Luxury Insights

A Favorite Book

We need your help.  NAR is polling REALTORS to discover favorite real estate books.  

If you enjoyed Laurie’s book,  “Rich Buyer, Rich Seller! The Real Estate Agents’ Guide to Marketing Luxury Homes,”  will you take two minutes this week to let NAR know?   Thanks so much.

Just copy the info below, add your name and contact information and email it to Erica Christoffer at echristoffer@realtors.org

• Title of the real estate book:  “Rich Buyer, Rich Seller!  The Real Estate Agents’ Guide to Luxury Marketing Luxury Homes”
• Author’s name:  Laurie Moore-Moore
• Your name:
• Your contact information:
• Why it’s your favorite book:

Send your photo, too, and NAR will feature you on their blog!

Wow! What an Event.

The Leaders in Luxury 2011 Advisory Board on stage at the LIL 2011 Awards Dinner: Carole Smith, Gretchen Lambeth, Leslee Farrell, Kathleen Bucher, Maria Babaev

 

A big "thank you" to the more than 140 top agents from the U.S., Canada, and Mexico who gathered at the Ritz Carlton Laguna Niguel and made Leaders in Luxury 2011 a smashing success.  

Special thanks to our Advisory Board (pictured above), our International Team of Dawna Borg and Toni Viola, and also to Dave Wilkinson and Lori McGuire for letting us tour their listings.  

Thanks too to our speakers and panelists for sharing their unique knowledge and insights.  The information and ideas were fantastic and so was the networking!  

What a fantastic group.  Thank you all.  

Here are some photos of the cocktail and Awards Dinner: 

We're already looking forward to next year!

 

Luxury Diva @ NAR Conference & Expo

We're packing our bags for this year's REALTORS Conference and Expo in Anaheim.  Laurie Moore-Moore (a.k.a the "Luxury Diva") will be hosting two panel discussions:

Luxury Marketing's New Wave -- Fresh Ideas That Work 
11/12/2011   |  1:30 PM - 3:00 PM
Location: Anaheim Convention Center, Ballroom A

Discover why top luxury agents are abandoning the old approaches to marketing and using creative new ideas, combining traditional tools with high tech tools, and generating great results in person branding, prospecting and property marketing. While focused towards those working in luxury markets, conference attendees working at all market pricepoints will be sure to obtain ideas you can implement today!

Speaker(s): Laurie Moore-Moore, Jo Ellen Nash, Aaron Wheeler

Luxury Experts Unscripted 
11/12/2011   |  3:00 PM - 3:45 PM
Location: Anaheim Convention Center, Ballroom A

Bring your questions as this bonus time with the luxury session presenters will be entirely unscripted and focus on the audience’s questions or experiences with follow-up comments and suggestions from the experts as well as the others in the room. The moderated format will include presenters from most of the luxury focused sessions for an informal, interactive sharing of ideas and information.

Speakers: Laurie Moore-Moore, Jack Cotton Jr., David Michonski, Aaron Wheeler , Paul Boomsa, Jo Ellen Nash    

If you'd like to hear more from Laurie at next year's NAR conference, be sure to write "More Laurie Moore-Moore!" on the comment forms in this year's sessions.  

See you there!

ForSalebyOwner.com founder fails to sell own home

Listing with real estate broker results in higher price, greater net to seller!

The Founder and former CEO of ForSalebyOwner.com may be rethinking the value of listing a property with a REALTOR.  Colby Sambrotto listed his New York condominium on his own and promoted it on FSBO websites and in online classified ads.  All to no avail.  

After six months, he gave up as a FSBO and listed his 2000 square foot unit with New York broker Jesse Buckler.  His new listing agent recommended retargeting the property to different buyer groups and suggested a new list price.  

The Wall Street Journal reports that the listing sold for $2.15 million with a 6% professional fee to the broker.  Since the condo sold for $150,000 more that the original asking price, Sambrotto netted an extra $21,000 after the professional fee was paid.  

Bottom line -- it paid the FSBO website founder to use a pro!

Making sense of the Census

The New York Times has published a nifty data visualization tool on their website that allows you explore the latest Census data via a map interface.  As they put it, "Browse population growth and decline, changes in racial and ethnic concentrations and patterns of housing development."

A nice tool to assist you in staying on top of market trends and opportunities. 

Will and Kate – Above the Clouds

We’ve joined this week’s royal wedding hoopla with the question:

 If Will and Kate ventured across the pond to buy a home,
what might be the perfect match for them?  

Currently the royal couple are nestled in a whitewashed farm house on the tiny windswept isle of Anglesey in NW Wales (rented for a bargain £750 a month) while William finishes his Royal Air Force tour of duty.  Then, one presumes, they’ll spend some time in the new 6-bedroom eco-friendly home Daddy (oops! That’s Prince Charles to us) has built on his 900 acre Herefordshire estate.  

But, if the young royals yearn for privacy, security and a bit of distance from family politics and royal pressures, we’ve surveyed our members and concluded that ILHM member Sharon Bateman of Pall Spera  Company has a perfect North American listing for Kate and Will -- Above the Clouds. Perched on massive rocks on Stowe, Vermont’s highest ground and featuring a dramatic rock ledge canyon approach, Above the Clouds is an 18,000 square foot, 15 acre property offering quiet elegance and local craftsmanship.

