Castle for sale in OH; only lived in for two years

[Opti]

I'm wondering what posters think of this dream home which took four years to build but was only lived in for two years. To my eye, its odd and over-priced.


www.msn.com/en-us/money/realestate/an-ohio-man-spent-4-years-building-a-riverside-castle-only-to-move-out-2-years-after-completing-it-a-decade-later-he-s-selling-it-for-2-59-million-take-a-look/ss-AAXZ5e6?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=1619deacdd8e44d591aeb5efaabe6fd5#image=2

Bradley Delp spent four years building a six-bedroom castle on the Maumee River in Rossford, Ohio. He estimates he spent more than $6 million on construction costs.

The listing says the home sits on a 1.17-acre plot and comes with a private dock. The three-story house has 18 rooms, including a home theater, a cellar, and a children's playroom.



"It took four years to build the new house because there was an existing home on the lot that we had to knock down," Delp told Insider.



He said a lot of the furniture and interior furnishings were customized to his liking, adding to the cost and the time spent.



Despite the effort it took to build the home, it's hardly been lived in. The Delps moved to Florida in 2009, two years after it was completed, and the house has been sitting empty ever since.

Pic of the kitchen




"The play area is fully enclosed because the kids were babies when we moved in," Delp said.
Yet both child's rooms are crafted for older kids. I would not like the boy's bedroom, bed seems so exposed to me.

[Cheesy FL-Vol]

That price point is probably pretty spot on. I do see a lot of work that looks like it may have been done by specialized craftsmen. Some of the oddities (the room with twin beds) can be rectified with paint. The ceiling in the kitchen is cool, but the heavy columns are weird. They are likely needed structurally to support the arched ceiling.

The custom furniture "to his liking" is completely irrelevant to figuring out how much to try to sell for. A prospective buyer would hopefully dicker that price down considering how much customization a new owner feels they need to get rid of.

[bean29]

The outside is beautiful. The interior is gross. Too dark. The huuge bed with t with two. Chairs facing it?

[Opti]

The ceiling in the kitchen is cool, but not where I would have chosen for a ceiling like that. I think it would have looked better if the columns were plain instead of the twisted look they chose. 

[raeoflyte]

It was built in the early 2000's when beige and browns were still in. Some paint and new or removed wall paper would fix the dated parts. The wood construction I think makes sense given the overall design.

The master bedroom was made with little kids in mind too. A double king size bed sounds like heaven for co-sleeping.

[Empire the P.A.]

Feels like a horror movie house to me. 

[nidena]

It's a pretty stunning house.

The spiral staircase to the office would be a "no" for me.

I'm assuming they're selling it furnished because it looks like you'd have to take windows off to get anything out of the office.

And that Alaska King bed?  Yes, please!  

At least the decor and architecture make sense.  Unlike the Kessler Mansion, here in Indy.

[Deleted]

The interior looks like a style a friend once described as "fin-de-seecle (deliberately mispronouncing fin de siecle, or turn of the century) whorehouse".

And did you notice what the owner did for a living? "Wealth management". Reminds me of another quote. A wealth manager attempted to impress a potential client by taking her to the marina and showing her all the yachts belonging to the firm's partners. Her response: "But where are the customers' yachts?"

Seriously- I'd never want that much house. Even now I feel a bit guilty living all by myself in a house that once held a married couple upstairs and the wife's parents downstairs. Downstairs has a full kitchen (although the sellers took the fridge and I saw no reason to replace it) and a walk-out basement with a deck overlooking the lake. It IS nice for when DS and DDIL and the kids visit. Houses the size of the one listed mean you're chained to giant taxes, utilities and expenses for hired help. Someone has to mow the giant lawns, maintain the gardens, clean all the toilets, etc.

NOT my dream house.

[Tiny]

It's not that cringey as far as "I built a dream home goes"... it looks like a basic "McMansion" template was used and modified a bit to be more "one theme" on the exterior.  The template means the interior while "mcmansiony" with odd spaces and rooms you don't know what to do with - is still probably a liveable floorplan.   I'm glad it's not a design by  someone who has little idea of how to design a house's blueprint and literally created a house from their imagination down to the plumbing and electrical.

The 2.59 price point seems about right. Other people's "follies" never sell for what the seller paid to have the house built.

I wonder how much it's deteriorated since it was built and has sat empty.


Actually a lot of the "I built my themed dream home" houses from the 2000's wind up being torn down at some point... the person who built it didn't really build "quality" and then at some point the house sat empty for a time - and water damage occurred while empty or squatters found it and got past the security and damaged the house/property.

I'm guessing if the house can be secured and winterized and have a caretaker -it will stay in reasonable shape if it doesn't sell and sits empty for a few years.... if it gets more or less "abandoned" - it's probably going to take some damage - water (a roof leak or pipe leak) or squatter damage (they will leave the water running or they will steal what they can pry out and take).

