Luxury Problems

[Andrew Joiner]

I'm unraveling a mystery. My neighbors down the street built a huge house during the pandemic. It was a long slow build with lots of expensive materials like a copper roof. It had ornate landscaping on the oversized lot. It was finally completed and sat empty for over a year and no one lived there.

Then a year ago the landscaping was completely torn up and redone with even more elaborate expensive rock work and an artificial stream and waterfall. Still no one had lived there.

I was curious, who can afford to do a project like this? I did some research found out they're a very wealthy couple who live out of state. I think it must be a hobby for them to build this house. It looks like they spent a few days there last summer. Other than that, this "perfect" home has sat empty.

Today I see a Luxury Appliance service truck there. I can only imagine they remotely got notified of a problem and sent them out. They live 1000 miles away. I call that "luxury problems"

[Bill Howatt]

I'm out-of-state but you can remove me from the possible list of owners based on "very wealthy" .
In Ontario, some cities have implemented a Vacant Unit Tax surcharge - an attempt, good or misguided, to help reduce the shortage of housing. I doubt the 1% property tax surcharge would deter people like your neighbors though.

[Jim Becker]

It could just be some wealthy folks who like to change their mind. Or a mobster laundering money.

[Mike Soaper]

Russian spy safe house?

[Tom M King]

Sounds like money laundering to me.

[Andrew Joiner]

Sounds like money laundering to me.

So the Luxury Appliance service truck is probably working on remotely controled money washing machines. Mystery solved!

[Andrew Hughes]

I would wager a box of good cigars they work for the government. Money wasters

[Patty Hann]

When your net worth is in the stratosphere, you can't have too many luxury houses (or jets, or yachts...)

[Jim Koepke]

I would wager a box of good cigars they work for the government. Money wasters

If I were a cigar smoker I'd take you up on that.

Most government workers don't make enough money to waste it in such a manner. Of course, it could be a Congress person or a Senator trying to hide bribe money.

jtk

[Rob Luter]

I'm out-of-state but you can remove me from the possible list of owners based on "very wealthy" .
In Ontario, some cities have implemented a Vacant Unit Tax surcharge - an attempt, good or misguided, to help reduce the shortage of housing. I doubt the 1% property tax surcharge would deter people like your neighbors though.

I was out in Vancouver BC last year and they have a real issue with that. There is a major shortage of affordable housing. A one bedroom rental is about $3K monthly and going up. There are thousands of vacant properties in the city that were built by Asian nationals as hedge investments. Whole highrise buildings sit dark at night. A local told me that the government levied a modest vacant unit tax on the owners in an attempt to get them occupied. When you're wealthy enough to buy a multi million dollar condo, a 1% surcharge is like a rounding error. There was talk of a law in development that would require the owners to either occupy the property or make it available for lease.

[Steve Demuth]

I have no interest in cigars, good or otherwise, and I don't gamble, but I'd take your bet with odds that you're wrong. Working for government is no way to get rich at the "I can afford a luxury home that I never use" scale. Actually drawing a civil service paycheck will make you at best, upper middle class comfortable, with only a few exceptions - football coaches at state universities being one of the more outrageous examples.

Contracting to the government, on the other hand, works out very nicely for some people. The wealthiest people in our county, e.g., got to be multimillionaires doing road construction and maintenance for the government - basically, hauling rock and mixing concrete. They might well own such house. None of the people who draw a government check, local, state, or Federal, in our county would come close.

More broadly, none of the actually rich people I know (quite a few, through my own work as an executive in the tech industry), got their dollars by working for the government.

[Ron Citerone]

I have a cottage in a modest bay beach town in NJ. There are about 60 houses there. Hurricane Sandy wreaked havoc on the town and we are threatened by worsening erosion and flooding. For some reason two houses were sold some years back. They were basically torn down and rebuilt way bigger than the original cottages. They dwarf all the original houses in size and quality. Nobody ever uses them, they go unused year after year. Andrew, I don’t get it either.

[Peter Mich]

Agree wholeheartedly with you Steve.

[Andrew Hughes]

I have no interest in cigars, good or otherwise, and I don't gamble, but I'd take your bet with odds that you're wrong. Working for government is no way to get rich at the "I can afford a luxury home that I never use" scale. Actually drawing a civil service paycheck will make you at best, upper middle class comfortable, with only a few exceptions - football coaches at state universities being one of the more outrageous examples.

Contracting to the government, on the other hand, works out very nicely for some people. The wealthiest people in our county, e.g., got to be multimillionaires doing road construction and maintenance for the government - basically, hauling rock and mixing concrete. They might well own such house. None of the people who draw a government check, local, state, or Federal, in our county would come close.

More broadly, none of the actually rich people I know (quite a few, through my own work as an executive in the tech industry), got their dollars by working for the government.

Don’t play dumb you know who I meant. Politicians that don’t have to worry about filling taxes.
The whole family business model is vacuuming money.

[Andrew Joiner]

The couple that owns the house do not work for the government. I live in a scenic area so it's common for people to own vacation homes here. Only about 50% of the homes in my area are occupied by the owners year round.
The home in my original post is an unusual example. The property taxes are $13K a year on an empty house

Two other neighbors are more typical. They own (mostly vacant) homes with property taxes in the $6K range. They stay in them 10 to 20 days a year.
I'm a frugal retired guy, so this stuff amazes me.