A Texas Televangelist's 30-Bedroom "Parsonage" Has Dropped From $15M to $11M. Here's the Story.

This 24-acre Spring, Texas compound — six houses, 30 bedrooms, 36 bathrooms, 22 garage spaces, a resort pool, a banquet hall, a commercial kitchen, a hair salon, a home theater, and a lake stocked with trophy bass — was first listed in October 2023 at $12,789,500, rose to $15 million in 2024, made national headlines, and is now asking $11,000,000. It was previously owned by New Light Christian Center Church and served as the residence of televangelist Bishop I.V. Hilliard under a parsonage tax exemption. Reddit titled it "tasteless, soulless." Reddit also compared it to the Righteous Gemstones. Both comparisons have been made by others.

The Property and the Parsonage Question

The estate at 19525 Doerre Road was owned directly by New Light Christian Center Church and classified as a parsonage — a minister's residence — allowing it to qualify for a religious property tax exemption. Appraised in 2023 at approximately $8 million, the property would have incurred an estimated $152,168 in annual property taxes, which the exemption eliminated entirely. In 2021, an attorney for the church told the Houston Chronicle that the estate's use as a minister's retreat and conference center justified the tax exemption. Whether a six-house, 40,000-square-foot compound with 22 garage spaces, a hair salon, and a trophy bass lake qualifies as a ministerial residence in the traditional sense is a question that was extensively debated in the national press when the listing went public in 2024. The property has since been listed for sale as the church, now led by Bishop Hilliard's daughter Dr. Irishea Hilliard, has consolidated operations and sold assets.

What You're Actually Buying

Setting aside the backstory, the listing itself is objectively large. The estate boasts six houses, 22 garage spaces, a resort-style pool, and a lake stocked with trophy bass. The main house has a 25-foot ceiling in the owner's suite, a sunken jacuzzi tub, and a private exercise room. The broader compound includes a banquet hall, commercial kitchen, hair salon, home theater, office complex with fitness center, tennis court, volleyball court, resort pool with cabanas, and two garage apartments. At $11,000,000 — down from $15 million — the listing is now asking approximately $275 per square foot for 40,000 square feet of living space on 9.8 acres north of Houston, with the listing suggesting use as a family compound, boutique hotel, bed and breakfast, or event venue. The county appraisal of approximately $8 million gives a buyer some sense of where the land and improvements are valued independent of the asking price trajectory. The Reddit commenter who predicted an NFL rookie would spend his whole contract on it was describing a specific and plausible buyer profile.

The Internet Has Thoughts

Naturally, this listing caught the attention of Reddit's r/zillowgonewild community. See what people are saying about it here.

Six houses, 30 bedrooms, a trophy bass lake, a hair salon, and a price that has dropped $4 million since it made national headlines. View the full listing here.