Who is the millionaire who teaches other millionaires what it is like to live and handle a mansion

Most people spend their youth living with roommates.Petra Ecclestone - heir of Formula 1 races and born in London - is not like most people.In 2011, at 22, he bought one of the largest houses in the United States, Spelling Manor in Los Angeles, for US $ 85 million.The young woman, with that purchase, became, at that time, the most expensive person paid a property in California.

Petra spent the next decade learning to live on that property, surrounded by more than 30 employees between keys of keys, landscapers, security personnel and drivers.

Now, Petra and his fiance, Sam Palmer, are working on a company inspired by their experience in Spelling Manor (they sold the house in 2019 for US $ 120 million).Its objective is to help other people rich to buy, sell, provide staff and decorate their mansions.It will be a comprehensive service for a very specialized clientele: ultra -up -housing buyers.

Palmer already directs Staffing Properties, a company that places employees in the houses of the rich. Ellos obtuvieron su licencia de bienes raíces el mes pasado y se unieron a la firma de bienes raíces de lujo Hilton & Hyland.Ecclestone said he plans to handle the interior design and the brand.

The couple will attend to the growing number of millionaire people in the world who have made the angels in recent years tempted by the weather, the lifestyle.

They can personally attest to what they can offer.After all, they know better than anyone than being owners of multimillion -dollar housing requires some experience.

Rick Hilton, fundador de Hilton & Hyland (y padre de Paris y esposo de Kathy), conoce a Ecclestone desde que le vendió la mansión en 2011.“Palmer has many global connections and I think he could be a very important agent.And Petra, with his refined taste could contribute a great plus, "said Hilton.

Without a doubt, time passed since Spelling Manor bought.Ecclestone, now 32, is slender and blonde.She is a woman who is difficult to impress.Mother of four young children, speak in a low voice and is a bit reserved, but can be frank, sharp and funny.

Sitting outside on a warm afternoon, while two staff members quietly served coffee and fresh fruit and their eldest daughter curled up in her lap, she explained that she bought the mansion in 2011 without seeing it.But the idea was not his, but his ex -husband."He was a bit selfish and maniac," he said, as an explanation.

Before moving to Spelling Manor, he hired designer Gavin Brodin to supervise an almost total renewal of the house.Originally built in the 80s for the inifinity television producer of successful series, Aaron Spelling, the house had 27 bathrooms, a room for wrapping gifts (which Ecclestone turned an office for her assistant), a barbershop (which she keptas was) and a room of 2286 square meters (which is the size of a more standard mansion).

Brodin described Ecclestone as deliciously decisive.Once the plans were established, "there were no changes," he said.A team of 500 workers were hired to complete the works in 12 weeks (instead of a typical schedule of nine months or more).

When he moved to Manor, Ecclestone was married to James Stunt.They would spend several years before he met Palmer, who is 38 years old and is also English.

Palmer was a friend of his brother -in -law of that time, he lived and worked in Australia.They met at a meeting in 2017.The two got along from the outset.Palmer said his first date was in Tao, a restaurant in Los Angeles.His second meeting was on a trip to Dubai.

Palmer, who has the charm of a handsome seller and is the most sociable of the two, said it was not the type that was captivated by a person's house, but Ecclestone's was "spectacular".I was impeccable."There was never a sheet on the ground," he said.He soon learned that keeping it like this was a complex and expensive operation.

After Palmer moved to Los Angeles to live with Ecclestone and his three children, he became deeply interested in how the mansion was administered.Then the couple had a child in common in 2020.

Palmer said that people were charging Ecclestone more right -handed.It is almost as if they stopped in a house of 17.373 square meters and think that money is not a problem.Discovering the complicated mathematics that would allow the home to be carried out, provide trained personnel to the house and make sure that it worked without problems became the "work of your life".

In 2019, Palmer started Staffing Properties, relying on this obsession."I am the only person who can say that he has lived in the biggest house in California and I know how to handle it," he said.

Multimillionaire single floor

The highest end of the real estate market in Los Angeles has had a kind of construction boom in recent years, with developers in Bel-Air, Brentwood and Beverly Hills, demolishing old houses to build luxurious mansions, some with homemade cinemas and nightclubsprivate, often for unknown buyers.

These houses with white contemporary specifications, glass box type, are designed to maximize views and attract a class of expanding global billionaires that come to the area.Many of them have a price of US $ 100 million or more, well above the price that Ecclestone paid for the mansion a decade ago.

Palmer said that most of the newly built houses of nine figures that the couple sees in Los Angeles are basically high -end single flats.

An example of this is Billionaire, a Bel-Air house speculatively by the designer and developer of Bruce Makowsky Bruce that had a helipad on the roof and was quoted for US $ 250 million in 2017.That same property two years later was sold for US $ 94 million.

Ecclestone and Palmer's new home

In recent years they decided to reduce themselves.The couple paid US $ 22.7 million for a modern country house of 5500 square meters on the other side of LeBron James street.Now they are closer to Ecclestone's eldest daughter school."People write about this as if we lived in a tentwood tent," said Palmer.

Brentwood's house is a kind of brand experience, which is, not by chance, how they describe the service they want to provide to customers.This property was called Vita Nova, to represent her new life together.

Visitors enter through a door adorned with the name in a distinctive source.A security guard receives visits wearing a shirt with Vita Nova's logo, holding a clipboard with a non -dissemination agreement.There are Vita Nova and Vita Nova towels and even a characteristic aroma of Vita Nova, a subtle mixture of coconut and lavender.

A relatively reduced team of about a dozen people manages and directs the house from the units of the personnel that became a garage for 10 cars.The area includes several offices with glass walls, a rest room and a professional level laundry sector that can also handle dry cleaning.

Palmer, whose company offices are also in this space, said that often proves possible domestic employees in their own home to see if they work well before placing them in a client's house.

A challenge: find the right staff.As with many industries that recover from the economic effects of pandemic, the labor market for domestic staff is limited.Some rich families who fired employees during the pandemic have had difficulty hiring them again.

Although the couple said they finally feel installed in their new home, Ecclestone commented that their brand new company will help you eliminate your desire to find a new home.For his part, Palmer said: “I am very attached to this house and I love it.But if we can take advantage of this property.Why not keep moving?At one point, this is something exciting."

Currently, Ecclestone also owns a 18th -century Georgian mansion in London, according to the couple, sold for about US $ 200 million.