Trying to unload a mega-mansion in today’s market? Instead of making it seem like a fire sale, join the contrarians playing hardball. Rather than lowering the listing price when the manse doesn’t sell, buck conventional wisdom and hike up the asking price. After all, if they really want your trophy home, what’s another million or two?
Using data from listing sites Trulia.com, Zillow.com and Realtor.com, along with help from the folks at Sotheby’s International Realty, Prudential Douglas Elliman and the Corcoran Group, we tracked upscale homes where the ante’s been upped. The hike sometimes occurs with a change in brokers and strategy, when the furniture’s tossed in to sweeten the deal, or when construction is finally finished.
For prospective buyers, a raised price on a luxury residence may make the home “even more special or desirable than he or she first considered and worth the extra dollars,” explained Dr. Barry Farber, a psychology professor at Columbia University’s Teachers College. While spiking the price tag may deter buyers on a shoestring budget, “it may intrigue those for whom a higher price reflects their own sense of worth and success in the world.”
“If it’s one of a kind, if you really want that house, you are going to get it” said Dottie Herman, president and CEO of Prudential Douglas Elliman. “If you can afford $3 million, you can afford $4 million.”
Here are five mega-homes
Alpine, N.J.
Behind the gates of this 30,000-square-foot, 12-bedroom palace, a heated driveway leads to a motor court with an 11-car garage. The grand reception rooms, including a ballroom, have 12-foot ceilings. For fun, there’s an indoor basketball court, an 18-seat home movie theater, a 4,000-bottle wine cellar, a 65-foot saltwater pool and separate pool house with kitchen and two baths, and a tennis court. Demonstrating how serious he was about the price, the owner raised it without losing multiple bidders.
East Hampton, N.Y.
It's all about location and the views at this cedar shingle-sided home, where the price was recently jacked upon completion. Situated “south of the highway” in East Hampton, the .85 acre property abuts Further Lane Farm, a 40-acre reserve and has views of the ocean from the second floor. Outdoor amenities include a heated Gunite pool and spa, three showers and a fireplace and a separate pool house has a full bath and kitchenette.
Boca Raton, Fla.
Like a private resort, this contemporary seven-bedroom home on 2.32 acres has its own dock on 600 feet of lakefront within a gated community. Other splashy amenities include a front courtyard fountain, a central atrium with a waterfall, a backyard pool, tennis court and guest house. The price was hiked because the owners decided to sell the home fully furnished.
Bel Air, Calif.
A touch of Tuscany with a stone and stucco façade imbued with a contemporary flair and walls that open for indoor/outdoor living set high in the hills in the gated community of Bel Air Crest with golf course views. Finished last year, the owner/builder is selling the three-level mega-home fully furnished and stocked with over-the-top amenities from a dine-in wine cellar, game room, elevator and three bar areas to a luxe spa with whirlpool, sauna, steam room and massage area. An appraiser was apparently wowed, jacking the price up $2.3 million.
Yonkers, N.Y.
A one-of-a-kind historical home, it was difficult to appraise this 14,000-square-foot historical castle with Tiffany and John La Farge windows and a copper-clad conservatory sitting on the Hudson River in Westchester County. After showing it over the summer, the owner, a well-known museum curator who spent a decade restoring the fantasy manse, decided that buying a castle isn’t usually a logical decision -- therefore hiking the price by $1.3 million wouldn’t deter buyers. Besides, a million-dollar-plus new slate roof, installed two years ago, cost nearly the difference, a private chapel still has its original three-story-high organ, a sitting room fireplace is embellished with semi-precious stones and the octagonal-shaped ballroom sports a hand-carved 17th-century ceiling. Priceless.
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