11 Benefits of Starting a House Cleaning Business

One of the biggest fears people have about starting a house cleaning business is the fear of having no real security. But for natural entrepreneurs, security comes from designing your own life. My partner Ev and I discovered that we could create security when we put forth the effort to call our own shots and make key business decisions that made sense for our lives. Starting a house cleaning business has helped us achieve real security.
We started a house cleaning business over nine years ago. Although our schedules are now brimming with other creative commitments, we continue to clean houses and offices because the pay is excellent, it gives us the free time we need to pursue our personal goals, and we like it.
When I first joined Ev as he started a house cleaning business I had no idea what I was getting into, but I loved the idea of working for myself. Two things were bothering me a little. First, I was concerned with job security. Second, I secretly doubted my basic cleaning skills. Cleaning had always seemed like drudgery and I wondered if my skills were up to par with the pros. Ev guaranteed that cleaning would give me time to spend the way I wanted. I was ready to take a leap of faith, so I decided to try it.
I made three discoveries:
Cleaning is not drudgery when you're getting paid well to do it.
Leaving behind neat, clean rooms is quite satisfying.
Not having a boss is fantastic.
I also discovered a new use for my research and investigative skills. Because I was determined to rank up there with the best of the professionals, I began to research cleaning tips and as a result, learned how to clean just about anything. Best of all, our diligence and excellent service has provided genuine job security all along.
Why do we think starting a house cleaning business is a great idea? Here's eleven reasons why:
1. Unlimited income potential
You can grow your house cleaning business as big as you want. Many recent entrepreneurs have built up their house cleaning businesses up to 100k a year within one year. Try that with a JOB (just over broke). Cleaning franchises are booming nationwide, but franchises are a bad deal for the want-to-be professional cleaner. You go massively into debt before you even get started. Franchises are highly appropriate for oil lube shops and Internet cafes because those are expensive and complicated businesses, cleaning is not.
2. Start bringing in money within two weeks
You can discover interested clients within days. You can be giving quotes within a week. You can have jobs by week two. You can have a full-force house cleaning business within a few months.
3. Start on a shoestring budget
You can start a house cleaning business for well under $100. This business is one of the best for inexpensive start-ups. Believe it or not you can even start without a vacuum or a car. We did!
4. Be your own boss
Absolutely my favorite reason for starting a house cleaning business. My inner compass just tells me that being my own boss is taking me in the right direction. I'm sure you can relate. Nothing quite compares to the pride and excitement of calling the shots and being in charge of your own destiny. This is what America is all about, right? What is stopping you? Sure, you'll make mistakes, we all make them. But no one is going to scold you and you'll learn from your mistakes. Besides, as another entrepreneur once said, we have the most sympathetic boss in the world -ourselves!
5. Set your own hours
We love this aspect of starting a house cleaning business even more than being our own boss. We take days off when we want and as often as we can get away with. Try that with a JOB (just over broke). We find that we each work smarter instead of harder because we're able to tap into our natural sense of responsibility. When you're empowered to take charge of your own schedule you take more pride in the work you do.
6. Get paid everyday
This is my second favorite benefit. It's really cool. Every day we get at least one check if not several. You won't stress out about paying your bills on time. No waiting two weeks or a month to get paid. This makes your personal accounting system less stressful and a whole lot more enjoyable and even downright fun.
7. Cleaning is easy work, not technical or complicated
If you prefer to use your brainpower on genuinely creative, significant pursuits, or even if you don't, starting a house cleaning business won't drain your brain.
8. Professional cleaning is not emotionally or mentally exhausting
This is Ev's favorite part of starting a house cleaning business. Ev initially started a house cleaning business because he was frustrated with how emotionally draining his JOB was, making it very difficult for him to pursue his creative endeavors. He was tired a lot of the time and just couldn't get motivated. Within weeks of starting his first house cleaning business he was realizing a lifelong desire to compose music. He now has seven CDs of music published. Ev and I built a house ourselves with the free time and free mental space afforded by our part time house cleaning business.
9. Choose who you work with
Number two favorite on Ev's list. There has always been that one person that made life at work less than enjoyable if not a complete drag. Can you relate? If we discover we don't exactly click with a client, we have a system for replacing them within one week, sometimes sooner. You'll never feel trapped with an unwanted associate again.
10. Work close to home
No long commute, no commute at all if you prefer. There is plenty of work near you, we drive maybe ten miles a day, we do 80% of our work in one neighborhood. When Ev started his first house cleaning business he rode his bike and took public transportation to his clients' homes and offices. With a little foresight and planning, you can clean with no supplies of your own. We have met several other cleaners who work by bike and on foot as well.
11. Start additional cleaning services
You can add in any of a dozen additional cleaning services to maximize your profits. Carpet cleaning, steam cleaning, house sitting, pet sitting and plantscaping are all natural outgrowths of starting a cleaning business. You can mix house cleaning with office cleaning, or window cleaning with house cleaning, or for variety do all three.
Starting a house cleaning business may not be glamorous, but because we did it, Ev and I have gained free time to do what we want to do, lowered our stress levels, become more productive and happier, and we make a good living. For people with a sense of independence and a creative spirit, starting a house cleaning business is a wonderful way to provide yourself with genuine security.

