6 Wyckham Hill Lane and Robert Bland of Sotheby’s International Realty
The owners of a Greenwich, Conn. home on the market for $4.9 million are offering a $100,000 bonus to the broker that successfully finds a buyer for the home, on top of the area’s typical 5 percent commission. The New York Times reported the owners of 6 Wyckham Hill Lane sent out an email blast to notify local agents of the bonus about two weeks ago and set Thanksgiving as the day the deal expires.
The home is listed by Robert Bland, the manager of Sotheby’s International Realty’s Greenwich office, who said it is meant to drum up interest and focus it over a short period for a home that’s been on the market for more than a year. Bland said market dynamics are working against a sale as 61 houses are for sale in Greenwich for between $4 and $6 million, despite 32 sales in that category this year.
Incentives, the Times said, put buyer’s brokers in a precarious spot. Brokers are obviously drawn to the cash at hand but don’t want to be accused of having a conflict of interest. Buyers, on the other hand, may recognize the owners are desperate to sell, and therefore negotiate harder, or ask why owners don’t put the broker’s bonus towards a price cut. In that case, one broker suggested offering to split the bonus.
The owners of the home used a similar strategy to sell a home in Palm Beach, Fla, according to the Times. [NYT]
