Elon Musk wasn’t kidding, he’s actually selling his houses

A few days ago, Elon Musk tweeted he intends to sell all of his real estate. Now, it appears as if he’s actually doing it. 

“I am selling almost all physical possessions. Will own no house,” the Tesla CEO tweeted on May 1. In a subsequent tweet, Musk specifically mentioned one of his houses, which used to belong to Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory star Gene Wilder. The reason behind the sale? “Freedom,” he tweeted.

On Monday, Sam Shead, a tech correspondent at CNBC, noticed that two properties known to belong to Musk have been listed for sale on Zillow (via The Next Web). Specifically, Wilder’s old house, located in the Bel-Air neighborhood of Los Angeles, is listed for $9,500,000. 

“Updated, but carefully preserved unique, quirky and charming ranch style former home of Gene Wilder/Willy Wonka. Beautiful view property on this approx. acre promontory overlooking the stream, trees and white sand traps of the 13th green and 14th fairway on the Bel-Air Country Club Golf Course, with distant city views. Property includes approx. 2,800-sq.ft. 5-bedroom, 4.5-bath ranch home with oval pool and private guest cottage,” the description on Zillow says. 

Another property, also located in Bel-Air, is listed for $30,000,000. 

“Built in 1990 and extensively remodeled with large entertaining spaces, high ceilings and fine finishes. Large master suite with separate dual baths and closets, family wing, 2-story library, theater, 2-room guest suite, lighted championship tennis court, wine cellar, gym, pool, vast grassy yard and fruit orchard. Motor court with 5-car garage,” the description says. 

Musk bought this property in 2012 for $17 million, so he’s making a fair bit of profit on it. As for Gene Wilder’s house, he purchased it in 2013 for $6.75 million. 

Musk reportedly owns several other houses at a total value of more than $100 million. But if these recent listings are any indication, he really does intend to free himself of owning lavish mansions, which, honestly, is something most of us have already achieved. 

Musk’s real estate-related tweets came amid an odd (and at times pretty embarrassing) Twitter rant, in which he expressed his frustration with the coronavirus lockdown measures, indifference towards losing Twitter followers, and devotion to Mars and Earth. He also said Tesla’s stock price is too high, partially inducing a fairly major stock price dump. Finally, he said his girlfriend, Grimes, is mad at him for selling his possessions, though it appears that didn’t exactly stopped him from doing it.