Mansionmania Tournament: Round 1, Heat 12
 

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, 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:


Kansas:

https://www.realtor.com/realestatean...8_M98451-43225

Delaware:

https://www.realtor.com/realestatean...0_M58295-90451

lol at the Kansas ranch. 3500 acres of empty space to cover the fact that the house sucks

Would you starve to death in that Kansas place? Is there anywhere to even purchase gas or groceries within 100 miles of there?

Christ that's desolate. Just...no.

I'd rather live in Guam.

25 photos of scrub grass didn't put you over the top?

Both of these places pretty much suck, but one of them overlooks an ocean.

I suspect I'd be able to live there about 8-10 years before I decide to just walk out into it one day, but it's longer than I'd last on the dark side of the moon there in Kansas.

Before I continue badmouthing it - have we confirmed that it's not actually Buehler's place? Because I'd feel kinda bad if it were.

I mean - not TOO bad...because if he lives there, he's already dead inside.

Whew.

We have two very different contenders here. This is comparing not apples to apples, but rather kumquats to vienna sausages.

Kansas - it would be great to hang out at Buehler's house, so I'll mention that as a positive. The house is pretty nice, and I actually kind of like the plains setting. I've done my share of driving in plains states and I don't mind it at all. On the negative side, I have no interest in owning 3,500 acres of farmland here other than just leasing it to somebody. And is there a restaurant within two hours of this place? I like isolation, but I don't need this much isolation. I'll ask Buehler's thoughts on how much I could make with a lease, because that's a factor here. On the whole, the house is okay but the location is kind of a deal killer given how I'd want to spend my leisure time.

Delaware - The house is nice, but doesn't wow me in any way. And I've never really wanted one of those "walkway to a bunch of sand" beach houses without a tree in sight. I have little interest in being in the house itself. The big positive here is that the house is in a touristy area, so I could wander to one of the beach towns every day for lunch. I did a race in Rehoboth a while back, and it was nice. I didn't fall in love with it, but it was nice.

I dunno. This is a heat where I'm not enthused about either option. It might come down to money, and the Delaware property wins that. I don't know what income the Kansas property would generate, but if it's less than $160,000 a year, then Delaware wins with a noncommittal shrug.

I suspect Kansas can't beat Delaware's income enough to make it worthwhile. I'll go Delaware.

If he doesn't live there, I think he's next door.

I actually kind of like western Kansas. But for the rest of my life? It takes a better man than me to drive that far to a restaurant.

LOL No but it is 65 miles from my place.

This is easy money for me. I can change nothing about my life, add (rough back of the napkin math) $14M worth of irrigated farmland (which from what I'm guessing is more water than any of my current irrigated farms), sell about 2/3 of that equipment, and I probably wouldn't even need to borrow any short term money for inputs. Then air BNB that house and move on.

I'm the only one voting for it, but...lets just say there are extenuating circumstances.

No trees or hills allowed in this round, apparently.

Oh, so like five houses down.

Mansionmania Tournament: Round 1, Heat 12
 

Seeing that Kansas house really reminds you how once you go 50 miles off the main highways on the plains there is basically nothing but wild prairies and farmlands as far as the eye can see.

This is a super weak heat but Delaware wins it.

Under the rental agreement with my landlord that pays nothing except property tax, if the irrigated will yield what it says, nothing for the grass (I can get you something), and a real conservative number on the dryland, I'd be paying you in the neighborhood of 2.2 Million for 2021, plus I could probably get you $.1/bu bin rent, that would get you another 24 K. If you were interested in renting the shop, probably 20K ish provided there is water I could get out at Volume.

Let's just say 2.25M for this year.

Looks to me like if you liquidate the equipment, sight unseen, you're looking at another 1.5 -2M

I'd definitely be interested in renting that.

Speaking of irrigation, I'm assuming the reason every one of those sections in the satellite image has a massive circle in the middle of it is because of center-pivots?

I knew there were plenty of 'em out there but I didn't realize they were quite that pervasive.

I actually live in town, dicknose. ROFL It isn't THAT desolate out here. But it kind of is up there. Sharon Springs has about 900 people in it.

Who would actually buy that Kansas house? Lot of farmers have 25 million to spend or qualify for loans?