Home Sells for $100,000 More Because Buyers Get to Keep the Sellers' Family Cat

A cat in Australia is responsible for not only sealing the deal on the sale of her owners' home butupping the sale price, too. Tiffany the cat belonged to the Perceval family in Glen Iris, a suburb of Melbourne. During a recent home auction, Fran and Michael Perceval were happy to see a top bid of $2,060,000 Australian, which is the equivalent of nearly $1.8 million U.S. When broker Glen Coutinho began negotiations with the bidders, they made an unusual request: They offered to raise their bid by nearly $140,000 Australian ($100,000 U.S.) to $1.9 million U.S. only if they could keep Tiffany. 

It turns out the buyers' child had taken a liking to 4-year-old Tiffany during tours of the five-bedroom home. Earlier, "we jokingly said that all the people coming through are loving her," Fran Perceval recalled. "I said to the agent, 'She goes with the house, ha-ha.' Not expecting at all to actually have a clause written into the contract saying that includes with cat." Coutinho said he thought he had seen it all in his career: "I've had plenty of people say they would throw in their partners, but not pets, no. It's the first time." The buyers' 19-year-old son, who had picked out Tiffany in a pet shop, isn't taking the news so well. But his mom said, "We're thinking we'll put $20,000 in a pile next to the cat and say to Sam, 'You choose'" (he's planning to travel overseas next year). This might be the first cat clause in real estate history.