Inside a $21.8 million San Francisco mansion that's been home to a tech media mogul, a squatter, and almost - according to rumors - Taylor Swift

• There's a San Francisco mansion for sale for $21.8 million in the city's Presidio Heights neighborhood.
• It was built in 1904 and modeled after a royal French chateau, but that's just a sliver of the home's colorful back story.
• It was once owned by the founder of the tech website CNET before he went bankrupt in 2008 and was later inhabited by a squatter who stole artwork from the home, sneaking paintings out and selling them at pawn shops and on social media sites in 2014 and 2015.
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The 20-room mansion at 3800 Washington Street is not your average multi-million-dollar San Francisco real-estate listing.

It's a replica of Le Petit Trianon, the 18th-century French chateau built by Louis XV at the Versailles Palace in France. It's listed on San Francisco's National Register of Historic Places. Years ago, it was in serious need of some TLC and was declared abandoned by the city more than once. Taylor Swift was rumored to have considered buying it in 2014. It's been inhabited by a serial drifter and Taylor Swift fanatic, who turned it into his own personal "thug mansion" and "headquarters" for a stolen-art-hocking business in 2014 and 2015. It's been renovated and was selected for not one, but two, San Francisco Designer Showcases, first in 1982 and then in 2019.

And now, it's listed for sale for $21.8 million.

The home doesn't share the same aesthetic as many of the Bay Area's real-estate listings. There's nothing stark, white, or minimalist, about this place.

Rich blue and green colors mingle with brass accents. Extravagant chandeliers hang from the ceiling. There are nine (NINE!) "decorative" fireplaces. Columns and arched doorways greet you upon entering. Patterned ceilings and velvet cushions fill the space. There's even a ballroom, for crying out loud.

For all its drama over the years, the home lives up to its namesake - it's a French palace befit for royals, or at least the royal upper-class of 21st century San Francisco.

Here's the saga of 3800 Washington Street and what it's like inside the beautiful mansion.