16424 Marvin Rd, Charlotte North Carolina
For sale: $5,899,900
For the first time in “The Bachelor/Bachelorette’s” lengthy span on ABC (since 2002), the popular reality show did not debut at the Spanish-style estate “Villa de la Vina” located in the Santa Monica Mountains of Southern California, but rather in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Why the change in venue? Charlotte is the hometown of new Bachelorette, Emily Maynard.
Since Maynard is a single mom and she didn’t want to take her daughter out of school, the producers were challenged with finding a home in Charlotte that needs to look good on TV and can hold up to the strain of housing a minimum of 25 eligible bachelors.
This season’s Bachelorette home is a $5.89 million dollar estate. Not only is it private, set on five acres, but it has all the trimmings for creating romantic reality show moments.
And, as listing agent Nick Peters of Peters and Associates points out, it has a ballroom.
"There are beautiful houses all over," Peters said, "but this one has an official grand ballroom with a 20-foot-high fireplace made of solid marble. The room also has gold-glazed mahogany trim, silk window treatments and gorgeous lighting."
An ideal place, if you watch the show, to host the dramatic rose ceremony in which The Bachelorette eliminates potential suitors.
The Bachelorette home is a European-style mansion with stucco and stone exteriors. Boasting 12,000 square feet of living space, the 6-bedroom, 8.5-bath home has plenty of room for filming the show. The home features high-end finishes, and specifically a two-inch thick marble floor that runs from the home's entrance down its main hallway.
Although the home's interiors are spectacular, most of the first episode of the show focused on the grounds of the property -- from a lawn enough to land a helicopter, to a slate courtyard with benches, intimate gardens, fountain and fire pit. The home also includes a saltwater pool with mosaic-tiled waterfall.
Before ABC snatched the home for filming purposes, the property was listed for $3.9 million. The house was off the market while ABC filmed, but was recently relisted for a higher price.
The higher price can be explained in the publicity that the house will receive over the course of The Bachelorette show.
And it's not necessarily just the exposure, says Peters.
"You can't really showcase a house with photos. I'll bring in a professional photographer, but the way that it shows on TV... it's breathtaking," he said. "You can't get that from a photo shoot."
Built in 2006, the house has been on the market since mid-2008, first priced at $7.89 million. The home has had several price cuts, but with its new celebrity real estate status, the homeowners may have better luck selling.
According to Zillow's mortgage calculator, a monthly payment on the Bachelorette home would be $21,424, assuming a 20 percent down payment on a 30-year-mortgage.
See more photos of "The Bachelorette" house on Zillow.
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