Cher recently put her Malibu estate on the market for $45 million and we have covered her former Miami home before, now let's check out another of Cher's fabulous cast-offs. Today's estate is in Key Biscayne, Florida. The six-bedroom home is located on the water and has a man-made private beach and 100 feet of water frontage. Still can't get enough water? The home also has an infinity cascade pool and a separate spa. The home is designed to take advantage of the weather with multiple terraces and many windows. White walls, light wood floors and dark wood and white furnishings along with some interesting contemporary art gives the home a modern look. Cher's former home is listed at $12.9 million.

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The beautiful Chinquapin Plantation in Thomasville, Georgia is a distinctive piece of real estate offering both formal garden spaces and plenty of unspoiled land. The plantation was owned by Alexandra Kauka and her late husband, German cartoonist, Rolf Kauka. A Worth article from 2006 details Kauka's decision to donate some of the land next to the estate. The home itself is located a bluff overlooking the Ochlocknee River. The Mediterranean-influenced main-house offers nearly 18,000 square feet of wide verandas, porches, public rooms for entertaining and numerous private wings and suites. The home was completely remodeled by its present owner in 1981 and then restored and expanded in 2000. The property includes a separate three-bedroom guest cottage located across the motor court from the main-house, six tenant houses, a pool house with solar-heated saline pool, four-car detached garage, barns, stables, kennels and a skeet range. The listing doesn't give a price.

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A luxe new coffee table book called Dream Homes: Coastal California (Panache Partners, $34.95) showcases over 40 of the region's finest architects, designers and builders. Focusing on Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo and Monterey Counties, it features 250 photographs of breathtaking designs such as the Villa Beaumont pictured above, an Italian-Renaissance country villa in Santa Barbara by Sorrell Design based on the work of the great 16th-century architect Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola. From multimillion dollar classical revival mansions to modernist beach dwellings, no expense has been spared in realizing clients' dreams (hence the title). See the gallery for a tour.

I've got a ton of pictures on this one but it's worth it. The Bader House is billed as the ultimate bachelor house and indeed, I think just about anyone would swoon if invited inside. This home is the ultimate in modern design and Hollywood glam. Located in the hills in West Hollywood and perched above the Sunset Strip, this one has all sorts of features designed to tempt. The floor-to-ceiling walls of glass show off sparkling nighttime views. Super sexy architectural details includes a parking spot in the living room, a mechanical dining room table, and a sensuous fire elevating from an open pit. The home has just two bedrooms but it does have a home theater and a gourmet kitchen. At $5.995 million, it could make some Hollywood lothario and his Porsche very happy.

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I've been talking about this estate since way back in 2005. That's when basketball star Shaquille O'Neal first started trying to unload his house on Miami's prestigious Star Island. O'Neal bought the home in 2004 for $19 million soon after joining the Miami Heat. The WSJ's Private Properties column reports that the home was built in 1992 by Heat center Rony Seikaly. The home does have a certain gargantuan scale but that's not unusual in some multimillion dollar South Florida homes. It has eight bedrooms, an indoor basketball court, gym, steam room and sauna. The 2.5 acre grounds include a tennis court, six-car garage, dock, two-bedroom guest house and Shaq's pool complete with Superman logo. The home is lavish but not particularly distinctive, money used to its blandest potential. The price is now $29 million. If I were to take a bet on a final selling price, I'd guess that Shaq's going to have to cut a few more millions off this one. My guess is $23-$25 million.

Today's home is a fantastic real estate value provided you are willing to make your way to Stillwater, Minnesota. The Real Estalker reports that Jessica Lange and Sam Shepard first put this home on the market in 2004 for $3.3 million. It seems that the couple became disenchanted with their sleepy little town when it became a bit yuppified. The home in question is a five-bedroom Victorian on 2.5 acres. It dates back to 1892 but has been given a very nice renovation in fact you might have seen it in the pages of Architectural Digest. The woodwork is in top shape and although the style isn't wildly exciting there are cute touches like the dragonfly-tiled shower. The property includes a detached garage and a guest house that is located adjacent to the heated swimming pool. The land also is home to a small fruit orchard and ponds. The home is listed at $1.95 million.

