Cloud Hidden Sold
by Freda Parker
January 19, 2007
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This cozy, sunken room is the central living area at Cloud |
There's always a market for quality!
So says Jim Kaslik, designer of Cloud Hidden, the luxurious, tri-level Monolithic Dome home that he, his wife and daughter moved into in 2000.
According to Jim, they loved Cloud Hidden and were not planning to move. Then, a change that might delight many homeowners began troubling the Kasliks.
"We decided to leave because of what was happening in the market. Our real estate values went up," Jim said. "I mean they really, really went up fast and so did our taxes. They tripled in five years, and we knew they would go up again in the next few years."
In 2006 the Kasliks listed Cloud Hidden with Sheelah Clarkson, an agency specializing in luxury homes in the Asheville, North Carolina area.
The house was listed for $1,650,000. It sold within about nine months, in the winter, for more than its appraised value.
"That's why I say that when a home is done with quality, it will sell -- no matter what," Jim reiterated. "The focus has got to be on quality, workmanship and detail."
The Sales Strategy
Sheelah Clarkson and the Kasliks decided on a marketing strategy that presented Cloud Hidden's elegance. On her website (www.sheelahclarkson.com) Clarkson called it "... sculptural space ... the perfection of form and function" and "Asheville's most architecturally significant home ...."
The word "dome" was never used. "We didn't hide the shape and we didn't promote it. Personally, I feel that (promoting shape) takes people down the wrong track," Jim said. "It's a luxury home period. It's contemporary styling. It's a house, and each house has its own characteristics, and ours happened to have some really good ones -- as the whole genre does.
"I wanted to focus on the livability, comfort and special characteristics, rather than just shape," he continued.
The realtor agreed. But they did show dozens of outside and inside photos, so prospective buyers knew what Cloud Hidden looked like before their visit.
The Sale
Jim said that right from the start Clarkson treated Cloud Hidden as a unique, luxury property. She did not post signs leading to it, nor did she hold an open house.
Instead and in addition to her extensive, detailed website description, Clarkson persuaded the Architectural Digest to feature Cloud Hidden in its Sept. 2006 issue.
"It got into a monthly column that's called something like 'Editor's Choice Estates for Sale' that highlights just 10 estates from around the world that are for sale, all in a million to whatever price," Jim said. "Some are absolutely gargantuan. We were toward the more modest side, of course. But they only do 8 to 10 of these from the whole world, so to actually get a listing in there was phenomenal."
That listing attracted the buyers of Cloud Hidden.
The Inspections
Understandably, those buyers insisted on professional inspections of the dome's structural construction, its heating, plumbing and electrical.
"They had all kinds of engineers and inspectors crawling all over the place," Jim said. "And they always got a great report back. The realtor told me that every inspector reported back to her by saying something like, 'That's the best built house I've ever had a chance to look at.'
"It took that for the buyers to be comfortable enough to commit, and that was fine with us," Jim concluded.
Note: The Kasliks now live near Winston-Salem, NC in a traditional home, but they miss dome living and plan to build another in the future. Meanwhile, Jim continues doing business as Cloud Hidden Designs, LLC at www.cloudhidden.org or (336) 480-5581.
Related Link:
The Kaslik Residence -- North Carolina
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177
Dome Park Place - Italy, TX 76651
Tel (972)483-7423 - Fax (972)483-6662
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