Buy a house, get a Maserati

— Photo from Christy Center

Ready to go: Title to this 2013 Maserati will be given to the buyer who makes a full-price offer — $1.25 million — for the home at 819 Greenthorne Blvd. by June 15, said agent Christy Center of the Miranda Real Estate Group.

GUILDERLAND — Homeowner Todd Slingerland and real estate agent Christy Center wanted to come up with an incentive to pique the interest of high-end buyers in 819 Greenthorne Blvd., which they had listed at $1.25 million, a very high price for Guilderland.

The deal is: Buy the home at the list price by June 15, and get a Maserati.

Center explained how they came up with the idea. She and Slingerland happened to be walking through the home’s four-car garage as they discussed what incentives they could offer buyers, and Slingerland said, “What about the Maserati?”

The agent was excited by the idea. “It’s such a high-end home, and there’s such a small pool of buyers, we wanted to come up with something a little different,” Center said.

The 2013 Maserati has a Kelley Blue Book value of $60,000, according to Center, who is with the Miranda Real Estate Group.

“We’ve had some people come in and say they don’t want one [a sports car], or they already have one, but still it’s been a great hook for getting people in,” Center said.

There are not a lot of comparables in the area, so in setting the price, Center said, “We had to look at the finishes he’s put in.”

Slingerland bought the land and built the house in 2001, Center said. He is the chief executive officer of Capital Financial Planning in Stuyvesant Plaza.

The mahogany woodwork of the grand entryway continues into the formal living room with its floor-to-ceiling built-in cabinetry on one wall and windows overlooking the backyard on another wall.

The Zarrillo custom kitchen has seating at an island or a separate eat-in alcove beneath an octagonal coffered ceiling. An archway leads into a den that overlooks the backyard and has a Tiffany chandelier and matching leaded-glass valances custom-made in Amsterdam. A formal dining room is also nearby.

 

The Enterprise — Elizabeth Floyd Mair
Substantial and ornate: The home’s kitchen features stainless-steel appliances, custom Zarrillo cabinetry, chandeliers, granite countertops, and an octagonal coffered ceiling over an eat-in alcove.
 
The Enterprise — Elizabeth Floyd Mair
Bird’s-eye view: Floor-to-ceiling custom mahogany cabinetry in the formal living room flanks the “vision art” television; with the push of a button, a canvas rises to reveal the television screen beneath.

 

The Enterprise — Elizabeth Floyd Mair
The backyard’s covered deck acts as another outdoor living room, and looks over the 13-foot stone fireplace and the built-in pool.

 

Seven bedrooms include a pair of first-floor master-bedroom suites, two bedrooms on the second floor with a Jack-and-Jill bathroom between, and two bedrooms on a small third floor. The house has six-and-a-half baths.

The walkout level has a family room, a movie area that seats eight on interconnected oversize leather chairs, a wine cellar that holds 1,800 bottles of wine, and a workout room, in addition to a guest bedroom.

Those areas open onto, in back, a covered Brazilian-rosewood deck that looks more like an outdoor living room, with grilling station and two ceiling fans. The yard includes a 13-foot stone fireplace on a large bluestone patio and a saltwater, heated in-ground pool (Center’s brochure about the home calls it a “trilobal lagoon”) with a 550-square-foot pool house with bathroom, changing room, washer-dryer, and outdoor shower.

The home is set far back from Greenthorne Boulevard. There is one other house next door, set back at the same distance. The driveways are separate, and the two large houses are buffered by a row of trees between them.

 


 

Slingerland’s house, on 8.6 acres, is assessed at $870,000, according to Lynne Buchanan, the town’s receiver of taxes. Guilderland has not done a town-wide revaluation since 2005. The county lists the full-market value of the 819 Greenthorne Blvd. property at $1,023,529. Property taxes on the property are $7,842.62, as of January 2017, and school taxes, for the year 2016-17, are $20,376.97, said Buchanan.

The lot stretches along behind a dozen 50-year-old homes on Highland Drive. Slingerland has not built on or used most of the land, Center said; for him, the benefit of having the acreage has been “just for privacy, and knowing that no one else can build there.”

“Even though you feel like you’re in your own little private oasis, you’re still in a neighborhood, if a family has kids,” said Center.

“I’ve been in that house; it’s a nice house,” said Realtor Troy Miller of C.M. Fox.

He added that it’s “very rare” for houses to sell for over $1 million in Guilderland.

Center said that the last house sold for over $1 million in Guilderland — it was in the Voorheesville school district — was on State Farm Road and sold in 2012 for $1.5 million. There have been three others sold since 2012, she said, in Guilderland in the $900,000 to $970,000 range.

According to the website realtor.com, there is currently a 47.25-acre lot for sale at 9432 Nott Rd., with no house on it, for $1 million. A home at 909 Sussex Ct. is listed for $999,995. After that, the list prices drop substantially: an address on Krumkill Road — number 698 — is listed at $789,000, and a home at 7 Hillshire Ln. is listed for $774,900.

“I have sold some other large and interesting homes before,” said Center but  she concluded, “This one has to be at the top with regard to the high quality and sheer size as well as entertainment value.”

 

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