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Has someone finally picked up Villa Versailles? The over-the-top Malibu mansion which we featured as an estate of the day back in May, is now listed as having gone to contract.

From the NY Post's Gimme Shelter:
--Two Trees Farm, the site of the Bridgehampton Polo Club has gone on the market for a whopping $95 million. The land is 115 acres, which has preliminary approval for 18 "estate parcels," as well as two houses, an eight-unit apartment building, three barns, two indoor riding arenas, two polo fields, a pool and a tennis court.
--Natalie Portman has put her apartment, shown above, in Richard Meier's transparent West Village tower at 165 Charles St. for $6.55 million. The listing for the three-bedroom pad is here.
--Mel B. (aka Melanie Brown or Scary Spice) is in negotiations to buy a two-bedroom apartment with a $2 million price tag at Platinum, the nearly completed Midtown condominium complex on Eighth Avenue and 46th Street.
--Heather Mills has just closed on a full-floor condo at the Richard Meier-designed 173 Perry St.
--Sports broadcaster Bob Costas has sold his Time Warner Center apartment in the south tower for $8.5 million.

From the LA Times Hot Property:
-- Mark Peel, executive chef and owner of Campanile, has bought a classic Mediterranean in Hancock Park that was listed for $3.1 million. Peel's wife, comedian Daphne Brogdon, is host of TV Guide Channel's weekly series "The Fashion Team." She is creator of CoolMom.com.
--Fashion designer Christian Audigier has bought a just-restored Spanish-style hacienda that had been listed for $2.15 million.
--Actress Luciana Paluzzi and Michael Solomon,former president of Warner Bros. International and co-founder of Telepictures Corp. have llisted their Beverly Hills home for $19.995 million. The 13,638-square-foot Spanish-style house was built in 1988. The property website is here.

From the Real Estalker:
--Perez Hilton recently showed off his apartment on MTV Cribs.
--Jessica Lange and Sam Shepard have put their home in Stillwater, Minnesota on the market for $1.95 million. It's our estate of the day later today.
--Film and television composer Graeme Revell has listed his Malibu estate for $27.5 million. He and his wife Brenda purchased the five acre estate in May of 2004 for $12 million. The listing is here.
--Rumor has it that Ed McMahon may have finally unloaded his home.
--via TMZ, real estate agent Josh Flagg who stars on Bravo's Million-Dollar Listing TV show has been arrested for stealing valuable paintings from listed houses.
--Pete Wentz has put his Hollywood Hills home on the market for $1.799 million. The property website is here

From the NY Observer's Manhattan Transfers:
--Grateful Dead bassist PhilLesh and his wife, Jillspeth, paid $1,775,000 earlier this month for a condo on Prince Street near Broadway.
--Three new expensive rentals have hit the marketing charging $75,000 per month (nearly $1 million per year). At the Plaza, the founder of European operations for the clothing company Esprit, Jürgen Friedrich, put the building's largest original apartment, the Astor Suite, up for rent (he also recently put a Southampton home on the market for $67.5 million). The apartment listing is here. A duplex penthouse at 25 West Houston also went on the market for $75,000 a month, the listing is here. And there is also a $75,000 per month listing at the Waldorf Towers on East 50th Street (the listing agent Margaret H. Bay also has $95,000, $130,000 and $140,000 per month listings). The listing for the $75,000 apartment is here. The king of expensive rentals, is still the penthouse duplex at Trump Park Avenue that is being offered for $200,000 per month.

From Berg Properties Big Time Listings:
--Actor Johnny Knoxville has listed his three-bedroom home in the Hollywood Hills for $1.695 million. The listing is here.
-Music producer DJ Lethal has listed his two-bedroom contemporary-style house in the Hollywood Hills for $1.35 million. He purchased the home from actor Ivan Sergei's Lankershim Blvd Trust back in 2005 for the exact same amount. The listing is here.
--Once again rumors are swirling that Dr. Phil McGraw has placed his Beverly Hills mansion on the market for $18 million in a pocket listing, which means it is private and we can't show you a listing.
--Ted Danson and Mary Steenburgen's official sale price for their house in Malibu was $15.5 million.

