Champagne and fruit baskets are for suckers. <\/p>\n
Well-heeled buyers on the hunt for big-ticket homes expect more \u2014 and luxury brokers are sating them with increasingly personal, unique and often mind-bogglingly extravagant closing gifts.<\/p>\n
These days, brokers are giving their buyers lavish dinners in their new addresses with private chefs and original works of art. What\u2019s more, they\u2019ve even gifted them custom scents and music compositions commissioned for the residence, antiques, Herm\u00e8s accoutrements, Louis Vuitton duffle bags with custom engravings and country club memberships.<\/p>\n
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.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI have given 10-foot-high safes, Chanel bags, [and put] a Bentley in the garage of an estate,\u201d said a Palm Beach, Florida, broker who requested anonymity.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
They got a $80,000 Tesla Cybertruck as an add-on. Christopher Sadowski<\/p>\n
The Finale in Breckenridge, Colorado \u2014 home to lavish mansions \u2014 gives buyers access to something the area has long been famous for. Courtesy of Finale<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the gift of two impossible-to-get lifetime Epic Ski Passes \u2014 whose worth may balloon to millions of dollars in the coming decades. Denver Post via Getty Images<\/p>\n
Winter sports are a must in Colorado, but the Finale also offers gracious living spaces. Courtesy of Finale<\/p>\n
A bedroom at the Finale looks out to the mountains. Courtesy of Finale<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Come \u2018sale\u2019 away<\/p>\n
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 \u2014 and a sale is pending.<\/p>\n
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 \u2014 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.)<\/p>\n
Buy \u201cthe Unique\u201d penthouse at the Aston Martin Residences in Miami, and you\u2019ll get something more than a sky-scraping property. Aston Martin<\/p>\n
The aerie will include an Aston Martin Vulcan \u2014 one of 24 made. Corbis via Getty Images<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a perk fit for the owner of a triplex penthouse in a glistening new development. G&G Business Developments<\/p>\n
A rendering of the residence\u2019s grand interior. G&G Business Developments<\/p>\n
But without a doubt, luxury automobiles are the most popular six-figure lure being dangled.<\/p>\n
At the Aston Martin Residences in downtown Miami \u2014 the tallest all-residential skyscraper south of New York City \u2014 the triplex penthouse, dubbed \u201cthe Unique,\u201d asks $59 million. Sign on the dotted line, and you\u2019ll 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 \u2014 and this is the only one that has yet to be driven.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe believe in \u2018story-doing,\u2019 not storytelling,\u201d said Alejandro Aljanati, the CMO for G&G Business Developments, the tower\u2019s developer. \u201cWe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
Across the country, in Clear Creek Tahoe \u2014 a luxury development within Lake Tahoe\u2019s premier mountain and golf gated community \u2014 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.)<\/p>\n
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 \u2014 but it was also built using Tesla\u2019s solar roof and power-walls, including a battery storage system and generators allowing it to run fully off-grid.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re selling Tahoe, not just real estate,\u201d said Dunn, of Chase International Luxury Real Estate. \u201cWe\u2019re selling the lifestyle here that people desire: enjoying the outdoors, recreation, wellness and having a place to create lasting family memories. There\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
The Tahoe listing received global traction due to the Cybertruck\u2019s inclusion. Vista Estate Visuals<\/p>\n
Dunn said that \u201cit plays two ways.\u201d 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 \u201cglobally\u201d simply because of the Cybertruck.<\/p>\n
Is this method a real sell?<\/p>\n
But not every broker in the luxury market is sold. South Florida Compass agent Michael Martirena called the phenomenon \u201cextremely gimmicky\u201d and \u201cdistasteful.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHigh net-worth individuals, they\u2019re savvy, and these gimmicks scream like a red flag to be quite honest,\u201d he said. \u201cPeople want to get a concession, a credit and get a better deal in the number. They\u2019re 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\u2019re paying for it. So it\u2019s not really a gift.\u201d<\/p>\n
Martirena said that the more extravagant the \u201cgift,\u201d the more likely it is to be built into the listing price. He said it\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe savvy buyer will separate it out for resale value,\u201d he said, noting that when he and his business partner, Ivan Chorney, want to make a buyer feel special, they\u2019ll gift a luxury weekend getaway, a dinner with a private chef, commission custom artwork or photography \u2014 or give decorative home items from Herm\u00e8s, Gucci or Chanel.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
There are legal ramifications to closing gifts, and the rules vary by state. Corbis via Getty Images<\/p>\n
Attorney Neil Garfinkel, the managing partner of AGMB and leader of the firm\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cNew York State says that a real estate agent can give anything, any type of incentive to a party to the transaction,\u201d said Garfinkel. \u201cIt\u2019s all part of the negotiation.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, the tax man could want a cut if you\u2019re not careful, so Garfinkel recommends leaning on your accountant.<\/p>\n
Gifts that pay it forward<\/p>\n
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 \u2014 but he believes it should also do good.<\/p>\n
When Alvarez\u2019s brother-in-law was diagnosed with a brain tumor, he suffered through multiple surgeries before finding the Musella Foundation \u2014 a nonprofit that helps brain tumor patients and their families with emotional and financial support, as well as funding research.<\/p>\n
A bottle of Pappy Van Winkle can run upward of $10,000. The Washington Post via Getty Images<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce he connected with this foundation, he realized what an incredible resource it is,\u201d said Alvarez. \u201cHe realized that his story, all that pain, all that fear, that entire process, could have been handled so differently.\u201d<\/p>\n
Alvarez has become an advocate and financial supporter of that organization \u2014 and it also hooked him up with the perfect closing gift.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was working with this huge bourbon fanatic, and I knew I wanted to do something really special for their closing gift,\u201d he said. \u201cIt 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\u2019s annual fund-raiser. I thought, \u2018What a meaningful gift to a friend and client who truly loves bourbon.\u2019 I went to that auction hoping that I won the bottle, and you betcha, I did.\u201d<\/p>\n
The sale of the bottle supported the foundation, while providing a jaw-dropper of a gift.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt wasn\u2019t about being over the top, it was about connecting the dots in a way that just felt right,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Champagne and fruit baskets are for suckers. Well-heeled buyers on the hunt for big-ticket homes expect more \u2014…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":80494,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[8141,8861,39878,5151,1023,5546,9,11,10,1024,2453,1491,3006],"class_list":["post-80493","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-cars","tag-chanel","tag-hermes","tag-luxury-development","tag-luxury-real-estate","tag-miami","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-penthouse","tag-penthouses","tag-real-estate","tag-residential-real-estate"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80493","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80493"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80493\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/80494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}