Andy Roddick and Brooklyn Decker List...and Sell...and Buy...and Buy Again

SELLERS: Andy Roddick and Brooklyn Decker
LOCATION: Austin, TX
PRICE: 8,660 square feet, 5 bedrooms, 7.5 bathrooms
SIZE: $12,500,000

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: In the months before and after Andy Roddick retired, on his 30th birthday, in an emotional on-court speech last August (2012) at the U.S. Open, the 2003 U.S. Open winner and his model/actress wife, Brooklyn Decker, went on a bit of a real estate rampage during which they bought two new houses, sold another and—we first learned from Tex. S. Tattletale—listed their large and nearly new, lake-side mansion in Austin, TX with an asking price of $12,500,000.*

Your Mama's research indicates the enviably comely and deliciously shapely couple, married in April 2009, purchased the 1.8 acre lake-front spread in November 2009 for an unknown amount of money through a corporate entity that, with the assistant of the handy-dandy internets, Your Mama easily linked directly to Mister Roddick through public records.

Listing details show the two-story stone and stucco house, set well off the street down a long driveway, has a total of five bedrooms and 7.5 bathrooms in 8,960 square feet of open plan living spaces that are both airy and earthy with vaulted (exposed wood) ceilings, polished concrete and rustic wood floors, lots of stone columns and other organic accents.

In the spacious center hall entry a ring laden with (probably and hopefully) faux-candle serves as a chandelier and a mis-matched group of three dimensional letters hung vertically on the wall spell the word "smile." Smile. Ugh. Don't misunderstand Your Mama, now. We have no qualm with Miz Decker and we love us some Andy Roddick—we were there, in the stadium, the night he won the U.S. Open in 2003 and we teared up during his retirement speech—but we find that wall-mountd smile business to be too cutesy, smarmy even, and—forgive us our silly word-smithing ways—a decorative double-fault. Anyways, the roomy foyer connects to the residence's main living and entertaining areas that include a dark paneled study/library with adjoining office nook, an over-sized formal dining room (with another faux-candle chandelier situation), and a extra-long living room with multiple seating areas, a stone fireplace, a long wall of built-in entertainment cabinetry, and French doors that open to a heated veranda with lake views.

The kitchen, open to the massive main living area over a four-stool center island snack counter, looks to Your Mama to be somewhat small-ish for a 9,000 square foot house but that might just be the way the pictures were taken and is, none-the-less, most certainly expensively equipped with custom mill work, a glass-fronted built-in break front, and the usual suite of high-grade commercial-style stainless steel appliances. An adjoining breakfast room has two walls of windows and, on a third wall, a couple of floating stainless steel shelves cantilevered over a low storage buffet.

The master suite has a private sitting area, vaulted ceiling, motorized black out shades, and his and her en suite facilities. Hers is an all-white, casually glammy affair with steam shower, separate tub and its very own washer and dryer (in the custom closet) while his skews towards a more masculine (and beige) vibe with rugged (but smooth to the touch) stone tile work, an open shower, an ice bath, and—because no one wants to run to the kitchen for a Bud with a face full of shaving cream—a built-in refrigerator.

Although Your Mama can't imagine why anyone would ever want a dozen house guests all at the same time, it appears the Roddick-Deckers can actually put up (at least) 12 over-night guests. There are four guest bedrooms that will sleep eight people. All of the bedrooms, according to listing details, have lake views and en suite crappers and at least some of which are privately located in a second floor wing where there's also a bug-thwarting screened lanai. Four more guests—perhaps children or those who don't qualify for a private suite—can be put up in the games room/man cave that's equipped with a wet bar/kitchenette, a poker table, and bunkhouse-style bunk beds with flimsy plaid curtains for (an illusion of) privacy.

The back of the house opens to a veranda with built in heaters that soften the nippy winter edges and allow for year-round outdoor living. Beyond the veranda there's a swimming pool and spa, an outdoor kitchen, and a broad lawn that stretches down to the lake's edge where a covered (but not enclosed) boat house holds a good-sized ski boat and a couple of jet skis. Near the head of the long, curvaceous driveway a detached structure (that looks a little chapel-esque) is where Mister and Missus Roddick house the fitness equipment they use to keep their bodies looking like this and this.

Before they were married the couple picked up an 866 square foot one bedroom and one bathroom apartment with high ceilings and exposed brick walls at the Gramercy Habitat building on E. 22nd Street—a converted brewery—that they sold in June 2010 for $200,000 less than the $1.1 million they paid for it in 2008. But, children, that's boring old news compared to the Roddick-Decker's more recent spate of real estate activity.

