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Watch 7 massive pumps pour concrete down to the bottom of Salesforce Tower for 18 hours (CRM)

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Salesforce's new headquarters, Salesforce Tower, will be the tallest office building west of the Mississippi River when it opens in 2017.

A building of that scale requires lots of rebar and wires to support it, but at the bottom of it sits a huge concrete slab that keeps it from swinging or worse, collapsing.

In fact, according to Wired, the concrete foundation is so big — 14 feet thick — that its construction required 18 hours of work from 1,300 trucks delivering 12,000 cubic yards of concrete to the site. The concrete was poured to the bottom of the construction site, where the slab was being built, through booms that were 150 feet to 190 feet long, Wired said.

Salesforce is reportedly spending $1.1 billion to build the 1.4-million-square-foot, 61-story building. More than 4,000 of Salesforce's 13,000 employees are based in the San Francisco area, making Salesforce the largest employer in the city.

In case you're wondering what the 18-hour construction looked like, here's a video of the whole process:

SEE ALSO: There’s a giant Pacman video wall in the building Salesforce bought for $640 million

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Dropbox wants to sublease 40% of the office space at its headquarters

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Dropbox office

Dropbox is shopping around nearly half of the office space at its San Francisco headquarters, as the company plans to move part of its workforce to new office locations by next year, Cory Weinberg of the San Francisco Business Times reported Wednesday.

The report said Dropbox is looking to sublease about 200,000 square feet, or about 40% of the total 500,000 square feet space at its headquarters located in the China Basin area of San Francisco. It still has "years left on the lease," the report said.

Dropbox plans to move part of its workforce to three new locations on Brannan Street, a nearby area where a bunch of startups have offices set up, the report said, adding there won't be any further expansion beyond the new offices.

The report quoted an anonymous source saying the move was intended to ensure that Dropbox's workforce was centralized in one location. 

The potential move comes at a time when there are growing questions about the company's business. Dropbox has been pressed by multiple reports and critics debating the company's valuation, which was last valued at $10 billion. 

The report noted that sublease space in San Francisco has now jumped to 2 million square feet, which is often an indication of startups realizing they don't need as much office space as they thought they needed. "Typically, increased subleasing signals that some growth-stage technology companies have taken on too much real estate too quickly," Weinberg wrote.

Dropbox sent the following statement when we reached out:

"We're excited about our move to Brannan Street next year to help us bring together our fast-growing team in one place. We look forward to the upcoming move and expanding our presence in SOMA."

SEE ALSO: Watch seven massive pumps pour concrete down to the bottom of Salesforce Tower for 18 hours

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The top CEO in private equity has a rule for investing ― and it has generated billions in returns (BX)

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Schwarzman, Steve Schwarzman,Stephen Schwarzman

The Blackstone Group has a stellar track record.

The firm now manages more than $300 billion in total assets, while CEO and cofounder Stephen Schwarzman has a net worth of more than $11 billion.

It's not financial engineering or dealmaking wunderkinds that have Blackstone's returns outpacing most of the firm's competitors, according to Schwarzman.

Rather, it's a straightforward approach to deals.

"I’ve learned that all investments have risk," Schwarzman told Business Insider. "One of the rules I've learned is that struggling to try and think your way into making an investment is usually the best way to not have a great outcome."

He continued: "The best investments are the easiest ones to approve. Ironically, when a bunch of very smart people are sitting around a table for hours trying to figure out whether they should do something, that tends to not necessarily lead to the best results.

"The investments where people walk in and the sense is, 'Well, this looks absolutely terrific, let's do it,' those investments are almost always quite successful."

That approach seems to have paid off.

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An insane Florida mansion that was once the most expensive home in the US is back on the market — and now it's even more expensive

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Le Palais Royal

One of the most expensive houses ever listed for sale in the US is back on the market — and this time it's asking even more.

"Le Palais Royal," a 60,000-square-foot, Versailles-inspired compound in Hillsboro Beach, Florida, spent a year on the market without selling at an asking price of $139 million. Though that price made it the most expensive home for sale in the US at the time, its main residence's construction has now been completed, and it's currently listed for sale with an even higher price tag: $159 million.

That price includes new additions on a lot adjacent to the property, which the listing refers to as "phase two" of the construction. When completed, it will feature some crazy amenities, including an underground party zone with an ice skating rink, a track for go-karting, a two-lane bowling alley, and even space that can be used for a nightclub. 

It is currently owned by construction mogul Robert Pereira, who had originally planned to live in the residence, but changed his mind, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Mayi de la Vega of One Sotheby’s International Realty has the listing.

