We all dream about striking it rich. We imagine what it would be like if we were to suddenly come into millions upon millions of dollars and what we would do with it. It's why so many people play the lottery. We all want to go from rags to riches, and most of us will never become a best-selling rap artist like 50 Cent so we are left with hoping our numbers are called.
If 50 Cent is lucky maybe someone will win the lottery and take his incredible large and extravagant mansion in Connecticut off his hands. He is only asking $8.5 million for it, and for 50,000+ square feet of home that screams living large that is an absolute steal.
Before you rush out and but it be sure you ask one very important question: Why so low?
He paid $4.1 million for the place when he bought the 21-bedroom, 25-bathroom house from Mike Tyson's ex-wife in 2003, and supposedly put anywhere from $6-10 million into it. So he is willing to take a heck of a hit on this place.
Nuts, right? Well—not really.
While it may be an incredible house with beautiful grounds surrounding it who needs such an incredibly big place? No one! Not only that, but it costs $72,000 a month just to maintain the place. That comes out to $840,000 a year! Who wants to blow a million a year on maintenance?
Not too many people do, and those that have tried have gone broke in the process starting with the guy that had the place built back in 1985 for $2.3 million, Colonial Realty founder Benjamin Sisti. You would think that a realtor would have known better, but he wasn't really a realtor. After he declared bankruptcy in 1990 police discovered that Colonial Reality was actually a Ponzi scheme.
Sisti ended up spending nine years in prison for bankruptcy fraud (he had transferred all of his assets to family before declaring bankruptcy) while his mansion went into foreclosure. It was eventually sold at auction for $3.5 million to People's Bank who managed to sell it to Lithuanian business owner Romas Martsinkiavitchous for $2.7 million.
The expenses eventually caught up with him as well. He tried to deny that he was selling for some time even though boxer Mike Tyson had been seen visiting the property. As much as he tried to deny it, foreclosure proceedings were in progress after he had fallen over $900,000 behind in his mortgage payments.
In time, he too declared bankruptcy and he sold the place to Tyson for $2.8 million after only living there for only a year. Tyson was fresh out of prison, had homes in many states, and money to burn. He ended up blowing his fortune and losing the house to his ex-wife in the divorce. She managed to sell it to 50 Cent for $4.1 million in 2003.
It didn't take long for 50 Cent to realize he has made a huge mistake, but by time he did he has also spent a small fortune adding on to the mansion (helipad, infinity pool, movie theater, etc.). He first put it up for sale in 2007 for $18.5 million, but found no takers.
Since then he has listed it and taken it down several times. Even though he has dropped the price each time he has yet to find a sucker willing to take it off his hands.
