The value of the average home in the U.S. in April was $147,300, according to real-estate website Zillow.com. The home of the professional athlete, however, is likely to be anything but average.
The professional athlete is often a distinct type of homebuyer, in part because the contract and endorsement money makes possible the purchase of colossal, multimillion-dollar homes. But these athletes can have serious problems selling real estate.
A multimillion-dollar mansion can have a hard time attracting a buyer, even under ideal circumstances, but the same mansion with a regulation-size basketball court attached to it can be next to impossible to sell, as basketball legend Julius Erving learned the hard way in 2010. To quote from the work of the great American poet Christopher Wallace, orNotorious B.I.G., “The more money we come across, the more problems we see.”
What follows is a gallery of athletes’ homes that are on the market. All of them are studies in fully loaded, tricked-out luxury, as only a few people could afford. The owners were identified by real-estate site Trulia.com.
Sugar Ray Leonard
- Location: Dana Point, Calif.
- Price: $2.175 million
- Bedrooms: 4
- Bathrooms: 4
- Square footage: 4,207
Sugar Ray Leonard was a professional boxer who was most active during the 1970s and 1980s. He was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1997.
His house in the California city of Dana Point is for sale. The single-family, Mediterranean-style home is within the Ritz Pointe gated community and has views of Catalina Island and the Monarch Beach Links golf course.
Jason Terry
- Location: Atlanta
- Price: $1.89 million
- Bedrooms: 7
- Bathrooms: Not available
- Square footage: 6,325
Jason Terry is a shooting guard and sometime point guard for the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks. He lives with his wife and four children in a seven-bedroom Atlanta home that’s selling for just under $2 million.
The home’s amenities include a pool with a waterfall, a fireplace and a three-car garage, as well as a beauty salon and a media room.
Devin Harris
- Location: Dallas
- Price: $1.89 million
- Bedrooms: 5
- Bathrooms: 6
- Square footage: 7,464
Devin Harris plays basketball for the Utah Jazz. Despite having a workplace in the state that the Osmond family calls home, he has been living in a Mediterranean villa in Dallas.
The home, the price of which was recently reduced from just over $2 million, is in the gated community of Green Park. According to the listing, it includes a gourmet kitchen withViking appliances and has a “wall of windows and doors that open to pool area and covered patio.”
Babe Ruth
- Location: Sudbury, Mass.
- Price: $1.65 million
- Bedrooms: 5
- Bathrooms: 3 full, 1 half
- Square footage: 5,124
There may be more glamorous places to live than Sudbury, Mass., but few offer sports fans the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to buy the home of a true legend. Sudbury is the site of558 Dutton Road, the one-time home of Babe Ruth.
The Bambino’s former abode is a single-family home that’s been renovated to include a “state-of-the-art cherry kitchen” and to exude “warmth and ambiance.” The third floor includes what the listing calls a Babe Ruth memorabilia room, and the premises include a large barn zoned for both commercial and residential uses.
Barry Zito
- Location: Kentfield, Calif.
- Price: $11.495 million
- Bedrooms: 4
- Bathrooms: 5 full, 2 half
- Square footage: 7,116
Barry Zito is a pitcher for the San Francisco Giants. He recently listed his home in Kentfield, Calif., for $11.495 million, and its 91,476-square-foot lot might make the offer enticing before one even sees the house.
As for the property itself, it offers views ofMount Tamalpais, which the listing describes as “reach-out-and-touch-me.” The home has recently been upgraded to add a family room and a guest house with an 18-foot deck.
Source: Daniel Bukszpan of CNBC
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