'Birthplace of Amazon' on the market for $2.28M With an interior decked out in sterile tones of corporate gray, the 1,540 sq ft rental bungalow at 10704 NE 28th St in Bellevue, Washington, is rather unremarkable compared to the imposing facades of its neighboring properties. Unremarkable, too, is its asking price of $2.28 million, which places it in the more "affordable" …
As in all such markets most of the value is in the lot. At that price you might as well tear it down and build what you want, though it would depend on the lot size how much bigger you could build.
As a bonus, if there is such a thing as tourists driving by the "Amazon house" tearing it down would end that annoyance. Better do it quick, another few decades and it might be designated a historic landmark and you will no longer have that option.
Funny you should mention that- after I'd posted the original comment I considered the possibility myself and figured out much the same thing.
Street View shows that most of other houses on that street (formerly consisting almost entirely of 1950s-70s(?) style bungalows) have *already* been demolished and replaced with oversized- and no doubt more valuable- McMansions in the past 15 to 20 years.
Next to its demolished neighbours, it's clear that Bezos' house would actually have been one of the larger and fancier bungalows in the street.
However, unless its historical "significance" has any bearing, there's no chance that'd stop anyone demolishing it to build a similarly fugly McMansion they could sell for multiple seven figures.
> though it would depend on the lot size how much bigger you could build.
Bearing in mind how obviously some of those faux-luxury homes have been squeezed onto plots of land too small for them- check out the almost nonexistent front gardens of 10610 and 10616 in particular- I suspect the only limit they're likely to care much about is that "footprint_of_house <= area_of_lot".
Imagine how many businesses don't get created because people simply have nowhere to start.
Subsequent governments have failed to address housing issue and space has become a luxury. Imagine being a teen interested in electronics, but not even having space to store cereal away properly.
Opportunity cost is huge, but somehow ever increasing property value is more important, so the rich can do nothing and see their investments grow.
It is certainly an issue, although your example doesn't work very well:
"Imagine being a teen interested in electronics, but not even having space to store cereal away properly."
Electronics isn't too space-intensive as hobbies go. The person who doesn't have extra space will have to pack up their tools, which is a bit more annoying than keeping them ready for use, but they'll still be able to take them out, do some experimentation, and put them away. There are several hobbies that are much harder than electronics to fit into a couple drawers and a box which might have suited your argument better.
@doublelayer spot on.
If you're somebody who can't "overcome" a shortage of space then you're very likely to fail when trying to run a startup never mind a fully fledged business.
People of Bezos mindset would never even see this as a "problem". They'd just find a way. That's the difference between billionaires and Joe Average.
I'm not sure which two people you're referring to, but I assume I'm one of them. If so, I'm not sure it makes sense. There are lots of problems that living a hard life would have on someone wanting to get into electronics. The most obvious one is that, when you start to work on electronics, you'll break a lot of things. It's one reason I am mostly a software person, not a hardware one. When I was a child, when I messed up a program, at worst I had to restart the computer before I could get to fixing it. I never had to buy anything as a result of messing up. Just working on electronics requires you to have tools and parts that cost money, and each mistake will be more costly still. Another big one is access to guidance, which is much easier if you can find someone to teach you, and you're more likely to have such a person in a well-resourced school than if you don't have that. These are all major problems. House size, however, is less of a problem. I wasn't saying that anyone can get into electronics, but that as hobbies go, it's less limited by available space.
There are lots of ones that are more limited in that respect. Woodworking, for example, will not work very well if you don't have somewhere relatively large in which to store things. The tools are quite large, the stuff you're working is as well, it generates a lot of byproducts that you don't want to have inside. Or car repair and maintenance. You can't do either of those on a bedroom desk. You can do electronics work there. Living a hard life is an obstacle to all of these. Living in a small place is an obstacle to only some of them.
If you're hinting at the possibility of someone knocking it down and building a larger house like those two bigger ones up the street- in particular- I was thinking of the same thing. If only because it would explain why they think the existing house is (or rather isn't) worth $2.3m.
Mind you, those other houses are ugly, "big" in the same contrived way that an oversized, overpriced American truck or SUV is.
I strongly suspected that the two big houses on the corner were relatively new, even before I noticed the sign outside one advertising "this new luxury home".
The Street View history confirmed that, along with my other suspicion that, yeah, the've been built on the site of older, lower profile bungalows. (Though you could already have guessed that from the sad and obvious giveaway of plebianism- that, for all their pretensions to "luxury", those houses barely have enough space left over for a front garden).
In fact, Street View makes clear that it's not just those two houses- most of the houses in that street have been knocked down and replaced by McMansions (*) in the past 15-20 years.
So, yeah. Unless Bezos is particularly attached to it, it's going to get replaced.
(*) I wasn't going to call them McMansions, as- for all their oversized ugliness- they don't really have enough of the clashing architectural styles (**) stereotypically associated with the term. But everything else- the contrived size and the fact they're *way* too obviously squeezed onto plots of land not meant for a house that big- fits it to a tee.
(**) And then again, the even uglier newbuild halfway down the hill certainly *does* feature the McMansion styling.
Bezos' parents invested nearly $250,000 in 1995, and who among us has folks willing and able to drop that amount on our harebrained schemes?
Well it depends. If you have an idea*** that could net you in the 100 billion range, and produce a company valued at over a trillion, I'm pretty sure your parents might find a way to come up with 0.0000025% of that cash! You'd probably be able to give them a decent return.
It could easily have been a failure but it didn't turn out like that.
I'm no Bezos or Amazon fan but being jealous about other people's success is really childish.
*** What's that? Oh yeah you also have to be able to deliver on that idea.
I have lots of ideas that could be worth trillions if I can develop them well and everyone turns out to love them. Having those ideas does not necessarily mean it's a viable business. This example is one where it worked out, but you act like that was obvious before it started, something the numerous failed attempts would debunk quickly. The comment was not being jealous about their success. You can maybe argue that it was being jealous about access to seed funding, but it could have just pointed out that Amazon had a larger starting fund than most startups could get when it was one person.
You're buying the lot. With an old house on it.
There are some nice old 1950's and 1960's houses in that part of Bellevue. Mostly split level. But that house is not one of them.
Its not Clyde Hill (the other side of Bellevue Way) and definitely not Medina or Hunts Point but even though its a small lot its in a very good location. Close to downtown Bellevue. Close to the 520 (for Seattle and Redmond) and the 520 Bridge (for Seattle) and just a hop east on 520 for the 405 for all points north and south. Eventually I-5 very north and south.. I-90 east. There is even a QFC within easy walking distance.
So a perfect knock down for Micosofties with stock option money. Can guarantee the new house will be very big, very expensive and will look hideous both inside and out.
And not that long ago a house like that would sell for under $300K. Which is about how much its is worth when you subtract the local MS stock options inflation.
> You're buying the lot. With an old house on it. [..] Can guarantee the new house will be very big, very expensive and will look hideous both inside and out.
As I noted elsewhere, its clear this *already* happened to most of the existing buildings on that stretch of road.
It's surrounded by McMansions that a quick check of the Street View history confirms were built within the past 15-20 years, replacing much smaller bungalows.
And yes, they're all fugly, and all obviously squeezed onto lots not intended for a house that size.
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