SEE ALSO: Inside One57, the new most expensive building in New York City

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The Le Palais Royal is not your typical mega-mansion.



Instead, it's a 60,000-square-foot, 4-acre compound along 465 feet of oceanfront in Hillsboro Beach, Florida. This particular stretch of beachfront housing is known by some as "Millionaires Mile."



Construction on the main home just finished. It sat on the market as an unfinished project for a year.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

Here's how tech companies are fuelling London's crazy office building boom

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London's financial district, known as the Square Mile, is dominated by sky scrapers on February 18, 2014 in London, England. (Photo by )

A huge boom in the construction of new office spaces in London is being driven forward by the rapid expansion of the capital's tech sector, according to a new report.

The winter edition of the London Office Crane Survey, created by professional services firm Deloitte, launched this week, and it showed that the pace of construction for new offices in the capital doesn't look like slowing down any time soon.

According to the survey, construction volumes in the capital are now at a seven year high, and have started to approach the levels of construction seen prior to the financial crisis of 2007-08. Construction of office space grew by 18% over the six months to the end of September, totalling a massive 11.1 million sq ft of new space. This dwarfs the ten-year average of around 9.2 million sq ft.

Growth in the technology, media and telecoms sector is the main driver of the big growth in office space development over the past six months. Deloitte's figures show that of the new office spaces being let, companies in the sector accounted for 44%, way higher than any other sector.

The only other business area to come close was the financial sector, which took 27% of new space. All other business sectors, including legal services, corporate, and insurance totalled just 29% of total construction.

Deloitte construction rates by sector (2)

Tech companies in the capital are attracting huge amounts of investment right now, which is allowing many firms to expand at a rapid rate, and seek new office spaces all over the capital.

The expansion of tech, media and telecoms firms can be seen in that the sector is not only the fastest expanding in terms of office space across the capital, but also in many of the sub-sectors Deloitte surveys.

Of the seven areas of London surveyed, the TMT sector has seen the greatest amount of office space leasing in three: King's Cross, the West End, and the City of London, suggesting that the tech sector's boom is not constrained.

The City still remains the most popular location to build offices, with 5.7 million sq ft of space currently under construction, more than half of total office building right now. Second most popular is the West End, with around 2.4 million sq ft being built.

The emergence of a 'tech belt'

While the tech sector is leasing new office space all across the capital, rapid growth has also led to the creation of a new area for office development. The so-called 'tech belt' has sprung up around the Tech City roundabout at Old Street, an area which has gained a reputation as the place to go for start-ups in recent years. Tech City was first launched as a hub for start-ups in 2010.

As more businesses have gravitated to the Old Street area, businesses have had to look beyond the direct roundabout area, and further west, east and south. The new 'tech belt' now stretches as far as Kings Cross to the west, and all the way to the Thames in some places.

Tech belt map

The Office Crane survey shows that in the next year, around 2 million sq ft of new space will be built in the area, almost eight times more than the average of 260,000 sq ft of space completed. Since March 2015, around 81% of the 0.5 million square feet of space completed was let before it was even completed.

Growth in the 'tech belt' area has been rapid, in 2011 and 2012, the area saw no new construction. In 2013 and 2014 around 500,000 of new office space was built in total, half of the amount built in 2015 alone.

In total, the number of new office building schemes started in the past six months is 26, and 38% of office space currently under construction has already been let.

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Go inside an insane $6 million loft owned by a renowned art collector

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Lio Malca 9557Lio Malca is a renowned art collector, gallery owner, and hotelier with properties in New York City, Ibiza, and Tulum.

He recently hoisted his full-floor SoHo loft onto the market for a steep $6 million. The two-bedroom loft is chock-full of famous art, including pieces by Andy Warhol, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring, and KAWS. He's constantly rotating the pieces that are on display in his apartment, making it an endlessly fresh art experience. 

Oren and Tal Alexander and Ian Slater of Douglas Elliman have the listing. They recently invited us to a private listing event so that we could check out Malca's pad for ourselves. We were blown away by what we saw. 

SEE ALSO: Amy Schumer is selling her Manhattan apartment for $2 million — and it's a lot nicer than she made it sound

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As we walked in, we were greeted by two massive pieces of art. Hanging on the wall is Holton Rower's "Lets Make a Baby." The tall sculpture is Will Hyman's "Security guard," and the flower sculpture is "Untitled (Rose 46)," by the same artist.



Sushi chefs from Tomoe were busy making rolls fresh, ready to serve to guests.



