| Sentinel Staff Writer June 4, 2009
Jim Benson has been trying to sell his house in a historic district of downtown Orlando for about a year and a half. His asking price for the house is $699,000, and now he hopes his offer to include a 1967 Rolls-Royce will attract a buyer. (Tom Burton, Orlando Sentinel / May 29, 2009)
Jim Benson is kicking in more than the appliances to help sell his historic home in downtown Orlando.
He is also giving away his vintage Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow.
Frustrated with trying to sell the $699,000 house for the past year and a half, the 81-year-old put up yard signs recently advertising the car giveaway. The gleaming black Rolls hasn't sold the house so far, but Benson is hopeful.
"Someone who might want a classic home might appreciate a classic auto to go with it," said Benson, whose interests of late have turned to restoring pipe organs.
Selling a house in today's foreclosure-underpinned market is difficult for anyone: On average, Orlando-area homes took more than three months to sell in April, compared with less than a month at the height of the buying frenzy in July 2005, according to figures kept by local Realtors. Owners of custom homes have to work even harder to lure qualified buyers.
Realtor Margaret Barnes said the number of showings at the Benson house has increased in recent weeks, though she was unsure whether the car had anything to do with it.
Home sellers have given away cars before. Cambridge Homes, for instance, has tossed in a Mini Cooper with a purchase. But the keys to a chauffeur-worthy Rolls?
Benson knows he's competing against houses with furnishings staged by interior designers. His son has told him that buyers want granite counter tops and luxury master suites. Benson's yellow-brick, columned house at Broadway Avenue and Concord Street has none of those things.Both the house and the car, however, share a more understated appeal.
The four-story home rests on dense, fortresslike wooden beams that weigh more than cast concrete. Its long-hewn floor planks dwarf today's laminates.
Similarly, the 40-year-old car has no halogen headlights or LCD screens, but the back seat smells like hand-tooled leather from prized cowhide. The doors shut with a vacuum-seal sound rather than a metallic clang. The engine of the 2-ton behemoth, Benson said, runs so well that it "has never had a wrench touch it."
Benson said he first fell in love with the car of British royalty in the mid-1960s, when he was stationed with the U.S. Navy in Scotland and on temporary assignment in London. Four years after returning to the States, he still longed for the classic auto and went back for one. In England, he found a used 1967 Shadow in good condition for $12,000. After paying $1,000 for shipping, it was his. Silver Shadows, produced in greater numbers than other Rolls lines, retail today from less than $20,000 to $50,000 each.
For about eight years, Benson's collectible has been garaged at his son's home in Kissimmee. Tom Benson tools around the neighborhood in it each week to keep it in good condition. Even when Jim Benson kept it near him in Orlando, the regal set of wheels was cloistered in his garage.
"I didn't tell many people I owned it because people get the wrong idea — that you're rich," he said. "Better to play it low key."
Benson said he still prizes the quality of both the car and the house, but he no longer drives the one, and his knees complain about the flights of stairs in the other.
"I don't have a need for the house. I don't have a need for the car," Benson said. "But I've never fallen out of love with them."
(Tom Burton, Orlando Sentinel / May 29, 2009)
April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008