Buying Michael Jordan's $13M Home and Flipping it Into a Michael Jordan Museum

Sam Parr

Sean put something on here that I actually think... I was telling a friend as I was researching... I actually think that this is one of the better ideas that we, and you've ever come up with: the Michael Jordan thing.

Shaan Puri

alright you want me to yeah you want me to explain it okay so I've been looking at this house for a long time michael jordan's house has been for sale for like a decade and it hasn't sold and this is his house kind of like in illinois near chicago where you know michael jordan was on the bulls and he had this 56,000 square foot home in highland park and so this thing originally he put it up for sale in like I don't know 9 years ago for for $30,000,000 $29,000,000 and now it's you know the price has been cut in half and the thing is still not selling and if you look at the photos you can just go it's like on zillow so you can go look at the photos he's got like an indoor basketball court you know the gate leading up to the driveway has his big 23 number like embossed in it he's got you know everything you would want like huge you know closets because he's got you know all his air jordans or whatever and so his house is it's pretty unbelievable right there's there's all kinds of epic shit here but it's not selling and it's not selling for I think a couple reasons it's like you know it's very custom to michael jordan like it just it's like it was custom made in in in many senses so you know the other rich people don't necessarily wanna live in a house that's like made for another dude it's also you know it's very expensive for the area the property taxes are really expensive all that stuff but I was thinking okay the price is now cut in half now it's now it's a $13,000,000 house or a 12 you know $13,000,000 home that you could buy 13 14 and now it's in range where maybe there's something fun you could do with it now you might be getting a value buy so I was thinking alright there's a bunch of people obviously that are basketball fans that love michael jordan there's a bunch of you know new ways to crowdfund that we've been talking about nfts or kickstarter or different different crowdfunding platforms the question is should we buy michael jordan's house should we start a crowdfunding campaign and buy michael jordan's house so if you could get 5,000 people to each put in $25100 then you could own a fractional share of michael jordan's house you could you you could own a piece of of this history and we could just buy it out take it off the market and we could own this thing and then the question is like what do you do with it and so I wanted to brainstorm with you a should we buy michael jordan's house and b what could we do with it if we did buy it what do you think

Sam Parr

So, the whole NFT thing? I wouldn't do that. I think you've had two ideas here: one is to buy his house, and the other is to do the NFT thing. One of those ideas is great; I think the other one is overcomplicating it. I would 100% buy it, and the reason why I think it's such a great idea is that immediately after seeing you write this, my thought right away went to Graceland. You know what Graceland is? No? That's funny that you don't know what that is. It's because it's such a big deal in my family—or Elvis', at least. So, Graceland is Elvis Presley's house. It's in Memphis, in downtown Memphis. It's actually in a pretty crappy neighborhood now; the neighborhood is not nice and it's kind of gross. But it's just like a cutesy thing to do if you visit Memphis. I went and did research on it, and around 600,000 people a year go to Graceland, which brings in something like... where I have the numbers here... okay, so Graceland, just in attendance, just in ticket sales, brings in $21,000,000. So, it's pretty wild, just on tickets.

Shaan Puri

And then, 600,000 visitors a year at $36 a ticket, right?

Sam Parr

Yes, and I got interested in this. I thought, "What are the most visited homes in America?" So I came up with a few, and I want to fill you in on them. The White House doesn't count because you can just... I think you can get a tour, but you can also just walk outside of it. Graceland has 600,000 visitors. The second one, you guys are going to make fun of me, but I don't know how to pronounce this. What is it? Monticello?

Shaan Puri

I think so

Sam Parr

Okay, Monticello—that's Thomas Jefferson's house. The interesting thing about this place, as well as a few others I'm going to mention, is that they're nonprofits. This means all of their numbers are public. The revenue for Monticello, which includes a ton of investment revenue, was around **$200,000,000** in 2010. However, around **$8,000,000** to **$7,000,000** came just from ticket sales. So, **$8,000,000** a year in ticket sales, which is crazy! They have around **500,000** visitors. Another highly visited home is Neverland Ranch, but people don't really go there. Another great one is Mount Vernon, which is George Washington's house. They do, in food sales alone, **$17,000,000** a year. Is that crazy?

