Are you looking to build a home to fill with love? This looks like another one acre lot for sale off Ricks Circle in Hillcrest Estates, an area many refer to as Preston Hollow, even though technically it is not.
But this is no ordinary lot. And it is no ordinary sale. Rather than list it, the family is selling by open bid. The cost? Probably around $1.5 million, based on the lot size (.93 acre) and recent sales in the neighborhood. And, of course, the bids.The house has been removed, there are two large trees, and the open space gives buyers design freedom within the ‘hood’s relatively easy deed restrictions.
The lot housed a loving family for years, cradled their laughter, tears and progress.
Oh, and that’s the other stipulation: the Downing family will make their former family home available ONLY to people who will buy it, build on it, and love it as much as they did.
“My parents bought the house in 1990,” Beth Downing, who now lives in Tulsa, told me. ” We wanted to be in Hillcrest Estates so badly — the plan was to build our family’s dream home there. We actually leased a ranch on Northaven across Hillcrest, until 11565 East Ricks Circle came on the market.”
It belonged to an older family who was downsizing. The family of four snapped it up, Beth was in 6th grade at Greenhill.
Horsies! Beth’s best memories of the house was that because of the acreage, she was able to keep a horse. The home came with a barn, and rather than have her mother cart her to a barn up north somewhere every day — Willow Bend used to be the nearest stable for horse lovers –she just walked to the barn every day.
“Quite a few people in the neighborhood had horses at the time, and we rode a lot,” says Beth, who now c0-owns a Tulsa-based e discovery company that scrutinizes computers, mostly for attorneys, called Avansic..
She also credits the house and the quiet circular street with inspiring her to run.
“I started running in 7th or 8th grade, and I think it was because of the Circle. My dad and I would also go for long walks in the evenings,” says Beth. “That’s how I capped off every school day, and I still run.”
Besides having a horse, there were other benefits to “living in the country in the city”. Friends were close by, and you could walk to their homes. Beth was assigned the job of mowing the lawn — not by hand, but on a riding mower. She didn’t mind this chore at all because it gave her a chance to drive before she was 16.
When the Downings originally bought the Ricks house, they intended to tear it down and re-build.
“But then life happened,” says Beth. Various family illnesses made a remodel easier, which also became a loving family project. Grandparents on both sides came in to participate.
The result was her mother’s house, the family home, says Beth, and it was perfect.
When her mother died a few years ago, the family knew the Ricks house would probably be the perfect palette for another family’s dreams. Beth’s younger brother no longer lives in Dallas; she is busy with her own family in Tulsa, a toddler and a baby due in six weeks.
“There is no sadness, because we have beautiful memories — it was a great place for us to live and we loved the neighborhood,” says Beth, who confesses to parking on the homestead and taking a spin around the Circle whenever she’s in town.
Her biggest hope is to sell it to a builder or family who will give another generation a happy home, one they will enjoy it every bit as much as the Downing family did.
“I just really want them to have a fabulous experience,” says Beth, ” as our family did.”
So if you are interested in a .93 lot to build your dream home on Ricks Circle, email Beth at [email protected]. or call 918.277.3786.
Warning and full disclosure: you might have at least one real-estate crazed nutty neighbor — me!
