When I first gazed upon this home, the theme song from the longest-running TV series ever— Dallas — started playing in my head.
It happened again when this incredible estate was nominated in our annual search for The Sweetest Homes in Dallas-Fort Worth. We received so many fabulous nominations, and the work to narrow that list for you, our readers, was excruciatingly difficult. For homes to be in the running for our Sweetest Homes in Dallas-Fort Worth nod, it had to be listed during the period between Jan. 1 and Dec. 31 of 2021. This home met those requirements and its straight-out-of-legend vibe couldn’t be denied.
Now, that didn’t make me vote for it. No, Miss Ellie, that Dallas feel was not it, because really the home is too contemporary and did not look like Southfork at all. By the way, when I was interviewed by CNN’s Richard Quest a couple of weeks ago (stay tuned for more on that!) he went up to Southfork and tells me you can now spend the night up there!
And yes, I was tempted to say that this is just another big house built on a big lot by people with big bank accounts who could afford to do anything. But then, that is what makes people buy these homes, right?
What intrigued me about this home at 245 E. Bob Jones Road in Southlake was the many, many extra-highly-crafted and personalized spaces in this home that you not only don’t find in an everyday home, but you don’t find them in an everyday mansion. I’m talking about the Zen room (want one, need one), the spa, the bowling alley that has Brunswick vintage lanes, and all the other bells and whistles you didn’t know you needed but, after seeing them, you know you can’t live without.
(There is another unique room, too, kind of related to the new buyer’s business that’s moving to Texas, but I am sworn to secrecy.)
Plus, this home was not even on the market for a day.
“The buyers were getting on a plane to return home that afternoon, but wanted to see it,” says buyers agent Eddie Wilbanks of Compass’s Fort Worth office. “We went to see it. We put it under contract three hours after the listing went live.”
The buyers were from Illinois — a young couple in their mid-30s with a young baby who are moving their entire, very successful (they paid about $9.5 million for this home) business to D-FW, namely to Bedford. They had looked all over, from San Antonio to Fort Worth.
“Kevin and his wife had been looking in Texas and were really in love with the Hill Country look. So when they toured this home, it was immediate. They could not have laid out a better house if they had built it themselves,” says Wilbanks. “It’s not in a gated community, it’s six acres on Bob Jones Road. Behind the home is Southlake’s equestrian trails. This home has a little bit of everything — it’s like a ranch unto itself.
The family had been looking with Wilbanks for so long he was watching their child grow up: six months is an eternity in this market. And they were beginning to think that the Tuscan Villa was the State architecture of Texas.
The 12,723-square-foot home listed by Kelly Marcontell of the Ebby Halliday Southlake office was custom built in 2020 by V. Patrick Gray (here comes that Dallas theme song again) for a couple who lived there for just a year.
This home has, as you can see, everything. From soaring, clean-lined ceilings to custom beam, 13-inch white oak floors, a great huge kitchen loaded with double appliances and double doses of everything, a mammoth laundry and food prep room, media room, bar, billiard room, two vintage Brunswick bowling lanes, patios, outdoor kitchen, pool, spa, fire pit, pond, and tennis courts — nothing was overlooked.
“By 5:30, the home was under contract, a very solid contract,” says Wilbanks.
And the buyers made their plane back to Illinois in a timely fashion.
Do you think this home is The Sweetest Home in Dallas-Fort Worth? Tell us about it! Stay tuned this week as we feature even more homes that are Certified Sweet!
