Luxury Real Estate

By Robert Lockard

Nick Antonicello, Director of Sales for Unique Homes, pointed out an interesting story to me last week in the Los Angeles Times Blog. You might have already heard about it, but I just want to put in my two cents about the whole affair.

Peter Viles, Senior Producer for Real Estate at LATimes.com, wrote in his blog entry that Donald Trump, possibly the best-known real-estate developer in the world, is seeking to buy Ed McMahon’s mansion to save him from foreclosure.

In an even more bizarre turn of events, Mr. Trump now might be having some competition for buying Mr. McMahon’s luxury home. That’s according to a new blog post today by Ann Brenoff, author of the Los Angeles Times’ weekly “Hot Property” feature.

As Mr. Spock would say, “Fascinating.”

To be honest, I’m not sure what to make of this story. I mean, Mr. McMahon certainly seems like a good man who simply let his finances get out of control until he went from delivering oversized million-dollar checks to being unable to pay for his multimillion-dollar luxury property. His story just seems remarkable and bitterly ironic.

Since he went public with his mortgage troubles, it appears that Mr. McMahon will now be able to make it through this difficult experience fairly well. Competing offers on a house that’s about to be short sold is pretty impressive, I think.

I guess, in the end, my point is: Is this justice? I mean, not everyone can be helped like this. Is Ed McMahon’s celebrity status the main reason why he is receiving this attention and assistance? I’m uncertain of the answer to these questions. I hate to see anyone suffer, but is some suffering just while other suffering should be alleviated, and how do we judge that?

I believe that life is generally good, although it is difficult and filled with perils. Mr. McMahon seems to have had a very good life, gaining much more success and fame than most people will ever know. I feel bad that he is facing failure near the end of his life, but perhaps that is a lesson he needed to learn. I am sure we all must face failure and seek to succeed afterwards. Hopefully we will learn to be better people in the process.


Editor’s Note:
Robert Lockard is the Public Relations & Media Specialist with LuxuryRealEstate.com. I am Robert. I create all of Luxury Real Estate’s newsletters, write the editorials in LuxuryRealEstate.com Magazine and much more. I was really tempted to call this blog entry “Wake up with the King” Luckily, I refrained. You can share your blog entries on the Luxury Real Estate Blog by emailing them to me. By the way, ordinarily I would link to the two blog entries above via their TrackBack links, but they don’t appear to be working, so I just used their regular links. The photo of Mr. Spock is from www.flickr.com/photos/cultureculte/2306916969 and it is the copyright of culture.culte.

By Scott Rudolph

I speak with so many that I find myself often speaking with people in various stages of illness. Short- and long-term sickness is an unfortunate occurrence but it allows us to reassess and prioritize what matters most! Truth is, sick or not, we are writing our life story in each moment, with each decision. Is your story an adventure? Is the relationship with your spouse a love story?

Writing our story reminds me of some of the behind-the-scenes dialogue during our Fall Conference in Washington D.C. a month after the tragic events of 9/11. I flew into Ronald Reagan International Airport with jet escort, settled into a well-appointed bunker of a boardroom and appreciated conversation related to reprioritizing… purposefully booking travel, hotels, buying real estate for family, etc. We rallied to support personal and economic health, strength, vitality.

So, what would you do differently if this were your last year? Each time I ask the question I hear:  spend more time traveling, build experiences, start a company, more philanthropy, etc. If your answer is, “exactly what I’m doing now” then kudos to you! If not, let’s get to it… now… today… in this moment.

Book your trips; buy a dozen homes; fill these new homes with the homeless; adopt a dozen children; start a company to right wrongs; write a song; speak out against injustice; call people and reconcile hurt feelings; fill a food bank for a year… I could go on. Make it significant. Keep it low-key. Here’s to your personal and economic health!! Email me your ideas and success stories.


Editor’s Note:
Scott Rudolph is the Director of Business Development for LuxuryRealEstate.com. He works with a variety of luxury-focused companies to expand the LuxuryRealEstate.com influence. Carpe diem! What a wonderful blog entry. I hope that we will all take Scott’s words to heart as we go about our daily lives. What would we do differently if we really believed that our time on earth is limited and fragile? I definitely second Scott’s sentiments, and I hope to be a better person in all of my seemingly small decisions and relationships.