Help sell Garcia's $1.25 million home and get free airline tickets

By JENNIFER BROOKS • Staff Writer (tennessean)• June 17, 2008 Former Metro Schools Director Pedro Garcia and his wife are what you might call motivated sellers. Garcia, who was bought out of his contract by the Metro school board in January, is ready to leave town with his six-figure severance package, but first he needs to find a buyer for his $1.25 million, five-bedroom, 6,500-square-foot, Radnor Lake-area house in the middle of a recession and a real estate slump. To get prospective buyers through the door — you can't appreciate the hardwood floors, or the two fireplaces, or the waterfall or the pool if you don't at least get through the door — the Garcias are ready to sweeten the deal. "We will give two round-trip tickets to anywhere Southwest flies and a box seat for four at the Hollywood Bowl in Hollywood to anyone whose recommendations lead to a direct sale of this house," Priscilla Partridge, Garcia's wife, wrote in an e-mail to friends and acquaintances on Monday. She did not respond to The Tennessean's request for an interview. Her Realtor, Mara Thompson of Zeitlin & Co., said more and more sellers are turning to incentives. She has seen people offer cars, a year of free gasoline, cruise vacation packages and even — in the case of one $2.2 million home for sale in Green Hills — college tuition for the buyer's kids. "A lot of people are doing it," Thompson said. "With the market as it is today, I think people are just trying to be a bit creative." Thompson said the free airfare and tickets to the storied outdoor amphitheater were the Garcias' idea, and she has yet to see an incentive actually seal the deal for a homebuyer. The house, which the Garcias bought in 2003 for $957,000, has been appraised by the Davidson County property assessor's office for tax purposes at $996,400. It's an 11-year-old brick home with six bathrooms and a much-sought-after Brentwood address. This article has been amended from a previous version.