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Would You Buy a Famous Movie Home?

The news that the creepy Silence of the Lambs home is on the market outside Pittsburgh intrigued us with the idea of marketing, appraising, and selling a home that has been a movie set. This particular listing, which has the relatively low listing price of $300,000,  mentions that the movie was "featured" in the film, but doesn't mention exactly how it was featured: given that it was the den of a serial killer, we would probably leave that part out as well. Silence of the lambs house

A quick Google search reveals multiple lists of famous movie homes that have been listed and/or sold, including:

  1. The Home Alone house, which sold for $1.58 million after spending a year on the market in the Chicago suburb of Winnetka.
  2. The mansion of Mean Girls' Regina George is has been listed for $14.8 million in Toronto since May of this year.
  3. The iconic Upper East Side townhouse of Holly Golightly in Breakfast at Tiffany's was listed and sold in 2011 for just under $6 million.
  4. Last November, the Staten Island Godfather mansion hit the market at $2.9 million, with specialty renovations such as the office in the home remodeled to look like the movie (only the exterior was used in the film). Though $2.9 million isn't too shabby, it pales in comparison to the 2011 $115 million price tag put on the Beverly Hills mansion also featured in the films.
  5. While not a house listing, the famous Tara plantation of Gone With the Wind was not an actual house, but a façade that is now being painstakingly put back together by historian Peter Bonner. Now that's a job we don't envy!
tara plantation
The Tara plantation house from Gone With the Wind...not quite how it looked in the movie.

As an appraiser or a realtor, how would you approach a house like one of these? Do you think it would have much effect on the report or listing? Or, as a potential home buyer, would it affect your opinion of the house? Let us know in the comments, and link to any other famous movie home stories you've heard. We'd love to hear any personal experience you have in this area!

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