Champagne and fruit baskets are for suckers.
Well-heeled buyers on the hunt for big-ticket homes expect more — and luxury brokers are sating them with increasingly personal, unique and often mind-bogglingly extravagant closing gifts.
These days, brokers are giving their buyers lavish dinners in their new addresses with private chefs and original works of art. What’s more, they’ve even gifted them custom scents and music compositions commissioned for the residence, antiques, Hermès accoutrements, Louis Vuitton duffle bags with custom engravings and country club memberships.
Some sales even feature wheel-y eye-opening extras: an available $59 million penthouse in Miami comes with a $3.2 million sports car, while a just-sold $12.7 million Lake Tahoe home included an $80,000 Tesla Cybertruck.
“I have given 10-foot-high safes, Chanel bags, [and put] a Bentley in the garage of an estate,” said a Palm Beach, Florida, broker who requested anonymity.
At the ultra-luxury Clear Creek Tahoe, a buyer of a $12.7 million home got more than a glam property at close. Vista Estate Visuals
They got a $80,000 Tesla Cybertruck as an add-on. Christopher Sadowski
The Finale in Breckenridge, Colorado — home to lavish mansions — gives buyers access to something the area has long been famous for. Courtesy of Finale
It’s the gift of two impossible-to-get lifetime Epic Ski Passes — whose worth may balloon to millions of dollars in the coming decades. Denver Post via Getty Images
Winter sports are a must in Colorado, but the Finale also offers gracious living spaces. Courtesy of Finale
A bedroom at the Finale looks out to the mountains. Courtesy of Finale
No wonder. The stakes have never been higher in luxury real estate, brokers said, and making a wealthy buyer happy can mean return business down the line.
Come ‘sale’ away
For instance, the buyer of the $19.9 million penthouse at the Regalia Residences in Sunny Isles, Florida, gets a 31-foot yacht at closing — and a sale is pending.
Over in Breckenridge, Colorado, the new slope-side Finale community is offering buyers two lifetime Epic Ski Passes when they pick up one of their $4.1 million to $8.9 million homes. Those lifetime passes are impossible to buy and could be worth $1.2 million apiece by 2085 — if the current pace of price increases continues. (The only other way to get one is to work for Vail Resorts for 25 consecutive seasons and pray.)
Buy “the Unique” penthouse at the Aston Martin Residences in Miami, and you’ll get something more than a sky-scraping property. Aston Martin
The aerie will include an Aston Martin Vulcan — one of 24 made. Corbis via Getty Images
It’s a perk fit for the owner of a triplex penthouse in a glistening new development. G&G Business Developments
A rendering of the residence’s grand interior. G&G Business Developments
But without a doubt, luxury automobiles are the most popular six-figure lure being dangled.
At the Aston Martin Residences in downtown Miami — the tallest all-residential skyscraper south of New York City — the triplex penthouse, dubbed “the Unique,” asks $59 million. Sign on the dotted line, and you’ll wake up with the last Aston Martin Vulcan supercar, valued at a cool $3.2 million, in your climate-controlled garage. Only 24 of that model were made — and this is the only one that has yet to be driven.
“We believe in ‘story-doing,’ not storytelling,” said Alejandro Aljanati, the CMO for G&G Business Developments, the tower’s developer. “We wanted to merge the concept of living the lifestyle of this apartment with driving an Aston Martin. The Vulcan is the key to that concept, connecting living and driving.”
Across the country, in Clear Creek Tahoe — a luxury development within Lake Tahoe’s premier mountain and golf gated community — broker Mike Dunn said he recently sold a $12.7 million new home thanks to the inclusion of a Tesla Cybertruck at close. (Those massive electric vehicles sell for about $80,000.)
Not only did the five-bedroom home come with more standard amenities like a golf simulator, a 12-person Jacuzzi and a six-car subterranean garage — but it was also built using Tesla’s solar roof and power-walls, including a battery storage system and generators allowing it to run fully off-grid.
“We’re selling Tahoe, not just real estate,” said Dunn, of Chase International Luxury Real Estate. “We’re selling the lifestyle here that people desire: enjoying the outdoors, recreation, wellness and having a place to create lasting family memories. There’s also a strong emphasis on the environment and this is the first whole Tesla home in the area. So we incentivized the sale with the Tesla Cybertruck.”