Last August (2012), just before he retired, Mister Roddick quietly sold, for $350,000, a three bedroom and 2.5 bathroom house in Boca Raton, FL, that he bought way back in October 2001 for $310,000. In October (2012), just after he retired, he and his North Carolina-bred missus dropped $300,000 to acquire a secluded 2.76 acre spread in the teeny-tiny, scenic, and—let's be honest, butter beans—somewhat unlikely community of Cashiers, NC. Your Mama isn't quite sure if the property has an existing residence—we think it does—but word on the celebrity real estate street around Cashiers is that the couple plan to build a house on the semi-remote property.

Lest any Texans in general and/or Austinites in particular worry that Mister Roddick has gone Hollywood with his actress wife or permanently decamped to the Smokies and forsaken the Lone Star State let Your Mama assure you, he has not. Property records we dug up show Mister Roddick and Miz Decker have, in fact, already acquired their next Texas home, a 15-plus acre spread in a small gated enclave on the western outskirts of Austin that they covertly scooped up in July (2013) for $3,694,000.

Listing details we managed to tease out of the internets show the property includes a 6,595 square foot stone- and wood-clad residence with five bedrooms, 6.5 bathrooms, and a one-third mile long private driveway that ensures seclusion. Interior appointments include five fireplaces, reclaimed pine floors, ceiling beams from the original Chicago Stock Exchange, stone walls, and custom milled chestnut wood doors. The back of the two-story house opens to multi-level terraces and an amoebic negative edge swimming pool and spa.

*As best as Your Mama can tell, the property popped up on the open market in late June (2013) with an asking price of $12.5 million. The listing was removed just two months later but still appears on the listing agent's website as a so-called whisper or pocket listing.

listing photos (Austin, sell): Capital City Sotheby's International Realty
listing photo and floor plan (New York): Sotheby's International Realty
listing photo (Austin, buy): Gottesman Residential Real Estate

Afternoon Delights: Russell, Katy, Mitt, Troy, and Vince

Scraggly and scathing British comedian Russell Brand has dropped $2.224 million on a 4,800 square foot, multi-story residence high, high, high in the Hollywood Hills that was designed by architect Selden Price, built in 1926 on a steep hillside with panoramic city lights view, and was once home to Laurence Olivier. (source: L.A. Times; listing photos: The Agency)

Speaking of Russell Brand...

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His international pop star ex-wife Katy Perry is having a devil of time selling Park Hill, the 3-ish acre West Hollywood compound she and he bought in June 2011, at the tail end of their marriage, for $6.5 million. The historic estate, perched above the mouth of Laurel Canyon, was first listed on the open market in April (2013) with an asking price of $6,925,000. The price tag was slashed by $430,000 in June and, this week, after two potential sales have fallen through, by another $507,000 bringing the newest and lowest asking price down to $5,988,000, $512,000 less than she paid. Several months ago, Miz Perry spent $11 million on a multi-residence compound in the Hollywood Hills. (source: Trulia Luxe Living and Zillow; listing photo: Teles Properties)

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Really rich former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney has added a nearly 9,000 square foot, log-built ski chalet in Park City, UT, to his property portfolio that already includes a modest townhouse type home in a gated community in Boston, MA, an 11-acre lake-side retreat in Wolfeboro, NH, and an ocean front spread in La Jolla, CA, where he (in)famously plans to install a car elevator.  (source: Curbed via Park Record; listing photo: Prudential Utah)

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Retired professional quarterback turned Fox Sports commentator  Troy Aikman—he has three Super Bowl wins with the Dallas Cowboys—splashed out $4.3 million on a second home in Dallas that overlooks Turtle Creek Lake. Just a few months ago he paid $4.25 million for a 10,000 square foot house nearby. (source: TMZ and Candy's Dirt; listing photo: via TMZ)

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Just months after Architectural Digest featured Nine West founder Vince Camuto's Villa Maria—his newly redone 22,000 square foot Victorian mansion on 7.6 manicured acres in the Hamptons—it's back up for sale with a fat asking price of $49,500,000. (source: Wall Street Journal via Curbed; listing photo: Sotheby's International Realty)

Puck Picks Up Pritzker Villa in Bel Air

SELLER: Anthony "Tony" and Jeanne Pritzker
BUYER: Wolfgang Puck and Gelila Assefa Puck
LOCATION: Los Angeles, CA
PRICE: $14,000,000
SIZE: 12,289 square feet, 8 bedrooms, 11 bathrooms

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: In late 2011 or early 2012—we're not exactly sure—multi-billionaire private equity tycoon and Hyatt Hotels heir Anthony "Tony" Pritzker and his wife, Jeanne, moved with their half dozen progeny to a freshly finished and very contemporary, boutique hotel-sized mega-mansion prominently sited on a high promontory above the hoity-toity Holmby Hills 'hood n L.A.'s Bel Air area.*

The Pritzker family didn't have far to schlep their stuff since their old house happens to be on an abutting property just below their new house. During construction, a dirt path zig-zagged down in to the ravine behind the old house and up the hillside below the new one. They could have, iffin they'd been so inclined, hauled all their personal belongings from the old to the new house by burro.

