Most buyers choose a home based on factors such as property taxes, the quality of the local public schools and distance from work. But when shopping for a mega-estate, potential homebuyers with deep pockets have other must-haves.
For example, an overseas client recently contacted an office of William Pitt Sotheby”™s International Realty and said he wanted to buy a home in the area where he could dock his 108-foot yacht. Not surprisingly, that narrowed down his search to a select few parcels that were not only on the Long Island Sound, but also large enough to build a dock of that size.
High-end real estate buyers often have unique needs, which real estate agents match with unique approaches to listings, according to Doug Werner, an agent with William Pitt Sotheby”™s in Darien. For example, when selling one of the private islands off the coast of Fairfield County, an agent is selling not just the property, but the lifestyle that goes with it. “It”™s an entirely different kettle of fish,” Werner said. “You have to find someone who ”˜gets it.”™”
Werner is currently seeking someone who “gets” Tavern Island, a parcel listed at $10.95 million complete with a 13-room home, caretaker cottage, pool, private beaches and a parcel on mainland Rowayton with a parking garage and deepwater dock.
For brokers, it is often a different ballgame when it comes to selling mega-estates and unusual retail properties. Agents still use listings in local print publications to attract the attention of potential buyers, but they also rely on international marketing and often have to get creative, summoning their inner storyteller to create narratives around such properties.
For a property like Tavern Island, the history is often as much a selling point as working faucets and a fresh coat of paint would be in a middle-class home. According to local lore, Lillian Hellman finished writing the novel “The Little Foxes” at Tavern Island and, rumor has it, former owner Billy Rose had wild parties, one of which Marilyn Monroe supposedly attended.
“I almost look at it like purchasing a Monet or a Picasso,” Werner said. “It”™s less about a housing need and more about an emotional, romantic and aesthetic opportunity.”
Emily Gordon, a sales agent for Coldwell Banker in Westport, said that luxury properties transcend local markets. Buyers for low-end properties often decide on a town that fits their needs and their price range, then consider several properties within those parameters. In a town such as Westport, which over the years has been home to Harvey Weinstein, Martha Stewart and Phil Donahue, a $1 million home can still be considered on the low-end of pricing. That isn”™t generally the case for buyers of luxury properties, which in a town like Westport, are priced above the $4 million mark.
“I think with this range, they”™re really house specific and not town specific,” she said. A potential buyer may identify a certain type of home, such as a private island or a property on the Long Island Sound within driving distance of New York City. This is one of the reasons luxury properties stay on the market longer than other homes, Gordon said, because a buyer may view homes in multiple towns or even counties and take longer to establish context of what is available. A luxury property might stay on the market for a year, while more moderately priced fare in Fairfield County averages about 177 days on the market, according to Prudential Connecticut Realty”™s first-quarter 2013 Market Report.
According to the report, luxury sales statewide remained virtually unchanged over the same period last year. Sixty-two homes sold for more than $2 million across the state in Q1 this year, with a median selling price of $3.03 million. The report said 37 of those sales came in Greenwich and 15 were out of Westport, where nine were new construction.
Currently on the market in the county are several high-profile properties. Caritas Island off Stamford, an 11-bedroom, 19.1 bathroom compound, is listed for $12.8 million (for the curious, “caritas” is Latin for charity). Copper Beach Farm in Greenwich hit the market last month for $190 million, which is the largest price tag for any listing in the entire country.
There are not only differences in the process of shopping and selling high-end real estate, but differences in the way buyers close on the properties, Gordon said. “Most buyers pay in cash,” she said.
Comments 1