Gated estate in Medina draws $2.995 million.

Byline: Anne Bretts

Editor's note:The Top Transactions feature focuses on the latest top home sales in the Twin Cities area, as well as noteworthy new listings, new residential developments and housing trends.Finance & Commerce checks certificates of real estate value filed with the Minnesota Department of Revenue as well as data from the Northstar Multiple Listing Service, Realtor.com, county records and other sources.

The sellers of the house at 1560 Hunter Drive in Medina knew it would probably take a while to sell the five-bedroom, seven-bath, 8,023-square-foot home they built in 2008.

They were fine with waiting. While most homeowners are seeking a quick sale, the sellers were building a new home on Lake Minnetonka. They felt they had time to test the waters with an aggressive price and still drop the price if needed and sell before they moved to their new dream home.

The owners closed Friday, selling their 4.23-acre gated estate for $2.995 million. The certificate of real estate value for the property hadn't been released at deadline, so the buyers' names weren't available for this story. The agents involved declined to talk about their clients. Hennepin County lists Gerard and Tiffane Ferrer as the owners before the sale.

"They took a chance," said Brian Monette of RE/MAX Results in Wayzata, whose former clients called him to tackle the sale. He listed it 18 months ago at $3.395 million and worked with them to drop it later to $3.25 million.

In the rarefied air of luxury homes, there are few truly comparable sales, so the response from buyers determines value, Monette said.

"Every dollar you go up, there are fewer buyers," he said. In the first quarter of this year, there were only a handful of home sales in all of Minnesota that cracked the $2 million mark, according to state sale reports.

The house did draw some interest at its higher prices, but dropping the price even slightly below $3 million this spring seems to have done the trick, Monette said.

"We reduced the price on a Friday," Monette said, noting that he saw an immediate spike in interest.

"We had an offer eight days later," he said.

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