Did Donald Trump quietly sell off his Mar-a-Lago estate for hundreds of millions of dollars just a few short weeks before being booked in Georgia for trying to steal the 2020 presidential election?
While many media outlets ran with the story, the claim is entirely based on a false record posted to Zillow. It appears to not be true.
On Friday, the UK outlet Daily Express reportedthat a real estate property located at 1100 S Ocean Blvd, Palm Beach, FL 33480 had sold earlier this month for a whopping $422 million. That's the address of former president Donald Trump's resort and personal residence, Mar-a-Lago.
The source for this sale was a sales history record posted on the popular online real estate platform Zillow that claimed the $422 million transaction closed on August 4.
This is how the Zillow listing for Mar-a-Lago appeared with the false sales data.Credit: Mashable ScreenshotBased on Florida's business records, the report also shared that Mar-a-Lago is currently owned by a company called Mar-A-Lago, Inc. with Trump's eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., listed as the registered agent. Some outlets speculated whether this meant that the reported sale was actually a secret transfer from Trump to a company led by his children.
However, in a statement provided to Mashable, Zillow says the information was "inaccurate."
"Zillow strives for accuracy on our site and if we become aware of inaccurate information, we will update it immediately," said a Zillow spokesperson. "After an investigation, it appears that the information provided was incorrect. We’ve corrected the information on this property." Zillow's correction simply removed the erroneous sales history entry.
Zillow updates its listings based on information from various different sources such as public records and other listing services. For example, previous sold history on the Mar-a-Lago property lists an April 1995 sale from the day Trump turned the residence into a member's only club. Zillow has that sale labeled with "public record" as its source.
However, the false listing from earlier this month is labeled as "agent provided," meaning the sale could've been erroneously entered by a real estate agent or another listing service. The exact source of the inaccurate information is unclear at this time as Zillow investigates.
Trump's children also released statements of their own denying the sale.
"Mar-a-Lago has absolutely not been sold nor will it ever be. This rumor is asinine," Eric Trump said to Newsweek. Trump Jr. released a similar denial of a sale to the New York Post.
TopicsDonald TrumpPolitics
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