Elon Musk takes back ownership of Gene Wilder's former home

News.com.au

6 hours ago

Elon Musk has taken back ownership of Gene Wilder's former Los Angeles home after the nephew of the late star received a loan from the billionaire to buy the property
According to property records, the SpaceX founder reclaimed the Bel-Air residence through an LLC company after a foreclosure sales process began last year.
The tech mogul, 53, first bought the three-bedroom dwelling for $US6.75 million ($A9.9 million) in 2013, Realtor reports.
However, he made a move to offload the property in 2020, when he announced plans to sell 'almost all his physical possessions,' including Wilder's former home.
Still, the Tesla founder made clear his enduring connection to the property.
He posted on X that, while he planned to 'own no house,' any person or persons who took ownership of the Wilder property would be barred from demolishing it or making any major changes to its design.
'Gene Wilder's old house … cannot be [torn] down or lose any [of] its soul,' he stipulated.
Months later, Musk had found the perfect person to take control of the dwelling — Wilder's own nephew, Jordan Walker-Pearlman.
Walker-Pearlman and his wife, Elizabeth Hunter, purchased the home from the businessman for $US7 million ($A10.3 million) that same year.
At the time, Musk was hailed for his generosity after it was reported that he had not only sold the home to the couple for under its estimated market value, but had also loaned them a hefty $US6.7 million ($A9.9 million) to help them with its purchase.
However, the sweet scenario quickly turned sour four years later, when Walker-Pearlman and Hunter fell behind on their loan payments, leading to Musk filing a notice of default.
That original default notice, which was dated July 29, 2024, stated that the property 'may be sold without court action' if the owners had fallen behind in their payments.
At the same time, Walker-Pearlman and Hunter tried to offload the home themselves, before it could be put up for auction, initially listing it for $US12.95 million ($A19 million) the following month.
That price was quickly slashed to $US9.5 million ($A14.5 million) in November 2024.
That same month, a notice of trustee's sale under deed of trust was filed — informing Walker-Pearlman and Hunter that the dwelling would be sold at a public auction on December 3 2024.
It noted that the unpaid balance of the loan, as well as 'reasonable estimated costs, expenses, and advances,' was set at $US7,512,523.10 ($A11,518,035.14)
The auction was scheduled to take place 'behind the fountain located in Civic Center Plaza' in Pomona, California.
Bidders were warned that the property was being sold subject to a restrictive covenant that prevents the home from being demolished or razed.
It is unclear whether the auction was attended by other bidders.
However, a trustee's deed upon sale that was filed in January 2025 indicates that the property was purchased by the same LLC through which Musk originally purchased the home.
Records indicate that the full unpaid debt paid by the buyer came to $US7,587,143.06 ($A11,632,886.49).
The home was officially taken off the market in February 2025.
It's not known what Musk plans to do with the property — having seemingly purchased it the first time around more as a trophy home than an actual residence.
Since selling off many of his properties in 2020, Musk has become increasingly secretive about his real estate deals.
Multiple reports have suggested that he's amassed quite an impressive collection of homes in and around Austin, Texas, where Tesla is based.
The only home that Musk has publicly confirmed he lives in is a quaint ranch-style dwelling in the Brownsville, Texas, neighbourhood of Boca Chica.
The property is located mere steps away from the SpaceX headquarters, which he claimed in 2021 that he was renting from his own company.
'My primary home is literally a ~$50K house in Boca Chica/Starbase that I rent from SpaceX. It's kinda awesome though,' he wrote in a post on X.
However, in 2025, it was revealed that Musk had purchased a $US6 million ($A9.2 million) mansion in the upscale Austin neighbourhood of West Lake Hills in 2022 — after neighbours began complaining about the chaos that was being caused by his presence in the community.
According to the New York Times, multiple complaints were filed by locals over an unauthorised 16-foot chain-link fence that had been erected around the home, for which Musk and his team had failed to obtain permits.
The outlet reports that the erection of the fence and gate violated six city ordinances.
Another complaint, lodged via a letter sent to the Zoning and Planning Commission by local resident Paul Hemmer, stated that the comings and goings at the Musk property were wreaking havoc on their otherwise 'quiet streets.'
'Transporting service employees to other houses, leaving their cars on our quiet streets, hauling laundry to and fro to other houses has to stop,' he wrote.
The Times also reported that Musk had since purchased two other properties in the same area to create a 'compound' in which to house many of his children and their mothers.
Musk is alleged to have fathered 14 children by four different women in the past 20 years — although he is estranged from at least one of them.
He welcomed his first child, son Nevada Alexander, with then-wife Justin Wilson in 2002.
Sadly, the baby died at just 10 weeks of age from sudden infant death syndrome.
Musk and Wilson went on to welcome five more kids: transgender daughter Vivian, from whom Musk is estranged, and her twin, Griffin; and triplets Saxon, Damian, and Kai.
From 2020 to 2022, he welcomed three children with the singer Grimes, whose real name is Claire Boucher: X Æ A-Xii, who is known as X; Exa Dark Sideræl, who is known as Y; and Techno Mechanicus, who goes by Tau.
During that same time, he also fathered twins with Shivon Zilis, an executive at his Neuralink company, with whom he now shares four children: twins Strider and Azure, born in 2021; daughter Arcadia, born in 2024; and son Seldon Lycrugus, whose birth date is not known.
In February 2025 — the same month that Musk and Zilis announced the news about their fourth child — a conservative influencer named Ashley St. Clair came forward to claim that she had also welcomed a child with the billionaire, a son named Romulus.
Musk has never publicly confirmed he is the father of the child, although he stated in a post on X that he had agreed to give St. Clair $US2.5 million ($A3.8 million), as well as annual payments of $US500,000 ($A767,000).
Although she later claimed that he had withdrawn that child support to 'punish' her for going public with the birth.