No longer in need of their old mansion, in May 2012 Mister and Missus Pritzker pushed their old house—a 1930s Mediterranean villa dubbed Villa les Violettes—on the market with an in-hindsight much too rosy asking price of $21,990,000. Your Mama turned up digital evidence that suggests the asking price was lowered in slivered amounts an astonishing 18 times before the property was taken off the market in March 2013 and quickly re-listed with an asking price of $16,495,000.

Finally, according to both Our Fairy Godmother in Bel Air and Peter Propertyseller, along came sixty-something year old Austrian-born celebrity chef and restaurateur Wolfgang Puck and his stunningly beautiful (and much younger) third wife, Ethiopian-born high-end handbag designer and philanthropist Gelila Assefa Puck** who forked over, as per property records, $14,000,000 for walled and gated estate.

We have no idea how much Mister and Missus Pritzker spent on upkeep, upgrades and carrying costs, of course, but even though the fourteen million clam sale price is almost eight million less than they originally wanted it's still a decent if not exactly spectacular return on their investment since records show they acquired the property in August 2001 for $9,500,00.

Listing details show the mansion was originally built in 1938 on an up-sloping 1.24 acre parcel at the tail end of a long, snaking driveway that opens up to a motor court the size of a 7-11 parking lot where, right in the middle, each of the Pritzkers pressed their hand prints in concrete around an inset tile compass (or clock or whatever it is). At it's tallest, the house stands two stories atop a three-bay five-car garage and encompasses 12,289 square feet with a total of eight bedrooms and eleven bathrooms.

This Pritzker cum Puck mansion is certainly not for the glutially undeveloped as it's a long, wide and butt-bustingly grand flight of steps from the motor court to the double front doors that open into a lime-stone-floored foyer that cuts all the way through the house and opens through glass doors to the backyard entertainment and recreation areas. The ballroom-sized formal living room has intricately inlaid parquet flooring, elegant fifteen-foot ceilings, and a fireplace mantelpiece that's likely an imported antique and probably cost as much as a Mercedes but, none-the-less, looks to Your Mama—quite frankly—far too insubstantial for a room of this magnitude. A double-height library with wrought iron-railed second level book storage gallery also connects through glass doors to the backyard and a somewhat petite-looking formal dining room has chatoyant silver paint (or maybe silver leaf) on the walls.

A lengthy, limestone galleria—and we're talking limestone on the floor and the walls, children—links the public rooms and the main stair hall with it's sweeping circular staircase to a large and less formal den where a deep, window-lined bay holds a breakfast table and wood-framed glass doors allow for direct access to a loggia that runs along the rear of the residence and overlooks the swimming pool.

The adjacent center island kitchen is certainly spacious and well-equipped with high-grade commercial-style appliances and slab marble counter tops but—if we may say so—it looks a bit worse for the wear and more like the domain of a hired chef than a cozy, family-oriented kitchen. That's probably neither here nor there, however, since Your Mama would bet both our long-bodied bitches, Linda and Beverly, that the kitchen (and service areas) will get a soup-to-nuts overhaul that conforms to the exact specifications of Mister Puck.

Even less formal and more family and kid friendly are a billiard lounge over the garage (with awning-shaded Juliet balcony) and a series of rooms in the garage-level basement that includes a rather make-shift-looking screening room with large screen projection system and an expansive (and rather brown) family room with built-in bar and—inexplicably—two different types of paver tiles that collide in the most decoratively unholy fashion right in the center of the room where it can't be missed by anyone but the blind. Anyhoo...

In addition to the six or seven en suite guest/family bedrooms there's a superstar-sized second floor master suite comprised of sitting room (with fireplace) and bedroom (with two Juliet balconies from which one can see the hulking roof of the Pritzker's new mega-mansion). A mirrored boudoir for the lady of the house leads to extensive closets and dual bathrooms, hers in white with green marble accents and his with more masculine chocolate brown marble accents.

The vine-encrusted rear façade gives way to a 3,500-ish square foot terrace that spans the full width of the house, wraps around three sides of the swimming pool and spa and extends away from the house towards the ravine that runs along the rear of the property.

