Mansionmania Tournament: Round 3, Heat 1 (and a map of contenders)

[Rain Man]

I generally leave heats open for a couple of days, so if by some miracle there's a change in voting in Heats 15 or 16 of Round 2, this may change. But I doubt that'll happen since the votes aren't very close.

As we roll into Round 3, our 16 remaining competitors are diverse. We have:

2 in New England
2 in mid-Atlantic states
3 in the South
1 in whatever region Oklahoma counts as
3 in the mountains (lumping Nevada with CO and WY)
3 in California
2 islands (HI and the USVI)

Mansionmania continues with our Sweet 16 3rd-round contestants. 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:

Alabama:

https://www.realtor.com/realestatean...1_M78699-72545

California:

https://www.realtor.com/realestatean...3_M95237-01396

California:

[Zebedee DuBois]

I really really like the AL house - but the Cali house is so great.

Like others, I would let someone else work the farm.

[Zebedee DuBois]

....and how did Edmond OK survive 2 rounds?!?

[PHOG]

It was close, but I opted for Alabama and the cash. I might want to change my vote, the more I think about it.

[ThaVirus]

Originally Posted by lawrenceRaider

The traffic problems and just not being able to easily get around dim much of the good about LA and NYC. Most other really big metro areas as well for that matter.

For a regular 9-5er that would be a concern, but that wouldn't be an issue for any of us. With the stipend we're all bumped up to top 1% of earners in the country and with no rent/mortgage, electricity, gas, water, maintenance, or landscaping to pay, I'd imagine money would never be an issue unless we develop an extreme love of hookers and blow.

[JohnnyHammersticks]

I like the Alabama house much better - everything about it - but there's no way I could be cutoff from society for all but two weeks a year for the rest of my life. I'd go insane within 5 years.

There's conservatively - depending on years, makes, models, and degrees of restoration - $20 million worth of cars in the Cali garage, not to mention the value of the heavy machinery. So that takes care of the stipend differences.

Los Angeles access seals the deal for me, though I really like that Alabama house and pool.

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by Zebedee DuBois

....and how did Edmond OK survive 2 rounds?!?

I attribute it to the magical powers of the flame-spewing rock.

Other than that, it drew the Alaska mansion in the first round, which was not a very strong contender, and then barely beat a pretty decent Florida house in Round 2. I think the Florida house may have lost because we had a stretch of three Florida houses in four heats and it was (in my opinion) the weakest Florida house of the three. So there may have been some Florida fatigue that helped Oklahoma.

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by ThaVirus

For a regular 9-5er that would be a concern, but that wouldn't be an issue for any of us. With the stipend we're all bumped up to top 1% of earners in the country and with no rent/mortgage, electricity, gas, water, maintenance, or landscaping to pay, I'd imagine money would never be an issue unless we develop an extreme love of hookers and blow.

I don't see myself developing a love of blow.

[ThaVirus]

That leads me to wonder.. What are we going to be spending our money on?

Cell phone, internet, possibly cable, car (s), car insurance, health insurance, food and then basically you have the rest of your fortune to blow on entertainment/miscellaneous bullshit? Even if you've got a large family, the necessities aren't doing much to cut into your stipend. You will have A LOT of money to blow.

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by ThaVirus

That leads me to wonder.. What are we going to be spending our money on?

Cell phone, internet, possibly cable, car (s), car insurance, health insurance, food and then basically you have the rest of your fortune to blow on entertainment/miscellaneous bullshit? Even if you've got a large family, the necessities aren't doing much to cut into your stipend. You will have A LOT of money to blow.

I think the $250,000 isn't extravagent, especially if you take world-class vacations during your two weeks off.

For the bigger stipends, I mentioned in another thread that I would probably become a charity superstar, because why not? It doesn't take that much in the big scheme of things. Some people have talked about buying land to putter around on, and I might do a little of that if I'm on a small lot. But I'd never really need more than about 50 acres, so that's a finite demand.

I'd spend a lot on hobbies and entertainment. I'd buy art and make art. I would probably fund someone to make a low-budget youtube TV series where I'm on the writing staff. I'd bring in experts to train me on things like building model ships or programming games or restoring the classic car that I inevitably buy. I'd fly Ben Folds in to perform at my Christmas party. (I wonder how much that costs?) I'd have a personal trainer at my house every day and a massage therapist twice a week.

And any time I order pizza delivery? Double cheese.

[MagicHef]

Pretty incredible that a $15M house is competitive with a $100M house.

[eDave]

Agave Maria's in Ojai is probably the best Mexican restaurant I've ever frequented. Great margarita's for sure. Ran into Jack Nicholson there once.

Ojai is a great place, though a bit touristy with LA people.

[ThaVirus]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

I'd spend a lot on hobbies and entertainment. I'd buy art and make art. I would probably fund someone to make a low-budget youtube TV series where I'm on the writing staff. I'd bring in experts to train me on things like building model ships or programming games or restoring the classic car that I inevitably buy. I'd fly Ben Folds in to perform at my Christmas party. (I wonder how much that costs?) I'd have a personal trainer at my house every day and a massage therapist twice a week.

And any time I order pizza delivery? Double cheese.

What kind of art?

I make an average living now and I already order double cheese! Do they do triple? I think if I could convince them to put triple cheese on my pizzas with these stipends.

I hadn't thought of it but daily massages would definitely be a thing, as would a personal chef.

For any of the coastal properties, I would certainly start saving up for some sort of mini-yacht.. so, yeah, I guess I could probably run through the stipend pretty easily now that I think about it.

And even if I hold on to my frugal ways, I could easily do like you suggest and become a legendary tipper/philanthropist.

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by MagicHef

Pretty incredible that a $15M house is competitive with a $100M house.

In fairness, it's a $15 million house plus an additional $3/4 million a year. I mean, that's not nothin'...

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by ThaVirus

What kind of art?

I make an average living now and I already order double cheese! Do they do triple? I think if I could convince them to put triple cheese on my pizzas with these stipends.

I hadn't thought of it but daily massages would definitely be a thing, as would a personal chef.

For any of the coastal properties, I would certainly start saving up for some sort of mini-yacht.. so, yeah, I guess I could probably run through the stipend pretty easily now that I think about it.

And even if I hold on to my frugal ways, I could easily do like you suggest and become a legendary tipper/philanthropist.

My splurge would unquestionably be one of those hot sinks where someone washes my hair and gives me a scalp massage every morning.

That's just the best...

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by ThaVirus

What kind of art?

I make an average living now and I already order double cheese! Do they do triple? I think if I could convince them to put triple cheese on my pizzas with these stipends.

I hadn't thought of it but daily massages would definitely be a thing, as would a personal chef.

For any of the coastal properties, I would certainly start saving up for some sort of mini-yacht.. so, yeah, I guess I could probably run through the stipend pretty easily now that I think about it.

And even if I hold on to my frugal ways, I could easily do like you suggest and become a legendary tipper/philanthropist.

I'm not sure what kind of art, but I'd want to do something creative. I'd probably take drawing lessons, and - oh! - I'd buy an awesome top of the line 3D printer and learn to fabricate stuff.

Something like sculpting or glassblowing would be cool, too, though I suspect that I'd get frustrated with those quickly since I'm so far behind the curve on skills and likely talent.

As for the cheese, I'd worry that triple would be too ostentatious. The pizza shop might think I'm doing it for show instead of actually loving triple cheese. Even though they would be wrong.

And a personal chef would be a great idea.

Heck, the more we talk through it, the minimum $250,000 stipend might not be enough.