Link to original NY Times article
Buy a House, Get a Ferrari F40
RM Auctions photo
By JONATHAN SCHULTZ
A 1987 Ferrari F40 prototype that was auctioned in 2007.
Three years ago, home sellers on the exclusive north side of Malibu, Calif., could incite bidding wars simply by opening their doors. In the current market, sweeping ocean vistas and the cachet of celebrity neighbors barely bring out the tire-kickers, let alone buyers with real offers. Recognizing this, one Malibu listing agent has hatched an incentive that commands considerably more curb appeal than any federal tax credit.
Buy his client’s 6,000-square-foot contemporary for $4,399,333 and enjoy unimpeded views of the Pacific, a private spa and the Ferrari F40 parked in the garage.
The Ferrari F40 is a 200 miles-per-hour, street-legal hyper car developed by Maranello engineers in the 1980s. Only 213 cars officially came to the United States, according to Michael Sheehan, a Ferrari historian and exotic car broker of Ferraris-Online.com.
Mr. Sheehan estimates that even with relatively high mileage and a prior accident history, an F40 can still fetch $350,000, and a low-mileage example can command nearly $600,000. The odometer on the Malibu car reads 734 miles, making it one of the lowest-mileage F40s available on the open market.
The vehicle is owned not by the home seller, but by the property’s listing agent, Vahe Hagopian of Claudius Estates. Mr. Hagopian previously listed the F40 in the duPont Registry, a luxury-vehicle classified digest, but with his client’s property languishing on the market at $3.9 million, he borrowed a page from added-value marketing and bundled the two last month, while raising the house price. The gambit has yet to pay off.
“Nothing is moving in this area,” Mr. Hagopian said. “It’s unprecedented.”
He stipulates, however, that the fire-engine-rosso car is only part of the deal until June 30.
