Ruined Mansion in Texas Leads List of Most Popular Homes For Sale

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By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Published
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Ruined Mansion in Texas Leads List of Most Popular Homes For Sale

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Among the 10 most searched homes on Realtor.com for 2016 there is a mix of odd homes, those that are wrecks and expensive mansions. The most searched is a $3.6 million home in Texas, the construction of which has never been completed.

The house at 2354 Country Road 59 in Manvel, Texas, is described by Realtor.com as the nation’s “biggest fixer upper.” It has 30 bedrooms, 30 full baths and 10 half-baths. The house is 63,890 square feet large and is south of Houston, near Route 289.

Manvel is small, but prosperous. Its population is 3,046, according to the 2010 Census. Median household income is $65,862, well above the national average. Only 3% of the population is below the poverty line. On the other hand, it is not an area of extremely expensive homes. The median price of a home for sale is $377,397.

The house is so large, it is not even being listed primarily as a residence:

This property is set up perfectly for an Assisted Living or Group Housing Facility. It has never been completed so the walls can be moved easily to suit any of your needs. NO disclosures. Proof of funds are required to view. This property is being sold ”AS_IS” and has HUGE potential for the right person or Company. You can fit up to 72 Lg rms.

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What sort of buyer would want a property that is sold “as is” and without any disclosures? Not a smart one, which may be a reason for the low price.

The listing and the trouble that the owner has had selling the home begs one question: Who in his or her right mind would build the house in the first place?

Someone in the family that owns the house had sense:

The massive home, abandoned and incomplete, has attracted media attention over the years. Located in the small town of Manvel, TX, the structure started in the early 2000s as a custom build for the original owners, a doctor and his wife, recounts Jim Youngblood, the current homeowner. “They got 70% done, and for some reason his wife thought the house was too big.”

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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.

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