The multi-winged manse is ringed by a handful of of loggias and (sometimes awning-shaded) patios. The one of the den and kitchen end of the house has a fountain and, back up on the second floor, a second-floor loggia lounge over-looks the motor court and is outfitted with a marble mantel fireplace plus ceiling-mounted heaters and a sturdy-looking stone balustrade topped by a series of stone arches held up by spiral, carved stone (or maybe cast concrete) columns. At the front of the property, where it's fencing enclosure is a bit too visible from the gated driveway entrance, a sunken, lighted and chain link fence-enclosed tennis court is overlooked by a shady viewing pavilion.

As far as we know, Mister and Missus Puck will move to their big new digs in Bel Air from a walled, gated, high-hedged and comparatively modest 4,725 square foot Spanish-style home in The Flats of Beverly Hills, near the West Hollywood border, that property records and other online resources show Mister Puck picked up in June 2003 for $3,675,000.

And, for the curious, in addition to their titanic new house, the Pritzkers maintain a multi-residence compound in the Topanga (CA), in the rugged mountains above Malibu, part of which they only recently acquired, in June (2013) for $2.7 million, from Emmy-winning reality television pioneer Johnathan Murray, producer of everything from The Real World to The Simple Life to Keeping Up with the Kardashians to Project Runway.

*An early 2012 article about the increasing proliferation of newly built mega-mansions in the Wall Street Journal describes the Pritzker's glassy new mansion as having "a two-level basement with amenities including a game room, bowling alley, bar and media library. Above ground, there's a gym with changing rooms, his-and-hers offices, an arts-and-crafts room and a hairdressing area. Other buildings on the property, including a detached recreation room and a guest house, bring the total square footage of the compound to just over 53,000 square feet." Another article from March 2012 states that the Pritzker's new pad "offers panoramic views from downtown to the Santa Monica Bay and has a hefty 72 kilowatts of solar power, geothermal cooling, and state-of-the-art energy-efficient lighting and climate control."

**It's not clear to Your Mama if Missus Puck still designs high-end handbags (or custom couture gowns or anything else) but her so-called Paris Collection of hand bags, which made its debut in 2006, were hand-crafted in South Africa with exotic hides like springbok, ostrich and crocodile. 

listing photos: Everett Fenton Gidley for Westside Estate Agency

The Beckhams Sell in the Country and Make Offer in the City

The latest celebrity real estate reports out of the U.K. say that after several years of trying David and Victoria Beckham have finally up and sold Rowneybury House—a.k.a. Beckingham Palace, their country estate in Hertfordshire in an off-market dear for for £12 million. (That's $19,207,300 at today's rates, according to Your Mama's trusty currency conversion contraption.)

Your Mama has no specific intel on the matter but the reported sale price allegedly includes not just the Georgian style pile and manicured grounds but several luxury cars—including a Ferrari and two Jaguars—as well as Domaine Saint-Vincent, their little-used holiday home in the south of France valued at around £2.6 million ($4,161,590).

The (now retired) footballer—that's a soccer player to all us Americanos—and the pop star turned fashion designer purchased the estate in late 1999 for about £2.5 million ($4,161,590).* Over the years, they added, among other amenities and luxuries, a helipad, a recording studio, fitness facility, a 52-foot long marble-floored garden pavilion, a lighted tennis court, and both indoor and outdoor swimming pools.

So the scuttlebutt goes, the comely couple desire a more cosmopolitan urban life and have already made an offer on a four-story and £45 million mansion in West London where they hope celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay will design the kitchen and designer Kelly Hoppen will do up the day-core.**

Mister and Missus Beckham, according to various reports, plan to educate their four children in the U.K. but spend holidays in the United States where they continue to own a gated estate in Beverly Hills that they scooped up back in mid-2007 for $18,200,000.

*Some reports put the property at 12 acres, others at 17 acres, and still more at 22 acres. 

**Call Your Mama a real estate cynic—and we've been called worse—but something seems amiss here. We know that Mister and Missus Beckham are wealthy by any standard. They are, to be sure, sick rich. Indeed, the folks at Forbes estimated in 2012 that the couple earned over $50 million between May 2011 and May 2012. But, seriously people, are they really rolling in so much clover they can afford a £45 million house? That's more than 72 million U.S. dollars, a vast amount of money to spend on a house that will surely require millions in customizing renovations and as ass load of dinero every year just to staff and maintain.

photo: Pacific Coast News

Roman Abramovich Buyin' Big at Berwind Mansion

BUYERS: Roman Abramovich and Dasha Zhukova
LOCATION: New York City, NY
PRICE: $72,000,000 (last list)
SIZE: 8 bedrooms and 8 full and 5 half bathrooms

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: First came word via the property gossip gal at the New York Post that Russian bazillionaire Roman Abramovich and his art-minded heiress lady-mate and baby momma, Dasha Zhukova, are in contract to acquire three of the five apartments at the so-called Berwind Mansion, a French Renaissance edifice from the Gilded Age that presides over the busy but plum corner of New York City's Fifth Avenue and East 64th Street.

