More people are asking to spend the night before making an offer. ‘You should try it before you buy it.’
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Last year, Eric Albert, 65, listed his roughly 11,095-square-foot, six-bedroom Newport Coast, Calif., estate for $60.2 million. An overseas couple watched a video of the property and expressed interest in making an offer, but with a request: Could they stay overnight at the house before committing? They wanted to ensure their comfort in the home and confirm it was the right size and layout.
Absolutely, Albert told them. “Houses are a huge expenditure,” he says. “For $60 million, you should try it before you buy it. It’s a smart thing to do.” Albert and the buyers agreed to a two-month stay at $250,000 a month. The fee included the furnished house, full-time staff and vehicle use.
Though they loved the property, their eventual offer was below Albert’s asking price, so he didn’t sell. Still, Albert, an executive in the aluminum industry, considered the experience a win-win: The buyers bought a nearby house from his agents, and, he says, “they paid me a nice price for their stay.”
More buyers are asking to stay overnight in a home before making an offer, and more sellers are extending an invitation.
“If you can drive a car off a lot, why not test-drive a home?” says Compass real-estate agent Ari Afshar, who is based in Los Angeles.
Afshar represented a buyer looking at a $14.6 million, 8,500-square-foot spec home in Los Angeles’s Hollywood Hills during the pandemic. At the showing, Afshar’s client proposed an overnight stay. “I thought, ‘Good luck,’” says Afshar, who was surprised when the seller’s agent agreed.
Ultimately, the bachelor buyer didn’t make an offer. The stay made him realize he wanted a more compact space. But it did give him a feel for the neighborhood, where he eventually purchased a property.
“Sometimes it really hits me, like, wow, we are making a big decision from a 10-minute showing,” says Douglas Elliman real-estate agent McKenzie Ryan, based in New York City.
Ryan worked with a Manhattan couple eyeing a $600,000, four-bedroom home on 9.4 acres in New York’s Hudson Valley last year. The clients, looking for a country house, had only ever lived together in an apartment, and they were hesitant about the property needing cosmetic upgrades. The home was vacant, so they asked to spend a free night.
With attorneys, both parties signed a contract for a 14-hour stay. The buyers brought an air mattress, linens and an open mindset. They tested the water pressure, heat and air conditioning, and experienced the nighttime cricket chirping and the morning light. “Small but rather major aspects when you live with them everyday,” Ryan says. Crucially, the couple realized they could live there comfortably until they decided to renovate. They bought the house.
Connie Howell, a retired teacher in her 70s, was holding a garage sale last fall at her 2,742-square-foot, four-bedroom home located on 0.52 acres in east Texas’ Holly Lake Ranch area. During the sale, a local couple expressed interest in her property, which was listed for $545,000 at the time. “I said, ‘Why don’t you bring your family here and spend the weekend?’” Howell says.
The buyer stayed for eight hours. Eventually a friend of the buyer showed up. And another friend. “Then the fire alarm went off because of something they did,” Assouline says. The fire department arrived. So did the property manager.
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A ssouline called the seller, who agreed with Assouline to kick the buyer out of the house. At which point the buyer asked to take a shower before leaving. “I was like, ‘I guess you can use the outdoor spa?’ ” Assouline says. The seller sold the property to a different buyer.
In Florida, prospective buyer John Serra, 66, from Pittstown, N.J., is on a quest. Years ago, he bought a property sight unseen in Naples, Fla., and ended up regretting it. “It just wasn’t what I was looking for,” he says.
The experience gave Serra an idea similar to Albert’s prospective buyers in Newport Coast: rent a property for three months before making an offer. He is working with Florida- and New York-based Douglas Elliman real-estate agent Alejandro Sulser to identify properties
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