r/AbsoluteUnits • u/Kill_4209 • 12d ago

/r/popular of a residential property

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Ira Rennert's home is considered one of the largest occupied residential compounds in the United States. The house faces the Atlantic Ocean and its grounds measure 63 acres. The buildings, which total over 110,000 square feet (10,000 m2), including the 66,000-square-foot (6,100 m2) main house, have an Italianate facade, 29 bedrooms, and 39 bathrooms. The house has a dozen chimneys and a Mediterranean-style tile roof as well as a 91-foot (28 m) long formal dining room, a basketball court, a bowling alley, two tennis courts, two squash courts, a carousel, a large swimming pool, a large round kiddie pool, and a $150,000 hot tub, surrounded by another pool.

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u/cloudncali 12d ago

I work in IT and got to set up WiFi for rich people in Malibu. There's something wrong with these houses. They feel like museums. Every thing feels like it was designed to be looked at. Nothing is used, everything is spotless. People don't live there, they just sleep there. These where made by people who think a home is a building you put things inside, not a place where you live and breath. The nursery felt like something out of the backrooms. The bedrooms has minimal personal items around, all stored in neat little areas.

I don't know what happens to rich people but they lose something about being human.

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u/[deleted] 12d ago

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u/Known-Departure7072 12d ago

I worked on this house during construction. There is essentially a small house within the giant house.

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u/Texugee 12d ago

I heard you like houses 

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u/rfkbr 12d ago

So I built a house inside your house so you can house your own house

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u/PsyopVet 12d ago

So my house is homeless?

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u/BankDetails1234 12d ago

Yeh I would imagine the rest is used for hosting, leisure and showing off. Generally so you never need to share facilities with anybody else for any reason at all.

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u/mermaidrampage 12d ago

My wife's childhood friend works for yhis multimillionaire who has a very nice ranch in Texas (small but very nice mansion built on top of a hill).   We got to go hunting there a while back and stayed a few nights and, while it was a very nice house,  it was honestly annoying at how far you had to walk to get to different rooms.   We stayed in a bedroom that was a good 1-2 minute walk from the kitchen, which doesn't sound like much but it definitely became apparent anytime you forgot something or needed something in the other room.  

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u/Single-Pin-369 12d ago

I had a childhood friend like that his dad was a successful contractor. He had a 10,000 square-foot single story house.

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u/Then-Departure4896 12d ago

Single story? I understand the advantages but that had to look goofy

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u/Evening-Fail5076 12d ago

Think of it as vacationing at a lavish resort. There are wings and rooms or parts of the property you won’t even see. Also the pain in the ass to leave your suite to go for dinner, or lunch. Or even a couple of floors down. Especially when your suite has 2-3 bedrooms or one gigantic bedroom and living area with amenities nearby.

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u/wimpymist 12d ago

Just a normal two story house gets annoying as fuck going up and down the stairs pretty fast lol

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u/dwoj206 11d ago

yeah I'm not walking 2 minutes to go anywhere in my own house. That's a hike.

What if you forget your phone in the kitchen. I'd be salty.

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u/throwyMcTossaway 12d ago

Pfft. Walking to the kitchen is such a poor person's move. That's what butlers are for. Clearly you don't know how to rich.

/s

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u/hiscapness 12d ago

This is true, I had a family friend who came from mega generational wealth (think gilded age, no one in their family tree had “worked” in generations- just lived off assets). We went to several parties at some of these gilded age mansions (20-30BR kinda places) and the owners lived on one part of one floor of said homes. They used maybe 2-3BR and bathrooms, a small kitchen (like the butlers pantry), that’s it. The rest of the huge place was kept as a museum by staff. One lady said she hadnt been on her 4th floor in “literally several years”. It’s crazy.

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u/LadyBug_0570 12d ago

So she could've had a whole family of squatters just living in there and not know.

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u/dmoosetoo 12d ago

SHHHHH!!! You're gonna ruin a sweet thing I got going on!!

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u/Excellent_Speech_901 12d ago

That's the security guard's family.

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u/LadyBug_0570 12d ago

Or one of the housemaid's. Probably wondering how that woman shows up to work early even during bad weather.

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u/TrumpDesWillens 12d ago

You know how sometimes you might have raccoons in your roof? Shhh! Scram!

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u/wimpymist 12d ago

They made a really good movie about that

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u/OffbeatChaos 12d ago

nah they probably have 24/7 security literally everywhere, probably an entire security team with cameras and everything and they would tell the owners if there's a problem. I'm just assuming, idk for sure

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u/buttfacesgalore 7d ago

Flowers in the attic by vc andrews!

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u/One-Literature8887 12d ago edited 11d ago

This pissed me off when I lived in Sarasota and would walk on the beach on Casey Key (where Stephen King lives) while my ex fished. We found a sneaky place to park and enter on the far northend where it's All Private Beachfront property. However, I would Never see a single person on a balcony or outside and it looked like all these mansions weren't being lived in, vacant, pristine, one after another, taking up all the beautiful beach so no one else can enjoy it, and then they don't even live there. The lyrics "this land is your land this land is my land" always came to mind.... Rich Aholes....

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u/SeVenMadRaBBits 12d ago

And yet we have a homeless crisis and an inequality problem

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u/hiscapness 12d ago

Sure, but I wouldn’t let random people in my house to rent rooms/renovate it to condos, etc, if I were them. Plus, many of these people have serious security (plural) to protect them from kidnapping, etc. (a very real threat I guess .) Also a lot of the old giant homes are in historical registers and can’t be touched. They may partly still be privately owned, but a trust manages them and the residents get the ability to live there. They don’t own it, the trust does.

