When selling an ‘£8 million’ flat for 25% less is the right call

Sometimes you have to let a flight of fancy come down to Earth in its own time and at its own speed.

Nowhere is that more true than in the segment of the real estate market that I inhabit: luxury-plus.

I’m working with friends – honourable, kind, respectful people – who are selling their 2,500-square-foot Marylebone apartment and relocating to Holland Park. Motivation: They want to be closer to their ageing parents.

They had initially called me in a year ago, having already taken advice from an unscrupulous agent who valued their property ludicrously – £8 million (S$13 million) in their case – to gain the instruction. They were understandably tempted. Who wouldn’t be?

So I withdrew, because I didn’t want to go along with something I knew would not work out.

And, surprise, the property didn’t sell. They eventually came back to me, and I took them on at the beginning of the year.

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Definitely not the ideal time to relaunch a property, particularly when it’s been burnt in the market previously. But we did our thing: Repositioned it, cut the asking price by a quarter to refocus buyer attention – and earlier this week an acceptable offer came in.

I use a fair amount of bandwidth working out what drives people, what they ultimately want from a given situation. If you can understand that, you’re halfway home.

Such motivations pertain to property deals in a pretty big way, but clearly in other areas of life, as well.

A well-known London art dealer once told me a story about the time Barbra Streisand walked into his gallery in the 1980s with her assistant (let’s call her Dorothy).

The star, one of the biggest in the world at the time, was interested in an Egon Schiele.

She turned to her assistant, querying the price tag: “Dotty, does that say £240,000 to you?” 

Dotty’s response was: “No, Barbra, that says £160,000.” 

Streisand turned to the dealer expectantly, who said, I suspect to her surprise: “I fear it still says £240,000 to me, Ms Streisand.” There was no sale.

This same dealer gave me some advice when I started working for myself. I sought his counsel because he was also in the business of selling objects with huge price tags.

“If you want to make a success of your working life,” he said, “you always need to be thinking of the other person and what’s going through their mind – which boils down to five little words.”

To this day, I remember taking the bait: “And what are those five words?”

“Guess.”

“Do I trust this agent?” I said feebly.

He raised a closed fist and theatrically opened one finger at a time, punctuating each word of the answer:

“What’s – in – it – for – me?”

It stuck. I have usually been clear on what’s in it for my sellers or buyers: Some want to upsize, or downsize, or park capital, or show the world they’ve made it, or take capital out. But sometimes it’s something entirely different, as is the case with my friends.

Because property, like life, is not always about upsizing, showing off or parking capital, or even squeezing every penny out of a sale.

Sometimes it can be as simple as wanting to be close to the ones you love.

I’ve advised them to accept the offer. BLOOMBERG

The Secret Agent has run his own estate agency in central London for 15 years. He and his team of four work in sales and acquisition in the super prime price range.