Auckland's housing market might be red-hot, yet one Remuera home-seller is still going the extra mile to rev-up interest in his house.
He's thrown a $40,000 Ford Mustang GT into the deal.
Buy the four-bedroom home at 1/725 Remuera Rd for $1.995 million, and you'll also get your hands on wheel of the 2006 supercharged muscle car, capable of going nought-to-100 in under five seconds.
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That meant a future buyer could walk in the front door and be back out the garage fanging through the streets in no time.
"The Mustang will be sitting there with the keys in it," home seller Jethro Hooker said.
"It's super kick-ass."
Yet - if you thought it unusual to get your hands on both the house and car keys in one go - you'd be right.
Most Auckland homes were in hot demand at the moment as hungry buyers paid sky-high prices across the city.
Auckland's median sales price leapt to a record $955,000 in September, according to the Real Estate Institute.
Property pundits were also forecasting more than $1 billion worth of homes would sell in Remuera this year - a sales amount not seen since the 2016 boom-era.
Hooker said there had also been plenty of interest in his home with "about two enquiries a day".
The "beautiful" architecturally designed house was just three years old and had lovely views.
It's decking and three-storey open-plan layout suited "pretty much every age and generation" of buyers, Ray White selling agent John Quiambao said.
"Whether it's a downsizer, a young family looking for a nice upgrade ... or it could be someone with teenagers because you've got a downstairs bedroom," he said.
Yet ultimately the home failed to sell at auction a few weeks back.
Why? Apparently because it sits at the bottom of a long, steep driveway.
"We've had hundreds of people through and they love the house, but they just don't like that driveway," Hooker said.
The home was also located just outside the double grammar zone granting residents the ability to enrol children in some of Auckland's most prestigious schools.
Yet Hooker wanted the house sold because he'd already bought a new home with his wife and three children.
Property records showed his Remuera house last sold for $2.2m in 2018 and had a $1.65m council valuation.
Initially, Hooker had it on sale with hopes of getting $2.35m. However, he recently instructed Quiambao to drop the price to $1.995m.
Quiambao said he wanted to refuse.
"I said, 'are you sure'," he said.
"From an agent's point of view, I tend to refuse because I don't want to be undervaluing the home."
He said he sold a similar home in nearby Meadowbank for $2.4m two weeks back.
That home was on a flat, rather than hilly land, but the quality of the house itself was not as good as Hooker's Remuera property, Quiambao said.
"So to me, this house really seems to be the best buy in Remuera," he said.
Hooker also called it the "best-valued house in Remuera".
What the house needed was to get as many people looking at it as possible until a buyer who didn't mind the driveway came along, Hooker said.
Enter the Mustang.
"I decided it would be something fun to throw in the deal - get some excitement, fun and something different happening."
Quiambao called it "a catch".
Other homes have sold with similar catches in the past.
Agents Century 21 Collett Realty threw a McLaren sports car into the sale of a Waitoki lifestyle block in North Auckland last year, while the same agency also said it would accept Bitcoin payment for another four-bedroom home on the North Shore.
Yet those sales were made at a quiet time in the market.
Hooker, for his part, said he'd had the Mustang for four years, and it had been a blast. But with three-young children, it was "time to move on".
"It should also be powerful enough to go up and down that driveway," Quiambao added.
- NZ Herald