House sold for just under $16M near Palm Beach's marina was marketed completely furnished
A four-bedroom house marketed as totally move-in ready — down to the furniture, the bakeware in the kitchen and the Matouk sheets for the beds — has changed hands for a recorded $15.9 million in Midtown Palm Beach.
Built in 2017, the house has 4,224 square feet of living space, inside and out, on a lot of less than a fifth of an acre near the Palm Beach Marina.
The buyer was Southern Mark LLC, a Delaware-registered limited limited liability company, according to the deed recorded March 20. That company has a mailing address in care of the Axley Brynelson LLP law firm in Madison, Wisconsin.
Because of Delaware's strict corporate privacy laws, no other information about the buyer was immediately available in public records.
The seller was 449 Australian LLC, a Florida limited liability company, for which Helen M. Ziegler is an authorized member, business records show. Ziegler bought the property in her name for a recorded $14.9 million in 2022 and transferred ownership to 449 Australian LLC later that year, according to courthouse records.
The latest sales listing said the two-story house was completely furnished — a change from the way it was marketed when the property changed hands in 2022. It’s unclear, though, if the furnishings changed hands in the sale that closed March 15, the closing date listed in the multiple listing service.
The property was last priced with the furnishings at $16.75 million, a substantial markdown from the asking price of $21.95 million it carried when it went on the market last May, according to records in the Palm Beach Board of Realtors Multiple Listing Service.
The asking price had since undergone three price cuts.
Among the home’s features are a formal living room with a coffered ceiling, a well-equipped kitchen and a second-floor master suite overlooking the swimming pool, records show. There’s also a loggia with a built-in grill.
The master suite includes a sitting area, dual bathrooms and a pair of closets. Other amenities include a wet bar, elevator, generator and a one-car garage.
Agent Shelly Newman of the Corcoran Group handled both sides of the sale, according to the MLS. She declined to comment.
Newman’s sales listing described the house as “light and bright” with an open floor plan.
The seller had completely furnished the house “down to the home essentials” with furnishings and accessories from HIVE Collective in West Palm Beach, according to the sales listing. “No renovation or furniture necessary,” the listing said.
The seller bought the house in June 2022 from businessman and entrepreneur Bennie M. Bray and his wife, Stephanie Chantillis Bray, who acted as trustees of a Dallas-based family trust. The Bray family has invested in a number of Palm Beach properties since 2010, when they used a trust to buy the former vacation house of the late Ponzi-schemer Bernard Madoff on North Lake Way. The Bray family then renovated the old Madoff house before selling it in 2013.
The Brays had bought the house on Australian Avenue for a recorded $5.8 million in March 2020, about a week before town officials issued their first emergency order associated with the coronavirus pandemic. In the following years, prices escalated sharply during the Palm Beach housing boom that accompanied the health crisis.
The house was originally developed on speculation and sold by Palm Beach real estate investor and Corcoran Group real estate agent Richard Richard True of Cushing Investments LLC.
In the 2022 sale, agent Tina Roberts of Sotheby’s International Realty represented Siegler’s interests, negotiating opposite agent Allison Wren of the Corcoran Group, according to MLS records.
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This is a developing story. Check back for any updates.
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Darrell Hofheinz is a USA TODAY Network of Florida journalist who writes about Palm Beach real estate in his weekly “Beyond the Hedges” column. He welcomes tips about real estate news on the island. Email dhofheinz@pbdailynews.com, call 561-820-3831 or tweet @PBDN_Hofheinz. Help support our journalism. Subscribe today.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Daily News: Palm Beach house sold for $15.9M was marketed totally furnished