Above the kitchen counter, a TV was projecting images of other pieces from Malca's collection. An enormous wine refrigerator has room for storing some 600 bottles.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

These numbers show some of the biggest tech companies are driving Bay Area's housing prices to crazy levels

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golden gate bridge

It's no secret that housing prices in San Francisco's Bay Area are reaching mind-boggling levels.

A lot of things are driving the boom, but high salaries for tech-industry workers are at least partly to blame — and online real-estate service Zillow has some numbers to prove it.

The report says Silicon Valley home values in general have recovered much faster than other parts of the country after the recession. The nationwide median home value is still 8% below its prerecession peak, while median home values in San Francisco and San Jose are both 7% and 21% above their respective prerecession peak, it said.

The average price of homes in areas where big tech companies are located seem to have gone up even faster: 

  • The typical worker living in and around Apple’s Cupertino campus lives in a home that's worth about $1.14 million, or $241,000 (27%) more than the median home in the already-pricey San Jose metro area and $380,000 (50%) above the median home value in the San Francisco metro area.
  • The average private-sector employee working in areas close to the Googleplex in Mountain View lives in a census tract where the median home value is $1.28 million.

  • Facebook workers who live near the company's Menlo Park headquarters are in an area where the median home value is about $1.25 million.

Zillow

The iPhone boost

Also worth noting is the fact that the home values of Apple workers soared much faster after the first iPhone's release in 2007. Before 2007, average Apple workers lived in homes that were 13% more expensive than those in San Jose, but now that gap has widened to 20%, Zillow's report says.

"The tech industry is transforming the housing market in California’s booming Silicon Valley, as home values in the neighborhoods in which well-paid employees from the area’s technology giants tend to cluster rise more quickly than home values in surrounding neighborhoods," writes Zillow's senior economist Aaron Terrazas. 

This could turn into an even bigger problem as the rise in home prices is far outpacing the increase in average income levels. According to the California Association of Realtors, only 10% of households can afford to buy median homes in San Francisco, as you'll need to earn at least $268,000 a year to afford the purchase.

Paragon Real Estate Group

SEE ALSO: Actually, here's what everybody in San Francisco is REALLY talking about

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Chinese nationals are buying multi-million dollar US homes using the country's most popular instant messaging app

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Cow India WeChat

Imagine selling a $14 million New York City apartment entirely through Twitter or SnapChat. 

Emma Hao, an agent for luxury-home broker Douglas Elliman has done it.

Well...that's not quite true. Hao brokered the sale through WeChat, China's most popular instant messaging app. She does this a lot, and she's not alone.

"I'll put up a floor plan and say that a new property is good on the blog and the location is great. Then people will say 'I'm interested' and buy," she said. "It's really something else."

An unexpected use

Chinese internet and gaming giant Tencent launched WeChat in 2011 as a voice messaging app with location services. But it's grown into a seamless one-stop shop for common apps: users can watch movies, call cabs, share photos, buy clothes, play games, andeven offer personal loans.

Lately, it's turned into something of a real-estate sales platform – specifically connecting Chinese buyers with agents in the US.

Chinese nationals are the largest group of foreign buyers of US. real estate. Looking for a safer place to park their assets and diversify their holdings, they're also willing to pay more than all other nationalities, according to the National Realtors Association.

And there are 650 million  — largely Chinese – users on WeChat. That's more than double the US population.

"I would pay $100 a month to use WeChat," said Jing Wang, a 36-year-old real estate agent for Lin Pan Realty Group in New York. "It would be much harder to be introduced and reach Chinese clients because many of the social websites, like Facebook, are blocked in China — that's a lot of time and money."

WeChatWang, who specializes in serving Chinese buyers, only joined WeChat after becoming a real-estate agent. All of his Chinese clients communicate with him via the app. He says he's sold properties of up to $5 million in value, with the buyer staying in China through the entire process.

Tours are given via video and photos, and negotiations are completed solely through the chatting app. A legal representative cements the deal on the brokers end, and an electronic version of the contract makes its way to the new owners. Payments however, are still done by cash.

For the buyers seeking investment properties, the prospect of a 15-hour flight from the east coast of China to New York is reason enough to rely on WeChat.

"WeChat has become essential to consumers’ daily lives," Xiaofeng Wang, an analysts at Forrester Research in Beijing wrote in a July note. "Marketers the world over must take account of WeChat, which has become so ubiquitous that it has changed Chinese consumers’ mobile behaviors in profound ways."

Real estate agent Wang advertises his listings via a free blog and leaves voice recordings with clients, so negotiations can be done over days rather than late at night.

