I'm Chris DiLella and I'm Jessi Joseph.
We're both producers at CNBC and we travel the world covering the luxury
real estate beat. You're about to see four of the most expensive homes in
America with price tags over $100 million.
They're crazy big packed with bowling alleys, underground tunnels and even
a $2 million TV that rises up from the pool.
Here's CNBC's Robert Frank with number four.
You're about to take an exclusive tour of the most expensive home for sale
in the United States.
Asking price? $250,000,000.
The recently completed four-story mega mansion towers over the city of Los
Angeles from the hills of Bel Air.
This is the first and only time TV cameras will be allowed inside the
38,000-square-foot home.
Bruce Makowsky is the big time developer who built this luxury lair.
And when billionaires request a tour, Bruce starts right here.
So is this the garage?
No. This is the ultimate auto gallery.
This home comes with 12 of the most exciting and insane cars.
And expensive. This car alone, I know, is worth $2 million.
There's only 100 of these made.
This is number 50.
Bruce spent years building this collection of cars and motorcycles that's
now worth around $30 million.
He's incorporated them into the design of the house and he's hoping
vintage cars like this extremely rare $15 million 1936 Mercedes will prove
irresistible to a super wealthy buyer.
But if cars aren't your thing, there's plenty more to amuse yourself with
on this giant floor of the mansion.
This space is a little over 12,000 feet.
And it's chock full with the most amazing entertainment that you could
ever want to have. Starting in the far end over here with a four-lane
bowling alley. And are those gold bowling pins?
They're custom made bowling pins, but only for decoration.
You can't use them.
Pretty nice decoration though. And just past the almost 30-foot mega TV
hanging over the bar is a massive James Bond themed movie theater that
seats 40 and cost nearly $2 million just to build.
Really comfortable by the way.
Robert, 57 speakers in here, 16 subwoofers, a 25-foot Stewart screen with
7,000 movies loaded in here.
You're not going to want to leave this room.
You don't just watch this theater.
You feel it in your soul.
There was no budget.
It had to be the best of everything in this house.
And there are no limits on the second level either, starting with the mind
blowing spiral staircase that cost $2 million.
But if the 75-foot infinity pool isn't grand enough for you, another
multi-million dollar marvel appears.
It is a $2 million theater outdoors.
It's 18-feet wide by 12-feet high.
And I can break it into as many TV's as you want.
And you actually have a drive-in 4K theater in your house that you can use
every single day because we're in Southern California.
And Bruce doesn't think the billionaire who buys this place should ever
lift a finger. So he's including a personal trainer, a masseuse and a
private chef whose setting the table with Roberto Cavalli designer dishes.
In all, seven staff members have been hired to remain with the mansion for
two years. They were assembled like the crew of a mega yacht, which was a
big part of Bruce's inspiration to build this place.
It didn't make sense to me that somebody would spend $300 million on a
boat that they use eight weeks a year and they live in a $20 million or
$30 million house.
So what I'm doing is I'm building these masterpieces for those people who
want to have that same feeling on the water that they can have on land.
But even the largest luxury liners don't come with 130 curated art
installations, like this gleaming million dollar steel sculpture of a
giant Leica camera and a spectacular 20-foot wall designed to look like an
enormous safe. And since most super yachts come with their own helipad,
Bruce put one on the roof along with a Bell 22A helicopter.
Since the ritzy neighborhood doesn't allow copters to take off and land,
Bruce calls the permanently parked bird a multi-million dollar sculpture.
The super wealthy really understand quality.
I travel all around the world and I get to see their lifestyle.
They just want the finest things in life.
And if they can afford it, they should have it.
That house is so big it took us three days to film it all.
Up next, you're about to see what's currently the most expensive home for
sale in the U.S. It's got secret underground tunnels and a 12,000-bottle
wine cellar. This is number three.
This $195 million residence sits in one of LA's most rarefied
neighborhoods. The estate is owned by billionaire TV mogul Jerry
Perenchio. The former Univision chairman purchased the Bel Air mansion
back in 1986.
And after a five-year gut renovation, he transformed the interior into an
authentic replica of an 18th-century French chateau.
And this is the first time TV cameras have ever been invited inside.
Mr. Perenchio loved to entertain, so he built this 40-car motor court and
above it, he built a beautiful rose garden.
The billionaire businessman filled the 25,000-square-foot mega home with
rare European antiques and made some modern day upgrades to the place.
