The Love Ranch Could Be Yours for 1.2 Million
Nevada’s Love Ranch, one of Nevada’s most storied legal brothels, is now up for sale for 1.2 million dollars, a little under four years after its infamous owner Dennis Hof passed away from a heart attack in one of the rooms after a spending night with one of his employees. A little sad looking, or maybe it’s just in need of a little more of what it peddled for so many years – love – it’s a steal for the right buyer.
80 miles outside of Las Vegas in Pahrump, The Love Ranch boasts 75 acres, 15 master suites, a newly remodeled commercial kitchen, 25 square foot bar, two mobile homes, a limousine, 21 developed lots and more goodies. But what makes it most attractive for the savvy shopper – if you’ve got the cash, that’s right you’ve got to have cash to buy this place – is its insane history – colorful stories of the women who worked there, the claims of prices for a night ranging from $100 to more than a million, Viagra parties, the sister brothels that Hof owned where he stated he employed more than 500 women, heck even the street it inhabits sounds like it’s out of a pulp fiction novel – “Kit Kat Drive.”
I think what makes The Love Ranch the most fascinating is the fact that it’s a true slice of the American Spirit – it succeeded against odds. Whether you agree with the legalization of prostitution or not, you’ve got to admire that it survived for decades and bucked a system that does everything possible to villainize sex even if it’s consensual. A lot of its success was due to the man behind the place – Hof. Whether you liked him or not you had to admire that he fought tirelessly for the legalization of prostitution on a firm belief that it would stop sex trafficking.
Whatever the case, whoever snaps this baby up is going to have to either exorcise the ghosts that have inhabited its walls or promote them as a selling point. The biggest specter is probably the story of Lamar Odom who OD’d at the Ranch in October 2015 after a party night that cost him $75K. That’s something a place can never shake – a celebrity OD – even if the person lived. Then of course there’s the always present ghost of larger-than-life Hof who was found dead at the ranch on his 72nd birthday with a dildo next to him in bed and a smile on his face.
For a smart and creative buyer, they’ll cash in on the notoriety and make a killing if they market the place right. I like the idea of them revamping it into 4-Star Hotel. It’d especially attract yuppies for their honeymoon who’d drive up in their Bimmers excited because they think they’re doing something wildly daring. So, never mind the fact that The Love Ranch has got more drama than the 2010 film of the same name starring Helen Mirren and Joe Pesci, it’s well worth 1.2 million to someone with a little vision who can milk the history for all its worth.