But there's also the issue of trust. Buying a multi-million dollar investment from someone you've never met before seems reckless.

But users such as Hao use their apps as a personal blog: she posts photos and writes about her food, clothes, makeup and lifestyle — and that fosters an online personality.

"I say what I want to say so they know exactly who I am, and I update my daily life — and people like it. You show you have a personality — that's what makes a sale," she said. "Maybe they never comment on anything, and suddenly they'll send you a message."

Tencent's strategy: Appeal to marketers

It's certain that the property deals are only a tiny portion of activity on WeChat, but they're an unexpected area of growth for the app that has been struggling to gain traction in the West. Owned by Chinese internet giant Tencent, WeChat earlier this year stopped advertising in the West as user growth plateaued.

Overseas user acquisition "has sort of come to an end," said Tencent President Martin Lau Chi-ping during a press conference in March.

Tencent released third quarter earnings Tuesday November 10, reporting a 32% increase in profits to $1.2 billion — beating analysts expectations. WeChat alone reported an increase to roughly 650 million active monthly users, up 39% since last year.

The agents don't pay anything right now to use WeChat, even if they're able to sell an apartment. If the real-estate firms were to seek a formal presence on the platform, like some luxury brands have, they'd have to pay for that.

Tencent didn’t respond to Business Insider’s request for comment. We’ll update this post if we hear back

Instead of trying to gain more users overseas, Tencent has turned its attention to expanding WeChat's already vast ecosystem within China and South East Asia — cementing a pool of extremely loyal users that spend on average more than half their time on mobile using WeChat, according to Forrester Research. 

wechat impact report 14 1024 Grata

"I think it's crucial to marketers," said Bryan Wang, a Singapore-based independent analyst who focuses on Chinese internet companies. "It's the number one option for all brands to get close to the customers."

The app is already proving to be a destination for companies looking to sell to wealthy Chinese. They've turned into the single largest group of luxury buyers in the world, making up 32% of global consumption, according to a recent Bain and Company study. 

Many luxury brands have also begun to tap into WeChat formally —  leading to the rise of specialized WeChat marketing agencies that boast clients such as Coach, Lancome, Piaget, Louis Vuitton and Bonpoint. 

These WeChat campaigns can range in cost from a thousand to millions of US dollars. But it's paid almost entirely to marketers — WeChat gets a fraction of the payment — about $50 a year for the official account.

Increasingly, marketing firms specializing in ad campaigns for WeChat have begun to spring up. These include SameSame in Paris, WalktheChat in Beijing, and Curiosity China with locations in Paris and China. 

They help brands develop into the online-to-offline (O2O) market that Tencent has also been pushing to expand in recent months: helping companies grow an online presence that emphasizes customer service and the attraction of offline firms.

WalktheChat co-founder Thomas Graziani, a 29-year-old Parisian working out of Beijing, started his firm last year. 

"The interactions on WeChat are much more complex," Graziani said, comparing the application to Whatsapp and Facebook messenger. "WeChat has an absolute monopoly in China, with all capabilities happening in a single window — it's holistic and connected, true automation, true tracking, with potential for very interesting viral campaigns."

LINQ hotel casino wechat

For Tencent, increased O2O activity helps boost their nascent payment service, Weixin Pay, and heightens the chances of more advertising revenue from companies — which is becoming a increasingly important portion of Tencent's business.

No broader US surge expected

Tencent shouldn't expect the unexpected usage by brokers to turn into an overall surge in the US, though, because people separate their personal and professional lives, independent analyst Bryan Wang said.

While Westerners may use the platform to reach Chinese customers, few will use it at home.

"In our opinion, WeChat is likely to focus more in establishing a strong ecosystem in China as the competitive landscape in the West seems to be much more challenging," said John Choi, executive director at Daiwa Capital Markets. "The user interface of the Asian messaging apps tend to appeal more to Asian users."

Still, the brokers aren't deterred.

Maurice Owen-Michanne, 34, is another New York City based agent who who has sold a property worth $4 million over WeChat. The client had a legal representative who viewed the property, while the buyer relied on photos, blueprints and videos. Owen-Michanne speaks almost no Chinese.

"It's helped tremendously break down the traditional barriers and strengthen my relationship with my clients," he said. 

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This Silicon Valley enclave is once again America's most expensive zip code

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faxon road

Atherton, a small town in Silicon Valley, has been named America's most expensive zip code for the third year in a row, according to Forbes

To determine the rankings, Mountain View-based firm Altos Research calculated the median home listing prices for 28,500 zip codes across the country. Co-ops were excluded, and calculations were adjusted based on the makeup of the housing stock in each particular market. 

