Selling your multimillion-dollar house? Raise its price

Beverly Hills

IN early 2008, Albert Elkouby bought a piece of land on the corner of a main thoroughfare in Beverly Hills for US$18 million and set about erecting a 28,000 sq-ft "French chateau-inspired" house. Four years later, in 2012, Mr Elkouby, who owns JH Design, an apparel company that makes branded jackets for the NFL, NBA and Nascar, put the shell of the home on the market for US$29.9 million.

Mr Elkouby had originally bought the land for himself, said his daughter Vered Nisim, who through a family trust is a partial owner of the property. But after seeing yet another lot on the same street at a higher elevation, he decided to unload the property quickly, hence the not-quite-completed house going onto the market when it did. "I think he did it on a whim," she said, but after minimal market interest, Mr Elkouby took it off the market to finish it.