What’s a Duffy? A Way to Sell a $55M Mansion, With Rappers, Haters, and Boatloads of Humor

The Smith Group/Coldwell Banker/YouTube

What is a Duffy? Oh, just the latest way to generate buzz about a $45 million listing in Newport Beach, CA.

Allow us to explain: Remember that 2010 hit song “Teach Me How to Dougie” by Cali Swag District? Well, one real estate brokerage had the clever idea to spoof the original with a music video, “Teach Me How to Duffy,” starring members of the hip-hop outfit as well as the waterfront mansion that will officially be listed on Monday.

In the four-minute video, Smoove da General and Yung are lost in Newport Beach, so they stop and ask for directions from a group of partiers on the dock by a “Duffy”—which, for you non–Newport Beach peeps, is an electric-powered boat invented in the 1970s by local Marshall “Duffy” Duffield (who supplied the boat for this video, by the way).

Of course, these out-of-town rappers have no clue what a Duffy is, either, and ask for clarification. “Dougie”? No, Duffy. The pair are intrigued, and ask, “You mind teaching us how to Duffy?”

And off they go on their virgin Duffy cruise through Newport Beach’s party scene on and off the water, which includes a swanky pit stop at a 14,000-square-foot estate that, according to the video, “can park eight Duffies on the dock.” In other words, by Newport Beach standards, paradise!

Although the house is showcased sparingly in the video, it certainly whetted our appetite to see more—and we were luckily able to get our hands on exclusive listing pics early, thanks to Tim Smith, head of the Smith Group at Coldwell Banker. Check ’em out below!

The “Duffy house” is for sale for $45 million.

The Smith Group/Coldwell Banker

Listed at $44.99 million, to be exact, this completely renovated house is one of Newport Beach’s most expensive listings. So, to Smith, it made sense to go all-out marketing the place.

“We’ve had this Duffy idea and lyrics for over a year, and were just waiting for the right listing to use it with, like a singer waiting for the right venue to sing a song,” Smith says. (And the right home seller with a sense of humor who’d be game to give it a try.)

The interior

The Smith Group/Coldwell Banker

Although Smith says his team was prepared to find stand-in singers and dancers to perform the parody, they reached out to Cali Swag District, who agreed to the gig. The artists even persuaded Smith to make a hilarious cameo in which he raps the property’s features, which include “five bedrooms with a loft, game room and a gym, two bars full of gin, and three pools for a swim!”

The video, produced in five days, cost a whopping $50,000. But Smith is confident it’s worth every penny, based on the response he’s received so far.

Lounge area

The Smith Group/Coldwell Banker

“We’ve done a lot of videos, but there’s never been so much energy and talk around it like this one,” Smith says. “The number of shares is bananas.”

And here’s another more surprising sign they’ve hit a nerve: “The number of haters,” he says. “Many of the comments were like, ‘This is the stupidest thing ever. Why would you use a Duffy boat?”

The bedroom

The Smith Group/Coldwell Banker

Clicks, shares, and even haters are one thing (or three), but what about bona fide buyers? Smiths says they’ve already received some serious inquiries from buyers with bank accounts big enough to foot the bill. He wagers he’ll sell this place by the end of the year.

And haters aside, Smith would also bet that this video is great publicity not only for their listing, but also for a whole different business.

“This is actually a huge promotion for Duffies,” Smith says. “They really typify what you do in Newport Beach.”

The view from the waterside

The Smith Group/Coldwell Banker

The post What’s a Duffy? A Way to Sell a $55M Mansion, With Rappers, Haters, and Boatloads of Humor appeared first on Real Estate News & Insights | realtor.com®.

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