In Atherton, the median listing price was a whopping $10.6 million, landing it at the top of the list. The median listing price was $9.03 million at the time Forbes compiled its list for 2014. 

The town itself is quiet and secluded, and building codes prohibit commercial development. Still, it's not far from the bustling tech-centric towns of Palo Alto and Menlo Park. 

Several noted tech billionaires, including Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen, Google chairman Eric Schmidt, and HP CEO Meg Whitman, currently own homes here. Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg also lived in Atherton before she moved into her new waterfall-equipped home in nearby Menlo Park in 2013. 

Here are the top 10 zip codes on Forbes' list:

1. Atherton, California (94027) — $10.6 million

2. Sagaponack, New York (11962) — $7.4 million

3. New York, New York (10012) — $7.3 million

4. Woody Creek, Colorado (81656) — $7 million

5. New York, New York (10013) — $6.1 million

6. Miami Beach, Florida (33109) — $5.6 million

7. Woodside, California (94062) — $5.5 million

8. Hidden Hills, California (91302) — $5.1 million

9. Aspen, Colorado (81611) — $5 million

10. Hillsborough, California (94010) — $4.9 million

SEE ALSO: Here's what a four-bedroom home looks like in America's most expensive markets

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I paid off my mortgage in 2 years — and I regret it

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Neighborhood

I thought it was a smart move, but I guess I still had a few things to learn.

The plan seemed simple enough on the surface. I would buy a little two bedroom condo one block from the beach on the shore of Lake Tahoe. I would finance it with one of those garbage loans that suck you in with an unrealistically low teaser rate.

Yep, these are the same loans that got so many people in trouble during the real estate crisis.

They trap you with a teaser rate so low you could afford the Taj Mahal, but then a year or two later the interest rate resets to reality and presto — your payment suddenly gets a lot less affordable.

But remember, I had a plan. I was smarter than that.

My plan was to pay it off during the teaser rate period so those dirty little bankers wouldn't make squat off me. I was careful. I checked the terms of the loan to make sure there was no pre-payment penalty or small print to get hung up on. I dotted my I's and crossed my T's.

Everything looked like it should work out brilliantly. I signed the loan docs, moved into my beautiful home, and started the debt payoff plan…

Smooth sailing … at first

Throughout the next year I dedicated every dime that passed through my hands to paying off that loan. This was war and I was a man on a mission: It was me against those profiteering bankers and their rigged loans. There could be only one victor.

But I had an ace up my sleeve. I was making a fat income at the time and the loan balance melted away right on schedule. By the second year it was time to throw the first (and last) mortgage burning party of my life.

I celebrated. I beat the bankers at their own game. Victory was mine!

The condo was paid for. It had risen in value more than the cost of the financing. I was feeling pretty smug at my brilliance. I owned my home outright. I was free and clear. What could be wrong with that?

Seemingly nothing, but then it happened …

What I didn't plan for …

My investment portfolio doubled the very next year.

Now I know you are thinking, "Poor little Todd. His house is paid for and his investments doubled. Woe is me! My heart bleeds for you." It's a great situation, admittedly. But here's the problem.

I just spent the last year tying up a fat pile of cash into a piece of real estate. I suddenly woke up to the reality that all the money that went to paying off the house would have been sitting in my investment account instead.

… and it would be worth twice as much as that darn house. It would have doubled!

Instead, it was tied up in home equity that was barely going nowhere.

The undeniable financial reality is that I left a fortune on the table by paying off my debt. I would have been far better off carrying the debt with a normal 30 year fixed rate mortgage and investing the surplus. Assuming a $150,000 first mortgage, I was $150,000 poorer than if I had just carried the loan like every other indebted American.

houses housing homes toronto canada

But it gets worse…

And if that doesn't get your goat then consider this.

I was in my 30's at the time. That theoretical $150,000 could have compounded to become many millions over my long lifetime. It isn't just the 150K I left on the table. It is the lifetime compounded value of that 150K (which is millions).

Hey, but at least I don't have that monthly payment.

Hmmm…

So next time you get all fired up about paying off debt, recognize the equation isn't as simple as it sounds on the surface. There are two sides to every story…

The art and science of paying debt

There are two sides to the "paying off debt" story — the art and the science.

The science of paying off debt is black and white clear. You place your capital wherever it provides the highest after tax return.

In my situation that was my investment accounts. For other people the answer might be paying off debt. There is no right-wrong answer that can be generalized to everyone; however, there is one right answer for you.