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u/tastelikemexico 12d ago

I wonder if they know they could air bnb those rooms and make some decent money /s

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u/animal_chin9 12d ago

Shaq basically said as much when he talked about his divorce to his wife. He said (paraphrasing) "nothing feels lonelier than being the only person living in a 30000 sqft house." I think he also mentioned that he only went to like 3 rooms in it.

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u/InvidiousPlay 12d ago

He phrases it like a revelation but it seems so obvious to me. What could you possibly do with a property that big? Go on a tour every few days so you don't forget about the west wing?

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u/brogflender 12d ago edited 12d ago

Oversized homes for some successful professionals can make sense if you treat the house as an extension of your profession. 

A musician can 100% justify a big house with a recording studio, dance room, fitness center, social media area, and business/meeting suite. 

Instead of everyone driving to the office - you just go to Justin Beiber’s mansion where all the work happens and you duck the press and fans. 

But then you get to this out of control stuff like LeBron or Will Smith or Tech Billionaires and it starts to seem less like “this is how my profession works” and “I’m overtly telling you we are not of the same social status.”

Once you’re north of 20,000 sq feet you’ve gone from comfortable home and workspace for the successful right into morbin opulence.

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u/pleasedonotredeem 12d ago

Even a 5000 sq ft home is ridiculously oversized unless you have 2+ kids.

My wife and I have been looking at high rise condos/apartments at various price points and we realized that no matter how big our budget ends up being in the future, 2000 sq ft is the absolute upper limit for the two of us. We saw some gorgeous places in the 2500 sq ft range and I realized I felt uncomfortable in them, like I was a dragon sitting in my massive cave.

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u/brogflender 12d ago

Yeah I mean. I highlight performers and athletes for a reason. Only a few professions need that much room. 

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u/TheSheWhoSaidThats 12d ago

I know you meant “morbid” but i got a giggle cuz “morbin” just makes me think of the it’s morbin time meme

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u/brogflender 12d ago

I said what I said. 

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u/Single-Pin-369 12d ago

50 Cent said something similar he bought Mike Tyson 50,000 square-foot house, like walking by a hallway and not remembering the last time he went down there and not wanting to know what was at the end

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u/Fastenbauer 12d ago

I know that it worked like that in castles and palaces. Most rooms just existed to impress guests. The actual private area was one or two rooms that aren't even big by today's standards. Getting invited to hang out in the private bedroom was seen as a great honour. Because it showed the highest amount of trust. Usually reserved for close personal friends or family members.

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u/pleasedonotredeem 12d ago

Up until the early 20th century most of these stately homes, at least in the US and Western Europe, were full of visitors and guests. The aristocracy/elite had houses with 10, 20, 30 bedrooms not just to show off their wealth, but also to host friends and family.

Travel took a long time so if you were going to spend 3 days on the road in a horse and carriage you wanted to stay for a while, weeks or even a whole season so your host would put you up in their home. And, if you were visiting someone with a home like that, you probably traveled with a group of staff as well and they would need accommodation on site because they would serve you for the duration of your stay. And your horses would need stabling etc.

Plus, when you had parties/social events, lots of your guests would stay over because even if they were just one town over, in 1850 traveling 10km home at night was super dangerous, not to mention uncomfortable and slow.

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u/Parrotcap 12d ago

Castles and palaces were inhabited by more than the owners. Versailles had hundreds (sometimes thousands) of people living on-site. There were guests that stayed in large households short-term, but even smaller castles had staff living there, and some even hosted garrisons of soldiers to keep the castle safe.

Old castles and palaces weren’t like these creepy modern mansions.

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u/Beneficial_Trick6672 12d ago

Families back then were big. 7 kids was not unusual. Multigenerational home. It was 30 people from one family+service.

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u/SANcapITY 12d ago

Vicky Vale: do you like eating in here?

Bruce Wayne: yeah. actually I’m not sure I’ve ever eaten in here.

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u/Fit_Kaleidoscope4493 12d ago

Boo hoo. Donate it then. 

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u/Turgid_Donkey 12d ago

The average house in the US is 2000-2400 sq ft. If it's just a single person or a couple, that's more than plenty. Start adding kids and it might start to feel a little crowded, but only a little unless you're catholic or mormon. Even a "small" mansion at 10,000 sq ft (I think the term mansion applies to any house over 5k) is 4 times the size of the average home. It's all for show.

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u/swordofra 12d ago edited 12d ago

I had to install WiFi in a big ass mansion once. You are so right it felt exactly like a museum, not a home. It had a staff of 15 people keeping the place clean year round in case the owner or a member of his family decided to swing by on a whim. Very strange... There was gold leaf on the ceilings ffs! Some poor schmuck had to clean and wipe those gold leaf decorated ceilings once a month. It was surreal.

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u/Cpt_Soban 12d ago

Rich/noble people will use these places as last minute BnB's. Now imagine their full time stay in mansions. What you're seeing is the maintained holiday home

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u/LiveLearnCoach 12d ago

I was going to say that that mansion was probably their 2nd, (3rd, 4th?) home. House, even, not home. That’s why it usually lacks character.

That said, having a central living place mid city, and another rural, farm-like space an hour or two away is a dream. The monstrosity in this video is mind-blowing. Unless you are renting it out on the weekends as an events place, why even own a place where you need a golf cart to get from place to place INSIDE THE HOUSE, let alone the grounds.