Why would the buyer of the Tahoe residence need an added Tesla truck? They can buy their own, of course, but they appreciate the convenience of a bundle, which adds a different kind of value. Vista Estate Visuals
The Tahoe listing received global traction due to the Cybertruck’s inclusion. Vista Estate Visuals
Dunn said that “it plays two ways.” Buyers picking up a second or third home in a market like Tahoe want a seamless, turn-key experience with the car already in the driveway. Could they buy it on their own? Of course. But they appreciate the convenience of the bundle. At the same time, a big closing gift like a luxury car is great marketing. He notes that, ahead of the sale, the listing was picked up “globally” simply because of the Cybertruck.
Is this method a real sell?
But not every broker in the luxury market is sold. South Florida Compass agent Michael Martirena called the phenomenon “extremely gimmicky” and “distasteful.”
“High net-worth individuals, they’re savvy, and these gimmicks scream like a red flag to be quite honest,” he said. “People want to get a concession, a credit and get a better deal in the number. They’re fully capable of buying their own cars. I love getting gifts that I would never buy for myself, but at the end of the day, they’re paying for it. So it’s not really a gift.”
Martirena said that the more extravagant the “gift,” the more likely it is to be built into the listing price. He said it’s not uncommon for buyers to negotiate a discount on a property by forgoing those gifts, add-ons and extras. And because big-ticket items like luxury cars are often reflected in the closing price, a resale without that item could actually lower the sticker value of the home.
“The savvy buyer will separate it out for resale value,” he said, noting that when he and his business partner, Ivan Chorney, want to make a buyer feel special, they’ll gift a luxury weekend getaway, a dinner with a private chef, commission custom artwork or photography — or give decorative home items from Hermès, Gucci or Chanel.
He does admit that upgrades and amenities can get a buyer over the hump. There are even cases, he said, where a turnkey lifestyle package with a car or a boat makes perfect sense. But too often it signals that something is wrong with the property, he argued.
There are legal ramifications to closing gifts, and the rules vary by state. Corbis via Getty Images
Attorney Neil Garfinkel, the managing partner of AGMB and leader of the firm’s Real Estate and Banking Practices division, added that there are legal ramifications to closing gifts. The rules vary by state, but luckily New York is a particularly friendly market for the generous giver.
“New York State says that a real estate agent can give anything, any type of incentive to a party to the transaction,” said Garfinkel. “It’s all part of the negotiation.”
However, the tax man could want a cut if you’re not careful, so Garfinkel recommends leaning on your accountant.
Gifts that pay it forward
Douglas Elliman agent Andy Alvarez, in affluent Naples, Florida, has an entirely different perspective. He agrees that today, a closing gift for a whale of a property investor has to be impressive and personal — but he believes it should also do good.
When Alvarez’s brother-in-law was diagnosed with a brain tumor, he suffered through multiple surgeries before finding the Musella Foundation — a nonprofit that helps brain tumor patients and their families with emotional and financial support, as well as funding research.
A bottle of Pappy Van Winkle can run upward of $10,000. The Washington Post via Getty Images
Family and friends of the Musella Foundation, including cancer survivors Zach McBride and Morgan Mitchell. Thanks to an auction of a Pappy Van Winkle bottle, Andy Alvarez (center) got quite the closing gift for a client. Andy Alvarez
“Once he connected with this foundation, he realized what an incredible resource it is,” said Alvarez. “He realized that his story, all that pain, all that fear, that entire process, could have been handled so differently.”
Alvarez has become an advocate and financial supporter of that organization — and it also hooked him up with the perfect closing gift.
“I was working with this huge bourbon fanatic, and I knew I wanted to do something really special for their closing gift,” he said. “It just so happened that a local business donated this bottle of Pappy Van Winkle, and it was going to be one of the auction items in the Musella Foundation’s annual fund-raiser. I thought, ‘What a meaningful gift to a friend and client who truly loves bourbon.’ I went to that auction hoping that I won the bottle, and you betcha, I did.”
The sale of the bottle supported the foundation, while providing a jaw-dropper of a gift.
“It wasn’t about being over the top, it was about connecting the dots in a way that just felt right,” he said.