Amid much publicity and hullaballoo, the three units—a duplex maisonette (above), a triplex (below), and a simplex penthouse—were first hoisted on the open market, as a group, in May 2012 with an asking price of $72,000,000. They were taken off the market in January 2013 but, obviously, they remained for sale and the New York Post says the Abramovich-Zhukova deal is going down in the $75 million range.

Listing details don't indicate how many square feet the three units encompass but, based on our rudimentary and entirely unscientific calculations, Your Mama figures they weigh in as a group with about 13,000 square feet with total of eight bedrooms and eight full and five half bathrooms.*

All three units—which amount to a 72% ownership of the co-operative building—are currently owned by the Monaco-based family of the late (and wicked rich) commercial real estate developer Howard Ronson who, among other endeavors, built a dozen or so skyscrapers in Manhattan. Mister Ronson and his family acquired the non-contiguous units, according to our research, in four separate transactions between June 2005 and February 2008 that totaled almost $34,000,000. That's right, puppies, the three units are not contiguous. The rear duplex maisonette and the triplex (on floors 2-4) do abut but the sixth floor simplex penthouse (below) is separated from the triplex by a the fifth floor. But, have no real estate fear, butter beans, because...

...quick on the heels of The Post's mouth watering real estate news came the even more delicious property dish from the fine folks at New York Observer that jet-setting Russians are not only in contract to buy the three Ronson-owned apartments but they also plan acquire the remaining two units in building. The couple have reportedly reached an agreement to acquire the fifth floor simplex for an unknown amount from an as-yet unidentified lady who spends most of her time in South America and they are still in talks with 80-ish year old Cuba-born fashion designer turned licensing powerhouse Adolfo (Sardina) to sell the Fifth Avenue-facing duplex maisonette he's owned and occupied since 1987 when he bought it from renown sexologist Shere Hite.

The Berwind Mansion, with its two-story rusticated limestone base, bowed façade, polished granite columns and wedding cake-fancy cornice, was designed by the relatively unknown architect Nathan Clark Mellen and built in the mid-1890s for coal tycoon Edward J. Berwind. Mister Berwind hired the esteemed French decorating firm of Jules Allard et Fils to do up the interiors and they did them up, children, in a gilt-trimmed and ostentatiously ornate manner that comfortably befits a Gilded Age robber baron or a modern day multi-billionaire.

The house was sold in the 1940s by Mister Berwind's sister—the last person to occupy the premises as a single family residence—for about $300,000 to the Institute of Aeronautical Studies who sold it on to the American Heart Association. The building was returned to residential use in the early 1980s when it was cut up into nine apartments that were eventually, thanks to the Ronsons, consolidated in to just five.

Disco legend Donna Summer (allegedly) lived for a time in an elegant suite of rooms on the main floor and, in 2002, former New York Mayor Rudy Guiliani (allegedly) declined to purchase the modern-minded penthouse—so the story goes—because it lacks a separate formal dining room. Long before she shelled out $32 million for her triple-wide townhouse on East 82nd Street, Madonna had a look-see at one of the palatial apartments and—so the story goes—laid on the floor for 15 minutes staring at the gilt-trimmed ceiling. (Her Madgesty decided against purchasing the unit as there's no direct access to a garage.)

In addition to the aforementioned sexologist Shere Hite, previous owners at The Berwind include hotel developer Stephen Brighenti, who owned the rear duplex maisonette—the one with the 4,0000 bottle wine cellar and private grotto garden that was sold to Mister Ronson in late 2006 for $4.7 million. Computer scientist Joel Birnbaum owned the baroquely ornamented parlor floor spread that Madonna (allegedly) peeped and sold it to Mister Ronson in early 2007 for $8,500,000. Property developer T. Richard Butera owned the penthouse, with its high-gloss wood floors, wrap-around wall of floor-to-ceiling windows, and private, park-view terrace until it was sold in early 2008 for $11 million to the family of the (by then deceased) Mister Ronson. (The penthouse also has exclusive access to a kitchenette-equipped private terrace with over-the-tree-tops park view.)

Howard Ronson's first purchase at The Berwind was in June 2005 when, in a single transaction, he paid $9,750,000 for two apartments on the third and fourth floors. The units were later combined with the parlor floor to create the existing triplex with interiors designed by the late Paris-based high-society interior designer Alberto Pinto. Listing photos show the sumptuously done apartment retains much of its extravagant architectural garnishing as well as a sleek, 33-plus foot long Euro-style galley kitchen on the parlor floor, all new bathrooms and roomy walk-in closets and dressing rooms, and a much more contemporarily decorated 700-ish square foot family room/media lounge that overlooks the park from the fourth floor.