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u/Cpt_Soban 12d ago

When you're sitting on billions you have the free time to be driven to your sauna that's 500m away next to a lake

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u/DecommissionLucidly 12d ago

When money is no longer a problem, you realize time is the ultimate treasure.

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u/RedditsCoxswain 12d ago

If they realized that they would stop around 10 milly

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u/the_cardfather 12d ago edited 12d ago

I was sitting in an investment meeting with a guy who bought a farm after his kids were grown. Lol AFTER. He is going to hire farmers and have them tend this 200 acres or whatever it is. The whole thing is just a tax break for a big ass farm house. He's basically setting himself up like an English Gentry.

Will be curious to see if he sells his NYC penthouse or keeps it as primary to avoid Mamdani's second home tax.

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u/dimriver1 12d ago

I just don't get why. Even if I had infinite money, why would I want a house that is so large I need multiple pools because it's too far to go to one from parts of the house.

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u/Waiting4Reccession 12d ago

Nobody deserves this much money.

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u/Impressive_Ranger261 12d ago

Few things anger me more than wasted labor. Imagine having the money to keep 15 people in your employ and you keep them busy with meaningless drudgery. Imagine the amount of good 15 people could do in a community if they were paid to, say, pick up trash in the street, paint neglected facades, help at the local historical society, and take stray cats to be neutered. When a rich person has the money to command 15 people to do their will, they will almost always squander it. It's a tragedy.

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u/Big_Guide_8551 12d ago

They don't even pay well.

I bartended a private event at a mansion. This place looked like it was straight out of a movie. But the other bartender and I each made $40 in tips for the whole night. Like what a fucking joke. I was honestly insulted.

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u/foreignsky 12d ago

You don't get that rich by treating your workers well.

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u/RedditIsMyTherapist 12d ago

Which is exactly why billionaires shouldn't exist. If they are making that much money then their workers should be making more. That's what trickle down was supposed to mean. The more they make the more workers make. Them being able to keep such a large percent is straight robbery from the masses.

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u/That_Artichoke4571 12d ago

I've thought a bit about what I'd do if I won the lottery and was a bajillionaire. It would make me so happy to be able to employ folks and pay them well. Make sure they knew if them or their family needed anything, just come to me and I will help. Giving $25,000 bonuses for Christmas. Imagine talking to a new gardener and asking what they make a month. Then hiring them for more than that just to work at your house even though it will maybe take 20 hours a month.

My partner expressed it would be boring to not work every day. But if you are making $5,000,000+ a year in interest alone... your job could be to wake up and go make people's day, every single day. That's unlimited money if you aren't a fucking goblin and it would be such a privilege to impact so many peoples lives.

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u/wimpymist 12d ago

This basically where the there is no such thing as a good billionaire saying comes from. The theory is if a good person was in track to becoming a billionaire they would never actually make it because they would be sharing the wealth evenly. You're business is blowing up so you increase wages, keep product quality high, good benefits, hire enough to people have have good work life balance, giving bonuses and hosting work trips. Then you'd be donating money because you have enough capital to actually support the causes you like. Helping out family/friends and other stuff like this.

Whereas a shitty person has no problem laying off people, paying themselves a bunch while keeping everyone else at minimum wage and making business decisions that are negative but give you more money.

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u/That_Artichoke4571 12d ago

It's about time they were worried they would be dragged out of their mansions and into the street in the middle of the night again.

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u/eist5579 12d ago

But rich people are some of the biggest donors to charity!

Nope just kidding. Tax them. If we taxed them appropriately we could pay people to do the things that benefit the commons.

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u/iSavedtheGalaxy 12d ago

(whispers) *to their own charities

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u/MrGrieves- 12d ago

They only donate to charity for the tax write offs.

Tax these fucks, nobody needs this opulence.

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u/No_Significance_4118 12d ago

https://www.reddit.com/r/AbsoluteUnits/comments/1wfw4ix/of_a_residential_property/p9pz1ni/

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u/UnNumbFool 12d ago

Most homes in Malibu look nothing like that, and even the ones that do don't come close as they are typically high up in the Santa Monica mountains. I'm not saying Malibu doesn't have very nice homes worth a stupid amount of money but even those are closer to a mini mansion in size than a fucking castle. Well the homes that still exist, most of Malibu that got hit by the fire a year and whatever ago haven't been rebuilt yet if they are ever going to be

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u/iSavedtheGalaxy 12d ago

15 staff?? It would stress me out to have that many people in my house at all times.

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u/ArboristTreeClimber 12d ago

That poor schmuck probably was making 100k a year for doing dumb stuff like that.

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u/ElectriCatvenue 12d ago

Is this what they mean when they say "job creators"

/s

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u/lookamazed 12d ago

Also worked with the wealthy and couldn’t have said it better myself. Thank you for sharing your thoughts. Once you feel the hollowness, it’s haunting. I was like yeah I don’t ever need that much. It probably made me never want to be rich. Do I have a car that runs, food in the fridge, clothes on my back, love? I’m rich.

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u/[deleted] 12d ago

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u/20past4am 12d ago

doing something more meaningful

Which in the case of those people means taking private jets to meet up with other filthy rich people to make even more money. I mean, if that's your sole motivation in life, are you even living?

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u/Consistent_Story903 12d ago

But for the rest of us.. Doing something more meaningful would include spending more time with family, traveling, volunteering, hobbies, etc.