Shaan Puri

this is insane

Sam Parr

The whole operation does $15,000,000 a year in admission sales. In total, they generate about $51,000,000 a year in total income, which includes $10,000,000 from contributions. Is that crazy?

Shaan Puri

Right, no, that's absolutely insane. So let me ask you this: all of a sudden, this starts to get really interesting, right? Because I think Michael Jordan is on par with Elvis and, you know, Thomas Jefferson. Michael Jordan's got TJ beat by a long shot. So, you know, MJ over TJ, I think, is part of the slogan that we have when we buy this thing. But if they're doing this much in traffic, I gotta know: is there something else? Meaning, like, are these in really popular areas where there's already just a lot of tourists or something like that? And this is just a pit stop because, you know, Michael Jordan's house is in a neighborhood you'd have to only be going to this place to visit.

Sam Parr

I looked up Michael Jordan's address. Guess how far away it is from Chicago Airport, one of the most popular airports in the world?

Shaan Puri

I'm gonna guess 45 minutes

Sam Parr

20 minutes... it's 20 minutes away. Okay, so it's at... have you been to Memphis? Memphis is like, there's not that much going on in Memphis. All these people are going to Memphis. People from Chicago, which is what, the 5th most populous city in America? Or maybe 3rd? Something like that. Something is interesting here. So what I would do is, I wouldn't do the NFT thing. I would raise $2 or $3 million from a bunch of rich people, or I would try to use my own money if I had $2 or $3 million that I wanted to spend on this. I would buy it, and then it would probably cost a fair bit of money to get it set up. It would probably cost a lot of money, many more millions. But then you would have to convince collectors to lend you the stuff, and you could create a Michael Jordan museum.

Shaan Puri

yes

Sam Parr

And that's how you do this. The companies that we've just mentioned—Graceland, Monticello, and Mount Vernon—obviously, those folks lived in the 1700s or probably died in the 1800s. So, those properties have been around as tourist destinations for over 100 years. They've generated $50,000,000 in revenue, which is a significant amount. But even if you've just done $2 or $3 million in revenue and you could adjust for inflation over 50+ years, kind of like Graceland has done it for 60 years, that's incredibly fascinating.

Shaan Puri

Right, yeah, I'm with you. So, I think you're sitting on the NFT thing a little bit, but it's not about NFTs. What I'm saying is crowdfunding. I think that there's a benefit to crowdfunding, which is that it can make the story more viral. It's a more PR-worthy story. For example, people from the internet, people from Reddit, whoever, got together and bought Michael Jordan's home off the market for $15,000,000. They raised $15,000,000 and bought the house, versus a rich guy going to his rich friends to raise some money. The second thing is that those people become your evangelists to spread the word and to make the pilgrimage to see Michael Jordan's house. I think you could do two or three things with it. You could make it a museum, like a modern museum that we've been talking about, such as the Museum of Ice Cream or something like that. The tour could be very photo-based, so you're going through and experiencing all these different photo exhibits. For example, you could have a photo of you in Michael Jordan's bed, or wearing a pair of his Air Jordans, or standing in a pair of his giant Air Jordans. You could make it like the Museum of Ice Cream, where you're going to walk out with, you know, ten photos that are Instagram-worthy at the end of it. I also think...

