Luxury agents in competitive markets know that it can take a lot more than some attractive listing photos and a visible yard sign to sell even the most luxurious properties these days.
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That’s why Erwin Nicholas II, known to some as “Mr. Real Estate,” seized his moment when he heard one of the world’s biggest internet personalities wanted to stream content in a luxury property near his home market.
Like many people, Nicholas had heard of online streamer and internet personality Kai Cenat, but he wasn’t entirely certain about the potential of his wide-ranging audience. For the record, Cenat has 19 million followers on Twitch, 16.1 million on Instagram and 7.3 million on YouTube.
Cenat was looking to host a livestream in an outstanding property in San Antonio, Texas — four hours outside of Nicholas’s home market of Houston. But when he got the call asking if he could help, Nicholas knew the only answer he would have was “Yes.”
On the lookout for the next big innovation
Credit: TK Images and Onward Group LLC
Nicholas has been a broker for nearly 20 years, and in that time has built a robust network that largely focuses on sports and entertainment real estate. At this point, his business is entirely referral-based, he told Inman. Through constantly looking for ways to innovate, Nicholas keeps it interesting and said working with clients “never feels like work.”
Erwin Nicholas II | TK Images and Onward Group LLC
He also got into angel investing and proptech around 2018, and generally likes keeping an eye on new trends. So when livestreaming started to pick up steam in the cultural zeitgeist, Nicholas knew he had to learn more.
“I started paying attention to the leaders of that world, and six months ago, I asked a friend of mine who’s in tech, ‘Hey, I’ve been watching Kai Cenat, this big livestreamer. Tell me about how important it is to actually be on his livestream with the number of viewers he has.'”
“And he goes, ‘Imagine a Super Bowl commercial for however long he’s online with the number of followers he has. So there might be, 10, 20 million people watching the Super Bowl at once on one special day. Well, he has 188 million followers all the time, watching him daily, globally.’ So, I was like, ‘You mean to tell me that if anybody was to be mentioned or marketed on his livestream … ?’ He’s like, ‘Yeah, that would be equivalent to having a Super Bowl commercial.'”
Nicholas made a note of it and moved on. But that was just the beginning of Kai Cenat in his life.
“Six months, fast forward, his team actually reached out to me because they wanted to livestream in Texas at a house,” Nicholas said, with disbelief still in his voice.
“I acted like it was just nothing, and obviously, I just wanted to be the one to secure the house for them.”
Making the magic happen
Credit: TK Images and Onward Group LLC
When he got the call, Nicholas immediately thought of one property: Retired San Antonio Spurs point guard Tony Parker’s house.
The home, a singular trophy property just north of San Antonio in a town called Boerne, had been on and off the market for a while, Nicholas knew. But the 13,300-square-foot mansion was something that had a lot to showcase.
The six-bed, five-full bath and four-half bath home sits on a whopping 53 acres of picturesque Texas Hill Country and is host to the country’s largest private waterpark, which was designed by Keith Zars, who also designed the water features at Six Flags Fiesta Texas. The property also features a four-bedroom guest house; a nearly 6,000-square-foot gym complex with basketball court, weight room and locker rooms; a wine cellar; home theater; game room with bar; library; meditation suite; tennis and volleyball courts; a greenhouse; and a fruit orchard.
“I said, if there was any group of people that could market this house better than any real estate agent, it would be these guys,” Nicholas said. “What I would do is leverage the opportunity on the back-end after they show the world the house.”
When Nicholas pitched the idea to Parker, who in retirement is now spending more time in his home country of France, he was “all for it.”
“He’s very forward-thinking, and he was like, ‘I think this is a great idea. My kids know who he is,'” Nicholas relayed.
So, Nicholas drew up a rental agreement for Cenat and his crew to use the home for one month. With the roughly $100,000 that Parker would be earning from the deposit on that deal, Nicholas realized the money could easily be spent doing a few upgrades on the home, which hadn’t really been worked on since it was constructed in 2007.
In the meantime, Nicholas was also able to shop the home a bit off-market and get the word out, while Cenat was streaming there. The first day Cenat’s crew livestreamed in the home, Nicholas also had Parker come in and give them a tour to boost the level of celebrity even further.
At that point, he wasn’t allowing showings because Cenat was occupying the space, but he was able to leverage Cenat’s presence to generate more interest and float around an asking price of $16.5 million.
Going above and beyond the test price
Credit: TK Images and Onward Group LLC
Once Cenat had wrapped his livestreaming event, Nicholas and his team then staged the home with the assistance of Milan Home Staging, a company based out of Nicholas’s home market of Houston with whom he had often worked before.
After the buzz drummed up by Cenat, the upgrades made to the property and the luxe home staging, Nicholas realized that the property had essentially been entirely reimagined from how it had been when he was shopping it around off-market. At that point, he realized it was probably worth more, so when it came time to list on the MLS, Nicholas raised the asking price to an even $20 million.
“We felt like, we’re not going to go ask for the amount of what it would cost to rebuild [it, including with the waterpark],” Nicholas said, “but we do think that this is a fair price … So that was kind of the strategy. We had the exposure, it checked all the boxes, and it made sense. So here we are.”
The home has been on the MLS for about a week now, and Nicholas said he’s had several showings, primarily to private businessmen interested in maintaining a residence in Boerne.
“It’s definitely top 1 percent, but it’s also people that are not just sports and entertainment,” Nicholas said. “People that want a very unique and once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be able to use the space.”
The fact that such a large, unique estate is also located within a 24-hour gated HOA community adds a premium, Nicholas added, since it’s a pretty rare find.
Takeaways for other agents
Credit: TK Images and Onward Group LLC
Tapping into livestreaming culture for this listing amplified the views on Parker’s house exponentially more than Nicholas could have done on his own, he said.
“I can sell anywhere because of this strategy, because of the type of clients that I have, because of the viewership,” Nicholas said. “A lot of people think it’s genius, but I just can’t take full credit,” the luxury broker added, noting that he was in the right place at the right time for Cenat’s team to approach him, and he was sure divine intervention also played a role.
Still, Nicholas believed his propensity for innovating helped him seize the chance at hand, and hoped that future potential clients would also see him as “somebody that will really spend some time and thought to create opportunities for us.”
For agents hoping to capitalize on the popularity of livestreaming and other new trends, Nicholas advised they stay curious and look outside of the industry for inspiration.
“Be a fly on the wall,” Nicholas said. “I like to go outside [the industry]. I went to a tech conference in 2018 just to see what tech founders were doing. It’s called ‘AfroTech,’ which is now in Houston next month, but it’s a huge, huge event just to understand what is this industry? What’s happening? What’s going on? What are the advancements? These are the people who are going to change our world for tomorrow.”
Nicholas also encouraged agents to try and stay motivated now during the current challenging market conditions, and look at the down market as an opportunity.
“You can really build in this moment,” Nicholas said. “If you can sell in this market, only imagine if interest rates even lower a little bit … Capitalize on the moments that are the hardest so that you can [gain] traction in the future.”
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