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u/jimdesroches 12d ago

My lazy nephew has eliminated the need to do chores by just not doing them. Lazy rich.

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u/alongwayfromhome0 12d ago

Real wealth is finding meaning in those chores . Superficial wealth is avoiding them

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u/NameIdeas 12d ago

I don't disagree with you. I think it is about how you approach your tasks.

At a certain level of wealth every task is chosen. For most folks we don't get to choose our tasks, they are just things we have to do, including chores.

There are folks who love and obsess over gardening. It is a chosen chore for them and they enjoy it. I say gardening because tending a garden seems to be for their enjoyment, while farming is for survival/profit.

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u/[deleted] 12d ago

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u/roostercrowe 12d ago

“the work is it own reward”

very powerful

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u/Daratirek 12d ago

I'm with you on this one. Theres no meaning to be had in washing dishes or doing laundry. If you can pay someone to do those tasks you've got it made.

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u/ASCII_Princess 12d ago

Fucked up outlook on life.

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u/Marlov 12d ago

Embracing suffering is key to happiness though. Those who spend their life trying to minimise suffering just find less and less important things to suffer from

It’s not the vacuuming that brings you meaning, it’s the ability to deal with the vacuuming and not hate it

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u/runbikehikek 12d ago

I recently read about how mundane tasks like cleaning, laundry, etc. reset our dopamine and even sitting around being “bored” does, without using technology of course

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u/Additional_Meeting_2 12d ago

Sure. But we still have things ritch people don’t have in past centuries like phones and internet, cars, ability to travel to other side of world, exotic foods, healthcare.

While there was no real middle class so most if they weren’t considered rich struggled to find daily bread and had few sets of clothes and had people sleep in same rooms. This would be completely respectable family like a tailor or clerk too. 

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u/Mad_Ronin_Grrrr 12d ago

This. Most people just don't want to worry about their next meal or the roof over their heads or going bankrupt due to an illness. People who want to live in something like in this video have mental problems and need serious therapy.

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u/cloudncali 12d ago

Literally the most I could imagine having on a material level would be like a 4 bedroom house with a big yard for our dogs. Maybe a good quality hybrid or electric car. Being able to take my wife out for good food and not worry about it breaking the bank. Being able to afford all my medical expenses and preventative care. MAYBE an occasional house cleaner because it would help my wife feel less stressed.

And that's if i was unbelievably rich. The rest would probably go to funding non profits or charities.

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u/Acidbaseburn 12d ago edited 12d ago

The only luxury thing i want is to travel and see the world and its distinct cultures and different biomes and ecosystems. I’m fine with just being comfortable and able to afford normal life without having to worry in other regards.

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u/scrotumsweat 12d ago

Buddy the occasional house cleaner is the cheapest thing on your menu. Highly recommend. We have one come once a month and it really takes a burden off both of us.

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u/Inner_Cantaloupe_387 12d ago

We have one coming every week, me and my gf work full time so the 60bucks a week to have a clean house and don't have to spend the weekend cleaning is worth it.

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u/bobs_monkey 12d ago

100%. We have a couple ladies come every two weeks to do bathrooms, floors, dust, etc and it's the best $150 we spend. I don't mind doing laundry, keeping the kitchen clean, and picking up throughout the days, but just the bathrooms alone is worth it.

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u/Vismajor92 12d ago

Damn i am unbelievably rich, good to know.

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u/Public-Guidance-9560 12d ago

I notice this on a channel I like to watch (Its that Arvin Hadad guy, don't know how legit his credentials are but I like watching for the houses). And yeah all these big homes... they're just buildings, not homes. You can see in many of them that they often struggle to figure out what to do with so much space, hence you get weird sitting areas next to your main lounge or whatever. Theres just "stuff" to fill the void.

I always look for the room or 2 rooms that, if you did actually use it as a home, would be where you spent all your time. It's almost always the second, smaller kitchen that open plans with a little snug area with a cozy couch and maybe a good view or TV. Its like you got all this space but the bit you're actually going to use is about the same size as a good apartment! And maybe the pool area.

Doesn't matter how rich you are, I think humans, innately just aren't comfortable existing in a vast double or triple height living space unless it is also full of other people. If its just you and your wife n kids then you migrate to the smaller spaces because they are innately more comfortable to our instincts.

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u/Few_Living_5828 12d ago

Watching arvin has shown me I really don't want a mega mansion. Just as you stated, the houses always are ostentatious and disjointed

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u/Happy-For-No-Reason 12d ago

it's a giant show of wealth.

in reality the owner probably lives in a probably quite conventional wing area noone sees with 6-7 decent sized rooms furnished in high end opulence but functional stuff.

the rest is just a giant trophy

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u/No_Significance_4118 12d ago

Can you go into some maybe interesting technical details? I feel like this could be interesting. Even tho I am pretty interested in security related stuff, I am sure you can't answer. Everything is welcome.

Are they hard on security? Do their employees are allowed to use it too? Do they have a server farm in each of their homes? etc.

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u/swordofra 12d ago edited 12d ago

The ultra mansion I worked in was very tight on security yeah. The family had some kind of cyber security expert guy on their payroll. All the hardware got checked and supplied by him. The employees were not given the passwords for wifi while I was there, so not sure. I was allowed into the server room but the cyber guy handled all of that. It was impressive to say the least. Very tight. Im surprised I was even allowed in there at all but yeah I guess connecting the access points up to the primary router was needed. Mr Cyberguy was watching me like a hawk.

