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The window for contingency plans is swiftly coming to a close for Donald Trump.
The former president and current Republican presidential nominee has until Monday to secure an appeal bond for $454 million in his civil fraud case in New York. But that time frame is a bit too little, too late if Trump had wanted to convert some of his real estate assets into cash to help make up the bond, Brown Harris Stevens CEO Bess Freedman told Erin Burnett on CNN’s OutFront on Tuesday.
Bess Freedman | Brown Harris Stevens
“We don’t have enough time,” Freedman said. “I think you need at least 30 days to get any of these properties sold.”
That said, Mar-a-Lago is a property that could move the needle, in terms of chipping away at the bond’s sum, Freedman added.
“The property you alluded to — Mar-a-Lago — potentially, that could be something that could be sold quickly,” the CEO said. “I think the valuation is something in the hundreds of millions and I think there could be a buyer for something like that.”
The CNN report noted that some outlets have estimated Mar-a-Lago to be worth $240 million, although Trump claimed at trial — backed by luxury broker Lawrence Moens — that it was worth more than $1 billion.
Freedman said the Palm Beach estate and private club is probably Trump’s best bet for a quick property sale. And Palm Beach is just the market for generating demand.
During Q4 2023, the number of luxury sales in Palm Beach increased 20 percent year over year from five to six sales, according to Douglas Elliman and Miller Samuel. Meanwhile, the median sales price dropped about 52 percent year over year to $15.38 million. The Elliman report also notes that an abundance of pocket listings over the last three years, despite an otherwise limited supply, has helped to prevent bidding wars.
“There could be plenty of international people who want to buy that property,” Freedman said. “And Palm Beach is like ‘the Nvidia of real estate’ — it’s just shot up like a rocket.”
“I think that would be the best-case scenario as to property he’s trying to sell quickly — I would encourage that,” she added.
Correction: An earlier version of this story misquoted the number of luxury sales that closed in Q4 2022 as four sales. There were five luxury sales closed in Q4 2022.
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