Spicewood, Texas

Cipione, a retired technology executive from AOL and IBM, decided to sell his lakefront estate on Lake Travis in Spicewood, Texas. Located in an exclusive resort-style gated community in Spicewood, TX, the 4-acre estate sits on the shore of Lake Travis. The 9 bedrooms, 8 full/4 half bathroom Italian style estate was enjoyed for many years by Clay and his family.

Clay’s family had reached a point in life where it was time to sell. The Cipiones began the work of interviewing agents and put the home on the market with a prominent real estate agent. Not much interest came. Over time, the Cipiones reacted as most sellers do, with disappointment. Why could they not get more interest in a home that would be impossible to rebuild at this price? The home is exquisite; the agent was great. The marketing was there in luxury magazines and with agents. Still no offers. After standing by their price for years, the Cipiones decided their only option was to price cut. A series of those followed and new agents came and went.

After 6 years of traditional methods, the Cipiones decided the best option was to motivate the market with an auction. This was NOT Interluxe. The results obtained by this other auction company the seller found unacceptable. So, back to the traditional method with few showings, and no offers. After another 3 years of listing Clay contacted Interluxe. Interluxe was one of the companies Clay originally interviewed when he was first considering auction. At the time, selling a luxury home online felt too foreign to Clay. As technology continued to emerge and buying online was becoming more commonplace, Clay was open to listening again. Being a technology guy, he understood its power. After learning about Interluxe’s differences not only with our online format but also our proprietary marketing approach, he was ready.

We first identified the challenges. First, finding a luxury buyer would not be easy in this price point. Another challenge for this property was the location. The home is 45 minutes from downtown Austin. It’s easy for buyers to view this beautiful home but then transition their thinking to building a new home. Thirdly, while Lake Travis is beautiful, the closer lake to the very popular and flourishing downtown Austin, is Lake Austin, which continues to grow in popularity. Lastly, and something we find as a common mindset with buyers is that it is difficult to find buyers who want a 16,000 sq. ft. home.
 

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Solution:

The initial meeting of the Interluxe team consisted of creating marketing that would tackle the four major obstacles of getting this home sold for the best possible price to a qualified, cash rich buyer. We met and spoke in-depth with Monica Fabbio, Clay’s agent, listening to her experience, advice and depth of knowledge of the Austin market. Her insight combined with our knowledge of how to market and to whom resulted in powerful results for our seller.

We focused our marketing on the features of the home as no detail had been spared in its construction.  Our effort was geared towards helping the luxury buyer understand that this is a “must-see” property. Focusing on the features reinforced the cost to replicate this home if you were to reconstruct it.  Finally, we geared all advertising towards both active and passive lookers, because it doesn’t matter if a wealthy individual is actively looking for a property or not. When a high net worth buyer comes across something they want, they act.
 

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Result:

The marketing campaign for the lake front property in Spicewood, TX was very successful. Over 85 groups of prospective buyers inquired during the 30-day period of aggressive marketing leading up to the online auction. During the 3-day preview period, 15 families toured the property in-person, resulting in 7 bidders who participated in the auction. The winning bidder placed their bids while on a business trip in Napa. Our process and technology gave them the confidence and ease of participation. The winning bid was placed at $3,500,000, making this the highest waterfront sale in Spicewood in 3 years. Within 36 hours from contract, the property was successfully closed and the seller was thrilled with the result.