Apr 6, 2009
Want an SUV with your McMansion?
Owings Mills developer Alan Klatsky wants you to buy one of his $1.2 million custom-built houses in Baltimore County so badly that he’ll throw in a fully-loaded 2009 Jeep Grand Cherokee Laredo if you commit before June 1.
His Phoenix development, called Brighton Hills, consists of 10 lots, only one of which has a completed house on it. According to Klatsky’s website, the $1.7 million, 5-bedroom, 5-bath house with 10-foot ceilings and nice dark wood floors commands “one of the most unspoiled, breathtaking views of countryside.”
So why throw in the Cherokee?
“These are extraordinary economic times,” Klatsky, who is president of Prestige Development, said in a statement. Yeah, tell us about it. But vague statements like these offer no clues as to whether he means extraordinarily bad (like the reality of the housing market) or extraordinarily good housing market opportunities. So we called up a spokeswoman for the Strata Group, a brokerage partnership representing Brighton Hills, to ask what the deal was.
“He knows what’s happening, and they’re doing it in California, and having a lot of success,” she said. “The main thing is to generate interest.”
The Jeep, she added, is good for rough winter-weather roads and squeamish commuters.
“He wanted an American-made car,” the spokeswoman said. “The thought process was, because of the location of the house. It’s Baltimore County. It’s not downtown.”
Indeed. But this is 2009 — has Klatsky been living someplace where the news of the unpopularity of gas-guzzling Chrysler cars and the market for overpriced, exurban McMansions has failed to penetrate? Not to get all preachy or anything, but maybe he’d’ve sold a few more lots if he was peddling waterfront condos near a grocery store with a free Toyota Prius.
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When are these idiot developers and realtors going to face reality and admit that home prices are still too high ???
He figures anyone sufficiently gluttonous to want a mcmansion is also self-absorbed enough to want an suv.
Some folks don’t mind taking more than their fair share of anything and everything.
I have a fully loaded Jeep Grand Cherokee, although its a decent car, he should be throwing in a bmw or something because Jeep is really having many problems, and it is not a great reliable car
Oh yeah, clearly people don’t want McMansions and SUVs anymore.
How many Daily Record readers do you think are sitting in or thinking about purchasing McMansions? I would think a good number. Someone is buying them (or was buying them until recently).
Is someone going to buy a $1.2 mil+ house just because of a car? No. But it’s just another incentive that might get people in the door looking. I see nothing wrong with developers trying to entice people to buy and spend money. Isn’t that supposed to be the goal of the current Administration — get peole spending to get out of the recession?
And in case you haven’t heard, the government is spending a ton of taxpayer money trying to save Chrysler (among others).
I do not understand how the statement of “maybe he’d’ve sold a few more lots if he was [sic] peddling waterfront condos near a grocery store with a free Toyota Prius [sic]” is relevant. Do you have statistics showing that waterfront condos are selling? I had thought those developers were suffering as well based upon Daily Record articles. Do you have stats showing that people will buy property if a Toyota Prius (rather than a Jeep) is thrown in as an incentive?
Maybe it should be switched. Buy a car, throw in a house !!!