The other side of the coin to paying off debt is the art side — which is more subtle (as art usually is). It has to do with your emotions, goals, and happiness.

For example, I succumbed to the emotional appeal of being debt free even though I knew my investment accounts had a higher after-tax return. I love minimizing my cash outflows, and I deeply dislike owing anyone for anything.

Debt is the antithesis of freedom. I love freedom passionately so I loathe debt even more passionately. That was why I paid off the mortgage. It was an emotional thing.

I view my financial picture like a business so the less cash that goes out the stronger my "business", the lower my risk, and the less I have to earn to sustain any given lifestyle.

It all sounds very logical from an art standpoint, but it is really just rationalization for an emotional decision. At the end of the day math rules your wealth equation — whatever provides the highest after tax return is what determines the financially best choice.

Emotions are a different thing… so I ended up paying off my debt.

And it cost me a fortune.

Todd Tresidder is a money coach with an unconventional take on personal finance… like why everything taught about the money you need for retirement is wrong and why variable annuities are a bad deal for almost everyone except the salesperson. He leaves the getting out of debt stuff to guys with far more experience living with liabilities like J.Money.

SEE ALSO: How to figure out if you can afford to buy a home

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A tech power couple sold their beautiful New York City apartment for $2.1 million

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hammerbacher house

A New York City apartment belonging to a noted couple in tech has sold for $2.1 million, the New York Observer reports

The former owners of the East Village home are Jeff Hammerbacher, an early Facebook employee and cofounder of Cloudera, and his wife Halle Tecco, founder of medical venture fund Rock Health.

They bought the apartment from Chloe Sevigny for $1.76 million in 2012. The couple then spent nine months renovating the space.

"We struggled to use color in our last apartment in San Francisco, which was all gray and navy, so we really wanted to experiment with color, pattern, and texture in this home," Tecco told Business Insider when the apartment first listed in June.

The buyer is reportedly Shana Randhava, executive director of the Estee Lauder Companies.

SEE ALSO: This Silicon Valley enclave is once again America's most expensive zip code

The one-bedroom apartment is located on the garden level of a townhouse in the East Village.



The entryway has some bright green patterned wallpaper.



The living room is filled with lots of texture and color. Its best features include a wall-length bookcase and a fireplace.



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This 18th-century plantation owned by a former Morgan Stanley chairman is going for $17.5 million

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Mulberry GUest

A 300-year-old property owned by the former chairman and president of Morgan Stanley is now on the market for $17.5 million.

Listed by Plantation Services, the South Carolina property was once a home for the late S. Parker Gilbert and his wife, Gail Gilbert, according to The Wall Street Journal.

S. Parker Gilbert died in May at 81.

The couple purchased the home for $2.55 million along with 800 acres, according to the report. The property is now 1,705 acres.

The historic property is the third-oldest plantation in South Carolina, and was built by Thomas Broughton, who went on to become the royal governor of South Carolina in 1735.

Scroll down to see the house and two guest houses, situated 45 minutes outside Charleston.

Welcome to the Mulberry Plantation. The property is vast and surrounded by water, ...



... and full of arching, ancient trees.



Here's the main house, known as the Mulberry House — aka Polly or Salt Point.



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David and Victoria Beckham are reportedly buying the most expensive country home in the UK for $41 million

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The Abbotswood Estate

The Beckhams may have watched too much "Downton Abbey" for their own good.

According to the Mirror, People's "sexiest man alive" David Beckham and his wife Victoria Beckham are set to plunk down $41 million on a country estate in The Cotswolds, in south-central England. The historic and grand 10-bedroom estate in question, known as The Abbotswood Estate, is set on 774 acres of pristine English countryside.

It's also reportedly the most expensive country home in the UK.

Knight Frank has the listing.

SEE ALSO: Michael Jordan is trying hard to sell his Chicago mansion

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The Beckhams may be moving to the country.



Rumor has it that the pair have purchased The Abbotswood Estate, a 774-acre property in the English countryside.



On the estate is a historic 10-bedroom manor house built in 1865. It's plenty of room for their four children, plus any new additions.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

The 15 most expensive homes for sale in the Silicon Valley town that was named America's priciest zip code

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1 Faxon Rd

For the third year in a row, Atherton, California, has been named America's most expensive zip code by Forbes.

It's no surprise, then, that the small Silicon Valley town surrounded by tech giants like Facebook and Google is filled to the brim with luxury real estate. The most recent analysis found that the median listing price for a home in Atherton was a whopping $10.6 million. Tech billionaires Paul Allen, Eric Schmidt, Meg Whitman, and Sheryl Sandberg have all called the town home at one point.

