Real Estate Has Gone To The Dogs

Q: Has a dog ever helped you land a listing or make a sale?

Laura Levy

Broker associate, Laura Levy Group, Coldwell Banker in Boulder, Colo.

It was a new listing. The first time I went to visit the house, I walked into the family room and there is this white dog laying on this great red couch, holding court and looking very regal. I just cracked up. His name was Yeti. He was some sort of doodle—I don’t know which kind, maybe a goldendoodle. Here in Colorado—this is dog country—dogs are members of the family.

When I was talking to my videographer, Ryan, about filming the house, I said, “Yeti needs to be in this; this has to be from Yeti’s perspective. Just follow the dog around.” It was hilarious. Yeti knew exactly what to do. Ryan said, “I followed the dog and I got great stuff.”

At the end of the video, Yeti is kind of over showing the house and he wants a walk. This house happened to be across the street from a fabulous dog park. You see his mom—the homeowner—walking him to the dog park, and then you see him running around in the sunshine, all happy. We used a drone.

People loved it. The video got about 16,000 or 17,000 views on my Facebook page alone. The house sold for full price and it sold fairly quickly. When the people who bought the house moved in, the neighbors asked if they were the ones who had purchased Yeti’s house.

Yeti didn’t come with the house. He has been a bit high maintenance since then.

Dina Goldentayer

Executive director of sales, Douglas Elliman Real Estate in Miami Beach, Fla.

People love their dogs, their fur babies. I had a client who brought his dog on every showing. They’d see how the dog reacted to the energy of the space when he was placed on the floor. It was a little dog, a chihuahua.

I showed them 25 or 30 homes. The dog eliminated a lot of properties. He didn’t like beachfront. He didn’t react well to sand.

When they put him down on the ground, he’d come undone—a full-on meltdown. That basically shifted their search. Miami is lucky to have two waterfronts, the ocean and the bay, so we shifted the search to the bay. We found a modern waterfront house. There were no objections. I think the dog really unwound. He was relaxed, looking over at the water. They bought the house for $6 million. The dog loves the sunsets there.

Minette Schwartz

Real-estate agent, Compass in Miami Beach, Fla.

The house was in Sunset Island. It’s a very nice neighborhood—the most sought-after in Miami Beach. We went to the listing presentation and there were four or five brokers there competing for the listing. One of my team members was with me, and she took a liking to the owner’s dog—an Australian labradoodle. The dog was part of this listing presentation. We were sitting around the dining-room table and the dog was running around, a huge, huge dog, very fluffy.

The owner starts narrowing it down, and we came back for a second meeting. We didn’t talk about the house, we talked about the dog. My team member was super-into this dog. It was, “I love the coat of this dog; I love the size and friendliness,” and, “Can I get the breeder’s name?” The color of the dog’s mane was the same color as her hair.

My team member gets the breeder’s name, we get the listing. Then she flies to Illinois to buy the brother of this dog—a different litter but the same mother.

The first few months of owning the dog, she was saying, “What did I do? I was trying to get the listing and make conversation!” But she was so taken with this dog. They’re pleasant, very loving and caring.

We didn’t sell the house. The owners changed their minds and decided not to sell. At least my teammate got a dog out of it.

From the Spring 2024 issue of Kanebridge Quarterly. Order your copy here.

W hile water views are usually considered most desirable for property buyers, golf course vistas are snapping at their proverbial heels. This past quarter century has witnessed a golden age in Australian golf course living, with dozens — if not hundreds— of residential courses built around our major cities and tourist towns. These days, there’s a buoyant market for established large golf homes alongside off-the-plan apartments being retro built to take advantage of existing golf course views. So what’s the appeal?

Green dreams

Barbara Wolveridge is a director at Sotheby’s International Realty. She has worked with many of Australia’s most prestigious golf course developments including The National in Cape Schanck Vic, Moonah Links on the Mornington Peninsula, Macquarie Links International Golf Club in Sydney’s West and the Mirage Country Club in Port Douglas where she currently lives. (She was also married to the late renowned golf course designer and former US Tour player Michael Wolveridge.)

“People like to live on golf courses,” she says. “You can walk out of your house onto a beautiful course. But what you’re really buying is the extended view. You have acres and acres in front of you, but you’re paying for a small block of land.”

And while you can’t run across the greens in your bare feet, as soon as the golf is finished for the day, there are tracks and cart paths where you can walk and bike, enjoying the natural surrounds of lush greenery and wildlife.

“Some courses are a haven for wallabies and kangaroos,” says Wolveridge. “Here in Port Douglas the pristine ponds attract the magpie geese. There are the most beautiful birds everywhere — and the odd croc as well.”

Who’s buying?

While you might expect golfing real estate to be the exclusive domain of well-heeled golf-mad retirees, that’s only a part of the story. Golfing homes appeal to a broad section of the community, especially in the post-COVID era, when home often also serves as an office.

“Probably 50 to 60 percent of my buyers are golfers,” says Wolveridge. “But in some areas people skew younger, in their 40s — not necessarily golfers, but those who want that lovely view. A lot of people like to come up here for the winter and when they’re not here, they rent out their properties.

“My very wealthy clients don’t do that, but the middle bracket come and use it when they like, and then it goes into the letting pool for the rest of the year.”

A cautionary tale

For most golf course adjacent dwellers, the only potential negative is the odd Titleist Pro V1 ball shattering the serenity as it sails through the bedroom window. But that’s not the worst thing that can happen.

Built in 1990 on the edge of the Great Dividing Range, Paradise Palms in Cairns lived up to its name with pristine rainforest providing a backdrop to rolling fairways and man-made lakes. Home to professional events including the Skins Game and Ladies’ Masters, it climbed to number nine ranking in Golf Magazine’s list of the nation’s Best Public Access Courses.

In 2016, the signature 7th hole was sacrificed to make way for an access road into a residential development of 585 luxury units. Then, horror. The course declined under new owners, was sold again, and a multimillion-dollar redevelopment plan was revealed that would close the 18-hole course and transform it into a new housing estate.

Those who dreamed of seeing out their days overlooking manicured greens are now facing the prospect of a sea of roofs.

“Once a development is established, it has to make money,” says Wolveridge. “The developer has to put in somebody who knows how to run a golf course — and that is the hard part.

“If the developer isn’t making any money, it won’t necessarily devalue the properties, but if the course does so badly it goes broke, that is the danger.”

Happily, cases like Paradise Palms are few and far between.

“I can think of so many golf course developments in Australia that are very successful, and probably only three or four that aren’t,” says Wolveridge.

As always with property, to avoid a triple bogey, it’s a case of buyer beware.

How green is your view?

A commonly held belief is that golf courses use vast amounts of water, chemical pesticides and fertilisers to keep those greens pristine. In reality, golf course management in Australia claims to be at the forefront of environmental sustainability, pioneering the use of grey water and efficient irrigation techniques as well as new drought- and disease-resistant grasses.

Following the release of the landmark GC2030 report by The Royal and Ancient Golf Club (R&A) in Scotland in 2018, Australia has joined a dozen or so other countries globally answering the call to action on topics such as climate change, resources, water conservation, pesticides, labour and land.

While golf courses have historically relied on a cocktail of pesticides and herbicides, many are today transitioning to organic maintenance practices, using natural means to control pests and promote healthy turf.

KDV Sport golf course (12 holes) on the Gold Coast and Kabi Organic Golf Club (27 holes) at Boreen Point in the Sunshine Coast hinterland are Australia’s only two organic golf courses to date. But there is no accommodation — yet — at either.