Tech Billionaire Lists CA Mansion For $108M: Video

LA JOLLA, CA — If you imagine the Palace at Versailles when you picture your dream mansion — good news — The Sandcastle Estate in La Jolla has just gone on the market. Its tech billionaire owner modeled the home on Versailles, including crystal chandeliers, 24-carat gold embellishments, marble floors, 10 bedrooms, and balconies with breathtaking views.

While Versailles is in the French countryside, The Sandcastle is a beach house built on an epic scale. You're going to need an epic bank account if you're interested in making an offer — the asking price is $108 million, more than double the previous sales record of $44 million for San Diego County.

Texas billionaire Darwin Deason was a co-founder of Affiliated Computer Services, which was sold to Xerox for more than $6 billion in 2009. That's the same year that Deason bought The Sandcastle. He later purchased the house next door to expand his mansion — now weighing in at a hefty 13,000 square feet.

CBS-8 San Diego got a tour of the home from Brett Dickinson, one of the listing agents for Compass.

Deason paid about $26 million for The Sandcastle and the neighboring parcel, and then sunk $60 million into construction. Among the expenses — about $40,000 to import the same sand found at Augusta National Golf Club in Georgia. “Everyone who watches the golf tournament knows it is a spectacular shade of white,” Deason told the Wall Street Journal.

The Sandcastle is one of several vacation homes owned by Deason, along with his yacht Apogee.

So, why sell such a spectacular estate into which he lavished design details all the way down to the grains of sand? The answer is simple, according to Dickinson. "His kids were here. His grandkids were here. Everybody enjoyed it, and he just wants to sell it."