From the Wall Street Journal's Private Properties:
--Cher's Malibu mansion has hit the market for $45 million. As Big Time Listings points out, the 14,000 square foot home was on the market in early 2007 for $25 million. The listing is here.
--Artist Jennifer Bartlett has sold her Manhattan townhouse, which includes a pool and her studio, for $17 million. It was previously our estate of the day back in July of last year.
--Shaquille O'Neal has dropped the price on his Miami home from $32 million to $29 million. I'll be taking a closer look at this one on Monday as our estate of the day.

A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned that Denise Richards had put her latest Hidden Hills home on the market but now the LA Times' Ann Brenoff has unearthed the property website so this is definitely worth a closer look. The New-England-style retreat is definitely an upgrade from the last time we featured a home of hers as estate of the day. The five-bedroom home has a gourmet kitchen, dining room, large living room and a sitting room in the master suite all done up in a Pamela Anderson style Shabby Chic decor. Richards has listed the house for $4.25 million which is around $100,000 less than she paid for it.

For more prime properties and lush locations, see Luxury Homes and Mansions.

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Another sign of real estate drama, a house up for sealed bid auction in posh Greenwich, Connecticut of all places. The owner, Stanley Cheslock, originally put the market on the home for $31 million in the usual manner but found that the current market was a bit stagnant.

The HIllcrest Estate features 26,000-square-foot mansion designed by Gilles Le Gorrec and built in 2003 as well as two carriage houses and 12-car capacity garage on 30 acres. The home has four master suites, guest suite and a service suite. There is a large kitchen that includes a wood-burning pizza oven, top-of-the-line appliances, separate accessories kitchen and a butler's pantry with walk-in refrigeration. The massive home has not one but two cathedral-ceiling living rooms that both open onto a 2,500-sq. ft. terrace. Other details include a 100-ft. central atrium, rooftop cupola with stunning Long Island Sound views, hand-crafted stained glass windows, iron-clad elevator, seven Rumsford fireplaces, multiple laundries, handmade plaster moldings, chestnut flooring and geo-thermal heating and cooling. There is also a theatre-quality home cinema, 3,700 bottle-capacity wine room, cherry wood office/library, 50-ft. indoor lap pool with Siberian spruce sauna and granite steam room, and a fully equipped private gym. The expansive grounds adjoin The Stanwich Club, one of United States' premier golf courses, and include a large mouth bass pond, waterfalls, English gardens, and statuary by sculptor Arturo Di Modica.

The estate may be purchased in whole or in part, with the mansion and 22 acres available for a minimum reserve price beginning at $15 million. The two carriage houses and more than seven acres are available for a minimum reserve price beginning at $4 million. And of course the whole package starts at $19 million. Sealed bids must be submitted by 5 p.m. Aug. 15, along with a check for $750,000 and bank documents proving the potential buyer's ability to pay.

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What does $33 million buy you in Franklin Tennessee? Let's find out with today's estate of the day. This over 20,000 square-foot manor house is on nearly 700 acres. The main residence with its porches and Corinthian columns was built in 2002 but aspires to an antebellum style. Because the land is mostly flat, the huge home can be seen from most parts of the property. The entry foyer is dominated by a grand staircase which rises to the 4000 sq. ft. master suite under twin Waterford chandeliers. There are 12' ceilings on the first floor, and 11' on the second floor. How's this for a figure, the window treatments for the 59 windows boast over 2000 yds. of imported fabric. The lower level is includes a billiards room/cafe,a columned surround sound movie theatre and a nine-car showroom garage/workshop. As you might expect, the home has state of the art surveillance and alarm systems. There is also a climate controlled kennel for your canine guard. There is a pool and the property also has a large maintenance shed, caretakers house, covered picnic area and a dock.