Sam Parr

give give people background on an ice cream museum

Shaan Puri

Yeah, Brady, you can pull the latest numbers, but I think these guys raised like a $100,000,000+ valuation. If you ever go to one, they're pretty cool. It's not the most amazing thing; I honestly was a little bit disappointed. But the photos do turn out cool. It's a museum that you walk through, so it's like a guided path. You go through maybe 13 different rooms, and every room has something cool. You get a little ice cream cone of some flavor, and then you can take photos next to some exhibit that they've set up. The idea is not for you to look at the art like a traditional museum, but for you to take a photo in the art and post it on Instagram. That's their marketing; that's the free marketing that they get. So, Museum Vice Stream... oh yeah, they already have it. They raised $40,000,000; they raised a $40,000,000 Series A at a $200,000,000 valuation last year. I think this could be bigger. I think this could be much, much bigger as a brand. The other thing you could do is that sports cards are having this incredible boom right now. I think what you could do is have certain collectors put their collection in the house. The house could be basically the vault to store some of the most rare memorabilia in the sports world—signed basketball shoes and sports cards. That could be part of the museum, and you would basically store it for some of these collectors. So, I think there's a bunch of stuff you could do to make this work. But the idea is: can you buy this thing for $13,000,000, put another $4,000,000 or $5,000,000 into getting it all set up, and then could you make $5,000,000 a year? Could you make $10,000,000 a year, like you're saying these other guys do, as a pilgrimage for tourists going to Chicago and basketball junkies?

Sam Parr

I think the answer is definitely yes. I found it so interesting that I came across another example. It's called the National Trust for Historic Preservation. It's a nonprofit, and all they do is buy historical buildings. I looked at their numbers, and they've been generating about $50 to $60 million in revenue for years. I'm still trying to figure out how to entirely read nonprofit statements, but they have a line item that's "revenue less expenses," which I guess just means profit. I mean, I don't know how they define it.

Shaan Puri

yeah it's keeping that yeah

Sam Parr

I don't know how they define either of those, but it was **$26,000,000** and it's been doing that for years. Is that nuts?

Shaan Puri

I like this idea. I like this idea a lot, and I kind of want to dig a little further into how these home museums work because I think this is pretty interesting. The other good thing about this, by the way, is that the Basketball Hall of Fame sucks. Nobody cares about it; nobody goes to visit it. All the other sports, like Canton for football, these are like tourist destinations. You know, tons of people go there every year. It's really cool, and the basketball one... basketball fans really care to go do.

Sam Parr

Can I give you two more examples of what we could consider doing instead of even doing a museum? Maybe this is even simpler. So, I'm staying at my friend Jack's house. It's a badass house, about five or ten doors down. Nearby is what they call the "Obama House." When Obama was in office, from when was he in office? Oh, the '08 to '12 term, or whatever it was, he would stay at this house down here. The owners let him stay, I think, for a massive discount. Now, it's like it has its own Wikipedia page and it's called the "Obama House." It sold ten years ago for $7,000,000 after he had already stayed there. Sorry, I said $7,000,000, which is a lot of money. But they rent it out right now on Airbnb for $6,000 a night, or if it's booked all the way up, $180,000 a month. It's branded as the "Obama House." I think that you could absolutely crush it with a Jordan Airbnb house. Would you and a group of friends be willing to pull together $3,000 a day to stay there? Maybe.

Shaan Puri

I think the way you'd have to do it is to make it like a Vegas alternative for bachelor parties and stuff like that—birthdays. It's like, what is the man cave, man dream vacation? It's like, "Dude, we're gonna go stay in Michael Jordan's house. Fourteen of us are going, and it comes with all the amenities and, you know, all that stuff." This is where you go. This is where you want to go if you want to live like the sports fan's dream. I think you could do that. I do like the museum one better. What was the second idea you had? You said you had two.

Sam Parr

What wasn't the second? I guess it was more so just another example: the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air house. It's kind of interesting. Do you remember living in San Francisco? There's like the, what's it called, the Painted Ladies? Yeah, which is the Full House house. And then there's the Mrs. Doubtfire house. I would just want to buy all these and turn them all into tours.