Our friends at Point2Homeshelped us find the most expensive homes for sale in Atherton right now. Not a single one of the 15 most expensive homes is asking less than $10 million. 

SEE ALSO: Inside One57, the new most expensive building in New York City

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Like a hidden oasis, this Atherton mansion is nestled snugly between its landscaped greenery.

Address: 393 Atherton Ave

Price: $10 million

The house itself contains five bedrooms and a whopping eight bathrooms, as well as a gym and home theater room.



This turn-of-the-century estate sits on two pristine Atherton acres.

Address:120 Selby Lane

Price: $10.5 million

It's 11,000 square feet in total, including seven bedrooms. Outside, there's a tennis court and room to store eight cars in the detached garage.



This historic home was built in 1885 and has serious character.

Address:151 Laurel Street

Price: $11.4 million

Modern renovations have brought it up to snuff. The real value, however, is the nearly two-acre lot that's only a 9-minute walk or three-minute drive away from downtown Atherton.



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You can buy the real-life villain's lair from 'Spectre' for $4 million

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Marrakesh James Bond Villian House

Fancy yourself a super villain? This may be your chance to live exactly like the main baddie from the new James Bond flick "Spectre."

A contemporary villa in Marrakesh, Morocco, is now on the market for $4 million. It served as part of the lair of the main evil villain, Franz Oberhauser, played by Christoph Waltz.

French real estate agency Emile Garcin has the listing.

 

SEE ALSO: Here's how much you'll have to spend to look like James Bond in 'Spectre'

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Recognize this? This contemporary African villa played a prominent role as the lair of Franz Oberhauser — played by Christoph Waltz — in the new James Bond film "Spectre."



Though in the movie it was superimposed in the middle of the Moroccan desert, the home is actually closer to the city of Marrakesh.



The listing calls the villa a "cutting-edge contemporary design."



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These hot-shot brothers sell $50 million penthouses for Manhattan's elite — and their swanky new home is the ultimate bachelor pad

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The Alexander Team 9510

Tal and Oren Alexander want you to know they're not your average salesmen. Calling themselves "The A Team," these brothers have sold some of the most expensive properties in New York City, the Hamptons, and Miami. 

Their most recent listing is a $50 million penthouse at the top of New York's famed Plaza Hotel — the fifth listing of more than $40 million they're currently selling exclusively. They're also working on a brand-new development in Miami, in addition to all of the homes they're marketing in Manhattan.

"Everyday is different and interesting," Oren told Business Insider. "We do laps around this city. We're meeting with some of the most important people in the world in some of the most important residences in the world."

It makes sense, then, that the brothers themselves would make their home in an equally gorgeous space. They recently moved into a fifth-floor loft in a Soho building where Arianna Huffington and Jon Bon Jovi have at different times owned units. 

Tal and Oren gave Business Insider a tour of their new digs — and we found that it was the ultimate upscale bachelor pad. 

SEE ALSO: Go inside an insane $6 million loft owned by a renowned art collector

The Alexander Brothers live in the New Museum Building, a high-end condo building where Arianna Huffington also owns a unit. In June 2014, after more than a year on the market, Bon Jovi sold his penthouse atop the building for $37.5 million.



Each unit is incredibly spacious and open, with a 4,200-square-foot floor plate and 12-foot ceilings. The Alexander brothers' unit was fully renovated six years ago.



A large glass wall can be slid across the floor by turning this wheel. Doing so effectively divides the space into separate rooms.



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Britain is being used to wash billions in dirty money — and banks are blocking moves that could crack down on it

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London Britain Police Officers Houses Parliament Big Ben

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's "woefully inadequate" anti-money laundering system has left the country wide open to corrupt money and terrorism funds and needs radical overhaul, a leading anti-corruption group said on Monday.

Each year billions of pounds of dirty money flow through Britain, but the system for identifying it is too fragmented and unaccountable to be effective, according to a report by Transparency International UK (TI-UK).

"The UK supervision system which should be protecting the country from criminal and terrorist funding is not fit for purpose," said TI-UK's Head of Advocacy and Research Nick Maxwell.

"Those vulnerabilities can be exploited by sophisticated terrorist organizations as well as the corrupt."

Penalties for professionals such as lawyers and estate agents who fail to comply with anti-money laundering regulations are also too small to act as a deterrent, the report said.

Money laundering is the process of disguising the origins of money obtained from crime and corruption by hiding it within legitimate economic activities.

