A remarkable Alaqua Lakes luxury home, built and owned by a former NFL star, recently received multiple offers and sold in just two days.
“It is timeless, this house is. I don’t know what it would take for this home to become dated,” said Frank Benevento with Coldwell Banker Global Luxury. “Not to be trite, but the wow factor is immediately there. You walk in there and you look up, you look to the right, the left. Everywhere you look is striking.”
Sellers John and Rebecca Mobley built the 9,545-square-foot house in the upscale neighborhood in Longwood in 2006 and lived there until they sold it for $3.6 million, according to a report in GrowthSpotter.
If Mobley’s name is familiar, it’s because he was the all-pro linebacker for the Denver Broncos who broke up a pass from Green Bay Packers quarterback Brett Favre in the last seconds of Super Bowl XXXII on a fourth and six to secure the win for the Broncos and quarterback John Elway. Mobley, a two-time Super Bowl champion, retired from the National Football League in 2003.
The grand staircase, with its ornate ironwork, makes the most of the soaring celings. (Courtesy of Frank Benevento/Coldwell Banker Global Luxury)
The Mobleys built the six-bedroom, seven-bath home with custom homebuilder Dave Brewer. The home sits on 1.19 acres behind double gates in the Enclave section of Alaqua Lakes.
“It is a bit of an old-world style home. It’s not a contemporary, it’s not a Miami Vice type of look, if you may, but it is classically done well,” Benevento said, adding it has many of Brewer’s signature features in it, including soaring ceilings and a thoughtful layout.
“You’ve got multiple bedrooms on the main level and then the primary suite unto itself in a whole wing on the left of the house. So, it is a very, very nice layout if you have a larger family or you have family visiting.”
It also has a home gym, a theater room, prominent staircases, a chef’s kitchen, and more.
“It’s not really ostentatious in the sense of being unapproachable, but even the exterior of this home was one that you pull over and just say, wow, what an architectural masterpiece,” he said, adding the circular driveway sets the tone for what he called a “majestic property.”
A spiral staircase leads to an area Benevento called the observatory. “If somebody wanted to have a little wine or coffee or cigar, it’s like a tree house up there, for lack of a better term, overlooking the golf course.”
The outdoor space with a kitchen and entertainment area is completely surrounded by pillars and roofline, but the pool is exposed with a unique cage design over it.
“I’ve done a tremendous amount of luxury sales for the past 20 years, and this happens to be the nicest pool,” Benevento told GrowthSpotter. “It has two waterfalls. One of them is a spa and then there’s another water feature, which is perfectly positioned to look out to the golf course. It’s got all kinds of lights and water features and it is just amazing.”
Walls of glass in the house highlight the views, including a wall of curved glass windows, which is something you don’t see in a lot of homes.
Seamless, curved windows and a triple-height fireplace highlight the living room. (Courtesy of Frank Benevento/Coldwell Banker Global Luxury)
“It’s not cavernous in the sense of being dark. It is extremely light and airy because of the soaring ceilings and the amount of light that floods into this property,” he explained.
That uniqueness is also what Benevento said attracted the buyers.
“That was a big thing, that it’s not a cookie cutter type property,” he said, adding it’s in a phenomenal subdivision, which also happens to be his neighborhood.
The buyers are Jeffery and Katherine Matthews, and the agent who represented them was Alex Steffano with Korr Realty.
Benevento said he is not aware of any specific changes the buyers want to make to the property, but acknowledged buyers often want to put their own stamp on things.
“It seemed to me like they loved everything about it. There were really no complaints with this property.”
The resort-style pool is surrounded by columns, creating a serene oasis. (Courtesy of Frank Benevento/Coldwell Banker Global Luxury)
The buyers fell in love with it quickly. Within two days of listing the property at $3.675 million, there were two written offers and one verbal one.
Benevento said the decision to sell was a difficult one for Mobleys, but the desire to downsize eventually won out.
“The only constant in life is change, right? And I think that was just the motivation. It was painful for them. I’m not going to tell you it wasn’t. It was very, very difficult, and they agonized over this, making this decision,” he said. “Nobody wants to leave a property like this. I certainly wouldn’t want to.”
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