Overcoming a Recalcitrant Owner
Misty Brownell calls the sale of the Cooke House in Virginia Beach last November “the highlight of my 14-year career.” The 3,000-square-foot passive solar house, completed in 1960, included a 70-foot semicircular great room with a 40-foot sofa designed by the architect, a spa and sauna, and a bank of windows looking out on Crystal Lake. Her challenge was not the house, which was in great shape, or the location, also great, but the 91-year-old homeowner, who was ambivalent about letting it go.
The house had been on and off the market for about 15 years without receiving a single offer when Ms. Brownell, a Realtor with Atlantic Sotheby’s International Realty, received the listing in March 2016. The owner had a magnificent art collection, and Ms. Brownell spent several months convincing him to put it in storage. “With a house of this magnitude, you really needed to remove all that stuff to see the house. This was the work of art,” Ms. Brownell said.
Having succeeded in her request, Ms. Brownell created a video to demonstrate what living in a Wright house might be like. And she did extensive research on the architect, and the market for his houses, which prompted her to lower the asking price to $2.75 million from $3.75 million.
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