Luxury Insights

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!

2010 - Best Market Report

2010 Marketing Awards:
Best Agent Market Report

Winner: Susan Lowe
Chase International, Lake Tahoe, NV

Institute members know that the fastest way to establish credibility in a market is to produce a comprehensive market report on a regular basis.  Each of the entries in this category was outstanding. 

What the judge liked about the winner was:

1. The price banding charts looking at market data by BOTH price range and geographic area.
2. The use of the information in an extensive press release campaign to the media--this has resulted in Sue being called frequently for press interviews.
3. The use of the statistical charts and graphs from the report in a direct-mail postcard campaign. 

Susan Lowe at Chase has done her market update report for 9 years and her excellent market information is now used by other agents at Chase International.   Once again, congratulations Susan!

2010 - Best Online Marketing

2010 Marketing Awards:
Best Online Marketing

Winner: Jennifer Kirby
Exit Realty Ventures, Farmington, Minnesota

Jennifer's online marketing strategy is centered around her blogs.  Her Minneapolis Luxury Real Estate Blog  features well-written content that is relevant and interesting to current and potential homeowners.  It demonstrates her local knowledge, market expertise, and helps to position her as the local luxury expert. Her well-crafted posts and beautiful photos highlight design trends, historic homes, what does and doesn't work when marketing luxury homes, local market stats, and so much more. 

The bottom line:  the content is rich, engaging, and useful.  Google aggrees.  Her blog enjoys the #1 spot in organic search results for "Minneapolis luxury real estate." 

In addition to her main luxury blog, Jennifer has additional blogs based on specific market segments or lifystyles that are relevant to her own expertise and the markets and propects she is targeting.  For example:

• Historic Homes of Minnesota
• The Minnesota Garden
• Fine Homes in the Twin Cities

Her blogs are built on Wordpress, and have excellent usability--she has chosen layouts and themes that are simple, clean, easy to read, and easy to navigate.  She has been blogging consistently since the beginning of 2007.

Jennifer is a great example of a successful online strategy based primarily on blogging.   Her blogs are driving new business--directly delivering luxury listings and sales.

Congratulations to Jennifer on a simple-but-effective online strategy very well-executed!

Luxury is About the Stories

In their Luxury Magazine supplement, The New York Times has been running a series of interviews with fashion insiders on the subject of LUXURY, asking each of them the following eight questions:

1. What is your most treasured possession?
2. What is the quality you most desire in a fine product?
3. If you were a handbag, what would it look like?
4. If “luxury” changed its name — what should it be called?
5. Is your idea of luxury tangible — or a sensation/ experience?
6. Can luxury be virtual as well as actual?
7. What do you consider the most overrated luxury?
8. Is your ultimate luxury time — for yourself?

The interview with Imran Amed, the Founder of Business of Fashion and a strategic consultant for international luxury brands, particurarily caught my eye. 

Here are a few of his answers:

What is your most treasured possession?
It’s a tie between a durable, boiled cashmere blazer by the Japanese bespoke tailors ICHO and a vintage Heuer Carrera watch from the late 1960s. Both are high-quality, versatile items suited to my taste and style, with deeply personal stories attached to them. And both — if cared for properly — will last forever.

What is the quality you most desire in a fine product?
It must enable me to reflect my own personality and fit with the way I live, rather than stamp me with a logo or reflect the current fashion trends.

If “luxury” changed its name — what should it be called?
During a period of unrestrained economic expansion, prices of so-called luxury products had risen to an all-time high, while quality and workmanship suffered. In short, consumers were paying more for less. This is why new luxury must focus on traditional luxury values: craftsmanship, personalization, heritage, quality at a fair price.

Is your idea of luxury tangible — or a sensation/ experience?
For me, luxury is about the stories, feelings and meaning attached to objects, as opposed to the actual objects themselves. For example, a traditional, handmade Alpaca scarf I discovered in a small, hidden shop in the San Telmo district of Buenos Aires is so much more luxurious to me than a mass-produced cashmere scarf piled up next to hundreds of others in a generic luxury flagship. True luxury must offer life-enriching experiences and stories, as well as attractive objects. Indeed, these kinds of stories may be the most enduring form of luxury of all, because they never expire.

Think about this as it might be applied to luxury real estate.  Many of your potential buyers may share Imran's values and outlook.  Will your marketing materials resonate with them?  Does your copy reflect these or similar values?  What are the values of your targeted buyers?  As we've long said, "Every home has a story.  It is your job to find it and tell it well."