The Seattle home where Jeff Bezos started Amazon has just hit the market.
Built in the mid-1950s, it’s the first time in 10 years that the West Bellevue house has gone up for sale, with broker Pat Sullivan from Washington real estate specialist John L. Scott listing it this week for $1.5 million.
The all-important garage where Bezos did much of the early work for Amazon back in 1994 is attached to the main part of the 1,540-square-foot home, which itself includes three bedrooms, a large dining area, “an enormous great room that’s perfect for entertaining,” and a large yard with a “big party deck and hot tub,” as per the listing.
Bezos’ former home also features a “13-foot vaulted pine ceiling & river rock fireplace,” as well as a “fabulous granite and maple kitchen [that] entices the cook.”
Sullivan clearly sees the Bezos connection as an important selling point, touting the property as “a slice of history.” But the couple who live there now reportedly only mentioned the fact in passing when speaking to the real estate company, describing the home’s connection with the world’s richest person and one of world’s most valuable companies as “no big deal.”
Previous owners renovated the house in 2001, though according to the Seattle Times, which spotted the listing, the larger-than-usual mailbox that Bezos put in place for the operation of his then-fledgling business still stands at the end of the driveway.
Bezos, who currently has a net worth of around $132 billion, is believed to have run Amazon from the premises for just the first few months of the company’s existence. He rented the place when he was there, though it’s not known how much he was paying. Today, if it went on the rental market, Zillow puts the estimated monthly payment at $4,550.
The West Bellevue area where the house is located is described by the Times as “the most expensive neighborhood in the region,” and will need “a down payment of about $300,000 and then an annual income of about $300,000 a year to afford the mortgage.”
Sullivan told the Times there’s “a good chance an Amazon exec might buy this for bragging rights.” Or perhaps Bezos himself could snap it up and use it as a cozy retreat away from the intense media interest he’s currently experiencing.
