Celebrities are always making bad investments. It’s an unfortunate truth of becoming rich fast; you spend it just as quickly on bad choices. Often times our favorite stars try to spend big on their homes and end up just digging themselves a hole of debt when they pick bad properties to invest in. Nelly learned this lesson the hard way. Let’s take a look at his home disaster and several others who put their money on bad real estate.
Cornell Iral Haynes Jr rose to fame as Nelly in 1999. His hit singles “Country Grammer” and “Ride With Me” made him a household name and a millionaire overnight. Nelly was quick to up his lifestyle, spending on lavish cars, clothes, and homes. At the peak of the MTV Cribs era, Nelly decided to purchase himself a sprawling St. Louis chateau in 2002 to house all his riches. Plans to flip the home were quickly abandoned, and the property has sat there falling apart for over two decades. It was even broken into back in 2009, with footage of the break in making the news.
It is unclear how much Nelly initially paid for it, but it was originally listed as $2,499,000 when he first tried to get rid of it. The six-bedroom, seven-bathroom home features a three-car garage, 12 acres of land, and over 10,000 sq ft. Multiple rooms have their own balconies, and the backyard features a basketball court, pool, and tons of space.
No one seemed to want to take on the massive job of getting this house back in shape, so its value has dropped tremendously. In 2021 it was listed at $600k on Zillow. The Wildwood manor was eventually taken off of Nelly’s hands and sold for $982,500, according to an MLS site.
Nelly is not the first or the last to invest in a bad property. Mary J. Blige lost $5 million on a home she originally purchased in 2008 for $12.3 million. This came after her split from her husband, Kendu Issacs. Faced with IRS back taxes and the massive $30k a month she had to shell out in spousal support, Blige was forced to put her home on the market for $6.9 million. Someone finally purchased the property in 2020. The “country-french” manor featured 18,000 sq ft, eight bedrooms, a gym with sauna, an indoor basketball court, game rooms, and a 14-seat movie theater.
Michael Jordan has been trying to offload a home for over nine years. The NBA mogul purchased the home in 1991 for $2 million dollars right after winning his first championship with the Chicago Bulls. Now valued at over $14 million, the Illinois mansion is having a hard time getting sold. He initially listed it for $29 million in 2012, dropping it to $21 million the following year.
Eventually, he re-listed it for $16 million and has now been stuck at $14 since 2015. The home has been extensively customized to Jordan’s liking over the years, making it a very hard house to sell for anyone hoping to make it their own.
