Bedford NY Real Estate | House of the Week: $29 Million FSBO | Zillow

Welcome to Zillow’s House of the Week. Our site is filled with information on homes for sale and apartments for rent, plus we have data on more than 100 million homes in the U.S., so lots of homes catch our eye.

This week’s home: “House on the Hill” Tobin Clark Estate

For sale by owner: $29 million

Location: Hillsborough, CA

Year built: 1932

Details: 9+ bedrooms, 11 bathrooms, 35,000 square feet, 6-acre plot

The plan was to tear the home down and build six homes on the six acres in this section of Hillsborough real estate. But when the owner stepped inside the home, and realized the history of the place, he decided to keep it as his own private residence. The current owner has asked to remain anonymous, but he is the former chairman of a real estate development and financial consulting firm.

The estate was built in the late 1920s for divorced heiress Celia Tobin Clark. She commissioned architect David Adler to create a one-of-a-kind retreat in Hillsborough, a hilly enclave for the 19th-century rich just outside San Francisco. In the book “The Country Houses of David Adler,” author Stephen M. Salny explains that Clark envisioned an “English house that disappeared into the landscape.” Adler delivered.

The current owner picked up the property in 1991 and spent $19.4 million remodeling the home in 1992.

“We had 60 people working two shifts a day,” he recounted. “We replaced the roof, we redid the landscaping, we remodeled all the kitchens, all the bathrooms.”

The three-level home’s most unusual feature is its 55-foot long Music Room, a place that is “very good for entertaining” explains the owner. Guests have included former Presidents Ford, Nixon and Bush Sr., not to mention former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. The room features three-dimensional decorations, gold-gilt moldings, bay windows and 15-foot high ceilings.

In addition, the home includes a media room, archive room, paneled library, and game room. The first floor holds the master’s quarters, executive office and V.I.P. suite as well as a staff’s wing.

Despite the house’s apparent perfection, the owner has decided to sell the home, explaining that the 35,000-sq ft estate is much too large for him and his wife.

He previously listed the home for-sale-by-owner in 2002 for $45 million but said that he didn’t get the price that he wanted.

“The highest offer was for $39 million, and the second was for $39.5 million and we rejected them both,” he said. The owner then decided to take the home off the market and hold off his retirement until this year.

He recently put the home up for sale again by owner — this time for $16 million less.

“I’m a business man and I know what the economy is like,” explained the owner. He’s also offering financing for qualified buyers: 4.2 percent interest rate with a 60 percent down payment.

And if you’re an agent, there will be a 7 percent commission paid to the broker representing the buyer.

Read more about the home at http://worldsgreatestate.com/.

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