Donald Trump's childhood home sold at auction
Michael Davis seems to understand the art of the deal.
In December, the real estate investor purchased President Donald Trump’s childhood home in Queens, New York, for $1.39 million. A month later he flipped it for $2.14 million, closing on the sale last week.
That’s a 53 percent return on investment in one month, excluding real estate fees.
The president’s father, Fred Trump, built the two-story Tudor-style home around 1940, according to Misha Haghani, managing principal at Paramount Realty USA, which coordinated the auction. The Trumps lived there for 10 years and then moved around the corner.
“Clearly the fact that this is the childhood home of the current President of the United States increased the value of the property,” Haghani said by email.
The five-bedroom, 4.5-bathroom house also has an eat-in-kitchen, formal dining room, fireplace, screened patio, den, finished basement, plenty of hardwood floors and a two-car garage.
Davis bought the home in December from Isaac and Claudia Kestenberg, Manhattan restaurateurs who purchased it in 2008 for $782,500 and later sold it as part of divorce proceedings.
The Kestenbergs had wanted to auction the house in October, at the time of the third debate between the presidential candidates, but postponed the deal after “significant media attention,” Paramount said.
The house is located at 85-15 Wareham Place in Jamaica Estates, in New York City’s Queens neighborhood. The address is listed as the home address on the president’s birth certificate.
Jamaica Estates’ median home sells for $850,000, according to the real estate website Trulia.
