Selling a Frank Lloyd Wright Home

No, Graycliff isn't for sale...nor will it be...but there's an interesting story from the Gannett TV affiliate in Chicago on two Wright houses for sale.

See the video here: Selling a Frank Lloyd Wright Home for a peek inside two private Wright residences (and check out the non-Wright wallpaper in that one bedroom!) as well as some video of the exterior of the Guggenheim and Fallingwater.

or here's the text of the story:

CHICAGO, IL (CBS) -- A good example of the healthier housing market this summer: the sale of previously occupied or "existing" homes. They've sold at an annual pace of more than five million homes in the last three months, a first since 2007.

But one unique group of homeowners face a challenge when it comes to the market because of who designed their homes.

Frank Lloyd Wright was one of America's most famous architects. A dozen of his buildings, like the Guggenheim Museum in New York, are considered among the nation's most important modern structures. Then there are his homes. Around 280 designed by Wright are still standing. Many are house museums like the famous "Fallingwater," built on top of a waterfall, in Pennsylvania or the Robie house, a century-old example of his "prairie style," in Chicago.

Less well known are the Wright homes that are still lived in. About 20 are on the market across the country.

Juan and Claire Montenegro have lived in this Wright home in the Chicago suburb of Highland Park for the past 20 years. Their two boys are grown now, and it's time for Juan and Claire to move on.

This is the third summer they've tried to sell; original floors, original colors, wide open spaces, lots of natural light, and signature windows. These homes are iconic, so you don't mess with them. Claire says, "I think it's beautiful the way it is, and I wouldn't change a thing."

You can alter the back or sides of a Frank Lloyd Wright house, but not the front unless you want enraged preservationists showing up on your doorstep.

These homes draw special buyers but as the Montenegros have learned, even with a forested back yard and a stone's throw from Lake Michigan, they're not always an easy sell. Juan says, "I think that Frank Lloyd Wright owners make the mistake of pricing them too high at the beginning, and we were guilty of that."

Their asking price now is just over $1 million. Claire says, "The house may or may not appeal to everybody, but there is a certain segment of people that love these homes. It is a house to be lived in. It is not a museum."

Louisa McPharlin had similar run-ins growing up in this Frank Lloyd Wright house from 1892 on Chicago's south side. She says, "I would come from school and my mother would be entertaining young architects who would either write her or just knock on the door."

She's now the real estate agent looking for a buyer for this fixer-upper priced at $1.1 million. McPharlin has put on a new roof and believes Wright's reputation is a selling point. She says, "It needs a special person who will have the energy, the resources either want to use it for some wonderful plan or live in it."

The Montengros home is move-in ready, but it was built in 1906. Juan says, "Our house had leaks, but we've gone ahead and fixed it. What 100-year-old house has not leaked?"

Just part of the price for living in a piece of American history.

Louisa McPharlin, the seller of that 121-year-old Wright fixer-upper she grew up in tells us she has found a buyer who wants to turn the home into a bed and breakfast.