Boosting Sales with a Bit of Sometimes Salacious History

March 13, 2015 — Who doesn't like a good story? Especially when it's a juicy bit of gossip about an author, a former celebrity, a famous photographer, or the man who founded Random House. Well, it looks like luxury property owners and their brokers have noticed, and according to the Daily News, they are doing some homework and learning about "the fascinating — and sometimes salacious — histories of their listings in an effort to catch attention in a competitive market." Brokers told the Daily News that while "factoids [about who's lived there or filmed a well-known movie there] didn't make the properties any more attractive to live in, but they increased attention to the listings, differentiating them from other buildings of the same ilk." And brokers aren't targeting only the starstruck, either. There's some fodder, too, for literati who still make it a point of walking along 44th Street to catch a glimpse of the bronze plaque in the front of the Algonquin Hotel bearing the names of its Round Table elite, which includes writer, wit, and satirist Dorothy Parker. Take, for example, the "140-year-old brownstone at 132 E. 62nd St. with a rich literary history. It turns out that Random House co-founder Bennett Cerf and his wife, actress turned "Dr. Seuss" editor Phyllis Fraser Cerf, bought the property from the Barnes family — of Barnes & Noble fame — for just $20,000 in 1941. After that, the couple hosted a who's who of New York scholars and celebrities, including William Faulkner [and] Truman Capote." Depending on the history, not to mention the tastes of potential buyers, this could make selling a learning experience on both sides. It's nice to get to really know the city. But of course, the technique will hardly be compelling if we're talking about someone who dated the assistant of some photographer who ended up marrying a person who wrote some self-help books a decade ago.