Ex-Wife Of Tiger Woods Buys $12 Million Home - Then Bulldozes It To The Ground

[Buzz]

I'm with the group who calls it a waste of money no matter who does that sort of thing.

[Wyliefan]

You don't have to be born an American to act like one.

Sure, nail an entire country for something done by one of its non-citizens.

I hate to break it to you, my friend, but human nature is flawed wherever you go.

[aliceanne]

"All the other kids shoplift, so what's the big deal if I shoplifted too?"

I don't see the analogy, she didn't do anything illegal or harmful to anyone.


If you disapprove of her lifestyle that's your privilege, but I don't see how this story is newsworthy, as an example of wretched excess among the rich and famous, it seems pretty ordinary.

[orbitz]

I'm with the group who calls it a waste of money no matter who does that sort of thing.

Would it not be a waste if the home was only worth 300K and it was bulldozed in order to built a new one in its place?

[duane]

This is another example of the exploits of the filthy rich. But hey, it's her money and she can waste, uh, spend it as she so pleases.

[bek]

Well, what Tiger did was wrong but Elin isn't like the head of a multi-billion dollar company where she can expect the money in the form of huge yearly salaries to keep pouring in. The way she is spending, that $100 million won't last forever. $12 million to buy the house, not sure how many million the new house will cost plus the expenses incurred building the new house then maintaining it.

She reminds me of watching those Lottery Changed my Life then ruined it programs. Those people also get one lump sum then run through it living like wealthy socialites.

It always makes me at how easily celebrities run through such large amounts of cash. They never seem to think of the future.

I can't say for sure but I believe (even if she worked as a nanny in her gap year). Elin may actually be from a wealthy family in Sweden. Her mom is a politician and her dad is a popular radio show host. She apparently was always continuing her education (while married to Tiger) to be a child psychologist.

And if she builds a house of better value, she could "maybe make money off it." Who knows. She's also apparently dating a very rich man and perhaps they are talking about getting serious...So there's more money.

[marbri]

The two homes I've bought in my lifetime I bought for location and decided to "fix up" the houses. I wish I had just bulldozed them and built a new house on the lot, would have saved a lot of tears and made more sense financially because essentially I was trying to turn an old house into a new house.

[bek]

The two homes I've bought in my lifetime I bought for location and decided to "fix up" the houses. I wish I had just bulldozed them and built a new house on the lot, would have saved a lot of tears and made more sense financially because essentially I was trying to turn an old house into a new house.

Apparently the original plan was to remodel the house, but then they decided to tear it down. It may have been a stupid move, but I bet a big part of the house's value was the property.

[Vash01]

Apparently the original plan was to remodel the house, but then they decided to tear it down. It may have been a stupid move, but I bet a big part of the house's value was the property.

That makes more sense. Sometimes remodeling just does not give you exactly what you want.

[Rafter]

Well, what Tiger did was wrong but Elin isn't like the head of a multi-billion dollar company where she can expect the money in the form of huge yearly salaries to keep pouring in. The way she is spending, that $100 million won't last forever. $12 million to buy the house, not sure how many million the new house will cost plus the expenses incurred building the new house then maintaining it.

She reminds me of watching those Lottery Changed my Life then ruined it programs. Those people also get one lump sum then run through it living like wealthy socialites.

It always makes me at how easily celebrities run through such large amounts of cash. They never seem to think of the future.

Even if she spent $30 million total on the house, she still has $70 million dollars left. That is a TON of money. I'm sure she will have good financial advice and invest wisely. With that kind of money she may be able to live off the interest.

[marbri]

That makes more sense. Sometimes remodeling just does not give you exactly what you want.

Exactly. I'm sure when they got the original estimates for the remodel and updating it was decided it was smarter to just bulldoze it to the ground and build new. THAT could be the cheaper option.

[FigureSpins]

The article didn't say she laid out the $12m in cash, so she's probably financing the purchase so her nestegg isn't depleted yet.

In a neighborhood near mine, there was a house right on a beautiful park. It was nothing special - just a little crackerbox brick ranch. The elderly original owners had bought it many years ago from a developer. Most houses in the area would be sold to a child or other relative if the owners died/wanted to move. For some reason, this house went up for sale on the real estate market and sold for $250k, which was a lot of money at the time. Many people in the neighborhood felt the new buyer overpaid.

The buyers didn't live in it for the first 18 months because it was under construction for that entire time. They tore down everything except one interior wall and had a three-story McMansion with attached garage built around that one wall. By keeping the wall, they were able to use a home improvement loan. The house fills the entire lot, save the required 4' border, but looks like it has a huge piece of land because it's right on the park.

It's a beautiful house, now worth over $1.5m. It's also the most expensive house in the neighborhood, which could be a problem when they want to sell.

Some people look at a house and just see the house, others see investment opportunities. The idea of subdividing the beachfront property is probably another option unless there are restrictions on that action.