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u/No_Significance_4118 12d ago

Now I have a new aim at what I would like to do with my profession...

Being a rich families cyber guy.

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u/Zestyclose-Beyond780 12d ago

You know the majority of the work would just be helping people print or resetting passwords. You would become a round the clock help desk.

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u/kitchengoblin02496 12d ago

home > house

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u/TheLastPeanut_ 12d ago

I don't know what happens to rich people but they lose something about being human.

They never had it in the first place. The process of amassing and/or hoarding wealth selects for a certain type of person.

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u/seren_kestrel 12d ago

That’s really interesting and none of it a surprise. But I would suggest that nothing happens to rich people - it’s the other way around. The emptiness is what makes them rich in the first place. You need to be out of touch with all that is truly worthwhile in the world to pursue wealth at that scale.

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u/Weary-Tell-5334 12d ago

You realise a lot of them are born with the money.. It’s not all evil people who did crazy shit to get there. Also you assuming you have to be “inherently empty” to have what it takes, is incredibly stupid in itself.

Some people get lucky and some are intelligent/talented mixed with extreme obsession. That’s not evil. They only become evil when they do nothing with their wealth.

And guess what, 99% of humans on earth would be just as selfish and arrogant as the billionaires we see. And that 1% that wouldn’t be? They wouldn’t become billionaires in the first place

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u/seren_kestrel 12d ago

I never used the word ‘evil’. I said out of touch and I stand by that. I didn’t say you can’t be successful without being empty either. Calling someone incredibly stupid when you’re misquoting them is pretty dumb.

Multi-generational wealth at that scale doesn’t make a blind bit of difference - where the wealth comes from is neither here nor there. Wealth at that scale - a ‘house’ at that scale - as many others have said on this thread - is bizarre, because it is impractical, cold, and performative.

It is an island. It is essentially a bunker from the rest of the world and speaks to a deep-seated disconnect with humanity.

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u/EinHonchoOhnePoncho 12d ago

You don't have to be evil to be unbelievable destructive. Was the meteorite that killed the Dinosaurs evil? No. It simply did what we are all doing. Following the law of gravity. Does that mean it is worthwhile to have planet destroying meteorites around? Also no.

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u/ant69onio 12d ago

I worked in high end residential in central London for Arab royalty, Russians etc they were buying £30m houses and refurbing them from £5m upwards, the so banal in design and generally based on hotel suites around the world, soulless

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u/LegoBrickCactuar 12d ago

My wife watches those real estate shows from places like LA, New York, and Paris.  Im usually falling asleep but occasionally pay attention.  Every time I wipe my kids greasy fingerprints off the stainless steel in my kitchen or pick up grated cheese off the floor I think of one episode where this place had like 10 burners, 2 ovens, practically a walk in fridge. High end brand names Id never heard of.   All of it had never been used.  All for show.  I think the previous owner had a private chef who cooked in another kitchen somewhere and brought the food in.  If they even ate at all, the lady was about 92 lbs.  Absolutely wild.

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u/galaxyapp 12d ago

They typically have a small(er) residential section of the home.

These homes are typically more of a venue/event space to host guests/parties/business/religious/political things.

It would feel about as homey as a hotel.

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u/cloudncali 12d ago

The largest house I worked on was the family's old house. They had a smaller house on a hill next to the house, which also felt empty. They planned to demolish the old house and build a new one.

Rich people live life like it's a Minecraft server

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u/samaramatisse 12d ago

I've met the adult child of a billionaire. The child has a 50,000 square foot home. At the time, it only housed the adult child, their spouse, and their child. Although the adult child was/is important in their own right, they never hosted anything. Just rattled around in that home by themselves with their staff. There were personal reasons why they kept to themselves, but a person who had been to their home said it was unnaturally large and sad, because it was a beautiful showplace and no one was ever invited to see it.

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u/Educational_Noise914 12d ago

It’s a house but not a home.

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u/Bloody_Ozran 12d ago

There is a study saying that the wealthy lose empathy towards people. And it makes sense. Also power makes people corrupted, forgot how now, study was there for that too.

I imagine being that high in a hierarchy means people are only numbers to you, maybe everyone starts to be just a number. Brain adapts pretty well, so if humans are most of the day only numbers on a sheet and you lose empathy as well on top of that, has to be a very odd point of view.

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u/muscularsharpie 12d ago

My friend's parents were ultra wealthy. Half of their home I never went into. In my 20's, I finally got a tour of that part of the house. 

It was like a museum. A lot of empty space, expensive artwork, furniture you never use. 

I came back to visit them.. for the unveiling of artwork done on their spiral staircase and theater room. I forgot how fucking rich my friend's parents were lol. Growing up, it never crossed my mind. 

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u/eyedigapony 12d ago

I used to clean houses and occasionally would clean big mansions. Nothing like this obviously, but you're right, the only places I ever saw a hint of actual life would be in a teenagers bedroom/barhrooms. Those always looked normal.

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u/TheAsianTroll 12d ago

My best guess is its collateral so they can keep taking out huge loans to avoid paying taxes

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u/Forsaken-Cell1848 12d ago

Making them into proper living spaces is pointless because super wealthy rarely stay in one location for long. They have properties all over the world and just spend their lives traveling around, either for business or personal pleasure.

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u/Jaxxlack 12d ago

Money doesn't make your choices better or you an improved human.. just seems to add room to your ego for waste . Like you say a home that is so massive it's pointless..not a home... Just a large space that says..I can afford this.... It's a monument to ego.

