SELLER: A.J. McLeanLOCATION: Los Angeles,
PRICE: $1,919,000
SIZE: 3,244 square feet, 3 bedrooms, 3.5 bathrooms
YOUR MAMAS NOTES: Boy bands like Backstreet Boys (BSB) and New Kids on the Block (NKOTB) are not, never were and never will be of any musical interest to Your Mama. In all honestly, we could not if our little life depended on it name or hum the tune of a single song by either of those groups. However, a body would have to live under a rock not to recognize or understand that in their salad days these then barely pubescent baby-faced boys who sang and pranced in all-male groups were the absolute end for vast numbers of teens, tweens and pre-tweens.
Old skool boy band mania may have morphed into near fetishistic appetites for high-processed pop superstars like Justin Beiber and Rihanna but boy bands like BSB and NKOTB still have legions of loyal and sometimes even rabid fans who fall into uncontrollable fits of high-pitched screeching and involuntary pants wetting at the mere mention of their names. Their continued popularity, despite their music industry near-obsolescence as a genre, explains why over the years Your Mama has discussed the real estate activities of any number of past and present boy banders like Justin Timberlake, Joey Fatone and Lass Bass, all from–let's get real now, pets–the ludicrously-named boy band 'N Sync.
Sometime in 2010 the now grown boys from BSB and NKOTB appeared together on some awards show or something. Hoots and hollers galore by fans prompted the powers that be to team up for a joint 2011 tour of the United States and Canada, a no-doubt highly anticipated and sold out event that causes Your Mama to roll an eye, sigh and smack our lips. Our usually quite stern house gurl Svetlana, on the other hand, wails like a cat on a hot tin roof every time she even thinks of seeing all those man-boys strut their stuff and sing sappy lyrics.
The tour will, one presumes, fill the coffers of the now-adult Boys and Kids, something that may or may not have anything to do with bearded and heavily tattooed Backstreet Boy A.J. McLean putting his Los Angeles, CA residence on the market with an asking price of $1,919,000 (reduced from it's original list price of $1,999,000).
Iffin we're being honest, we'd confess that we really don't know what Mister McLean has been up to professionally outside of his involvement with Backstreet Boys. We do know from our few minutes of research on the internets that Mister McLean has thrice been to rehab–most recently in January 2011–and that in January of 2010 he proposed to his fiancée while on stage at the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas in January 2010. The happy couple originally planned to marry in May in a Moulin Rouge-themed wedding but due to the NKOTBSB tour they postponed the theatrical nuptials until December. Just between us chickens, Your Mama hopes they've postponed the Moulin Rouge theme too but that's only our utterly meaningless if not entirely very nice opinion.
Anyhoodles poodles, property records reveal that Mister McLean picked up his house in the star-studded Oaks neighborhood of Los Angeles, on the hilly border between the Hollywood Hills and Los Feliz, in August of 2001 for $430,000. Other big name property owners in the Oaks include actor Christina Ricci, musician Ben Moody, and actor and Apple spokesperson Justin Long (who just re-listed his house with an asking price of $1,649,000). Perhaps the most famous part-time residents of the upscale but unpretentious 'hood are Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie and their very cute coterie of multi-culti shorties.
Mister McLean's three story quasi-Mediterranean, built in 1958 with an attached front-facing two-car garage, stands privately across the street from a heavily-treed and grassy parkway. That means he didn't have do deal with any Missus Kravitz-type of neighbors across the street who might have been a little too concerned with his comings and goings.
Listing information shows the house measures 3,244 square feet and includes 3 bedrooms and 3.5 bathrooms. The front door opens into a stair hall with mosaic tile "carpet." A serviceable but not special staircase with curled wrought iron detailing ascends to second level where most of the home's main rooms either look out over the parkway or open up too the multiple patios that climb the hillside of the terraced backyard. Listing information shows the house includes a formal living/dining area with wood floors, fireplace, French doors and built in hutch, a family room with fireplace and a narrow office "cubby" with walls pierced by a quartet of small and seemingly randomly placed stained glass windows.