Before the Ronson clan put the three units up for sale they leased them out at premium prices. In September 2009 the penthouse was put out for lease at $30,000 per month (and again in the fall of 2010 for $35,000 per month) and in March 2010 the rear duplex maisonette—the one with the private grotto garden—went up for grabs at $14,000 per month. They were each quickly rented to an unknown tenant at an unknown price for an unknown period of time.

Mister Abramovich's beig buy in New York City is hardly much of a surprise given that his trophy property purchasing ways are legendary amongst property gossips around the globe. In addition to a couple of ship-sized boats, several jets plus a custom-converted Boeing 767, and a slew of blue-chip artworks—think Freud and Bacon, the lavish living father of seven owns, by his own tally, more than a dozen homes. They include: A 70-acre waterfront compound on St. Barts that cost him almost $90 million; A sea-side villa in Cap d'Antibes near Cannes—the so-called Chateau de la Cröe—that was once home to the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, later owned by Greek shipping magnate Stavros Niarchos, and cost him around £30 million; Two substantial ranch-estates near Aspen, CO, including the 200-ish Wildcat Ridge that cost him almost $37 million; Several substantial residences in London including an approximately $145 million manse in the guard-gated and heavily secured Kensington Palace Gardens enclave; And, finally, four homes in Russia including a large estate in Moscow on which sits—so the story goes—the former home of Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev.

*The six-floor (plus basement) building has approximately 30 feet of Fifth Avenue frontage and stretches a bit more than 100 feet along East 64th Street. A few quick and rudimentary calculations on Your Mama's bejeweled abacus based on the measurements shown on the floor plans shows that's roughly2,600 square feet per floor and approximately 18,000 square feet over all. The duplex maisonette and the simplex penthouse each have two bedrooms and 2.5 bathrooms and the triplex has four bedrooms and four full and three half bathrooms.

listing photos and floor plans: Stribling and Corcoran

Matthew Wilder Lists Malibu Estate

SELLER: Matthew Wilder and Tamara Dunn
LOCATION: Malibu, CA
PRICE: $6,850,000
SIZE: 1,980 square feet, 3 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: As far as this property gossip is concerned there's no better time to go to the beach than early October, after the summer crowds have traded their bathing suits for scarves and before the moody and damp coastal winter really sets in. Last night, in a dreamy seaside state of mind, Your Mama stayed up late with a (third) gin & tonic and took a slow wander through a few newly listed properties in the bare-footed and boho but hideously expensive ocean-side community of Malibu (CA). It wasn't long before we came across a fetching multi-acre mini-compound recently put on the open market for $6,850,000 and owned, as per property records, by singer/songwriters Matthew Wilder and Tamara Dunn.*

In the late 1970s and early '80s Mister Wilder (née Weiner) sung back up for legendary ladies like Rickie Lee Jones and Bette Midler and in 1983 he rocketed to one-hit-wonder fame with the Reggae-inspired synth-pop hit Break My Stride, a catchy and upbeat ditty that remains in rotation on many retro-themed radio stations. (Here he is, children, back in the day on Solid Gold, kinky-haired, mustachioed, and all decked out in a layered, Flashdance-y sweatshirt situation and skin-tight leather pants.) 

His career as a recording artist quickly ebbed but Mister Wilder, who (still) sports creative facial hair configurations and corkscrew curled locks, eventually secured a solid and (presumably) lucrative foothold in the music industry as a song writer and music producer for a variety of movies and television programs including Dawson's Creek, and Pretty Woman as well as a slew of Disney productions like The Lizzie Maguire Movie. In 1995 he produced No Doubt's diamond-, gold- and platinum-certified third album, Tragic Kingdom, and over the years wrote and/or produced tracks and records for a slew of young pop stars who include Christina Aguilera, Kelly Clarkson, Selena Gomez, and Miley Cyrus...in her pre-twerking Hannah Montana days. In the late 1990s Mister Wilder wrote and produced the score to the Disney animated feature Mulan, an effort that earned him Grammy, Golden Globe, and Academy Award nominations.

As far as our brief and unscientific research can tell, Tamara Dunn is most often identified on the internets as a songwriter. We did find evidence she co-penned—with Mister Wilder—the 2009 Billy Ray Cyrus song Back to Tennesee but otherwise Your Mama dug up up little specific professional information.

Anyways, Mister Wilder and Miz Dunn own two separate but contiguous parcels that were purchased from the same seller in two separate transactions in October 2004. The larger, 7.39-acre property—the one that's for sale for $6,850,000—cost them $2,375,000. The smaller, 4.57 acre spread next door was purchased for $1.2 million and remains unimproved open space. Online marketing materials show it's available for separate purchase at $1,250,000.

