- A British entrepreneur buys a fire-ravaged Tennessee mansion on Zillow for $1.5 million.
- Mike Thakur told Insider that he and his wife were “never afraid of a challenge.”
- A Zillow listing with photos of fire damage has been viewed nearly 450,000 times.
UK entrepreneurs are buying Tennessee mansion destroyed by fire It went viral after being listed on Zillow with a price tag of $1.5 million.
Mike Thakur and his wife, originally from Manchester, England, live in Houston with their three children and were looking for a home in the Nashville area, he told Insider.
Thakur, who owns a flexible office space business in Houston, said his wife got an email about the mansion on the morning of Jan. 18 and at that point thought “it might be interesting.” He said he decided to stop by while looking at properties in Nashville, despite the fire damage.
“My wife and I have never been afraid of a challenge,” he said. “We moved the country a few times, so I think we tend to take a little bit of risk.”
The burnt down mansion in Franklin, Williamson County was built in 1997. Jiro list. During construction work in September 2022, an explosion caused a fire that spread to the roof, partially collapsed and damaged several rooms. per WKRNa Nashville television station.
The burned property will be announced at a later date. Photos of the fire and damage on Zillow — and the derided $1.5 million price tag twitter and elsewhere on social media. Zillow’s list is almost 450,000 views.
Home owner and distributor Paula Duvall said: WKRNMore She “wanted to be transparent about the history of the house. I wanted to show how grand it was and how grand it would be again if we chose to rebuild it.”
she said Tennessian Thakur had signed a contract for the property on Wednesday, but the sale had not been completed. Thakur refused to disclose the amount he offered to his Insider.
He and his family said they were impressed with the home’s “presence” when they parked their car outside. “It’s on a hill and it’s just looking at you as you drive up the driveway. The sun was obviously beautiful that day,” he said. Nevertheless it looked really spectacular.
“The kids were excited. My wife was excited. I was pretty excited. I thought, ‘This may be our only chance.’
“I love the idea of being able to bring something back to life and return something to a new glory (not necessarily its former glory) instead of just throwing it away.”
He said he intends to see what can be saved and reused from property, saying, “We live in a disposable society and I don’t think that’s always a good thing.