What to do when a listing just won’t sell? The typical first move, of course, is to lower the price—which Compass agent Hans Wydler already tried with the three-bedroom, 3.5-bathroom condo he has on the market at the Parc Somerset in Chevy Chase, Md. The 3,400-square-foot unit was priced at $3.4 million. Wydler dropped it to $2,995,000 in August. And still, 265 days in, it sits. The solution, Wydler hopes, is to sweeten the deal by including a brand-new Tesla Model 3 in the purchase price.
“We wanted to create some real excitement,” he says. “There are charging stations in the garage for electric cars, so it seemed like a perfect way to do that.” But the offer won’t last forever. The condo’s seller only agreed to throw in the Tesla if there’s a ratified contract on the unit by year-end.
There was a time when the Parc Somerset—with its tennis courts and multiple pools—was one of the only super luxe condo options in town. But with more and more high-end buildings springing up in places like the Wharf, Old Town Alexandria, and the West End, the luxury condo market has gotten much more competitive. Not to mention, the condos in those neighborhoods are new, while the Parc Somerset is 20 years old. “All of a sudden, buyers who before maybe had four or five choices have 15 or 20,” says Wydler.
For now, though, there’s only one choice that comes with a Tesla.
Marisa M. Kashino joined Washingtonian in 2009 and was a senior editor until 2022.