The government's 2015 money laundering and terrorist financing national risk assessment said there was "evidence of terrorist financing activity in the UK" which uses the same methods as criminal money laundering and "poses a significant threat to the UK’s national security."

Money laundering is also pushing up London property prices because money commonly ends up in high-value physical assets such as real estate and art.

Britain's National Crime Agency's economic crime director told The Times newspaper this year that London property prices were being artificially driven up by overseas criminals wanting to hide their assets.

TI-UK wants Britain to create one independent and accountable national supervisory body to replace the current system of 22 - often private sector - supervisors responsible for spotting dirty money in sectors such as financial services, accountancy, legal services and property.

Making senior professionals personally liable for money laundering is a key part of the fight, TI-UK said, but Britain is scrapping plans to treat senior bankers as guilty until proven innocent for failings which happen on their watch.

This u-turn was "reportedly due to heavy lobbying by the banking sector," TI-UK said.

(Editing by Stephen Addison)

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A New York City apartment is renting for $300,000 a month

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lowell hotel

In a city that's known for its sky-high rent, this penthouse apartment just may take the cake.

Sitting atop the historic Lowell hotel on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, a three-bedroom suite will be available for a whopping $300,000 a month, according to the Wall Street Journal. 

The monthly rent will include access to a number of amenities, including Wi-Fi, dog-walking, twice-a-day turndowns, and packing and unpacking services.

Tenants will also be able to enjoy all of the usual hotel amenities, like room service — including a menu for pets — and laundry. 

The roughly 2,900-square-foot penthouse comes fully furnished, including an Apple desktop and five landline phones. 

Therese Bateman of Brown Harris Stevens will have the listing once it's publicly available. The penthouse had previously been marketed through the hotel's sales department, but they received such a high volume of requests that they decided to enlist the help of a real estate brokerage. 

SEE ALSO: These hotshot brothers sell $50 million penthouses for Manhattan's elite — and their swanky new home is the ultimate bachelor pad

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The notorious 'attic' penthouse in New York's Plaza Hotel is on the market again for $50 million

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Central Park Attic Penthouse

Oh, The Plaza Hotel's attic penthouse, we meet again.

The huge apartment at the top of one of the most famous hotels is again on the market — this time carrying a price tag of nearly $50 million. That's less than what the apartment was listed for in 2013 ($59 million), but a whole lot more than it was when it was purchased just a year prior to that ($26 million).

In 2008, Russian billionaire Andrei Vavilov sued the Plaza after he found that the unit had lower ceilings than he said he had been promised. He had purchased the penthouse sight-unseen for $53.5 million. The penthouse has had several owners since then.

A private elevator grants a secluded entrance to the triplex penthouse, which has incredible Central Park views and state-of-the-art home automation.

Douglas Elliman's Alexander Team and Noble Black have the listing.

SEE ALSO: An insane Florida mansion that was once the most expensive home in the US is back on the market — and now it's even more expensive

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The "attic" penthouse at the top of the legendary Plaza Hotel has a long history.



The palatial apartment has been offered for sale four times over the last decade.



Each time, its price has climbed exponentially.



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Here's the salary you have to earn to buy a home in 19 major US cities

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manhattan beach los angeles california

In the market for a home? 

Mortgage website HSH.com has updated its estimate of how much annual income a household would need to buy a home in major metropolitan areas in the US, according to third-quarter 2015 data.

Housing prices in Los Angeles have jumped, increasing 14% since last quarter. And for the first time, the site calculated how it would change the salary needed to buy a home if a buyer were to put 10% down instead of the recommended 20%. No matter where you are, it's more expensive — you can visit HSH.com to see both numbers.

The site looked at median home prices from the National Association of Realtors, along with interest rates for common 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages and property taxes and insurance costs, to figure out how much money it would take to pay a median-priced home's mortgage, taxes, and insurance in each city — and how much you would have to earn to afford it.

Salaries listed are rounded to the nearest $500.

SEE ALSO: Here's how much you need to earn to live comfortably in 15 major US cities while still saving money

19. Orlando

Population: 255,483

Median Home Price: $201,200

Monthly Mortgage Payment: $1,103

Salary Needed to Buy: $47,500



18. San Antonio

Population: 1,409,000

Median Home Price: $199,300

Monthly Mortgage Payment: $1,130

Salary Needed to Buy: $48,500



17. Minneapolis

Population: 407,207

Median Home Price: $288,700

Monthly Mortgage Payment: $1,199

Salary Needed to Buy: $51,500



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