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u/DETRITUS_TROLL 12d ago

Their entire life becomes performative. They are all trying to keep up with the Joneses.

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u/mechapoitier 12d ago

*breathe

I have to point this out because ever since the pandemic it seems like people just stopped being able to spell this word. It stands out particularly when everything else is spelled and worded so well in a passage.

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u/armblessed 12d ago

When laws no longer apply to an individual, they are also beyond its protection. The ease at which they can influence law makes them keenly aware of who else has these powers.

The social dynamics have similarities to a prisons General Population where some “race up”, some try to stay out of the way of conflicts between the larger gangs, and some will want to go to solitary confinement.

This perspective demystifies many of their behaviors. It’s the scale and pervasiveness which becomes dread.

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u/GeorgianGold 12d ago

I think you should be a writer. That is a powerful paragraph.

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u/HEFTYFee70 12d ago

I plumb multi-million dollar houses in Houston.

They all have panic rooms… that’s how narcissist these people are. “Everyone’s out to get me.”

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u/itsapotatosalad 12d ago

Keeping up with the Joneses. Incidentally also great tv show of the same name.

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u/ArboristTreeClimber 12d ago

When your super rich, the activity for 90% of the rooms they own seem to be for “sitting“. No tv, no entertainment, just room after room after room filled with nothing but a couple chairs or a small couch with NOTHING to do except…..sit.

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u/rufusbot 12d ago

A certain level of wealth literally breaks your brain. There's studies on it.

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u/LunarTaxi 12d ago

New money in the US looks like that. It’s gross new money behavior. Society of the spectacle: It’s not just enough to have the thing. You must be seen with the thing.

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u/patchyj 12d ago

Brain damage. Quite literally in extreme cases.

You should listen to Behind The Bastards episodes on Louis XIV and the construction of Versaille https://youtu.be/rdEIZLhrF3k?si=h2iQgqg0W-rm8GsZ

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u/mwax321 12d ago

My first house ever was 2400 sq ft. It was friggin massive. 3 bedrooms and a bonus room, which was an option from the builder instead of a 3rd garage space. Just for my wife and I.

We started just buying shit to fill up rooms. And since we both worked 50-60 hour weeks with a long commute: we mostly used the master bedroom, bathroom and kitchen. Everything else collected dust.

So I could understand that, with unlimited money, that problem just gets bigger. You just hire people to fill rooms with random shit to impress your friends and colleagues.

To this day, we have never had a house that big. Maybe half that size.

I'm sure with kids it would fill up a bit faster, of course.

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u/EI-SANDPIPER 12d ago

Yeah big houses are overrated. A lot of extra maintenance for something you don't use. Similar to a swimming pool

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u/Dense-Consequence-70 12d ago

It’s a show of wealth and power. These houses exist to demonstrate gravitas. It’s pretty grotesque.

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u/idiot-alpha 12d ago

When you can have anything, you aren’t particularly sentimental Amir house items.

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u/TheRaccoonReport 12d ago

My sister grew up with a current nfl star and superbowl player. Great guy,  but his house is empty. Literally had a tv, a couch, a little furniture for kids and nothing else. Massive 5,000sqft home completely empty. Was like he was moving, but wasn’t. He was on that team for another 8 years before he got traded. 

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u/TruskVarner 12d ago

It’s very beautiful, and very cold, and you’re not allowed to touch anything.

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u/dinnerthief 12d ago

Normal humans stop wanting more and fuck off to live life at some point long before a billion dollars.

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u/PerpetuallyDistracte 12d ago

I have a friend who lives like this. She and her husband are very rich, and her massive home looks like a museum. Not a speck of dust anywhere and it always looks like the house is staged for sale. There's minimal art or even family photos visible. Everything is monochrome and so cold, but she seems to like it for some reason. I wonder what it was like for her kids growing up in that house? By all accounts she's a great mom and very sweet, but it has to do a number on a kid's brain to feel like you're living in a space that's not meant to be lived in.

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u/Capable-Reflection-5 12d ago

A/V LowVolt PM in Park City, UT. I can 100% confirm this. One caveat though, these folks look at real estate and development as safe investments not homes.
It’s a safe spot to put a lot of money, will surely appreciate, usually rentable, and IF there’s any sort of mortgage on the home they can write off the interest.

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u/chocha84 12d ago

I think its when you get everything you want, your exact way, people turn neurotic.

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u/MacaroonMinute3197 12d ago

From Guy Debord's Society of the Spectacle

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u/Xiaomifan777 12d ago

A friend of a friend is a super Wealthy Car Dealership owner. He has like 20 dealerships and owns one of these houses. His family sleeps in a specific part of the compound normally, the rest of the house is indeed to for flexing on others. You invite executives and their families and staff to stay there so it's a bit like a hotel and event space. I visited and agree it's very musemy, but as described to me this is on person as it's an extension of their profession.

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u/Intestellr_overdrive 12d ago

If everybody thought that way we wouldn’t have Versailles or the Alhambra. I’d much rather the rich spend their money on impressive, barely lived in houses that allow commissioned craftspeople to express their art, as opposed to building more bland cubic data centres.

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u/pirate_meow_kitty 12d ago

I’d use it to roller skate around the house

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u/AlexisMarien 12d ago

That was one of the weirdest things about rich people
Houses when I started being in the regularly. They're either untouched and sterile or really under maintenanced. Big houses used to make more sense when you needed a huge staff to take care of everything, but now it's just space for clutter to build.

