- Broker Ann Abernethy specializes in ranch properties, both in California and in Colorado.
- Her listing video for Bernie Taupin's property features songs he wrote for Elton John and a look inside his creative space.
Ever wondered where artists get their inspiration?
If you’re songwriter and visual artist Bernie Taupin — perhaps best known for his 50-year collaboration with pop singer Elton John — then you consider Roundup Valley Ranch “incredibly inspirational.” Taupin talks about the creative work he did at the ranch, where he’s lived since the 1980s, in a listing video that broker Ann Abernethy put together for the property.
Video credit: Narr8 Media
About the broker
Abernethy is a broker both in Aspen, Colorado, as well as in California; she lived in the Santa Ynez Valley, where Roundup Valley Ranch is located, for several years.
“It was a way I could work between 8 and 3 every day and pick my kids up at school and do the same thing the next day,” she said about her entry into the business. And after she moved to Santa Ynez, “I started falling in love with ranches.”
Selling ranches isn’t quite like selling a typical property, she noted. “These are estates; they’re compounds,” she explained.
Landing the listing
Abernethy says that she was introduced to Taupin and his wife through common friends. “His wife, Heather, handles all this — she’s a powerhouse,” Abernethy said.
The Taupins had previously listed the ranch at $5.9 million. Abernethy has it priced at $4.7 million.
She’s worked with celebrities before, and she says that her strategy is typically to hire a publicist. “Some celebrities want to use their names to leverage the profile of their properties, and some want absolutely nothing to do with that,” she said. A publicist can help get the name out in the first case — and keep the name out in the second.
Making the video
“Any iconic song anyone has heard Elton John sing is in this video,” Abernethy noted. “They’ve been working together writing for 50 years, which is remarkable in anybody’s business but particularly the music business.”
Bernie Taupin “has created his own life, his own world, his own creative space to be able to do those things,” she added.
And now he’s ready to pass that world along to someone else so he can build something new. “They’re ready to create a new lifestyle for themselves,” Abernethy said. “They’re constantly creating and evolving.”
