Bob Williamson, an entrepreneur who started Horizon Software International, has led a rags-to-riches life that could easily be made into a Hollywood epic.
So it's only fitting that along the way he found an epic home, Honey Lake Plantation in Greenville, FL, which he's put on the market for $12,098,669.
The 6,994-square-foot main house sits on a hill overlooking the 80-acre Honey Lake and includes four bedrooms, four bathrooms, and two half-baths. The master bedroom wing has lake views and patio access along with such amenities as a wet bar, master bath with claw-foot tub, and dressing room.
The first floor features an open layout connecting the kitchen, breakfast area, dining room, and living room. The house, which Williamson built, includes two offices, a home theater, gym, horseshoe-shaped infinity pool, and more than 3,200 square feet of patios and porches.
A three-bedroom guesthouse on the lake, which has a fishing pier and boathouse, has been completely renovated. The land is intended for hunting wild quail, turkeys, and ducks.
The total property measures 2,800 acres, but an adjacent 1,000-acre lot is available. "In this niche, I have a lot of buyers who just want more land," explains listing agent Jon Kohler. "If they wanted 4,000 acres, I could give it to them."
The plantation, about a 45-minute drive from the state capital of Tallahassee, is a working farm with more than 82 acres used for peanut and hay production, and managed timber land that produced roughly $2 million in income for 2015.
"I just felt the presence of God there. It's one of the few places you can go where you can really feel peaceful," says Williamson, who is selling the plantation to go into full-time religious ministry work.
Growing up in an abusive family, Williamson turned to alcohol and drugs and was homeless until a severe car accident led him to find faith and turn his life around. He's since started 19 businesses and sold his successful Horizon Software International for $75 million just before the economic recession hit in 2008.
Williamson had looked at 23 plantations in 2008, but he couldn't find one that he wanted to buy until a friend told him about Honey Lake, he recalls. It "was far and away better than any of the others," he says. "It was just such a beautiful place."
Now new owners can experience that beautiful place as well.