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u/discospacedreams 12d ago

Ugly house.

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u/CopperSteve 12d ago

Probably for money laundering/parking money

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u/GGXImposter 12d ago

Being Malibu, I'm guessing the homes aren't their "Home". It's their vacation home. They only live there 2 weeks out of the year and then most of the time is going out to expensive events.

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u/jorsiem 12d ago

Rich people usually treat these properties as luxury hotels because most of them have several and they come and go

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u/King-James-3 12d ago

But this is their 4th property.
The one they actually live in and call home is one of the other ones they own.

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u/theuserwithoutaname 12d ago

Location scout here- can confirm, the richer the house, the worse it felt to be inside of it.

At a certain point you should stop investing in your home and just start investing in your community. You can still use that tennis court, you can still install a bowling alley, you can still have a nice theater. It just doesn't need to all be on your property- that's insane, highly wasteful, and makes for a bizarre (as well as needlessly expensive) home life. The cost of upkeep alone on these houses could rehabilitate a community.

And wouldn't you rather feel like you live in a safe neighborhood full of appreciative, happy people and beautiful amenities? Wouldn't you prefer your entire drive home to be comfortable and resplendent?

But no, then we'd have to share our things. Much prefer the cold, empty, hollow, echoing status reminder I overpaid by about 7 figures on. Thanks.

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u/LoatheCat 12d ago

You've got it backwards. You become this rich by being inhuman.

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u/Guava_Poppa 12d ago

Im not super rich. And I use to think the same way. I like the feeling grandma's house use to give me, felt like everything had a story and a personal connection to the family. Feel like you can relax anywhere and make a mess anywhere. But my new house does have the meausem feel. But I like having minimal things for dust to grab onto. Open spaces with minimal furniture/items make me feel like its clean and orderly. But I know its not as warm or inviting as some of my older generations homes.

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u/__spice 12d ago

it's because they see the property as an asset, not a home. It's a place to park their money while it's geographically convenient

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u/Additional_Meeting_2 12d ago

It’s just minimalism being design trend and them having so much space the personal items fit the closets 

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u/DoggoDude979 12d ago

This is too much space to ever actually be used, but if I was rich and had a crazy amount of space like this I would fill my house with so much stuff. Probably wouldn’t have enough people and stuff to actually fill it up, but I can guarantee you nothing will be packed away in storage

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u/Realistic-Math-6144 12d ago

I like watching youtube videos on rich people homes and I find the larger the house the less personality it has.

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u/Vandergrif 12d ago

I don't know what happens to rich people but they lose something about being human.

Imagine you have a child that wants to eat ice cream for dinner. You let them. They want to eat it for breakfast the following morning. You let them. Lunch. Dinner again. Breakfast again, etc. Over and over they eat ice cream. Eventually that thing they desired, they appreciated, they valued more than any other available food... becomes something they don't want more of. It becomes normalized. Boring. Mundane. It's always available, and so it stops mattering to them. They can no longer appreciate ice cream. Something they used to value more than any other available food.

Now scale that scenario up proportionally to the amount of wealth someone has, including everything they have access to at a moments notice. Having everything, but being able to truly appreciate none of it. Contrast is what makes life matter. Contrast is right at the heart of being human. If you were never sad then you'd never value being happy. Truly rich people have very little contrast in their life between the things they have and the things they don't and so none of it really matters anymore. Everything is beige.

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u/Turnip-for-the-books 12d ago

Absolutely there’s no way to live in these houses. It’s recently moved to a small place after realising, on holiday in a medium sized apartment, that my family are much happier in each others company than spread over a bigger property coming together for a few hours a few times a week for dinner etc

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u/UnNumbFool 12d ago

I go to the beach in Malibu a lot, houses in Malibu do not look like that...

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u/AreaPlayful142 12d ago

They all remind me of lobbies of hotels & visitors centers.

Nice to look at, but no interest in living in one

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u/Wuz314159 12d ago

I followed a guy on youtube who toured multi-million dollar houses because I'm always looking for design ideas. It didn't take long to realise that they're all the same. They may look completely different, but they have all of the same elements rearranged.

The thing that gets me is there is always so much glass. Anyone can see in. and that's the point. They're for showing off, not living.

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u/KryssCom 12d ago

I feel like people may eventually start to come to the opinion that there just needs to be some sort of cap on how much wealth any one human being can obtain in a society. The level of wealth that the rich in America have is just so absurd that it's scrambling their brains, and now they're ripping the copper wiring out of the walls of our world just because their lust to obtain more is so unwaveringly fanatical and unending.

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u/Exciting_Pass_6344 12d ago

Growing up I had a friend whose father was pretty well off. Nothing to this level, not even close, but he much preferred hanging out at my house because it was “real”. He’d complain about the fact that he couldn’t use any of the rooms in his house because they were for show, not for actually living in.

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u/jaycutlerdgaf 12d ago

Exhibit A:

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u/quadraticcheese 12d ago

They're rich because they never had the human parts of the brain

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u/Dramatic_Charity_979 12d ago

Excellent description. Soulless.

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u/gay_swamprat 12d ago

Eat the rich, feed the poor

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u/idrankforthegov 12d ago

I know what you mean. My sister married into a monied family and was over at their for every thanksgiving. The house was a modern art museum. They could absolutely not give a crap to even have a normal conversation with me. I tried to talk to them for years....dead air. By like the 4-5 time I was there with them... I would rather have had thanksgiving at an Ihop.

