Mega Millions Jackpot Winner Is Selling His Insane California Compound At A $19 Million Price Cut

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wThe first thing Rick Knudsen did when he won the $180 million Mega Millions jackpot was call his boss to quit his job as a manager of a roofing products company: “‘Hey brother, I’m outta here’,” Knudsen told him, before renting a party bus and corralling his friends and family to celebrate his ascension to multi-millionaire status.

Next, the California man purchased the unfinished home on a peak on Yucaipa Ridge in Southern California that he used to sit on the porch of the home he and his family lived in for 23 years and admire.


The property, named Eagle Crest Mountain Estate, features a 16,000-square-foot rustic home with five bedrooms, 155-acres of a buffalo ranch and farm, and 640-acres of his own mountain section with water rights. The house contains an elevator, a gym, a 17-seat movie theater, a wine cellar, a one-bedroom guest apartment, a wraparound deck, two barns, a caretaker’s home, a stocked fishing pond, and a 5½-mile hiking and driving trail.

Eagle Crest Mountain


Eagle Crest Mountain


Eagle Crest Mountain


Eagle Crest Mountain


Knudsen purchased the property for $5.5 million, and then went on to buy an adjacent buffalo ranch and another piece of land, totaling 845 acres of land. According to Play USA Lottery, the ranch comes with 45 buffalo who are grass and apple-fed and served at the nearby steakhouse that Knudsen also purchased.

Now, less than three years after purchasing his dream home, Knudsen is selling it all off, at a $19 MILLION price cut. Originally listed for $26 million, the property is now up for auction with a minimum price of $6.9 million, according to Concierge Auctions.

Eagle Crest Mountain


Eagle Crest Mountain


Eagle Crest Mountain


Eagle Crest Mountain


Eagle Crest Mountain


Eagle Crest Mountain


Knudsen is bailing on the home so he can move to a lower elevation with his son Ricky, 36, who was born with a congenital heart defect known as Tetralogy of Fallot.

“We had an elevator installed to help him,” Knudsen says. “However, he is quite stubborn and chooses to walk up and down the stairs grumbling all the way ‘I can do it,’ only using the elevator when absolutely necessary.”

Ricky has had three open heart and two closed heart surgeries along with two valve replacements, and has now lived twice the age the doctors expected him to.

“He feels it is time to move to a single story home probably no higher than 4,000 feet,” Knudsen says. “The difference of 2,000 feet will make a big difference in pressure and it should be an improvement for him.”

Knudsen, who claims that he doesn’t plan on buying such an extravagant property this time around, seems to have kept a good perspective on life despite the win.

“I still have to pinch myself to believe that it really happened. The odds that I would have the winning ticket are one in 250 million. It has given my family an opportunity to all live in nice homes in the same community instead of being spread out. I am still trying to instill in all of them that they need to continue to work hard and be financially responsible for their own lives. Ricky was given a new sense of freedom and independence. He has also been able to help around the ranch, which has built up his self-worth.”

“Most of all it has given me the ability to invest in long-term investments for my family and to provide financial freedom for the future,” he adds. “I definitely see the world in a new and incredible way. Dreams really do come true.”

Best of luck to the Knudsen family going forward. Also, I got Venmo.

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[h/t Business Insider, Photos via Eagle Crest Mountain]

 

Matt Keohan Avatar
Matt’s love of writing was born during a sixth grade assembly when it was announced that his essay titled “Why Drugs Are Bad” had taken first prize in D.A.R.E.’s grade-wide contest. The anti-drug people gave him a $50 savings bond for his brave contribution to crime-fighting, and upon the bond’s maturity 10 years later, he used it to buy his very first bag of marijuana.