A long gated driveway passes over a rugged, river rock-lined stream bed and cuts sinuously through a manicured swathe of rolling lawn before it makes a sweeping rise to a motor court at the front of the partly stone-faced board and batten-sided ranch-style residence that listing information shows has three bedrooms and three bathrooms in 1,980 square feet. For the record, we think the house seems much larger than two thousand square feet but 1,980 is what the listing says and what do we know anyways, right? Digital marketing materials show that in addition to the fully updated and upgraded 1950's era ranch house, the compound-like property has a concrete pool-side structure, a professional recording studio, and, situated for optimal privacy near the head of the driveway, a self-contained guest house.

The front of the house wraps around three sides of an otherwise walled and gated red brick entry courtyard where a giant carved stone bust of Buddha** that sits in a shallow water-filled trough is but a hint of many, many, many statues and figurines of Buddhist and Hindu deities, not to mention a mountain of New Age-y crystals and geodes, to be found throughout the house and grounds. Clearly Mister Wilder and Miz Dunn feel the need to attract a lot of spiritual energy to their residential surroundings. Be that as it may...

Steel-framed glass front doors open from the courtyard in to a unusually roomy entrance gallery with polished concrete floors under foot and an exposed wood ceiling pierced by a couple of sky lights over head and, on the back wall, a raised and slightly off-center white brick fireplace filled with candles. Narrow doorways on either side of the fireplace connect to a combination living and dining room with (downright yummy) wide-plank reclaimed oak floors and crisp white paint on the walls and the vaulted exposed wood beam ceiling. A white brick fireplace anchors the living room area while three walls of floor-to-ceiling steel-framed glass windows and doors surround the dining area in an undeniably dramatic fashion and open out to a large deck that over looks over the backyard towards the house dotted canyon.

A sliding, steel-framed glass door separates the living/dining room from a large kitchen where, at one end, in front of a wall of windows, there's a cozy lounge and at the other end an expensively equipped kitchen with a double-sided six-stool snack counter integrated in to the center island. The top-quality appliances, the eagle eyed amongst us will have already noted, include a glass-doored walk-in chiller very similar if not identical to the one The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills cast member Yolanda Foster has in her kitchen.

Listing photographs indicate there are two den-type rooms, one a loungey, window-lined yet still dark and brooding room just off the living/dining room and the other a lighter-brighter one off the entrance gallery with polished concrete floors, a vaulted ceiling, a third white brick fireplace (this one surmounted by one of the many flat-screen televisions to be be found throughout), and an attached bathroom.

There are two guest/family bedrooms, both with direct outdoor access, and a sizable master suite with a spacious sitting area and a wall-mounted television with integrated speaker system. The attached master bathroom is a spare but luxuriously earthy spa-like space with a egg-shaped soaking tub, a super-sized open shower area and a cantilevered vanity crafted from a thick and rugged slab of wood.

A multi-purpose deck that runs the full width of the house has, at one end, a rough-hewn but high style picnic-type table, some uncomfortable looking stools and a fire pit in the middle, and, at the far end, a comfy-looking collection cushioned sofas and lounges.

Surrounding the rigorously rectilinear swimming pool and inset spa are several sunbathing terraces and a pergola-shaded outdoor living room with linear built-in fire pit. Other structures sprinkled about the years near the pool include a enclosed garden—enclosed to keep the deer and critters out, an open-air pavilion, and a barn-like pool house/party lounge with steel-framed glass windows and doors, rugged concrete walls, and a vaulted exposed wood beam ceiling.

Some of Mister Wilder and Miz Dunn's nearest neighbors include German radio and television host Thomas Gottschalk and a handful of Tinseltown power players like three-time Emmy-winning writer/producer Richard Appel, sick rich, philanthropic and terminally ill nine-time Emmy-winning comedy writer/producer Sam Simon,*** and Emmy-winning television super-producer Marcy Carsey who also owns a much more fabulous ocean-front spread nearby on the bluffs above Escondido Beach. At the tail end of the road, tucked into a rugged but verdant canyon is the by-appointment-only Ramirez Canyon Park, the 22.5-acre former compound of long-time Malibu resident Barbra Streisand who donated the property in 1993 to the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy.****

*To be honest, we're not really sure if Miz Dunn and Mister Wilder are married and/or if they have any children, together and/or with other people, and, to be even more honest, we're not really sure those details are particularly important in today's celebrity (-related) real estate tale.

**Identification of religious iconography really isn't a strong suit for Your Mama so we really can't say for sure if the giant carved stone bust in the courtyard is Buddha or—as it very well may be—some other eastern deity. 

***Sam Simon, a regular on Howard Stern's radio program, was one of the original creators of the ground-breaking, award-winning, and money-minting animated series The Simpsons. He left in 1993 over creative differences with co-creators Matt Groening and James Brooks but, lucky for him, retains an executive producer title and an income that he himself told the Stanford alumni magazine in 2009 amounts to "tens of millions" of dollar per year. 

****(In 2011 Governor Jerry Brown suggested the state sell the property to help close a gaping budget gap but, as far as we know, no real action has been taken to unload the property.)

listing photos: Coldwell Banker