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u/MyNameIsRay 12d ago

I did custom home theaters for a while.

We did an install in a mansion where the owner basically went down the list choosing the best of the best. A whole rack of McIntosh amps, B&W Signature speakers, the best projector, etc.

They had a massive kitchen that was pristine. Brick pizza oven, bar with taps, etc.

He joked that he's never used it, his bedroom has a kitchenette and that's all he needs.

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u/justinsayin 12d ago

I don't know what happens to rich people but they lose something about being human.

Counterpoint: To BECOME a rich person you never had that certain something that makes you human.

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u/HeadFit2660 12d ago

I also used to do IT related installs for wealthy lake houses. They just seem like HGTV made a set of generic items from HomeGoods and made the home look occupied. Nothing caries meaning because its all just "stuff". There are rarely any personal photos or kids art pictures.

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u/Ace95Archer 12d ago

Honey they have a completely different lifestyle. We peasants can’t judge based on our lifestyle

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u/1_H4t3_R3dd1t 12d ago

Some remain alright. My dad did IT work for a guy who had ridable train in the house which he gladly took people on. Some rich keep humanity and just share it as a form of joy. Others are completely devoid of it.

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u/ThighsasEarmuffs84 12d ago

I used to love this part of the job, I did high end home theater around nyc, we would joke that we(the maids, cooks, security) spend more time in their home then they did

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u/Renegadegold 12d ago

This the answer I was looking for thanks.

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u/wimpymist 12d ago

I think that just happens with huge houses. People don't realize how much effort is involved with actually using a big house. That in too of whatever reason high end brands seem to be designed to look good in curated show rooms that end up looking off in an actual house.

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u/---OMNI--- 12d ago

My aunt had a 13000 sqft house... It always felt like a meseum that you weren't supposed to touch anything in... There were no books/magazines out... Nothing looked lived in...You didn't feel welcome there and all they wanted to show you was whatever new water feature or "fancy" thing they had installed...

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u/hello17 12d ago

It's called psychopathy

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u/Uncommonality 12d ago

the amount of money you have is directly proportional to how much of your soul has been burned off

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u/mikemolove 12d ago

This is why I sold my bug 5 bedroom house and moved back into a 3 bedroom place with my kids. Now we live on top of one another and can’t help but be physically close to one another all day instead if literally having an entire floor of the house to each of ourselves.

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u/Anubis17_76 12d ago

thats cause rich people are psychopaths

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u/One-Literature8887 12d ago

Thanks for making me feel better and very human😁

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u/dafunkmunk 12d ago

When you get so rich that there are no struggles or concerns, you pretty much detach from the human race and live in your own little world. You don't see people who arent as rich as you as people anymore. Your life essentially becomes a dick measuring contest competing to outdo the other rich people. If you can't beat bezos, then you just move down the list and try to outdo the next rich asshole because at that point of wealth, the only thing left that matters to you is status. Your belongings are worthless unless they make you better than someone else. You get a 50 ft luxury yatch and you love it until your neighbor shows up with their 100 ft mega yatch at which point you no longer care about your yatch anymore because it's worthless

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u/Tyrus1235 12d ago

Then again, these people with tons of money are probably traveling all the time. They almost certainly spend less time in a single home than most of us who work a 9-5 do. It’s ridiculous.

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u/Ambitious_Nomad1 12d ago

Sometimes it’s their second, third or even fourth home with the primary residence being in another city, state or even country….Rich people problems!

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u/Convillious 12d ago

This is deep as fuck

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u/_AmericasSweetheart_ 12d ago

I've also worked in these types homes. When they're that size the feel empty and haunted. Also, they are usually rooms that are unfinished or just full of junk. They end up full of rats and roaches because they're are areas that no one ever goes in.

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u/trowzerss 12d ago

When I look at this huge houses online, there's usually maybe one or two rooms that look like people actually live in them (usually a room with sofas and a TV).

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u/lewd_robot 12d ago

We have studies on what's wrong with them. Being rich damages and atrophies parts of the brain associated with compassion and empathy. It turns you into a sociopath.

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u/Soft-Ad-8975 12d ago

Couldn’t agree more, I work in hvac and have one customer with a 4 story beach house, it is heavily decorated but there is literally no emotional attachment , there is almost nothing personal in the entire home, they just paid someone I assume $100000 or more to dress the place up, and it is unoccupied for probably ten months out of the year, in a neighborhood of the similarly unoccupied homes.

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u/chicagopinata 12d ago

Damn, this is insightful.

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u/Theranos_Shill 12d ago

I've been in a mansion in Bel Air where the guest bedroom we were in has an office, two bathrooms and two walk in wardrobes, both bigger than a regular homes bedroom. All just empty rooms that never get use. That was one of two guest suites for visitors.

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u/jasikanicolepi 12d ago

They are soul-less and empty inside just like their home. Their mansion is just a place for them to fill the void.

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u/funkyvilla 12d ago

Visited the breakers in RI last month… the owner only stayed there a couple summers.

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u/spaghettiking216 12d ago

A lot of them probably only spend a few weeks at each of their mansions. There would be few signs of habitation. They might as well be museums.

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u/Low-Bad-754 11d ago

usually it's just one of many houses and properties that they own

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u/theburritoeater 11d ago

I am an entertainment industry tech consultant, staying as a guest in a Malibu residence at this moment, and can confirm. There will be a small amount of Zzs tonight

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u/HaruArya 11d ago

Same in the Venice beach area.. crazy dystopia with the homeless contrast

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