Sell a mansion. Get a Benz.
That's at least the deal that one homeowner is offering. Ken Jenkins of Powhatan County, Virginia is offering a brand new 2012 C Class Mercedes-Benz as a bonus to the real estate broker who can get a buyer to purchase his $1.9 million mansion, The Richmond Times-Dispatch reports. Recently retired and looking to downsize, Jenkins and his wife have been unsuccessful in several attempts to sell the house that includes a heated pool, fountain and three car garage.
Even with the incentive, the couple may have a difficult time selling their home in a struggling housing market. Home prices in general are continuing to linger near rock bottom. And affluent areas are feeling the sting. Greenwich, Connecticut, for example, has seen the median sales price of homes fall 32 percent in the first quarter of this year, compared to 2011, Bloomberg reports.
In such a difficult market, adding an incentive for brokers to sell a house may not be such a bad idea. But if the agent can't find a buyer who likes the home "the incentive does not matter,” CEO of Richmond Association of Realtors Laura Lafayette told CBS 6.
Typically these perks are offered to buyers. These day home sellers are offering to cover closing costs and pay for renovations and gift cards, the New York Times reports
Still, nothing sweetens a deal quite like a price cut. Though a cut hasn't brought in any takers for "Versailles," an outrageous (and unfinished) 90,000-square-foot mansion modeled off the Palace of Versailles in Windermere, Florida, which recently cut its asking price by $10 million, the Wall Street Journal reports.