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Today's home is an architectural treat in the Cleveland Park area of Washington D.C. The Slayton House's unique triple vault design comes courtesy of I.M.Pei & Associates which received an award for the design in 1964. In 2001, ,architect Hugh Newell Jacobsen was commissioned to enhance the original concept. The project was designed for the family of Pei's colleague and friend William Slayton and features three poured concrete vaults.

Of course my eye is immediately drawn to the center vault space that contains a library lined by bookcases. The library separates the two master bedroom suites on the top level and overlooks the great room and onward to the pool.

The home has two bedrooms, three full baths and a gourmet kitchen. The front exterior features an alee of white crape myrtle trees around a pool surrounded by Turkish travertine which is also on all floors except the two bedrooms which are carpeted. This home is listed at $4.25 million.

[via Modern Capital]

[Thanks, Victor]

For more prime properties and lush locations, see Luxury Homes and Mansions.

Brazilian bombshell Gisele Bundchen just slashed a whopping $5 million off the original asking price on her Manhattan penthouse. The supermodel first listed the West Village spread at $10.9 million last September, then lowered the price a few times, ending up at $7.9 million before withdrawing it from the market in the spring.

Now the Wall Street Journal reports Bundchen just re-listed the pad for $5.9 million, a nearly 50% reduction. She paid almost $3 million for the modern 1,700-sq.ft. triplex with a wraparound terrace and roofdeck overlooking the Hudson River in 2002.

Meanwhile, the Journal also notes that Bundchen's beau, football star Tom Brady, has upped the price on his 3,000-sq.ft., three-bedroom apartment at the Time Warner Center. He first listed it in 2007 for $16.5 million before taking it off the market. He has now re-listed the spread at $18.29 million, about a 30% increase.

How's this for a price reduction? The Normandy-style estate in Oyster Bay, New York is finally under contract for $18 million. That sounds like a lot of money until you consider that the property was originally listed in 2006 for $43 million. The home was built by famed architect Charles P.H. Gilbert in 1906 and has ten bedrooms, staff quarters, a bowling alley, wine cellar and more. The grounds include a Tudor-style coach house, 12-stall stable, tennis house, both indoor and outdoor tennis courts and a pool. The property is listed as having approximately 26 acres surrounded by 114 preserve wooded acres. The listing back in 2006 described it as having sixty plus acres surrounded by 80 acres of conservation land and Newsday reports that last year, Nassau County purchased 33.5 acres of the estate for $11 million for preservation purposes. So it's more like a $32 million listing went for $18 million. Still, that's quite a price chop.

Northwood was once a 900-acre estate owned by banker Mortimer Schiff. Schiff built a massive 120-room Tudor house on the site but his son John replaced it with the comparatively modest home that is on the land today in 1948.

Can it really be a year since I've checked out a house on Lake Drive in Boca Raton. Florida? I suppose so, it's been a year since I've been there to visit my family. Today's home is a seven-bedroom mansion right on Lake Boca. The home, created by architect Tom Benedict and builder Bill Szymanski, is luxurious but not quite as exceedingly lavish as some in the area. The open foyer and floating concrete staircase make for a grand entrance. The living room faces the lake and pool and has a bar with aquarium and multiple sitting areas. The home has two full kitchens, a home theater, study, library, gym and an elevator to tie it all together. The grounds include gardens, infinity edge pool, summer kitchen and private terraces. The home has 150 feet of waterfront with a boat and jetski lift and full power dock. And if there is anything I've learned about Lake Drive it's that the yacht out in front is at least as important as the car in the driveway. This home is listed at $19.95 million. You are going to need a big boat.

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The price on this one is a bit much but there's only so much real estate on Tybee Island. Tybee Island is a wonderful vacation destination in Georgia with beautiful white sand beaches and the famed Tybee Island lighthouse. Today's home is a classic 1928 Tybee Island beach cottage. It's a four-bedroom home on 2.3 acres that includes 160 feet of ocean beachfront. The home is definitely older and in need of updates but it does have nice wood paneling and beautiful wraparound porches designed for leisurely summer afternoons. This home is listed at $12.9 million.

For more prime properties and lush locations, see Luxury Homes and Mansions.