When it comes to selling Barbie houses, there just may not be room for any toying around. The Bel-Air home of Jill E. Barad, who once was the chief executive of Mattel Inc., was just sold for $10.2 million -- about a third less than it was first listed for.
A hat tip to Redfin for alerting us to the sale. Barad and her hubby Thomas K. Barad have been trying to sell the property since 2010 when they originally listed it at $15 million. A few recessionary years and healthy dose of reality later, it came back on the market at $10.7 million. Still, not bad for a 9,383-square-foot that a tiny-waisted, foot-tall doll built.
Barad, who joined Mattel in 1981 and moved up the ranks at the toy giant, is credited with bringing Barbie into the modern age. She changed the doll's image from sex symbol to professional woman and increased sales from $200 million to $1.9 billion -- 35 percent of Mattel’s revenue – according to Business Week.
In 1998, Barad led Mattel into a merger with the maker of the American Girl doll and later found herself forced out amid a flood of red ink at the company. She pocketed a severance package of more than $40 million, so no weeping for Barbie Mommy here.
The two-story Mediterranean that she sold was built in 1991. It has six bedrooms, 10 bathrooms and sits on more than an acre. The home has a large theater/game room and not a whit of Barbie pink or purple to be found anywhere. That said, every girl on the planet knows you can never fully rid a plush carpet of Barbie high heels.
Photos courtesy of Realtor.com
