A fully furnished home in Aspen, Colo., that hit the market last year for $60 million is now returning to market, this time asking $49.995 million.
The owners are commercial real-estate investor Genaro Diaz and his wife, author Maria Alejandra Llamas. The couple spent roughly two years and about $6 million renovating and furnishing the six-bedroom house after paying $14 million for it in 2021.
They initially priced the 4.47-acre property property at $60 million, Diaz said, because “we saw the market was pretty hot.” Now, however, “we understand that if we want to be sellers, we have to adjust the price.”
Aspen’s luxury market has been booming for the past few years. Last year the area saw its first deal above $100 million, when a roughly 4.5-acre compound at the base of Red Mountain sold for $108 million. Recently, billionaire industrialist Bill Koch listed a 52-acre lodge property in Aspen for $125 million, after originally asking $60 million for the property in 2016.
Built in the 1990s, the home of Diaz and Llamas is about 8,960 square feet with views of Pyramid Peak and Aspen Highlands, according to listing agent Mandy Welgos of Aspen Snowmass Sotheby’s International Realty, who is marketing the property with colleague Carol Hood Peterson. The house has two offices, a gym and a wine cellar. Outside there is a heated, man-made pond for swimming, a built-in Jacuzzi, a cold plunge and a fire pit. The property backs up to about 60 acres of open space.
Diaz is the great-grandson of Porfirio Diaz, who was president of Mexico for more than 30 years in the 1800s and early 1900s. He is CEO of GreenWater Investments, an Arizona-based investor in multifamily properties. Llamas is a bestselling author of personal empowerment books, including 2013’s “The Art of Self Awareness.” Diaz and Llamas also have homes in Tucson and Mexico City and spend time in Madrid. They sold a home in Miami in 2021.
Diaz said his family had been coming to Aspen for years, and he and Llamas owned smaller properties there before they bought their current home. In renovating the house, Diaz and Llamas updated the home’s “1990s look” by opening up walls and integrating windows and glass, he said. They also added smart features, allowing them to control the shades, lights, music, temperature and more from their phones.
During construction the couple lived in the house for the most part, while also spending time in Tucson. They stayed on the first floor while the second floor was being renovated, and moved upstairs when the lower level was under construction.
Diaz said he wants to sell so he can invest more heavily in the multifamily sector, which he thinks is poised for growth. Moreover, “my wife feels a little bit lonely in Aspen,” he said; with two adult children, they are empty-nesters. They plan to build another home in Aspen in the future.
“When am I going to be in the position to purchase another house with 5 acres in Aspen?” Diaz said. “On the other hand, I have a great opportunity to make more money in multifamily.”
Welgos said a key selling point of the property is its size. “This is as close to downtown as you can get on this acreage,” she said. “That’s a very rare combination.”
Aspen has never seen prices like this before, Welgos said. “Some of the pricing is in La La Land,” she said. While demand is strong, she said, not all sellers can simply name their price. Sellers who are just testing the market may have to adjust their prices if they really want to sell. “There’s only so many people that can afford that much,” she said.
By: E.B. Solomont I The Wall Street Journal I February 3, 2025