Why LIers spend millions, then ditch their dream homes

Life seemed headed toward a storybook ending for Carlos Pérez until a couple of years ago.

The business he started four decades ago had made his family financially comfortable. His wife, Silvia, a cancer survivor, was in good health. His two grown children had thriving careers and produced four grandchildren he could spoil rotten. Finally, the dream home in Bohemia where he planned to spend his retirement years — a Mediterranean-style mansion designed for things like a pool, spa tub, home theater and other spiffy features — was nearing completion.

But he was shocked when three close friends died recently. The last was napping on the couch before dinner when his wife found him dead of a heart attack, said Pérez. Suddenly, being tied down to a dream home was less appealing compared to life’s other adventures. So, the 69-year-old man picked up the phone and called a real estate agent.

“Now, it will be someone else’s dream home,” he said.

Stuff happens

For some people, securing a “forever” home is the goal of a lifetime, only to discover it’s not the end of the rainbow they envisioned.

“Things like this happen all the time,” said Kevin Loiacono, president of the Long Island Board of Realtors and an agent at BrookHampton Realty. “It’s not necessarily a tragic story.”

Homeowners cite life changes such as marriage, divorce, having kids, changing jobs, health concerns and a desire to live in a larger home as reasons for a move, according to a study by the National Association of Realtors. But retirees may find they miss their old neighborhood, or don’t fit in with the local vibe of a new place, said Jessica Lautz, NAR vice president of Demographics and Behavioral Insights.

“Sometimes they move to be closer to the grandkids or they are upsizing or downsizing, then realize the neighborhood just isn’t working for them,” she said.

These three dream home stories reflect some of those life-changing moments.

Looking for a clean slate

Carlos Pérez’s story began when he came to the United States penniless from Chile in 1973 to escape the country’s political unrest. After working in a Queens machine shop for a decade, he started his own business manufacturing aircraft parts, Pervi Precision, based in Bohemia. He and his wife, also 69, raised their son and daughter at a home in Bay Shore, where they still live.

As time passed, they decided to build a home in Bohemia closer to the business.

“I wanted it to be my dream house since it would be the last house I would ever live in,” he said.

Six years ago, the Pérezes paid $800,000 for two lots totaling 2 acres and a small house they tore down, investing about $2.5 million since the purchase, Pérez said.

Today, the home is on the market for $3.29 million. Its finished exterior has terracotta roof tiles, arched windows and a cascade of turret rooms on a property that is zoned for horses and powered by a solar panel system. The 10,400 square feet of interior space is unfinished, with a layout for five bedrooms, five full and two half baths, a great room, spa tub, sauna, three-car garage, elevator and a large fireplace.

The basement was going to be a kid’s fantasy land with a home theater, ballet practice area and woodworking shop for his grandchildren. One of the turret rooms included plans for an observatory where Pérez hoped to spend nights staring through a telescope at the planets with the kids.

He is sad none of this will happen, but remembers his three friends who never took time to enjoy life. Now, he is selling his business and plans to continue indulging in his hobby of flying his four-person Cessna or perhaps traveling the country with his wife and friends in a motor home.

“Life is full of stages,” he said. “This stage is called retirement, and I wanted to continue living the American dream with a clean slate, no strings attached.”

'A little bit of Miami'

When close friends with a vacation home in Florida urged Leo Schigiel and his wife, Lisa, to buy land near their permanent Long Island home, Leo loved the idea. A Florida builder, he considered it both an opportunity to be near their friends and fulfill a lifelong hope of constructing a log cabin where he could store his vintage car and motorcycle collection, said Lisa, 58.

In 2018, the Schigiels bought a 3-acre lot near the water in Centre Island for $2 million, paying an additional $500,000 for a log-cabin kit and tearing down the bungalow on the property, Schigiel said. It wasn’t supposed to be anything fancy, but by the time plans were finished, it had expanded to 7,500 square feet and the couple had sunk $4 million into it, she said.

“I had to laugh,” Schigiel said. “Our 'little' log cabin.”

Then Leo was diagnosed with cancer. Determined to beat the disease, he got treatment and kept working in his Florida real estate business and attending vintage car races in Europe.

“But the cancer got ahead of us,” she said.

He died last September at age 72 with his Long Island dream half finished. His widow continues to run his real estate business in Florida with with one of his sons.

Now a few months from completion, the five-bedroom, 5½- bath home, which has access to a private beach, is listed for $5.495 million. It has a 25-foot-tall great room and a four-car garage big enough for car lifts, plus a full walkout basement where more cars can be stashed.

Although clad in logs, the home does have a Florida vibe, a theme Schigiel said she enforced with flourishes like white marble and white oak floors and doors.

“On the outside it's a log cabin, but inside there’s a little bit of Miami,” she said.

For her husband, originally from Cuba, planning a car-stuffed log cabin was a thrill all by itself, she said. Which is some compensation for the fact he never got to live in it.

“So, in that way, it’s a sad story, but it's love story,” Schigiel said. “He would have been very happy.”

'Time to go'

Kevin and Kathleen Sebade found their dream house two decades ago on an acre of property in the Smithtown Pines. At that point it was a simple, one-story ranch that Kevin, 62, a retired construction supervisor, converted into a two-story, 5,000-square-foot Hamptons-style home with five bedrooms, five baths, a swimming pool, outdoor fireplace and TV, marble flooring, wainscoting and two-story entry foyer.

“My wife and family suffered through a lot of construction,” said Kevin, who did most of the work himself.

The couple planned on staying there and made the home large enough so that if either of their two daughters needed a place to live while getting started in life they could do so with privacy. They also considered turning it into a bed-and-breakfast. All that changed when they realized this year was an ideal time to put their lifelong dream on the market and move to Florida, attracted by its lower cost of living and balmy winters. They sold it in September for $1.8 million.

“It was time to go,” said Kathleen, 56. “I wish it wasn’t but it was.”

The two, who are staying with friends in Long Beach while their Florida home is being finished, look back on the former residence with special fondness.

“It was beautiful and it’ll be hard to replace,” said Kathleen.

But the Port St. Lucie gated community to which they are moving is loaded with amenities like a clubhouse, swimming pool and pickleball courts, she said. Plus, it is on a lake and near the ocean.

“It’s a private little oasis,” she said.

Keith is looking forward to relaxing instead of constantly tackling building improvements, he said. He grew up surfing in the Rockaways and plans to take it up again after their move, which will be in February. His wife will continue her work as a nurse, she said.

Basically, it is exchanging one dream for the next.

“We’ll miss it,” Keith said. “But we’re moving into another beautiful home and we’re looking forward to it.”