A growing number of sellers are seeking pre-IPO stock rather than cash for their multimillion-dollar homes. It might be expected from a home seller near Silicon Valley, but reports of listings offering to sell for Anthropic or OpenAI shares have been seen in Miami and Brooklyn, as well as more than one residence in the San Francisco Bay Area.
That raises a basic question: Can someone buy a house with the private stock of companies soon to go public?
It may be legal, experts say, but there is at least one hurdle that may be impossible to clear.
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A half-million-dollar listing discount for Anthropic stock
Tech-minded home sellers are eager to acquire pre-IPO shares in hopes of riding a wave of rapid appreciation.
And with the expected Anthropic IPO and OpenAI IPO, investor enthusiasm to get in before the opening bell is mounting.
One home listed for sale with a $500,000 discount for Anthropic stock is located in Sonoma County wine country. The Healdsburg vacation rental has a $2.5 million list price, but the owner will accept $2 million in the AI company’s stock.
“The deal is built for the Bay Area buyer whose net worth sits in private-company stock that is hard to spend,” the listing says. “Rather than sell shares and trigger a taxable event to fund a second home, that buyer can put the equity directly toward a Wine Country property that earns income when it is not in personal use.”
Tax experts say that description might not be quite accurate.
Jennifer George, a rep with tax firm PricewaterhouseCoopers, told the San Francisco Chronicle that while a home can be purchased with anything of value, including “cash, a boat, a million chickens,” a buyer using privately held stock can’t avoid capital gains taxes.
The taxable event would likely be based on the home’s fair market value, minus the shareholder’s cost basis in the stock, George said.
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