Shaan Puri

So, I lived a block away from the Full House house, and literally 24/7, there is somebody standing outside of that house during the daytime taking a photo of it. There's just a constant presence. It's not like a huge line of people, but there's always about four people standing outside taking a photo in front of the Full House house every single day for the whole year. It's kind of crazy. Then it just sold, actually, and it sold at basically like I think 1.5 or 2 times the market rate in that area. So they got basically like a double premium because it is the Full House house, which I think is, you know, kind of interesting. But okay, I think we should buy Michael Jordan's house. I think we should crowdfund. I think we should get 5,000 people together to own this thing. Or we could go to Rally Road and say, "Hey, Rally, let's put Michael Jordan's house on Rally," and you know, let's sell this baby out. I think if 5,000 people right now, if you go on Rally Road, you'll get 2,000 or 3,000 people buying a fractional share of, you know, a pair of Jordans or a signed autograph or signed rookie card or something like that. Forget all that! Let's focus on the guy's house. I think you could easily get 5,000 people on Rally Road to buy a fractional share of Michael Jordan's house. I'm surprised they don't already do this. If they're listening to this, you know, go for it! Just give us credit and give me a share of the house.

Sam Parr

I actually think that they wouldn't do that because how do you liquidate that? It's been on the market for 10 or 20 years. No one is obviously buying it, so how do you get liquidity from that after 7 years? I don't think you do. I think the game here...

Shaan Puri

Is that right? The rally is that they take things that are not assets and they make them into liquid assets. Because you can own a fractional share now, there's liquidity. Anyone who owns a piece of Michael Jordan's house can swap it for anyone else who wants to own a piece of it. So, you don't need a $15,000,000 buyer because you can sell them in blocks of $1,000 or $1,500. When you bring that price down, there are people who want to own a piece of the art or a piece of the asset. This is how they do it. They'll sell, you know, a Harry Potter first edition signed set of books. Instead of selling it for $25,000, they'll get 2,000 investors to each put in whatever the math comes out to, like $150, to own a piece of that thing. They introduce liquidity by making it fractionally owned.

Sam Parr

Yes, but there's still no cash flow. You have to create an operation around this to generate cash flow. I got a...

Shaan Puri

lot of money I got a lot of money I got a lot of money I got a lot

Sam Parr

of money I got a lot of money

Shaan Puri

I got a lot of money

Shaan Puri

I got to see what's going on in rally. You're staying with Jack Smith. You should go ask Jack Smith about how this stuff works. He's the one who taught me, and he's one of the biggest investors in this stuff. He's not buying it for cash flow, you know. He's buying it because there is another collector. When you make it fractional, now way more people can get in on collecting it versus just the rich, deep-pocketed people who could buy the whole asset 100%.

Sam Parr

Yeah, bro, but who liquidates it after a handful of years on Rally Road? Someone actually buys the car after a few years.

Shaan Puri

Very rarely, occasionally, somebody comes and offers to buy out the whole lot. Then they put it to a vote. I don't know if you've seen this, but let's say a box of Pokémon cards went on there, like a super rare Pokémon card set. I don't know what the IPO was, but on Rally, let's pretend it was $50,000. Then what happened is a big Asian investor came in and said, "We'll buy this thing out for $85,000 now, so you'll all get a profit, but we want to own this thing." They put it to the vote of all the shareholders, and they said no. They voted to keep it because they thought it was going to go up. So, they're not all trying to liquidate soon. Some people who are buy-and-hold investors will want to own these assets for a long time because they think, "Hey, you know, what's Michael Jordan going to be? What's Michael Jordan's fame going to be 20 years from now? If Michael Jordan passes away, how much is it going to be worth?" There are people who are in it for the long term. So, I think the collectibles thing is a little bit different, and I think about it differently than you do, I would say.

Sam Parr

you basically need jordan to have a good tragic accident

Shaan Puri

Or, like for example, *The Last Dance* came out. So, *The Last Dance* is a 10-part documentary that came out on Netflix and ESPN. You know, millions and millions of people watched this thing. Jordan's brand visibility and sentiment went up because this documentary came out. He's still alive; it wasn't a tragic event. But somebody told the Jordan story to the younger generation who, you know, grew up when they were 2 years old during Jordan's prime. So, the Jordan brand got stronger with *The Last Dance* coming out, and I think that's just going to continue over time. His legacy becomes bigger than the person itself. But I have a different thing that's sports-related.

Sam Parr

okay