Sometimes it boils down to being in the right place at the right time.
I hate cars. I have always thought of them as the worst investment possible. So, when my 11-year-old Jeep Grand Cherokee started falling apart, I thought, “Great, here we go again with another five-year payment plan for something that will end up sold for scrap metal.”
My nine-year old son found out that I was looking for a new car and asked me, “Why don’t you just buy a McLaren, Dad?” Sure!! The 2018 McLaren 720S Luxury Coupe looks amazing, but with a price tag starting at $440,000, I wasn’t about to sell my home and drive off into the sunset.
But then something weird happened.
My two boys both play competitive hockey, and my seven-year old has lessons every Tuesday with a trainer who works a small group of kids extremely hard. They love it! So, when we pulled into the rink, there were the usual hockey dads already parked inside getting their kids dressed, but low and behold, one of the dads was driving a McLaren.
I knew immediately which one it was – Edwin, the luxury-home developer. I was excited because we had literally been talking about the far-fetched fantasy of buying a McLaren just an hour before I saw it. These cars are rare (you don’t see them every day), and I took it as a sign – not to buy one, but a sign to ask Edwin if I could take some pictures to show my son 🙂
All four hockey dads were now in the parking lot, looking at the doors (how they seem to magically lift up like two razer-sharp knives), admiring the interior and the sports break that pops up in the rear (yes, you need that for a car that goes 0–124 mph in 9.5 seconds).
I knew that Edwin owned a Ferrari and was curious about his new purchase. He told me he had picked it up in the U.S. for almost one-third less than what he’d pay for it in Canada and that this had included taxes and duty. He said he plans to drive it around for a few months this summer and then sell it for a nice little profit in the fall.
It turns out that Edwin knows a lot about luxury vehicles and that I was wrong about a few things. The notion that “you lose money the minute you drive a new car out of the dealers parking lot” was something I’d been taught by my parents, but it was an assumption that was completely wrong for some luxury cars.
You see, everyone who told me this “fact” owned normal, average price-ticket cars, which do lose value over time. Luxury cars are different. Each year, whether it’s a McLaren, a Lamborghini, or a Ferrari, the manufacturer produces certain models in limited numbers, each hand built at a state-of-the-art production facility.
And each year, there’s someone willing to jump the queue and pay over the asking price, simply because they can.Ultra-high-net-worth clients have over $30 million in investable assets, excluding their principal residence, and they tend to think differently from us “average Joes” driving around in our Jeep Cherokee’s that we’ve had for over 10 years!
One of the first things we cover in the Luxury Home Mortgage Advisor course is the different mindsets of the luxury clients we will be working with, including how they think, what they like and don’t like, how they make decisions and their belief and value systems. This information is critical, as each of the five market segments we will target is very different.
I asked Edwin what his next purchase was going to be. He said that he had just put a down payment on a new Lamborghini to secure its purchase when it’s ready for delivery. Edwin doesn’t even know the final purchase price, and he told me he didn’t care because he’s going to turn around and sell it right away to make a quick $75,000.
He looked at me with a twinkle in his eye and asked, “Want me to introduce you to my dealer”?… The temptation was too much! I took him up on the offer in the name of “blog research” and am going for it. Stay tuned!
