Spec Homes: Luxury, No Fuss — “They Just Want to Bring Their Clothes”

A version of this story first appeared in the July 3 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe.

Forget simple staging. Full-fledged interior designers now are being conscripted to completely outfit L.A.’s new breed of $20 million-plus spec homes.

“At this level, you’re designing for buyers who are purchasing their second, third or fourth home. They just want to bring their clothes,” says Shelly Osadon, who, together with her developer husband, recently completed a $23.8 million contemporary compound on Beverly Grove Drive. Osadon decorated every inch of the 15,500-square-foot home, even installing custom-designed electric toothbrushes in all bathrooms. “They’re $350 each,” says the designer, who also tapped celebrity photographer Giuliano Bekor to custom curate his photographs for every room in the house.

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Earlier this year, when Minecraft creator Markus Persson dropped $70 million on a Trousdale Estates spec spread, he acquired a Dom Perignon-stocked wine cellar and a candy bar sweetened with $200,000 of goodies.

The trend extends to luxe locations south of the border, where one listing comes with a Hummer and a golf cart. “This is about vacation homes that are completely ready for residents to visit at the drop of a hat,” says The Agency’s Christopher Miller of the $2.3 million, four-bedroom home located in the Villas Del Mar resort in Palmilla, Los Cabos, where Bono, Ben Stiller and Robert De Niro all have stayed.

“Right now we’re seeing homes on the market that are stocked down to the china, silverware, the champagnes and tequilas,” says Stacy Gottula of Coldwell Banker Previews International. “I had a client who wanted to buy everything in the house, including the homeowner’s alligator boots. But he wasn’t willing to part with them,” adds the realtor, who also is the co-listing agent on the country’s priciest home on the market, the $195 million Palazzo di Amore in Beverly Hills. “It’s completely stocked with 10,000 bottles of wine downstairs and 3,000 bottles upstairs,” says Gottula. “If someone wanted to include all of that wine in the purchase, I’m sure it could be done.”