Upon hearing the word real-estate, you may summon images filled with residential or commercial buildings. Some might think of bustling construction sites filled with construction workers or sometimes thoughts may revolve around mortgages, insurance, and taxes. But there is much more to ‘real estate’ than just these boring facts. Some pretty funny, ridiculous, and interesting things have happened in the real estate world. In today’s article, we will discuss some of these bizarre real estate fun facts and you will know what happens when real estate becomes interesting.
The town of diamonds
One of the most mind-blowing real estate fun facts is about a town called Nördlingen. It is located in the German state of Bavaria. The town is dotted with timber-framed houses and shops with red roofs. Centered around a medieval church, it may seem like a classic German town but you would be wrong to think so. It is the very buildings that set the town apart from any other.
Every structure in this town is embedded with millions of tiny microscopic diamond fragments. The source of this unnatural phenomenon is actually a natural event caused by a meteor hitting the area that created a crater 15 million years ago. But what is so interesting is that, instead of leaving the place, people started building a town in the very crater that entirely changed the shape of the area. If you ever happen to visit the town you will still see the circular layout of the town.
The ‘Friends’ house
Whether it is Chandler’s wicked sense of humor or Phoebe Buffay’s quirky and eccentric behaviors, or maybe Joey’s (who doesn’t share food), Monica and Rachel’s apartment had stood witness to many things. The show called “Friends” (where these characters are from) was so successful that everything including the apartment where they usually hung out became a point of public interest. Now if you are a fan of the show, you might remember that Monica and Rachel had to pay only $200 in rent due to a rent-controlled lease that passed down from a grandmother. However, today that two-bedroom, one-bathroom apartment in New York’s trendy West Village can cost you a staggering $3.5 million if you ever wish to purchase it.
Buying a home for a paperclip
Can you imagine someone buying a house in exchange for a paperclip? Despite sounding ridiculous, this actually happened making it one of the most bizarre real estate fun facts in history. A Canadian blogger named Kyle McDonald made 14 online trades over the course of one year – first, a paperclip for a pen, then a doorknob, and eventually towards a two-story farmhouse in Kipling, Saskatchewa. This made him famous around the world and was praised for his exceptional bargaining ability. Next time when you come across something impossible, think of what Kyle did with just a paperclip. This may not solve your problem but will give you enough courage to push yourself a bit further.
The largest treehouse
Can you guess the size of the largest treehouse in the world? Whatever your guess is chances are you may probably be wrong. The largest treehouse in the world has 10 floors and 80 rooms! The story behind this giant house is amongst the most fascinating real estate fun facts as well. Horace Burgess, a minister, built this house after he had a vision where the spirit of GOD told him to build Him a treehouse and He will never let him run out of material. He agreed and built the 10,000 sq.ft structure which took him 14 years to construct. In 2012 this house was titled the largest treehouse in the world by the Guinness Book of World Records. Located in Crossville, T.N. The treehouse (which is also a church) is still a work in progress.
Next door to Mark Zuckerberg
Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Facebook really cares about his and his family’s privacy. In 2013, Zuckerberg bought four of the five residential properties that surround his house for over $30 million to avoid these properties being marketed as ‘next door to Mark Zuckerberg’. However, he leased them back to their previous owners.
Guess the owner of this house
Real estate fun facts can be odd and this mansion in Manhattan, New York is one such example. It was modeled after the Palace of Versailles. This luxurious apartment is really big, 20,000 sq.ft to be exact. In 1946 the mansion was bought by the Republic of Yugoslavia as a New York embassy. But it did not last long. The republic broke down and dissolved into five separate countries. As a result, the property’s ownership also divided between the five sovereign nations including Bosnia, Croatia, Macedonia, Serbia, and Slovenia. So if the property is ever to be sold, all five countries need to sign off the deal.
The Winchester Mansion
The story behind the Winchester Mansion is very fascinating and mysterious. It has its roots in deep personal tragedy. After losing her infant daughter Annie to a childhood illness and 15 years later her husband to tuberculosis, Sarah Winchester was consumed by grief. Living on the Eastern Shore at the time Sarah visited a Boston medium to help ease the pain of her tragic losses. Sarah’s deceased husband was the munitions baron who produced the Winchester Repeating rifle also known as the gun that won the west. The medium then went on to explain to Sarah that the countless lives that had been lost to the Winchester rifles can make her life even more miserable unless she took precautions.
The remedy was to build a house that is attractive to the kindly spirits who in turn would keep evil spirits at bay. Sarah moved from New Haven to an eight-room farmhouse in San Jose, California. Right away she began remodeling. At any given point in time, there might have been a dozen people there working on the house. Some reports estimate the house expanded from 8 to 26 rooms in the first six months. And there was no end to the construction, Winchester’s crew worked on the house in rotating shifts, 24 hours a day, for 38 years.
As you can see, real estate is not always boring. It gets interesting when you take a closer look at the culture surrounding the sector. Sure, common knowledge or facts about the housing market, home-ownership, and real estate laws are helpful in various circumstances. But these are not the only aspects of real estate; there is a fun side to it as well. So we picked some of the interesting real estate fun facts and real estate trivia that we thought will give you a unique, fun, and refreshing perspective on the sector.
