There's taking a loss in the real estate market, and then there's this -- the mountaintop property once considered the most expensive in the history of L.A. just sold for 10,000% less than asking price ... WTF?!
Here's the deal ... the Beverly Hills lot -- fittingly dubbed The Mountain -- went for a meager $100,000 at a foreclosure auction Tuesday despite once being listed at $1 BILLION, but it actually cost the buyer a lot more than that.
That's because back in 2004, it was purchased by an investor from the estate of Mark Hughes -- the late Herbalife founder -- but only after he borrowed $45 million from the Hughes estate.
Long story short -- the investor didn't pay much back on the $45 million loan, so it ballooned to $200 MILLION with interest and fees. The Hughes estate foreclosed on the delinquent loan and auctioned off the property this week.
Here's the thing ... only around 20 people showed up at the auction, and no one made a serious bid. So, in the end, the estate bought it back for $100,000, which sounds crazy. But, the thing is ... they also swallowed the $200,000,000 delinquent loan, which none of the other 20 people were willing to do. Still, sounds like a great deal.
The Mountain is a massive 157-acre plot of land in Beverly Hills sitting atop ... well, a mountain. As you can see, the estate looks down on all of L.A. ... all that's missing is a godlike mansion.
Now that it's back in the control of the Hughes estate, it will likely hit the market again with a ginormous asking price ... but maybe not a billion bucks this time around.