The grand ballroom was designed for entertaining, and one of the special
features of this property is at the flick of a switch, it becomes a
theater. Now, I'm not going to drop names, but on this very stage you
would have A-list performers who were used to playing in arenas, playing
here for an intimate gathering of 100 guests.
One level below is the estate's massive wine cellar.
It's completely climate controlled and can hold 12,000 bottles of wine.
You heard me right. 12,000 bottles.
Buried underneath the chateau,
there's two tunnels that are original to the home's 1935 construction.
And this particular tunnel takes you to the spectacular pool and pool
house. Pavarotti, who is a friend and a frequent guest of the estate, used
to stay here often.
And he would come down to these tunnels and he would practice because the
acoustics are so great.
Figuero. The billionaire added a giant's head to the mouth of one of the
tunnels and a massive steel and wood sculpture shaped like an oversized
bird cage. It's surrounded by private gardens and ponds filled with koi
fish. Back in the 80s,
the owner bought three neighboring properties, which expanded the estate
to more than 10 acres.
He converted one property into a 5,700-square-foot guesthouse.
The other two he bulldozed to make way for a dramatic private driveway and
grassy helipad. A grand fountain in the backyard is flanked by a pair of
staircases, each one with its own cascading waterfall.
And while redwood trees are usually only found in Northern California, the
TV titan transplanted dozens of majestic sequoias, creating a private
redwood grove in his own backyard.
Not only is there nothing like this in Los Angeles, I don't think there's
anything like this in the country.
Oh, my God, Jess, I loved those secret underground tunnels.
Those were so cool.
And up next, our stop is an LA mega home featured in iconic Hollywood
films like The Godfather and The Bodyguard.
Check out number two.
At the top of this 800-foot-long driveway sits a massive
50,000-square-foot estate with a glamorous Hollywood past.
This is the Beverly House, which was the state of William Randolph Hearst
and Marion Davies. Jacqueline John F.
Kennedy honeymooned here.
Inside the home is filled with eye-catching architectural details like
this living room with elegant arched ceilings and a unique two-story
library with hand-carved woodwork.
You come in and you feel the expanse, the height in the billiard room.
There's an antique pool table and fireplace.
With two dining rooms and hallways that are over 100 feet long, the
Beverly House can easily entertain 1,000 people.
Downstairs, guests can party like the ultimate playboy.
So this is the entry to the Deco Lounge.
When Hugh Hefner's private club in L.A.
called Touch closed its doors in the 90s, Ross purchased the doors and the
etched glasswork to design his personal lounge, just like Hef's.
Outside the lavish look of the gardens, fountains and tiered pools lured
in Hollywood producers who've used the home on film to portray extreme
luxury. It was featured in The Bodyguard, starring Whitney Houston and
Kevin Costner, and of course, in The Godfather.
This was the scene when they walked around the pool and then you saw the
horse's head in the bed.
With all of the history and entertaining that's happened here,
just imagine if these walls could talk.
Jess you didn't run into any horse heads, did you?
No, thankfully, that scene was filmed in a studio.
Up next, we've got a beachfront mega home that's covered in $5 million
worth of gold leaf.
Here's number one.
The billionaire that's building this 60,000-square-foot mega mansion in
Florida likes everything supersized.
He's spent $4 million on an enormous 150,000-gallon resort style pool
and another $2 million on the first ever IMAX home movie theater.
But he isn't just splurging on jumbo sized amenities.
He's also pouring huge amounts of cash into the tiniest details.
It's cost him over $5 million to accent inch after inch of this palace
with 22-karat gold leaf.
It's the same type of gold as a
technique applied from the 18th century in France.
Nicolas Garnier is in charge of the crew that's painting on the precious
metal. He had the highly skilled artisans working on the scaffolding flown
in from France.
Everything's getting the Midas touch.
Like the $500,000 front doors imported from Germany.
The railings on the $2 million staircase and the moldings on the wall and
ceiling. This ornate paint job will take months to complete.
You need to apply the gold very specifically just on molding.
This take long long time.
The owner put his gold-covered palace on the market for $159 million, but
it sat empty for years and eventually sold for just $42.5
million. There was so much gold flying around that place while we were
filming that we had gold leaf on our shoes when we left.
That is crazy.
If you could pick any one of those four houses to have a house party in.
What would you choose? I'm for sure throwing a party at that mansion
overlooking LA with the $2 million pop-up TV.
How about you? I'd say hands down the house with the secret tunnels.
Let us know what you think. Tell us your favorite in the comments section
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