Romney Utah Ski House Sold For $5.25 Million

SALT LAKE CITY -- Race-car driver and money manager Hal Prewitt bought Mitt Romney's ski house at Deer Valley Resort for "a little less" than the asking price of $5.25 million, his agent said Tuesday.

"It's beautiful. Absolutely gorgeous, very tastefully and artfully decorated," Prewitt, 54, of Miami Beach, said Tuesday from the 9,500-square-foot house. "He wanted to sell and I wanted to buy, so it wasn't difficult to come to an agreement."

Romney also has a tentative buyer for his suburban Boston house, his spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom said Tuesday. The 6,400-square-foot Colonial on 2.5 acres in Belmont is expected to fetch about $3 million.

The Romneys plan to keep a $10 million summer home on the shore of Lake Winnipesaukee in Wolfeboro, N.H. and a $12 million beachfront compound in La Jolla, Calif.

The sale of the Utah and Boston homes has been described by political analysts as a way for Romney to prepare for another presidential race without having to explain why he owns excess real estate -- the issue that brought ridicule on rival Republican candidate John McCain last fall.

Fehrnstrom has said Romney and his wife, who raised five sons in Boston, are simply "downsizing and simplifying."

Prewitt said he was happy to buy the Utah house from Romney on March 27. He moved in the next day, ending an eight-year search for a perfect vacation home near a Rocky Mountain ski resort.

"I love it. It's fantastic," he said. "We'll use it as a launching pad for winter recreation."

He described negotiations with Romney as cordial and said Romney knew exactly how much real estate was worth in the Park City area.

His real-estate agent, Carlyle Morris, said nothing mattered more to Prewitt than a place with views, privacy and a prime location.

"We showed him a lot of other places, but if he could see a rooftop (of another house), he didn't like it," Morris said.

The Romney house, on a dead-end street, fit the bill. It was on market for about two months.

Prewitt on Tuesday was busy updating the home electronics for high-definition television and wireless Internet. He'll be able to manipulate video and audio controls using an iPhone, he said.

Comments

[dontomas]

07:53 PM on 04/08/2009

$40 million in real estate alone...why don't we just revert back to royalty and have dukes, princes and all that. I mean the amount of money the powerful ones in our country have we might as well have royalty, its basically the same thing.

[4Q-N4Q2]

06:41 PM on 04/08/2009

He listed with the wrong agent.

I could'a got him $6M.

[Bafun]

07:27 PM on 04/08/2009

He didn't want to look to greedy.

[christopherflynn]

06:02 PM on 04/08/2009

the rich and famous (at other people's expense)...doesn't it make you sick???

[SoccerNana]

05:48 PM on 04/08/2009

Good, now he can donate to Sarah Palin's legal defense fund.

[Bafun]

07:24 PM on 04/08/2009

and to the mormon church

[CaptD]

05:46 PM on 04/08/2009

... and don't forget the IRS has changed it's tax code on these "additional" homes!

[tigerakabj]

05:19 PM on 04/08/2009

He's only doing this so he can't be seen as "out of touch" like McCain was.

The second thing to do for him is to drop the Mormon thing and convert to a Baptist.

Then he has to destroy all of the tapes in which he was pro-choice (from his time as a Massachusetts governor) and call himself pro-life.

Then he has to go kiss Hagee's rear-end and say that "this a Judeo-Christian nation and that's final."

Then he has to say "Fired up, Ready to Go" and tell America that "the country needs change" (oops, he already did that one).

So inclusion, he is going to re-run John McCain's race. What was is the definition of insanity again?

[JonW]

05:18 PM on 04/08/2009

Wonder if this buyer really bought it for john McCain to add to his list. Understand Cindy was saying she didn't have enough domiciles!

[Mintcondition]

05:17 PM on 04/08/2009

Dear MoveOn member,
Last week the Obama administration took tough, decisive action with the auto industry, forcing the resignation of the CEO of General Motors.


The president knows that we can't trust the same folks who got us into this mess to help lead us out.


It's time to do the same for the banks. And the best way to start is by firing Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis. He's the worst of the worst.


Lewis's poor management helped ruin his company and our economy. Shareholders are calling him "reckless" and citing "disastrous missteps."1 Worse, Lewis accepted $45 billion in taxpayer bailout funds, but instead of using all the money to get the economy going again, he let $3.6 billion go to bonuses for top execs.2

There can't be real reform on Wall Street until the CEOs who brought down the banks we had to bail out are long gone.


Can you sign our petition asking Treasury Secretary Geithner replace the leadership at bailed out banks—starting with Ken Lewis? Clicking here adds your name:

http://pol.moveon.org/lewis//o.pl?id=15895-9193653-wJwPJMx&t=4

[butchie65]

05:12 PM on 04/08/2009

Just another millionaire trying to get rid of his houses, before he runs for President. He doesn't want to look like McCain and look like one of those rich guys, you know.

[CAHertzfe]

05:00 PM on 04/08/2009

Since I'm sure he made a profit, do you think he gave some of his profits in tides to the church. Bible says you're suppose to!!!!!!

[Diogenis]

05:20 PM on 04/08/2009

ya mean tithes. Carry on

[CitizenJ]

05:00 PM on 04/08/2009

When most families downsize, they go from 3 bedrooms to 2 or 1, not from two $3 mil houses and two $10 mil houses down to just two $10 mil houses.

I feel bad for the Romneys. With their taxes going up and all, they've got to sell $6 mil worth of property just to scrape by.

[CAHertzfe]

04:58 PM on 04/08/2009

He sold it so he can help with the Coleman and Palin legal funds. Romney always such a giving guy.

[Mintcondition]

04:55 PM on 04/08/2009

Are all mormons that rich?

[SoccerNana]

05:51 PM on 04/08/2009

No; check out the Mormon sect in Texas where they took away hundreds of children last year. They live on a compound. Every one shares domestic things.

[Bafun]

07:32 PM on 04/08/2009

It was the Fundamentalist LDS

A lot of mormons are pretty rich but a lot more aren't. They have a lot of kids too early and this costs a lot of money.

[Budokan]

04:51 PM on 04/08/2009

In case anyone was wondering he's def running in 2012. That house would look bad on his resume.

http://www.beneath-ceaseless-skies.com/story.php?s=27

[albanianmomforobama]

04:47 PM on 04/08/2009

Oh...Mitt...
Don't worry...he will waste that money in 2012.