There's a whole genre of videos on YouTube where guys tour "old" abandoned houses some built in the 60's thru 80's and then quite a few built in the 2000's...

There were even a handful of these 2000's era "dream house" based on "McMansion templates" built in my area (they tended to be in wealthy neighborhoods so no squatters moved in - but many of them deteriorated (or were flooded) from neglect.

A famous one was built on a busy street corner - was filled with marble and exotic woods - and was never moved into... the housing crash happened. The own spent (I think about 6 million on it). Tried to sell it after the crash. Then left it empty - but forgot to winterize it - so a water pipe in one of the many bathrooms froze and burst - flooding the second and first floor (and basement with water) - as no one figured out there was a problem for several WEEKS. ruined much of the marble and exotic wood on three levels. It got repaired in 2014 and sat on the market.... Someone finally bought the house in 2019 for 2.something million....
The original owner still talks about it (in articles) like the house should have sold for 6 million because that is what he paid for it....

Just read about another (less in the public eye) one of the 2000's "dream home" McMansions that has been an eye sore in it's ritzy neighborhood for a decade - it's been sold - and part of the
sale agreement is that the city will tear it down and haul it away - it's uninhabitable as the roof failed several years ago... and so the house is no longer structurally sound.



A lesson in how "value" is subjective  if nothing else.

[gs11rmb]

Jun 3, 2022 8:11:46 GMT -5 nidena said:

It's a pretty stunning house.

The spiral staircase to the office would be a "no" for me.

I'm assuming they're selling it furnished because it looks like you'd have to take windows off to get anything out of the office.

And that Alaska King bed?  Yes, please!  

At least the decor and architecture make sense.  Unlike the Kessler Mansion, here in Indy.

That's hideous 

[happyhoix]

Kind of broke all the real estate rules. Way bigger house than nearby houses, designed with a very specific sense of style that will only appeal to a certain buyer with the same sense of style. Such a big house that purchasing it to remodel to your own taste will be pricey. I wonder why he spent so much time and money on it and then left so soon?

I can see why he had to price it at half the actual value.

[Tiny]

The thing about "dream houses" like that - is that they require staff to maintain them.

Sure your house with lots of bedrooms and bathrooms and different purpose rooms and a big beautiful kitchen looks great when you move in... but if you aren't going around and wiping down everything and vacuuming and tending to the bathrooms(even the unused ones) weekly or monthly -in a year or two once the dust (and cobwebs) and whatnot literally starts to settle on EVERYTHING in the house - you have to go around and clean it.

When you buy a "show piece" home - you need to have someone going thru it and cleaning it. constantly.

And then there's the kitchen. who is wiping down all that marble on a daily basis (especially if the kitchen is being cooked in daily)?

I think these kinds of homes are purely for "show" and that no one really does their daily life in them.

[Tiny]

Jun 3, 2022 9:08:00 GMT -5 happyhoix said:

Kind of broke all the real estate rules. Way bigger house than nearby houses, designed with a very specific sense of style that will only appeal to a certain buyer with the same sense of style. Such a big house that purchasing it to remodel to your own taste will be pricey. I wonder why he spent so much time and money on it and then left so soon?

I can see why he had to price it at half the actual value.

There was a "build your dream home" trend in the 2000's -  lots of people had money and it was "cheap" to do it, and it was super easy to get really big loans on houses, and in the 2000's the price of real estate was doing nothing but going up!   

Most of the "dream houses" built where typical "McMansions" - but some people put their own spin on their dream McMansion - and so gave it one unifying "theme" - like castle or Italian Villa or Persian compound or some other theme (like "cottage") but on a super sized level. 

I saw a McMansion that was built around a Japanese theme pasted on that probably was very nice when it was built - but then time and neglect happened and then it went empty  and no one wanted to buy it and then the squatters and a roof failure doomed it to being torn down.             

The ones that went with an out of the ordinary theme are the one's we hear about in the news.  

The one I mentioned where the city was willing to pay to have it torn down - that one was more or less a basic McMansion template - with some higher end features.  The biggest issue with it was that it was never completed (needed the final 10% to get it move in ready) - and once the housing crash happened - it sat empty as the owner thought they would finish it - and then it continued to sit empty as they tried to sell it (but wanted to re-coup their losses on the sale)  - and then the damage started happening and then it was all over - they sold it at a loss more than a decade after it was built and never lived in.    The late 2000's were wild in the housing market.    

  

[Tiny]

And to the topic of this thread..

I think it would be totally fun if the house was "leased" or "rented" for short periods of time.

So you could stay for a month or two (snowbird) or as a longer term airbnb.

