I hope all is well with you!

Thanks for taking the time to clarify your position on this.

Anjelina and I will look over your post together.

Best,

Lawrence

This is true except for one important word ONLINE

Anjelina NEVER asked the owner and listing agent for permission to put the home on Ebay. She WAS given permission to market the home at her own expense as long as any advertising was approved PRIOR to running it. In fact, Long Realty (the company she worked for at the time) insisted that the Ebay ad come down as soon as they became aware of it.

Quoting Lawrence “At a home like this, it’s nice and cozy — you, the Mrs., the kids and Spot the dog….and a big operations department to handle everything from the landscaping and water management to desert critter care to the team of housekeepers and cooks. Reminds me of living in a museum.

And don’t forget not to put your feet on the ottoman — it’s a $100,000 ottoman.”

There is no big operations department at Campbell Cliffs. There is a permanent staff of two–a house manager and his wife. A housekeeper does come 5 days a week to clean and landscapers come once a week for about three hours. No cooks. Oh, and you certainly may put your feet on the ottoman.

Again quoting Lawrence” Ultimately, the lead-gen process, though tedious, worked. Several qualified respondents took tours of the home. One even flew into town on his company’s private jet shortly after making a telephone inquiry.”

The last sentence is true. ONE potential buyer came to tour the home.

I want to correct these inaccuracies, not to diminish was Anjelina did which was very forward thinking but because the inaccuracies are, well…inaccurate.

I am Martha Briggs/Long Realty Co. the listing agent for Campbell Cliffs

Thanks for stopping in and leaving a comment.

Yes, it helps to download inspiration from case studies like this. I could definitely use some right now!

Best,
Lawrence

Valuable indeed but I wasn’t thinking in terms of “here’s a list, now what do I sell ‘em?”

Should have been — my bad.

Great site!

Great story, comtent and lessons..

Thank you
Sean

It’s too bad that the story didn’t have a fairy tale ending, but that was some incredibly powerful marketing that you went through in order to get the message out.

This just goes to show that you can still get people’s attention out there, you just need to take your marketing (and your copy) in a direction that will snap people’s heads around and wonder what they just saw.

I really like the 600+ page owner’s manual idea myself. I have seen a lot of real estate listings and never saw one that contained a manual.

-Joshua Black
The Underdog Millionaire

Thanks for the comment.

That’s one of my philosophies.

If the upside is worth it and you take action enough times, something has to “hit” at some point.

It was fun.

Best,
Lawrence

Thanks for regaling me with the story of your Pacific Palace birthday bash. Indeed memorable. And don’t overlook your colleague in the Sonoran Desert to the south for the next one. I’ll bring the box wine.

Did you send photos and an evening play-by-play to the 30 people that declined their invitations?

Back to Campbell Cliffs, obviously I enjoyed the 3-hour tour of the home. It’s a nice reference point to have and gives me an appreciation of these ‘spectacular’ spec homes. Not for me though for reasons other than monetary.

At a home like this, it’s nice and cozy — you, the Mrs., the kids and Spot the dog….and a big operations department to handle everything from the landscaping and water management to desert critter care to the team of housekeepers and cooks. Reminds me of living in a museum.

And don’t forget not to put your feet on the ottoman — it’s a $100,000 ottoman.

It’s worth noting that the land above this home is the Coronado National Forest part of the US National Forrest System. This makes it impossible to ever develop the surrounding land. Many developers and homeowners at every echelon of the market make the mistake of not shoring off the land around such an investment, until one day a bunch of hardhats and earth movers show up and break ground.

Interesting that you mention Buffett and his well publicized frugality. Slim seems to have been influenced by Buffet and several of the early American industrialists. Slim’s office is in a modest building in a low-key business district in Mexico City and he walks to work every morning.

During my numerous follow-up calls to his office, I had the chance to congratulate him, via his secretary, on becoming the wealthiest man on record at one point three summers ago when his TelMex stock and other holdings peaked and he surpassed Gates and Buffett.

It was a fun little episode.

Cheers,
Lawrence