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  4. Elon Musk reportedly sold Gene Wilder's former estate to Wilder's nephew, and may have financed 95% of the sale

Elon Musk reportedly sold Gene Wilder's former estate to Wilder's nephew, and may have financed 95% of the sale

Avery Hartmans   

Elon Musk reportedly sold Gene Wilder's former estate to Wilder's nephew, and may have financed 95% of the sale
Tech2 min read
  • Elon Musk has sold a home that belonged to Gene Wilder to Wilder's nephew, Variety reports.
  • Musk announced earlier this year that he would sell off his houses, but stipulated that Wilder's house could not be torn down.
  • The house, located in the Bel-Air neighborhood of Los Angeles, was never occupied by Musk — Musk used it to house Ad Astra, the school he launched for his children and those of Tesla and SpaceX executives.

Elon Musk has made good on his promise to sell the former estate of Gene Wilder — and the buyer is Wilder's nephew, according to Variety's James McClain.

Musk, who purchased the property in 2013, sold it for $7 million to an LLC managed by screenwriter and producer Elizabeth Hunter, who is married to filmmaker and Wilder nephew Jordan Walker-Pearlman, Variety reports.

The sale price is $250,000 more than Musk paid for it, and Musk may have helped the couple finance the house: according to Variety, records suggest that Musk lent them $6.7 million, or about 95% of the sale price.

A spokesperson for Musk did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment.

Musk announced in May that he planned to sell "almost all physical possessions" and would not own a house — earlier this year, he reportedly sold one Bel-Air home to a Chinese billionaire for $29 million.

But he made one stipulation in his announcement: Whoever purchased Wilder's estate could not tear it down or remove its "soul."

Musk told TMZ on Saturday that that was a condition of the sale to Hunter and Pearlman.

The Wilder estate was built in 1951 and spans 2,756 square feet. The three-bedroom, three-bathroom ranch-style home features a kidney-shaped swimming pool and a view of the golf course at the Bel-Air Country Club. Musk has never occupied the home, instead using it to house a private school called Ad Astra for his children and those of Tesla and SpaceX executives.

"It has all these funny nooks and crannies and cute cupboards," Musk told Vogue in 2015. "It also feels quite like a little schoolhouse on the prairie — except in Bel-Air on a golf course."

It's unclear where Ad Astra will relocate after the sale of the Wilder estate, although The Daily Beast reported in July that Musk reportedly helped launch a new online school called Astra Nova.

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