Or if you were in upper upper management and moving from from office to office in different states (staying a year or two and then moving again) you could lease the furnished house for your family for your two year stay.

Why not share the dream of living in a castle with other people who would to give living a castle a try??     I'm guessing there are plenty of people with money who would like to do it.

I'm in the "It's a nice place to visit but I wouldn't want to live there." crowd.  

[Deleted]

Jun 3, 2022 9:14:21 GMT -5 Tiny said:

The thing about "dream houses" like that - is that they require staff to maintain them.

Sure your house with lots of bedrooms and bathrooms and different purpose rooms and a big beautiful kitchen looks great when you move in... but if you aren't going around and wiping down everything and vacuuming and tending to the bathrooms(even the unused ones) weekly or monthly -in a year or two once the dust (and cobwebs) and whatnot literally starts to settle on EVERYTHING in the house - you have to go around and clean it.

One show I watch when I have access to cable is HGTV's "My Lottery Dream Home".  I don't really approve of the theme because I feel that lotteries are a tax on the poor and the desperate, but it's interesting how different people approach it.  One person who won $1 million will choose something in the $250,000 range- just a nice place to live, nothing flashy.  Then there are the ones who blow $800K of it on something with a pool, acreage, gardens and a large central area that's 2 stories high.  I'm too darn practical.  How do you clean the corners of those ceiling, let alone replace lights up there?  What will heating and AC cost?  Who's gonna mow the lawn and keep the pool chemicals balanced?   I'd really like to see where they are 5 years from now. 

ETA:  Like tiny, I'd also spring for a few nights in some insanely lavish place, but I'm not sure if they could get enough people to pay enough money to maintain it.  $500/night for 300 nights a year would be only $150,000.   It's not set up for large group conferences- not enough sleeping rooms.  I've seen similar places on a Netflix show about a Parisian family that deals in luxury real estate and would love to spend a night or two in some of them but $500 is about the top of my budget.

[weltschmerz]

Overpriced? This is $2.4 million in Vancouvver.

[bean29]

Jun 3, 2022 10:07:33 GMT -5 @athena53 said:

Jun 3, 2022 9:14:21 GMT -5 Tiny said:

The thing about "dream houses" like that - is that they require staff to maintain them.

Sure your house with lots of bedrooms and bathrooms and different purpose rooms and a big beautiful kitchen looks great when you move in... but if you aren't going around and wiping down everything and vacuuming and tending to the bathrooms(even the unused ones) weekly or monthly -in a year or two once the dust (and cobwebs) and whatnot literally starts to settle on EVERYTHING in the house - you have to go around and clean it.

One show I watch when I have access to cable is HGTV's "My Lottery Dream Home".  I don't really approve of the theme because I feel that lotteries are a tax on the poor and the desperate, but it's interesting how different people approach it.  One person who won $1 million will choose something in the $250,000 range- just a nice place to live, nothing flashy.  Then there are the ones who blow $800K of it on something with a pool, acreage, gardens and a large central area that's 2 stories high.  I'm too darn practical.  How do you clean the corners of those ceiling, let alone replace lights up there?  What will heating and AC cost?  Who's gonna mow the lawn and keep the pool chemicals balanced?   I'd really like to see where they are 5 years from now. 

I have a Cathedral Ceiling.  If I have a choice, buy a "next" house...I want 9 ft ceilings.  I regret the Cathedral Ceiling every time the battery needs replacing in the smoke detector in the highest point of the Cathedral Ceiling above my staircase going into the basement.  Last time the smoke detector started Chirping the battery was dead, DH was out of town.  I had to haul in a heavy ladder from the garage, extend it and pray I did not fall off the ladder while replacing the battery at 3 am.  

[raeoflyte]

Jun 3, 2022 9:03:11 GMT -5 gs11rmb said:

Jun 3, 2022 8:11:46 GMT -5 nidena said:

It's a pretty stunning house.

The spiral staircase to the office would be a "no" for me.

I'm assuming they're selling it furnished because it looks like you'd have to take windows off to get anything out of the office.

And that Alaska King bed?  Yes, please!  

At least the decor and architecture make sense.  Unlike the Kessler Mansion, here in Indy.

That's hideous 

Yeah, that's extreme. I'd be curious to walk around it.

Compared to prices here though it's so cheap for that much house. But I'm sure it would cost a fortune to normalize it.

[happyhoix]

Jun 3, 2022 10:19:23 GMT -5 weltschmerz said:

Overpriced? This is $2.4 million in Vancouvver.

Does it hide the entrance to a gold mine?

[happyhoix]

Of course I have to remind myself I live in a COL area. You can get a decent suburban McMansion for under a million here.

Sometimes I watch flipping shows from the pricy west coast areas and I’m shocked to see what I consider a fixer upper shit shack with 1000 square feet selling for 600,000.

