Celebrities Don’t Always Win in Real Estate

Most everyone expects celebrity property to be luxurious, well-decorated and expensive. And we usually expect it to go for top dollar. But even celebrities can’t avoid the real estate blues sometimes. As Los Angeles housing sales slow, so do mid-range celebrity homes from the $3 million to $6 million range. Those poor, rich folks and their slow-moving houses. It almost makes you want to cry for them, doesn’t it?

Several celebrities have lowered their asking prices – some more than once. Ed McMahon, from Johnny Carson and Star Search fame, started his home on the market for $7.7 million in July 2006. Since then he has reduced the price three times, down to $5.7 million. Which makes us wonder if inflated egos have anything to do with inflated prices?

Avril Lavigne slashed her Beverly Hills home’s price from $6.9 to $5.8 million. The house is no sloucher. It’s five-bedrooms, six-baths and includes a tennis court and pool. As of last month, the property was in escrow after two other offers fell through. We really don’t think that her singing talent has anything to do with the problem selling, but one never knows, dearies.

Slash, best known for his antics in Guns N’ Roses, bought a home for $6.2 million and later sold it for $5.7 million. Ouch. He not only feels that he overpaid, he is suing his former real estate agent. The reason? The house wasn’t as big nor as private as the agent said it was. Well. Did he buy it sight unseen? Did the agent inflate the square footage? Or did Slash just not do his own due diligence when checking out this not-worth-the-price-he-paid-for-it property? Seems to us like Slash is a big boy who should be able to figure things out on his own. Better luck next time.

Wilmer Valderrama, best known as Fez on That ’70s Show, had trouble selling his home in what Forbes called the "relatively unfashionable" neighborhood of Tarzana. Surely the residents of that area were surprised to hear how uncool they are, at least according to Forbes.

You can see some pictures of the various homes at Forbes. And for an interesting Google Earth mashup of the mentioned homes, take a look at mibazaar.