home doesn't even come close. It doesn't even feel like a mansion. I get the feel of some 3rd world country school house or some shit. Feels cramped. Low ceilings. Narrow hallways. Small rooms, besides the one with the weird water pit in the center. Galley kitchen. Just a weird way to spend $22M.

You know, that’s such a foreign concept that I don’t know but I’d love to find out.

I’d probably buy or build a gym and workout all the time. Buy fast cars, faster airplanes, whatever. A super car every year sounds good. A bunch of farm ground and make some Buehler445-esque schmuck farm it for me

In honesty My boring ass would probably just sock it away, pay good lawyers and accountants and give my kids 50 million or so when I die.

So if the NM house won and went up against a cheaper house next round, its enormous stipend would disappear, right?

The NM house is too dated for me.

The California house is spectacular.

Give me New Mexico.

California - That house. Wow. That house. If houses were cookies, that's a four-foot diameter chocolate chip house. I don't even need an indoor pool because it's in perfect weather. That house is unbelievable. And it's 34,000 square feet, which I think is more than 50 percent larger than any other house we've seen so far. You can do anything you want there. I would invite strangers into my home just to see their reactions.

New Mexico - This is interesting, because I really like Santa Fe and I really like the classic New Mexico architecture. This house takes stuff I like and multiplies it by ten. And on top of that and green chile I get over $1 million a year? Wow.

But the question in the thread is very thought-provoking. How would I spend $1 million per year? Does that make my life four times better than spending $250,000 per year?

How would I spend $1 million in Santa Fe? I'd have some pretty amazing art in my house, I'll tell you that. And I'd probably do fun stuff like sponsor plays and bring in Springsteen to play at my house parties. The interesting thing, though, is that when you have big money you typically satisfy your need for objects pretty quickly, and then you seek experiences. But if I can only travel outside my radius for two weeks per year, that limits my ability to seek experiences.

Both of these places are amazing, and normally New Mexico would be really hard to beat. But man oh man, that house in California is just irresistible. I have to go California.

They didn’t even come close to taking pictures of even half of the California house. Probably a red flag and the rest is terrible. Or I suppose that people buying a house like that aren’t comparing the 15th bathroom in it to the 12th walk in closet on a competitor when making their decisions.

That extra cash with the NM place would be nice, but why do I need 20 bedrooms? It's not like it's in Utah and I'm a Morm --- nevermind. I'll take the CA place.

New Mexico. Love the architecture, love the area. I could learn to make turquoise jewelry, ski in the winter, fish in the summer, smoke weed every dang day and not give a damn about not leaving the house.

NM looks like some type of corporate team building retreat.

Can import a lot of talent . . .

From where California? rather just have them walk over.

This is where I'm at too. Cali, even though Cali sucks right now. I do like the botanical garden feel of the NM house, but just not enough to do within 100mi for 50 weeks a year.

That's what I was thinking. 21 bedrooms and conference tables - has to be some sort of corporate retreat location.

California for me and I wouldn't think twice about it.

I can't believe I'm saying this, but...California. Fantastic house and location, tons to do within 100miles, and a great wine cellar.

NM