Location is everything I guess.

[jerseygirl]

Gah that Kessler building is hideous. A good example of money not meaning intelligence

[Cookies Galore]

Those wood floors shown early on in the seating(??) area are gorgeous. But if I'm spending two million dollars on a house there damn well better not be cheap ass drop ceiling tiles in any room!

[grumpyhermit]

Jun 3, 2022 14:34:53 GMT -5 Cookies Galore said:

Those wood floors shown early on in the seating(??) area are gorgeous. But if I'm spending two million dollars on a house there damn well better not be cheap ass drop ceiling tiles in any room!

That was the element that threw me the most. 

The rest of it was a a overdone, and not really to my taste, but more or less on theme. Those basement looking drop ceilings however....

[Cheesy FL-Vol]

Jun 3, 2022 14:51:39 GMT -5 grumpyhermit said:

Jun 3, 2022 14:34:53 GMT -5 Cookies Galore said:

Those wood floors shown early on in the seating(??) area are gorgeous. But if I'm spending two million dollars on a house there damn well better not be cheap ass drop ceiling tiles in any room!

That was the element that threw me the most. 

The rest of it was a a overdone, and not really to my taste, but more or less on theme. Those basement looking drop ceilings however....

If I had to guess, both spaces shown with those ceiling tiles ARE in a basement space. 

[weltschmerz]

Does it hide the entrance to a gold mine?

You would think so, but no. It's all about location, location, location.
Vancouver is insanely expensive. The house is a tear down, but that small patch of land is $2.4 million dollars.

[TheOtherMe]

I had a very well to do friend (she has since died).  She and her husband built this lavish McMansion outside Chicago--I am probably closer in time to it now than it was from O'Hare.

It was a two story house with 3 separate wings plus an apartment over the garage.  It was gorgeous.

I stayed in a two bedroom guest wing when I visited.  I only used one bedroom but she used to host several of us Paul fans just because and then she would send us home with so many gifts two of us had to buy another piece of luggage at the airport.  

It had a huge pool, manmade pond, mini golf course, 6 bay garage.  When her husband too me on the tour on the ATV, it took about an hour.  We were way out in a field where I couldn't see the house.  He said that was the hunting area.  So they had a lot of land.

It had 3 furnaces and an elevator in their wing.  Fancier than any house I have ever seen.  

She said the electric bill back in about 2007 or so was $10,000 a month.  

With the economic downturn happened in 2008/9, they said they were living off dividends and they were no longer paying enough to pay the bills.  Put the house on the market and ended up selling it for less than half of what they paid for it.

Because they took such a bath on the house, they went to live with their son and his family.  Her husband is still there since she died.  

The last time I stayed there, they talked to me about moving in to the apartment above the garage.  I could bring my cats and they would close it in with a private entry.  The apartment was gorgeous.  The kicker was they wanted me to be her full time caretaker and pay rent on the apartment.  So I was to be on duty 24/7 and receive a small salary because I had my pension and pay rent.  

She weighed over 300 pounds and there was no way I could have taken care of her.  She fell a lot and they had to call 911 to get her up.  I could not have gotten her up.  

Sadly when I said no (I only said I didn't want to live that close to Chicago) it put a damper on the friendship.  The living arrangement would have destroyed the friendship and a couple of years later I would have been looking for a place to live.

Besides, two people had died in that apartment she told me later.  One by natural causes and one suicide.  I'm so happy I did not move in to that apartment.

There is a FB page called Zillow gone wild.  There are lots of overpriced dumps on there.

[Spellbound454]

That kitchen looks like the inside of a catacomb ...... the rest of it doesn't seem to have any recognisable style.

Shame it looks pretty from the outside but would need a lot of work to make it more saleable.

[Opti]

Jun 3, 2022 9:08:00 GMT -5 happyhoix said:

Kind of broke all the real estate rules. Way bigger house than nearby houses, designed with a very specific sense of style that will only appeal to a certain buyer with the same sense of style. Such a big house that purchasing it to remodel to your own taste will be pricey. I wonder why he spent so much time and money on it and then left so soon?

I can see why he had to price it at half the actual value.

I wonder too about why he and the family were there such a short time. 

[kadee79]

Jun 3, 2022 8:11:46 GMT -5 nidena said:

It's a pretty stunning house.

The spiral staircase to the office would be a "no" for me.

I'm assuming they're selling it furnished because it looks like you'd have to take windows off to get anything out of the office.

And that Alaska King bed?  Yes, please!  

At least the decor and architecture make sense.  Unlike the Kessler Mansion, here in Indy.

That Kessler Mansion has to be one of the weirdest houses I've ever seen!  And talk about creepy...OMG!

[nidena]

The story of the Kessler Manion.