The approximately £8.82 million price ($16 million) would hardly put a dent in the royal coffers.  New York City, Boston and Montreal are just short flights away and there’s ample room for Kate’s hats, Will’s Ducati bike, new heirs and the Royal Protection Squad.  

So, we join Sharon Bateman in issuing an invitation to the young royals, their “screeners,” and to Fleet Street (the UK Press) to schedule a showing! Please come (and don’t hold the revolution against us).

Check out the playlet Sharon’s team wrote imagining a conversation between Will and Kate:

Will and Kate In the Clouds (A one-act playlet)

Place: Interior of Balmoral Castle
Time: After the storybook wedding.

Will: (with amusement) I do wish we could get away from it all.
Kate: (an oblique smile) My little clotted cream. I too want to be where we can just muck around.
Will: How exactly do you mean?
Kate: Don’t be so vieux jeu.
Will: I didn’t read French at Oxford.
Kate: O, Wills, I want to pole a punt upstream with you in the bowseat, remember the Cherwell, picnic on the river, sip some fizz...get dirty. With soil, I mean.
Will: Yes, yes...(looks pensive). Can I give up the feel of marble underfoot…
Kate: (Pokes Will’s chest playfully) I want to show you something.
Will: (blushing) Oh?
Kate: (whips out her iPad, strums furiously across keyboard.) Look.
Will: (a tad disappointed) Oh!
Kate: (showing him the iPad) It’s in Stowe, Vermont. Look at that three-story living room and Bottocino marble everywhere. Sunken tub, Oh Wills, Henry VIII would fit comfortably.
Will: Quite stunning, Chamonix?
Kate: New England!
Will: Neeeeeew England? Where the Dickens is that?
Kate: Across the pond in the colonies! Above the Clouds, the name of the estate.
Will: (looking at iPad) An East and West wing! Magnificent views of the ski trails minutes away. Pops, ugh…dad, will love it. I love it, all 18,000 SFs of it. What is that in metric, love?
Kate: Did you say Pops?

 

 

Property photographs and details:
www.abovethecloudsvt.com
Property MLS information

An Exclusive Summer Soiree in London

Looking to connect with the "jet set" this July?  

Try the Concours d'Elegance in London.  July 27-29 the exclusive, private Hurlingham Club plays host to one of the world's most exclusive garden parties.   Take an afternoon stroll through the lawns and explore the finest luxury offerings from top brands in fashion, jewellery, yachts, aviation, and collectible automobiles.  Promote your own exclusive properties, or explore those on offer.  

The soiree lasts well into the night, so there is ample opportunity to mix and mingle, see and be seen.

Consider it old fashioned social networking.

Targeting the Coastal Lifestyle?

New discounts and options available to market your property to a captive audience of coastal home prospects

We're pleased to announce that Ocean Home Magazine is now offering special pricing on both print and online advertising for Members of The Institute for Luxury Home Marketing.

Ocean Home’s targeted circulation to the nation’s most affluent households ensures that your message reaches an audience with unmatched buying power. Ocean Home readers are sophisticated and savvy and are most qualified by income, net worth, lifestyle, and regional location to purchase ocean homes of all types.  

OCEAN HOME READERS:

• Average age: 51
• Gender: 51% Female, 49% Male
• Married: 90%
• Average HHI: $1,214,000
• Net Worth: $5,831,000
• Primary Residence Value: $1,964,000

Reach these active buyers of coastal and island property with pinpoint accuracy through Ocean Home's qualified network and distribution sources. Ocean Home's readership is comprised of a highly select group of second, third, and fourth home buyers, coupled with the private customer lists of their strategic advertising partners.

You'll find a complete Real Estate Media Kit with special pricing for Institute Members on the Ocean Home page in the Members Only section of our website.  In addition to the special pricing, you'll also find the editorial calendar for 2011, a list of online resources, special promotions, and more.

You can contact them directly with questions and to find out how they can help you deliver on your marketing promises and find the affluent buyers and sellers you seek.

Ocean Home Magazine
16 Haverhill St., Suite 300
Andover, MA 01810
978-824-2804
sales@oceanhomemag.com
http://oceanhomemag.com/

A big "THANK YOU" to Ocean Home Magazine for their support of Institute Members like you! 

A peek into the world's most expensive apartments

This Al Jazeera video offers a quick peek into the ultra-expensive London apartment development One Hyde Park where one-bedroom apartments start at $10M and the penthouses go for more than $200M.

 

Never Underestimate the Power of a Redhead!

Gretchen knows marketing.  She gets it.  

From her witty, memorable, and benefit-oriented tagline to her great market reports, she delivers the competence and knowledge that her affluent clients seek.  She understands that good marketing is about telling the right stores and always delivering on promises.  

In years past, that understanding has put her among the top performing agents in Kona, Hawaii.  This year it has also earned her recognition from the West Hawaii Association of Realtors as Broker of Year.  

Curious as to how she found success?  Here's her story in her own words...

Congratulations Gretchen!