Kristen Wiig Cuts Asking Price on Her Hillside Pasadena Retreat
A 12,800-square-foot European-inspired estate in the Blue Ridge Mountains is heading to auction next month and the seller is not setting a floor price. Whatever the highest bid is, that is the deal.
That is either confidence or strategy. Given the current state of Asheville’s luxury market, it is likely both.
Who’s Selling and Why
Joe and Janice Brumit had this estate custom-designed and built in 2003. They have lived here for over two decades, raising a family, hosting fundraisers, and welcoming nonprofit organizations through those doors on a regular basis.
Joe Brumit founded Brumit Restaurant Group in 1988, which has grown into one of the largest Arby’s franchise operators in the Southeast, currently overseeing more than 60 locations across North Carolina and South Carolina.
Through that business, the Brumits have run an initiative offering free lunches to children during summer breaks and school holidays for years.
Janice Brumit’s work extends well beyond the restaurant business. She is the founding chair of the Dogwood Health Trust, a private foundation established from the proceeds of the sale of Mission Health to HCA Healthcare.
The trust has invested more than $83 million in housing efforts across Western North Carolina alone and launched a $40 million affordable housing loan fund in partnership with Self-Help Ventures in 2025.
She has served on the boards of the Asheville Area Chamber, United Way, and UNC Asheville, among others.
These are not people leaving a city. They are people who built into a city for decades and are now simplifying. The Brumits are moving to a smaller home on Asheville’s south side, now that large-scale entertaining is no longer part of their routine.
“We decided that because of the uniqueness of the home we needed to reach a broader audience,” the couple said in a statement.
“We enjoyed the location and space ourselves, but were also able to share it with so many nonprofit organizations over the years.”
What This Estate Actually Looks Like
The three-story property sits on 2 acres inside a gated community, 15 minutes from downtown Asheville, with direct views of the Blue Ridge Mountains.
It has four bedrooms, two 35-foot limestone fireplaces, and an 800-bottle temperature-controlled wine cellar. The interiors are finished with stone detailing, custom ironwork, and a coffered ceiling wrapped in gold-foiled wallpaper.
A private grotto on the grounds features a waterfall, a fireplace, and a six-person hot tub with direct access to the lower terrace. There is a billiards room with custom millwork and stained-glass details, a home theater with leather seating, a fitness room, and a private elevator.
The primary suite occupies its own wing with a mountain-view balcony, a custom-built closet, and a marble bathroom finished with medallion accents.
Guest accommodations sit above the garage, separate from the main house. Two additional suites with private bathrooms occupy the lower floors.
The whole property runs on a Crestron smart-home system with Lutron lighting controls, meaning the infrastructure for security, lighting, and automation is already in place and high-spec.
It is not a modern glass box. It was built with the kind of detail work that simply does not get reproduced at this scale anymore, and that is not an opinion, it is a cost reality.
The No-Reserve Decision
The July 16 auction is being handled by Platinum Luxury Auctions, with a 30-day closing period for the winning bidder.
Trayor Lesnock, the firm’s founder and president, put the replacement cost plainly: to build this today, you are probably looking at $18 to $19 million. The no-reserve format means a buyer can walk in and name their price.
That is a bold call on a property originally listed at $14.9 million last July. But it is also a deliberate one. Platinum Luxury Auctions closed 80% of the properties it offered in 2025, well above the industry average of 45 to 50%. They know what they are doing with format selection.
For full listing details and visuals, Mansion Global has covered the property closely.
Stories like this one, where high-value properties go to auction with no floor, tend to move fast. There is a WhatsApp channel that tracks these developments as they break, worth checking if this space is on your radar.
High-profile estates regularly cycle through dramatic repricing moments before finding the right buyer.
Quincy Jones’ Bel Air home returned to market at $35 million after sitting for an extended period, a reminder that unique properties operate on their own timelines regardless of the broader market.
Why This Matters
This auction is not happening in a vacuum. Asheville’s luxury segment has shifted meaningfully over the past year and serious sellers have noticed.
As of Q3 2025, Mosaic Realty reported that homes priced $1.5 million and above in Asheville now carry roughly 20 months of inventory, a clear buyer’s market.
Sellers at this tier are seeing longer days on market and fewer showings than in prior years.
The gap between list price expectations and actual closed sales is also real: the median price per square foot for active luxury listings sits at $596, while closed sales are landing at $438 per square foot.
That 26% gap between ask and reality is exactly why the no-reserve format makes strategic sense here.
It removes the standoff entirely and lets the market set the number cleanly, which in a buyer’s market is often the faster and smarter path to a genuine closing rather than a prolonged back-and-forth.
For buyers who have been sitting on the sidelines in this price range, that dynamic creates real leverage. The no-reserve format is the Brumits signaling they are serious.
Properties with this kind of architectural scope still hold their ground in any climate. When NBA champion Al Horford listed his second Boston mansion for $15 million, the same principle held: at the top of the market, the details and provenance matter more than the price tag alone.
What Makes This Location Worth It
Asheville’s gated mountain communities carry a pull that is hard to replicate elsewhere on the East Coast. Over 60% of luxury home sales in Asheville occur in gated communities, driven by demand for privacy, views, and physical separation from the city’s tourist activity.
Most long-range mountain-view homes in the region have appreciated 15% year-over-year, making the combination of elevation, seclusion, and Blue Ridge views a durable value driver regardless of market conditions.
The location here sits 15 minutes from downtown Asheville, which gives a buyer genuine proximity to the city’s restaurants, arts scene, and infrastructure while maintaining the kind of mountain privacy that out-of-state buyers, who make up over 70% of Asheville’s luxury market, travel specifically to find.
Florida, California, and Texas remain the top feeder markets for Asheville luxury buyers, and for those buyers, this property checks every box.
The Brumits used this estate for large-scale nonprofit events, dinners, and community gatherings for years.
The infrastructure for that level of use, multiple entertaining zones, the grotto, the home theater, separate guest quarters, is already built and functioning. A buyer is not starting from scratch or guessing at what the home can hold.
What Happens on July 16 Will Be Worth Watching
A $14.9M listing going no-reserve in a buyer’s market is the kind of moment that tells you clearly where a seller’s head is at. The Brumits have spent over two decades in this home.
They are not cutting losses. They are choosing a clean exit on their own terms, and doing it through a format that lets the market speak without a floor.
Whether the final number clears the original ask or lands well below it, the auction result will be a genuine data point for anyone tracking what ultra-luxury, custom-built mountain estates are actually worth right now in Western North Carolina.
What do you think this estate will sell for at auction? Drop your number in the comments below.
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Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute real estate, financial, or investment advice.