The center island kitchen, large but decidedly and determinedly pedestrian design and day-core-wise, has vaulted ceiling, separate breakfast area, tile floor, tile counter tops, honey-colored raised panel cabinetry, two sinks and to-be-expected mid-grade stainless steel appliances.
One of the three bedrooms sits off by itself, according to listing information, and makes for a good studio, staff suite or quarters for guests who have a tendency to make alarming loud bodily noises at night. The two remaining bedrooms on the top floor include a guest bedroom with private en suite facility and a master with sitting area, fireplace, access to a backyard terrace and private pooper with separate shower and jetted tub.
The terraced backyard entertaining areas include a large covered patio with built in fireplace and some square thing in the floor with a slatted wood cover that looks like the sort of thing one keeps a person . The covered patio extends out to an uncovered terrace with fountain, built-in barbecue station and sunken sap with a tree top view over the roof of the house.
We're not sure where Mister McLean and soon-to-be Missus McLean plan to move once their house in Los Feliz sells but we do know they were in escrow for a newly built 7 bedroom and 8.5 bathroom mock-Med mansion in seriously suburban and hot as Hades Tarzana, CA. However, for reasons Your Mama ain't privy, the deal did not come together and the property re-listed for $2,699,000 in early June (2011).
Mister McLean is far from the only member of NKOTB or BSB who made the celebrity real estate gossip columns the last few years. Back Street Boy Nick Carter paid $1,060,000 for a three story house in the Hollywood Knolls neighborhood in Los Angeles in March 2004. When he sold the 4,100 square foot abode in November 2007 for $1,800,000 he got a little extra bacon in his eggs. The previous June (2006), young and sometimes troubled Mister Carter splashed out $1,323,500 for a 5 bedroom and 5.5 bathroom house in supuh-suburban Parkland, FL near Fort Lauderdale. We discussed the 4,699 square foot digs in July 2008 when he had it one the market for $1,500,000. The house, alas, remains on the market nearly three years later, but with a hugely hacked price tag of $750,000. It doesn't take a mathematical genius to see that even with an unlikely full-price sale, Mister Carter is going to lose his financial shorts on this one. Mister Carter's property portfolio still bulges with a neo-Craftsman style 6 bedroom and 4.5 bathroom house in celebrity-choked Franklin, TN he bought in 2007 for $755,000 and unsuccessfully attempted to sell in 2010 with an asking price of $799,000.
Your Mama discussed the Los Angeles home of Back Street Boy Kevin Richardson in May 2009 after it had been listed for $3,977,000 and sold for $4,079,000. Lucky Mister Richardson lined his back account with this deal having bought the house above the Sunset Strip in March 2001 for $2,125,000.
Marky Mark Wahlberg–a member of NKOTB only a brief time before he put on his tighty-whities and went solo–got real estate stars in his eyes in May 2009 when he plunked down a hefty $8,250,000 for a 6-plus acre vacant parcel with two flat buildable acres in the guard-gated Beverly Hills (CA) community of Beverly Park where bloated and extravagant mansions reign supreme. Your Mama has zero knowledge of what Mister Wahlberg plans for the property but we do know that at the time he acquired the land plans for massive 30,000 square foot Mediterranean villa were available.
We most recently discussed one of the boy banders a year ago in April 2010 when Your Mama dissed and discussed the Los Angeles home of Back Street Boy Howie Dorough, then listed at $2,475,000. Mister Dorough snagged the 2,910 square foot contemporary above the Sunset Strip in June 2005 for $1,530,000 and sold the 4 bedroom and 3.5 bathroom city view crib in January 2011 for $2,200,000, a profit of $670,000 according to Your Mama's tired bejeweled abacus.
listing photos: RE/MAX
