One of the things I’ve enjoyed most about being real estate agent is that I have had the pleasure of meeting and getting to know so many different types of people and personalities. My second year in the business, the largest deal I closed was a penthouse in Soho that I sold to a Hollywood mega-star. I have to admit that when she first walked into my listing with her agent, I was starstruck. She was an academy award winning actress who I had grown up watching on the big screen and she was standing in front of me, in my listing, asking me questions. She was personable, polite, respectful, and an absolute pleasure to work with. At the closing, I looked at her agent and asked him if he enjoyed working with celebrities. His response to me was profound and something that I thought about for years. He said, “Anyone who can afford an apartment like this is a celebrity in my book”.
Since then, I’ve worked with and sold hundreds of celebrities their homes. Actresses, recording artists, Fortune 500 CEOs, tech giants, and world-class athletes. Almost all of these clients have been referred to me because they know that I take their confidentiality and privacy very seriously. They don’t want people to know where they live. The worst nightmare for these individuals is to have the details of their homes in the press and the public domain. When people know where they live, it is an invasion of privacy and becomes a security threat to their daily lives. If you walk by Taylor Swift’s front door to her loft in Tribeca, you will know exactly when she is home because of the unfortunate constant barrage of paparazzi waiting to get a photo. It has gotten more difficult to protect the identity of these clients, but most of the top agents who work with celebrities manage to keep their personal egos in check and protect their client’s identities by keeping their names out of the press. Last week, it was announced and promoted that Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban bought a condo in a new development in Chinatown for $3.5M. I don’t suspect they’d be happy with this publicity unless there was some arrangement for having their name associated with the project. I’m pretty sure they won’t spend much time in this home. Some celebrities seek out the opportunity to capitalize on their name being associated with a property. Most buyers are savvy to this and won’t pay a premium for a home just because you might bump into a celebrity in the elevator and be able to brag to your friends and family that you are neighbors with them.
When it comes to the selling of the home of a celebrity, it’s a very different story. Real estate agents and sellers love to have their listings in the press and the celebrity client is generally much more amenable to having their name used to generate a higher price. It promotes the agent’s personal brand, but most importantly, brings attention to the property. How much value does a celebrity association add to a property? In the past 24 hours, Susan Sarandon publicly listed her long time Chelsea loft – 6000 square ft for $7.9M. That’s $1,316 per square foot which is well below the Chelsea average price per ft. Seems like a bargain, but as we know, there are fewer luxury buyers out there right now, and her agents are knowledgeable experts who I’m certain priced the home appropriate to the market. It doesn’t seem that her celebrity status will add anything to the value of the sale. Jeffrey Epstein’s Upper East Side townhouse also hit the market in the last 24 hours at a whopping price of $88M. Coincidentally, it’s the same price Sanford Weill asked for his record-breaking apartment sale at 15 Central Park West in 2011. Why not $87M or $89M? 8’s are a lucky number in Feng Shui, and this house will probably need a lot of sage and a professional space clearer. There was no avoiding this particular sale being in the press. This listing is also being handled by an expert broker who knows that this is the largest house in a neighborhood that is home to some of the world’s wealthiest billionaires. It will be interesting to see the appetite in the market for this home. I don’t expect the association to Epstein will add any value.
At the end of the day, when a celebrity sells their home, other than some press and hoopla, there is little (if any) premium attributed to their association with the property. Sometimes it could be more of a hindrance than a help. When a celebrity buys a home, the value is intrinsic to the bricks, walls, and glass. Their money is the same color as a “regular” person’s, and to echo the words of my friend, all our clients are celebrities in their own right.