Millionaires ‘row’

LA 'mansion tax' has rich scrambling to sell

The real-estate market might be cooling nationally, but among the multimillionaire set in Los Angeles, it has been red-hot — so much so that some sellers are getting burned.

Sellers have been throwing in brand-new Bentleys and McLarens and drastically slashing prices to incentivize a quick close.

That’s because a so-called “mansion tax” goes into effect Saturday in Los Angeles, adding a 4% tax for sellers on homes that sell for between $5 million and $10 million and 5.5% on amounts $10 million and above.

The change will add hundreds of thousands — if not millions — of dollars in new transfer taxes for sellers, which will go to support a homeless-housing measure Angelenos passed in November.

Celebrities such as Jim Carrey and Mark Wahlberg, not to mention a slew of lesser-known multimillionaires, have all rushed to dump their homes in the last few months.

After 30 years in his 12,700square-foot home in Brentwood, Carrey made the big decision to list it in February for $29 million. So far, there are no takers. Same with Jennifer Lopez, who put her Bel Air place up for sale in February.

James Corden is willing to slash and burn the price of his Brentwood Park house, recently cutting it from $22 million to $17.95 million.

But that’s nothing compared to Wahlberg.

The “Ted” actor had put his 30,500-square-foot estate on the market months prior to the measure’s passage, at an eye-watering $87.5 million.

But he ended up selling the Beverly Park property for $55 million — a 37% price drop — in February.

Multiple brokers told The Post they felt Wahlberg could have done better if not for the looming deadline of that multimillion-dollar tax bill he would have faced starting this April Fool’s Day.

“It’s crazy out there right now,” said Josh Altman, a luxury broker with Douglas Elliman in Los Angeles who regularly appears on Bravo’s “Million Dollar Listing.”

“I’ve literally become not only a real-estate agent, which I signed up for, but I’m now a yacht salesman, a car broker and a wholesale furniture salesman,” Altman said of the enticements sellers are offering to lure buyers. “That’s what it’s come down to.”

Altman said that after two decades in the real-estate business, he’s had the record month of his career, despite otherwise lackluster home sales across the nation.

In the past 72 hours alone, Altman said he closed roughly 20 deals.

In March, he sold $205 million — nearly doubling the typical sales of $104 million a month his team hits as the top sellers in the country.

“People need to get as creative as possible to motivate the buyer to close before this [tax goes into effect],” Altman said. “A lot of times it’s . . . a cut-your-losses type of approach. Maybe [throwing in] a Lamborghini that costs $350,000 . . . is going to save you from paying $600,000 in taxes, so you might as well do it.”

Altman even offered a $1 million bonus for a buyer’s agent on top of the regular commission to try to unload a seven-bedroom Bel Air mansion listed for $27,995,000.

While it went into counter offers, the home isn’t going to close in time to meet the deadline, he said.

Still, Altman considers offering the incentive a win because lots of agents showed up to check out the place and potential deals are progressing.

Tyrone McKillen, a broker with the luxury agency Official, said he completed a whirlwind 48-hour close Wednesday, the fastest he’s ever done.

It was for a six-bedroom, 11,000square-foot home in Windsor Square that was restored by designer Jake Arnold. It dates to 1917 and boasts its own Prohibition-era speakeasy bar.

The selling price? A whole $16 million — down from the initial listed ask of $19,995,000.

“There’s been a bit of a frenzy the last few weeks,” McKillen said, noting that he has even just sold his own home.

He’s done an impressive five deals on pricey homes in the last few weeks. All five, he said, were closed “with a term in the contract that the deal would either cancel or be increased by the 5.5% tax, should escrow get delayed beyond this week.”