Empty nester or not, 20,000 square feet seems extremely impractical. How do you keep it clean? Why pay excessive heating/cooling expenses? How much will you spend on furnishings? Will you even use at least half the rooms on any regular basis? Clearly, these homes aren't status symbols; as you mention, they're in rural communities where nobody is appreciating them besides the 2 people living in them. Consider me quite confused as well.
Nobody buying a house like that does significant housework themselves. It usually starts with a paid landscaping service, then interior cleaning service (to clean furnishings picked out by an interior designer), then cooks, etc. I know families who pay photographers to take regular "candid" pictures to post on Instagram. I wouldn't be surprised to find out that at least one of my acquaintances has hired a house manager to deal with all the other hired help. And I don't know anybody in a 20,000sf home.
> nobody is appreciating them
Probably not the case. Or maybe day to day, but I'm sure they have plenty of visitors whenever they want. This is also the realm of people who have at least a 1/8 share of a private plane (including pilot) in their budget, and fly across the country on a whim.
It's a very different world up there, where there's never any serious question of needing to work and money is little more than a way to keep score. Anyone who doesn't realize we've already returned to Gilded Age levels of separation between the aristocracy and the rest of us hasn't been paying attention.
Maybe left coast money is different than east coast old money but you're deluding yourself if you think that the waterfront houses on long island and cape cod are (when occupied) visited by more than a maid and landscaper who come by once a week. The kids run their own Instagrams. The interior "design" is usually done by whichever one of the house occupants cares to do it.
I did say "whenever they want" didn't I? Oh yes, look at that, I did. There doesn't have to be a constant stream of visitors for a house to serve a purpose as a status symbol. An occasional visitor will do, as long as they'll tell others what a fine place you have. Holidays are the true test. Magazine photographers are also welcome, but won't be allowed to spend the night.
BTW, I live in Massachusetts. When you assume...
Edited to respond to parent's context-changing edit:
> The kids run their own Instagrams. The interior "design"
If that's the milieu you're thinking of, you're talking about something very different than what either I or GP were.
>I did say "whenever they want" didn't I? Oh yes, look at that, I did.
Forgive me for not seeing why how often someone entertains company is relevant. That's more of a personal thing about how you run your life and really has nothing to do with wealth. Some people have friends over all the time. some don't. It doesn't really have to do with money. The idea of a photographer (or influencer for that matter) sharing pictures of your house would just be absurd to the overwhelming majority of these people. The only context I can see it being palatable is if you just had some work done and one of the relevant parties wants to take pictures for their marketing material.
I know it doesn't fit the "new gilded age" narrative you're trying to spin here but these people live much like the professional suburban middle class who live in the Boston and NYC areas. They just do it with stupid high dollar amounts and without having to pick and choose where to be cheap. If they want a $5k status symbol couch in their living room, they buy that. If they don't care they go sit on the couches at some furniture store and pick whichever one they happen to like.
>BTW, I live in Massachusetts. When you assume...
I'm a masshole too and I'm firmly of the opinion that it's not something anyone should be proud of.
If you're so in tune with how things are here than why isn't your opinion better informed? You're coming across as some Lexington Karen complaining about those dastardly Kochs and Kennedys down on the Cape. The average pharma exec or hedge fund manager isn't living in a different world. They're just living in a more expensive one.
>If that's the milieu you're thinking of, you're talking about something very different than what either I or GP were.
So then explain what you're talking about. I used to hang out with these people (and still hang out with the ones I'm friends with). Based on my experience your statements thus far contain overwhelmingly more falsehood than truth.
We're clearly talking about different groups of people. You say "the idea of a photographer" would be absurd among "these people" - meaning people you know, but I was pretty clear that I was talking about people I know. Not fictions. Real people, with whom I have shared drinks and laughs. Seems awfully presumptuous of you to act as though your concept of "rich" must be universal and others' lived experience with a different level of "rich" must be imaginary. With your "left coast" and "Lexington Karen" stereotyping, it rather seems that you are the one who's talking about caricatures instead of facts.
> I'm a masshole
I live in Massachusetts, but your statement also involves personality traits I don't have. Please don't project.
Maybe one of the rooms is really big. It could be a velodrome, a baseball field, or a speed skating rink.
In a rural area near me, somebody built a big luxury "house" with an unfinished interior. It was not for living; the building was dedicated to growing illegal drugs.