[triple_toe]

I have to say I genuinely don't understand why anyone gives a flying fig how other people spend their money, not just in this scenario. Why does it matter what some person you're never going to meet spent on a house you're never going to see? YMMV, but I was always told it was rude to ask people how much they spent on their car, house, what their salary is, etc unless you had a specific reason. It's between Elin and her accountant whether she's spending too much, it's none of our business.

[PeterG]

Hmm...maybe this other news story will be helpful for others to understand what I'm feeling:

Closing Bridal Store, Priscilla of Boston, Spray Paints Designer Gowns and Outrages Women

Priscilla of Boston, a designer wedding dress shop ... is closing all 19 locations after 65 years, and they have lots of gowns to dispose of. But rather than donating them to a good cause or taking them to sample sales, the Edina, Minnesota store employees spray-painted the expensive gowns pink and threw them in the trash so no one could wear them.

A similar incident occurred back in 2010 when a woman found bags of slashed up clothing and accessories from H&M and Wal-Mart in the trash in New York City.

The wealthy have every right to be as wasteful as they wish. I just don't understand that mindset. How people can put blinders on to the fact that others we share the planet with have no food, clothing or shelter. I just don't get it...

[Spinner]

Sure, nail an entire country for something done by one of its non-citizens.

I hate to break it to you, my friend, but human nature is flawed wherever you go.

That was pretty much the point of the 2 words I posted, it just happened here. There was no ill will in them at all. Just a simple snark. An awful lot's being read into them. The country of her birth is of no matter to me. But anyway, back to the topic of worrying about what someone else does with their money.

[Southpaw]

Does anybody know what year this house was built?

I don't see it as a waste of money if this is a modern house. A bunch of people made money when that house was built. Now a whole lot of other people are going to make money when the new house is built. This is just redistribution of wealth in play here. Her money is now sitting in her bank account doing nothing and benefitting nobody but herself. That money would have been in her account whether or not that house was standing on that pretty little piece of property. But by building a new house her money is slowly going to leak out of her bank account and dribble into other people's accounts. People who probably need the money more than she does. If she had kept the house as is then all of Tiger's her money would be staying put and nobody would get their filthy little mitts on it. But now people are going to work for it and earn it and they'll be able to face themselves in the morning every day because they're, you know, working. They're not taking some charity handouts from some filthy rich divorcee with a feisty 9-iron. They're working! Their pride is intact! If it's a modern house what difference does it make if it gets bulldozed? They make those modern houses like crap anyway. They're not built to last, they're built to be bulldozed every 50 years. That's what's going to move our economy now - disposable housing, just like the crap washing machines and the crap vacuum cleaners that don't stand the test of time. We're living in the United States of Crapmerica now, people. It's wall to wall crap! We have the Crap-Mart, the Crap Depot, and the Crapplebee's. So let her build her new crap house with Nike's money and put some people to work and give them the bragging rights of being players in the Tiger Woods divorce skandal. Oh, the stories they'll be able to tell!

Now, if this were a pretty old Victorian then I'd be about it because that's just grand theft destruction.

[nursebetty]

Wonder where the land field is that is now housing all that stuff. Hopefully they went through the house before it was demolished. It's not any of my business, but what a waste.

[El Rey]

Wonder where the land field is that is now housing all that stuff. Hopefully they went through the house before it was demolished. It's not any of my business, but what a waste.

Someone in the comments from that Yahoo article said that she allowed Habitat for Humanity to take things from the home before it was demolished. No link was posted, so I don't know if it's true.

[rjblue]

I know two couples who tore down their home and rebuilt on the same spot. One couple is lower middle income and their house was old and small and had been as renovated as it could be. She was left some money, so they tore down their house and built a nice new bungalow on the same spot. They sold all the windows, doors and reused the nice hardwood flooring.

The other couple is upper middle class and had a small house on a great lot in town. They were going to expand their house to fit their family's needs, but discovered that they'd also have to completely replace the foundation and the windows, and decided to built a much larger house on the same spot.

Actually, when I stop and think about it, I can think of at least a dozen homes I know of where the people have torn down the old and moved to a new. It's is very common among the 1% here in New Brunswick Canada.

[Carmen Ovsiannikov]

I have to say I genuinely don't understand why anyone gives a flying fig how other people spend their money, not just in this scenario. Why does it matter what some person you're never going to meet spent on a house you're never going to see? YMMV, but I was always told it was rude to ask people how much they spent on their car, house, what their salary is, etc unless you had a specific reason. It's between Elin and her accountant whether she's spending too much, it's none of our business.

Well, we could say that about anything that gets discussed whether it be celebrity news or even just stories on your local news program. As long as it doesn't affect any of us why should we care or discuss it? Even if we discuss something is frivilous as new skating costumes; what has what someone is wearing got to do with us? Of what placements that skater ends up with? That could be taken as none of our business as well as technically it isn't.

If we follow that line of thought then we should shut down every message board on the internet no matter what the subject is. Or perhaps when we log in we should get the daily list of subjects it's okay to speak of?