It seems like an insane gamble: Spend millions upon millions of your personal fortune to build a house that's so off-the-charts indulgent -- $200,000 "candy wall"; $1 million-plus security system; quarter-million-dollar sculptures, plural -- that the Los Angeles Times doesn't feel too hyperbolic in a headline declaring it "L.A.'s most extreme home."

Then charge $85 million for it and see whether it sells.

Yahoo Homes recently had the chance to speak at length with the ultra-rich man who has put a sizable chunk of his personal money and reputation on the line for this spec house, dubbed "The Top of Hillcrest" because estates like these need names. (Click here or on an image for a slideshow.)

And we have to say, the way Bruce Makowsky explains his venture, it starts to make some sense (though we wouldn't gamble our millions -- lesson one, perhaps, in why we don't have any).
But first you have to think like a billionaire.
More money than time

Makowsky has no problem thinking like a billionaire. He's not one, but he's not far off, members of his team tell Yahoo Homes. He made his fortune in handbags and other women's accessories, which you might have seen everywhere from QVC to Bloomingdale's.

"I have a big mega-yacht and toys and planes," Makowsky told us. "I kind of understand what very wealthy people want."

The candy wall. Click any photo for a slideshow.

Take yachts. (Bear with us, because this circles back to his real estate thinking.) He recently sat in the house with a prospective buyer who had a mutual interest in boats -- who had, in fact, ordered up a 300-footer, at a cost of about $200 million.

Makowsky asked how often the visitor sailed. About eight weeks a year, the visitor replied. And what were the operating costs? Makowsky asked. About $8 million a year. A million dollars for each week of use.

What's so special about a $200 million yacht? we asked him.

Every detail, every single detail inside that boat is "spectacular," Makowsky explained. You don't spend a couple hundred million on a yacht, hire a world-class chef and then tell a guest who requests pizza that you're out of pepperoni. On a billionaire's yacht, you can't ever be out of pepperoni; your fridge had better be big, and it'd better be stocked with pretty much every staple imaginable, plus some ingredients that are scarcely imagined.

To tell the truth, we weren't entirely convinced that 24-hour personal pizzas equal $200 million of special. So he cited too the punishing saltwater, the unremitting barrage of ocean waves, the systems and craftsmanship required to keep the boat afloat.
As he spoke, though, it dawned on us that maybe what he wasn't saying -- maybe he can't even say it aloud -- is that yachts aren't exactly $200 million worth of special. It's just that to a billionaire, what does it really matter?
"A lot of the wealthy people have more money than time," he said, and "wealthy people are getting wealthier."
Believe it or not, there's a backlog for mega-yachts that's "incredible right now," Makowsky informed Yahoo Homes. "I have a big boat -- and I take it down to St. Bart's and I'm the smallest boat in the marina."

'Bring mega-yachts to land'

So you're a billionaire, and you've spent $100 million on a yacht and tens of millions on a jet and maybe a few million on your car collection. By now you may be making money almost faster than you can spend it: At a measly 1 percent interest, a billion dollars would generate $10 million a year.

Promontory lots are priceless because they're all gone, listing agent Ben Bacal says. Here you can see downtown …

... all the way to the Pacific Ocean (in the background, behind Century City).

Your real estate agent, meanwhile, keeps bringing you houses that are $20 million, $30 million, maybe $50 million. They don't knock your Cervelt socks off. Compared to the kind of money you've been spending, they might even seem a little, well, beneath your notice.

And while 10,000 square feet may have been considered a big house a decade ago, that attitude has changed among the super-rich, who now demand "super-large," Makowsky said.

There are "a lot of nice homes" out there, "but they're tired," he says. "Nothing brand-new."

Is newness that important to the ultra-wealthy? we ask.

"They want to feel like they're the first person in that house. ... They want to feel like it's theirs," he said. That's why he hasn't held any open houses, or even one of the parties that's become more common for high-end L.A. real estate. He wants to preserve its untouchability.

Makowsky enunciates it for us: "People. Want. New."

The natural conclusion might seem that they should build their own dream house, tailored to their tastes and desires.

Makowsky commissioned this replica of James Dean's motorcycle.

Remember to think like a billionaire, though: money > time. They'd have to scout out the perfect lot -- and in Los Angeles, promontories with downtown-to-ocean views are so coveted that a nearby family reportedly refused an offer of $75 million for their house (which developers would have razed). Then they'd have to get all the necessary local permissions and build the place. It takes "four to six years to do what we did here," Makowsky said.

Not only that, they'd have to devote time and attention to all the hundreds of details that accumulate as luxury. On a yacht, it's the masterful design packed into (relatively) limited space while still ensuring that you never run out of pizza supplies. At the Top of Hillcrest, it's mirrors placed so that wherever you are in the master bath, you can see downtown Los Angeles behind you, right down to the mirror backing within the medicine cabinet; it's the drawers you open to discover they're lined with crocodile; it's "the most beautiful hangers" dangling in the closet.

His idea, in other words, is to "bring mega-yachts to land."
Which is an interesting proposition, because if billionaires are willing to spend $200 million on a boat they use just a few weeks a year, what's their limit for the right house?
How big could the billionaire market be?
The particular audacity of Makowsky's venture is that this $85 million spec house represents only Phase 1. Two more estates are already in the works, and they'll be even more expensive. "I want to be like the Four Seasons of residential building," he tells us.
We think it'd take nerves of steel to build one spec house priced so high. How many billionaire prospects could there be?

"The air is absolutely thin up there," he acknowledges, but he says 4,000 people worldwide are worth at least $500 million. Forbes counts a record 1,645 billionaires on the planet.

Meanwhile, brand-new, ultra-high-end houses like his are scarce. "Other than Donald Trump building something down in Palm Beach, this is the second-highest[-cost] spec house ever built in the United States."

We checked with our friends at Zillow, who told us that only 33 homes nationwide are publicly listed at more than $50 million, of which 12 are more than $75 million and three are more than $100 million. (Important caveat: This doesn't include so-called "pocket" or "whisper" listings, or any other kind of off-market listing. Zillow's best guess is that maybe a dozen $50 million-plus homes are for sale privately and exclusively at high-end brokerages.)

So maybe Makowsky is onto something. Listing agent Ben Bacal told Yahoo Homes that they already have a "couple" of offers -- "a little lower than we want, but still amazing." And the Los Angeles Times reports that Jay-Z and Beyonce have looked at the house three times already.

Who knows? Maybe a billionaire will buy two of Makowsky's mansions. LINK