Is an elephant a movable item

Since beginning of 2011 I work as a freelancer for Century21 wildlife properties Hoedspruit. My colleague - Rob Severin - had an interesting story to tell:

Recently I sold a house, and at the time of showing the potential buyers the property there were two elephants, 30 yards in front of the porch, at a water hole. Since selling property can be an emotive process, I appealed to the buyers’ emotional side by jokingly saying, “And it comes with these two elephants”.

The buyers were ex New York traders, ‘trading’ in the city life for a more relaxing and stress free existence, away from the rat race, noise, pollution, traffic, crime , stocks, derivatives,……….  you get the picture.

No doubt they have weighed up the risks, calculated the up side potential, the time value of money and decided that this was the safest investment that they could make. They are right of course. Real estate in our market has weathered the global financial storms, and even increased in value. Coastal properties can be found all over the world. What we have is not coastal, and only a small blip on the earth, but a very popular one at that.

The deal went through without a glitch, money moved across continents, with lots of zeros and ones. When occupation took place my chuffed buyers face turned to concern. They demanded to know where their elephants were. I was somewhat shocked, stuttering for words … “Well, um … they move around you know.”  Was the only answer I could come up with. 

Now the ex New Yorkers were quite correct, they had bought the property, and elephants are included in the deal. In fact there is the “Big 5” which also includes Lions, Rhino, Leopard and Buffalo and this was all included in the deal.

However the “Big 5” including the elephants are free to come and go. They are moveable items included in the sale. However, they are not listed as movable items in the purchase agreement. There was also no mention of Giraffe, Zebra, Wildebeest, Kudu, Impala, Hippo, Cheetah, Hyena and Warthog which were also included. These movable items are in fact not so movable at all. Try relocating an elephant and you will know what I am saying.

Now if I’ve lost you, let me explain. The ex- New Yorkers had purchased a 54 acre plot in a game reserve which is open to the Kruger National Park in South Africa. There are no fences between the Kruger Park and their property. Animals come as go as they please. There are several land owners owning the private reserve, and the animals belong to every one, but actually, no one. Nobody derives direct financial benefit from them, but they are there to be enjoyed by all. The city slickers had traded in their iPads for sketch pads, Long Island Ice Tea’s for G & T’s, Central Park for Kruger Park and Star Bucks for Water Buck.

So if you to buy a piece of Africa and live among wild animals, we will include the elephants, but don’t expect them to be in the listed as movable items.

Century 21 Wildlife Properties specialize in selling houses, land and commercial game lodges in game reserves, wildlife estate and conservation areas, in and around the Hoedspruit and Kruger National Park area in South Africa.

For more information, photos and You Tube Videos on living in a game reserve go to http://www.century21wildlife.co.za/

Regards from the bush,

Corné van Dongen.

Amukela Game Lodge.

http://www.amukela.com/