Mansionmania Tournament: Round 1, Heat 19

[Rain Man]

Mansionmania continues. I'm going to show you the most expensive homes in every state and a few territories, with a few extras thrown in from the largest states to get the tourney up to 64. It'll be a single-elimination tournament.

You will choose among each pair of houses with the following assumptions:

• The purchase price for you is $0.
• All maintenance, utilities, property taxes, HOA fees, and cleaning is included.
• You must live in the home for the rest of your life.
• You can't travel more than 100 miles from home (via google maps drive time) other than 1 two-week vacation each year.
• You get $250,000 per year as a living allowance
• You get an additional living allowance at the cheaper home, which will be valued at 1% of any cost difference annually. I will note this amount in the poll.
• You get the furnishings. If unfurnished, you get an allowance that will give you mid-grade furniture in every room.
• You get any vehicles in the garage. But only the garage - nothing parked outside.

I encourage you to click on the maps in the listings to see the general location and neighborhood.

Also, I will only enter contestants if they have a sufficient number of photos to judge, as determined by me.

Your entries in this heat are:

Nevada:

https://www.realtor.com/realestatean...1_M91934-91767

New York:

https://www.realtor.com/realestatean...2_M91723-55529

[Buehler445]

Both houses are awesome.

I'm going Lake Tahoe, but if I were a city guy, that NY condo....awesome.

[wazu]

Really tough choice. Two VERY different lifestyles. Ultimately I'm going with Nevada. On Lake Tahoe that is basically a resort home. Would be a more peaceful existence. And this is one where the stipend pushes me over the top. New York place is an absolute dream, but surrounded by people and the stipend actually wouldn't cover the lifestyle I would imagine goes with living in such a place.

[MagicHef]

I think I'd go insane in that NY condo. Also, I'm surprised any time one of these outrageously expensive houses doesn't have a pool.

[EPodolak]

Went with Nevada, waterfront and mild weather would trump just about everything these days. It's a great house too. Man, $169M for the penthouse? Crazy expensive.

[MagicHef]

The NY penthouse listing doesn't even show most of the kitchen. I had to check the floorplan to make sure it had more than just a sink.

[Rain Man]

Now, these houses fit the definition of 'mansion'.

Nevada - I'm discovering that it's hard to make a mansion feel warm. The rooms are usually too big. But this one comes kind of close to that, and it fits the Nevada vibe. In that location I think you're going to get a lot of snow, which isn't ideal, but those lake views are pretty darn nice. You can get to Reno, Carson City, and Tahoe, and the nice thing is that there are lots of restaurants that you could even walk to from the house. You've got neighbors who are closer than they should be, but it's lakefront so I get it. The house isn't my favorite, but it would be really nice. And the stipend is enormous, so I'd figure out all sorts of creative ways to enjoy life.

New York - Wow wow wow. This has to be one of the most unique properties in New York, if not the most unique. I like New York and could easily live there, and the apartment is fantastic. But - and this is a deal killer - I could not live on the 96th floor of a building. It would freak me out. I'd always be wondering when something bad is going to happen and I'll fall 1,000 feet to my death. There's such a thing as being too high. I realize that the same problem could occur on the 10th floor, but it just seems more inevitable on the 96th floor. As fantastic as the property and the city is, I'm going to take a hard pass on this.

I'll choose Nevada, and I'll tip $1,000 every time I go to a restaurant.

[lawrenceRaider]

While the views are pretty cool, I just have no desire to live that high in a building.

Lake Tahoe is much more my speed anyway. Sacramento is just outside that 100 mile range, might be able to figure out a route to get there.

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by EPodolak

Went with Nevada, waterfront and mild weather would trump just about everything these days. It's a great house too. Man, $169M for the penthouse? Crazy expensive.

Incline Village is going to get a ton of snow, though, which is kind of my only mark against it. But I'd buy a giant robot SUV with tank tracks instead of tires.

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by MagicHef

I think I'd go insane in that NY condo. Also, I'm surprised any time one of these outrageously expensive houses doesn't have a pool.

The other issue in New York is not having any private outdoor space, or even convenient outdoor space. Central Park is awesome, but it's probably 15 minutes away by the time you use the elevator.

Granted, I don't want outdoor space on the 96th floor, but I want outdoor space in general.

[TinyEvel]

196 million dollars and you can't even open a window? Nope.

The Nevada house has about 95% too much oak moulding for my taste but I'd take it for the setting. Plus I'm just not cool with living on the 96th floor of anything. Lunch for a couple hours with that view? Sure. But be there all my life? Nopity nope nope.

Oh, also the Nevada home comes with a gullwing Mercedes and a Ferrari Dino.

[osumatt]

The Mercedes Gullwing tipped it in Nevada's favor for me.

[Old Dog]

Nevada and the 1.5million/year is a pretty easy decision for me

[KCUnited]

I went with Nevade plus the 1.45

[Rain Man]

I just noticed that I apparently opted for a French spelling of Nevada. My apologies to the Silver State.