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Why a legendary Tahoe ranch is so hard to sell, even in a billionaire's market · Best of: Features

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  Why a legendary Tahoe Ranch is so hard to sell even in
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  a billionaire's market. Written by Julie Brown Davis. This article is being
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  read by an automated voice generated by Everlet. The storied lakefront ranch
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  is unmatched in Lake Tahoe. It's in Glenbrook, a secretive enclave for
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  the elite on Nevada's east shore that rivals Incline Village. A private
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  pier stretches four hundred sixty five feet into a sheltered bay, while
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  horses graze in corals next to a meadow. Multiple lakefront residences overlook
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  They water. Quaint cottages and guest houses surround a courtyard. But it's
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  the historic barn, built in eighteen seventy three, that grounds the entire
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  property. Celebrities, even presidents, have flown across the country in private jets
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  to attend the annual rodeo. They don't Lake barns like this in
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  Texas, President George Bush reportedly said when he once visited. The estate
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  is called Shakespeare Ranch. In october twenty twenty four it was listed
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  on the market for an eye popping one hundred eighty eight million
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  dollars, making it the most expensive listing in Lake Tahoe. The ranch
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  took center stage as a so called billionaire boom took off in
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  the basin. But while Lakefront homes have been selling at a rapid
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  pace down the Nevada shoreline, no buyer has come yet for Shakespeare
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  Ranch, and now the ranch is for sale with a major price
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  cut. Down to one hundred twenty five million dollars. It is still,
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  far and away, the priest property in Lake Tahoe, one of the
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  most extensive leastings in the country and arguably Tahoe's most intriguing, if
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  not puzzling, lakefront. A legendary ranch changes tactics. Over the past
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  two or three years, San Francisco's frenzied, artificial intelligence driven real estate
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  boom has been spilling over to Tahoe where multimillion dollar lakefronts are
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  selling fast, especially on the Nevada side of the lake. As Californians
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  prepare to vote on a wealth tax in the upcoming election, Nevada's
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  lenient tax laws are luring the rich across the state line. Taxes
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  are a huge part of it, said Christine Perry, a real estate
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  agent with Christie's International, who splits her time between the Bay Area
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  and Lake Tahoe, and often works with wealthy clients from Silicon Valley.
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  She said one of her clients spends hardly any time at his
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  newly acquired Tahoe house. He's not ready to leave the Bay Area,
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  she said, but home on the Nevada side of make Tahoe was
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  an investment in his future, and perhaps also a contingency plan. I
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  think a lot of people are trying to prepare themselves for the
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  future, Perry said. Perry took over the Shakespeare Ranch listing earlier this
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  year, after the sellers took it off The market. She helped them
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  adjust the offering and list it again in June, at one hundred
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  twenty five million dollars. At the sale time, the sellers are also
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  staying flexible. In order to make the offering more attractive to buyers
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  at various rungs of the ultra rich ladder, The sellers are willing
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  to split the estate into more attractive properties. If a tech CEO
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  is looking for a turnkey lakefront, Shakespeare Ranch has lakefronts more that
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  one to offer the The main residence is a New England style
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  home perched above the lake. Originally part of the larger ranch, the
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  lakefront is now offered for sales at thirty nine point five million
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  dollars, and this week, A second lakefront home on the ranch is
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  getting ready to go to market for forty three million dollars. They
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  spillover effect. The hot market for luxury real estate on the Nevada
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  side of Lake Tahoe has enticed generational families to let go of
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  beloved estates on the water. A palace that had been sitting on
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  the market for years finally sold for forty two million dollars last
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  fall. It was later reported the buyer was none other than Google
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  co founder Sergei Bryn. A long standing sales record broke two years
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  ago and then broke again this year. A Mystery Bay area buyer
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  set a record for the most expensive home in Tahoe in the
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  fall of twenty twenty four, when the dropped sixty two million dollars
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  for the Wynne estate, a fabled inclined village lakefront that once belonged
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  to casino mogul Steve Wynne. Then, this past spring, SpaceX investor Steve
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  Jervitsen paid one hundred twenty five million dollars for an incline village
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  lakefront, obliterating the previous record. This was the second Tahoe mansion Jervitsen
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  purchased in less that two months. He bought another in February for
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  forty six million dollars, clearly not waiting around for the SpaceX initial
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  public offering, which would become the largest ever. Lakefronts are not a
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  hard sell these days, according to Perry, in part thanks to a
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  constrained supply and huge demand. Real estate at this far end of
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  the spectrum often takes years to flip. Now it's taking months. The
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  only problem is that inventory is tight. Tahoe's shoreline is a finite
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  resource, and environmental restrictions in the basin further limit how many new
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  homes can be built. I mean really tight, Perry said
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  I'm sending letters. I'm trying to make calls. I'm trying to find
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  listings that are on the lake, because they'll sell. Perry said she
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  gets calls on a regular basis from clients in the Bay Area
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  who are looking to buy in Tahoe. As wealth spills over from
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  the Bay Area, a lot of buyers are interested in lakefront real
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  estate and will pay cash. We haven't even seen, really, the aftermath
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  of SpaceX yet, Perry said
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  so I do feel like next year is going to be a
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  strong season. Family estates are fading away. Stepping foot onto Shakespeare Ranch
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  sets an immediate impression. It was built to host a large family.
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  But the owners are aging, and they want to downsize their footprint
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  in Glenbrook, Perry said. Finding another family to take on the responsibility
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  of such a large, magnanimous ranch and property is the challenge. Perry
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  says it's the size and magnitude of Shakespeare Ranch, the qualities that
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  make the property a world in and of itself, that has also
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  made it difficult to sell. It's not simply one home. It has
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  multiple mansions, cabanas, cottages, and guest cabins, and that's not even counting
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  the equestrian facilities. It just didn't make sense to have so much
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  real estate in one bundle, Perry said. Public records show the owner
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  is Larry Ruvo, the alcohol magnate in Las Vegas, who ran Southern
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  Glazer's Wine and Spirits of Nevada, and has more recently become a
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  major donor to Alzheimer's research through his foundation. Now the owners are
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  opting to give buyers what they're looking for. The Turnkey Lakefront. Sell
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  off a house on the water. That's what everybody wants right now,
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  she said. The main residence, called Water's Edge, went on the market
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  in August. The four thousand one hundred and fifty square foot home
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  is paired with a two story cabana perched on the water. It's
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  for sale for thirty nine point five million dollars. And this week
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  the sellers prepared to list a second mansion that has been under
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  construction, and is nearing completion, Perry said. They're asking forty three million
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  dollars for the new home and a lakeside cabana. Perry described the
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  new mansion as perfect. The seven seven one three square foot home
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  features barnwood shipped from Montana and intricate stonework. The historic barn remains
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  part of the one hundred twenty five million dollars offering, and that
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  continues to be a daunting undertaking. Perry said, It's impossible to know
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  what a new buyer would do with the barn, but everyone she's
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  talked to has understood its resonance. Everybody who's looked at it, like
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  they all want to preserve the barn in some fashion, she said.
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  Because there is so much history there. It's so cool like there's
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  so many pictures of people who've been there.