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Luxury Real Estate Marketing: The Danger of Ignoring Trends - Part 3

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Services for Real Estate Pros with Napa Consultants DRE00893924

Photo by Falcon 1708

Perhaps the most important business skill that you can cultivate as a luxury real estate marketing professional is listening.  This does not only mean giving your clients your full attention in order to understand their needs.  It also means listening to your own intuition and paying attention to the trends in the marketplace.  The danger of ignoring your client’s needs, your own intuition and market trends as a market leader can leave you vulnerable to sharply focused challengers.

One of the most dangerous liabilities that a market leader can have is the inability or unwillingness to quickly shift paradigms. A paradigm is a mindset, a pattern of thinking or a model for something especially one that forms the basis of a methodology or theory. 

Shifting from the printed MLS books to the online IDX represented a complete paradigm shift in the real estate industry. So profound was this shift that the IDX could be called a “game changer”.  It empowered consumers to search for properties on their own, eliminating the gatekeepers (agents) to this market information. Those brokerage firms and agents who understood the significance of this trend and jumped on the IDX bandwagon when it first came out had a definite competitive advantage over those who were stuck in the previous paradigm.

In Part 1 and Part 2 of this article series we covered how slow Microsoft was to shift paradigms with the advent of “cloud-based” software, smart phones, tablets and the apps that can be purchased for them.  Research in Motion (RIM-Blackberry smart phones), was also slow to shift paradigms to touch screens with apps.  They had an enormous competitive advantage as the preferred purveyor of smart phones for business.   

Had RIM quickly come out with a touch screen version of their smartphone featuring the best business apps, plus consumer apps that could be “used on weekends”, i.e., double as a consumer device, they may have been able to stem off their very steep decline in market share. In 2009, RIM shipped 54% of the smart phones sold in North America.  Now, it is shipping an estimated 13% in the second calendar quarter of 2011.

Being nimble, that is quick to respond to trends, is the ability and willingness to shift paradigms.  One of the key trends in luxury real estate is downsizing. No longer is it particularly a status symbol to have enormous homes.  Less can be more.  Ask your clients who own large homes if they may be interested in finding a smaller one.  Listen to their needs carefully and you may find hidden business right under your nose.

Listen to your intuition and pay close attention to trends. This will serve you well in marketing luxury real estate.  Ignore trends at your own peril. 

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Comments (14)

Jordon Wheeler
The Jordon Wheeler Group - Fairburn, GA
J W Group Real Estate Sales and Service

Ron and Alexandra, great advice that works at every level in the real estate market.  I've been considering a luxury marketing addition to my brokerage, so I need to read all three posts in the series.  Thanks!

Sep 14, 2011 05:24 PM
Larry Lawfer
YourStories Realty Group - Newton, MA
"I listen for a living." It's all about you.

I have never seen Real Estate as a cutting edge business.  It is like herding bunny rabbits, or pushing jello up hill to get a group to move.  This is why there are a clear 20% of the agents doing more than the 80% of the transactions and this includes the luxury market sector.  There is so much individuality and not enough looking at trends and understanding business at its core in real estate from my short time in the industry.  I always enjoy and am informed by your insights, thank you.

Sep 15, 2011 01:58 AM
Kevin J. May
Florida Supreme Realty - Hobe Sound, FL
Serving the Treasure & Paradise Coasts of Florida

No better way to express this for me than to do so with a "Wedge" visual.  It simply "clicks" perfectly!

Sep 15, 2011 02:18 AM
Toni Weidman
Sailwinds Realty - Trinity, FL
20+ Years Selling Homes in New Port Richey, FL

Many real estate agents are mavericks that really don't want to be told what or how to do something; and many are so comfortable using their old MLS books that the thought of using a tablet shakes them to the core and they run screaming. They are doing their customers a dis-service but since they are in their own little cotton ball world-they don't want to admit it.

I love Larry's analogy of pushing jello uphill-that made me laugh.

Sep 15, 2011 06:01 AM
Steve, Joel & Steve A. Chain
Chain Real Estate Investments & Mortgage, Steve & Joel Chain - Cottonwood, CA

Ron & Alexandra,

I love the photo; Every wave trend can be viewed with hindsight, insight or foresight. I love how surfers seem to start paddling before you can tell a wave is developing... but they know it's coming. lol

Best,

Steve

Sep 15, 2011 06:22 AM
Ron and Alexandra Seigel
Napa Consultants - Carpinteria, CA
Luxury Real Estate Branding, Marketing & Strategy

Jordon,,

We wish you all the success in the world in adding a luxury division for your brokerage.  Thanks for commenting, we look forward to hearing from you. A

Sep 15, 2011 10:05 AM
Ron and Alexandra Seigel
Napa Consultants - Carpinteria, CA
Luxury Real Estate Branding, Marketing & Strategy

Larry,

You are so right, which is why the opportunity is so huge.  Smart people who have never sold real estate are moving in and with their leading edge savvy are taking over from the jello group...So a pro can have a field day, that is what we have preaching here. A

Sep 15, 2011 10:07 AM
Ron and Alexandra Seigel
Napa Consultants - Carpinteria, CA
Luxury Real Estate Branding, Marketing & Strategy

Kevin,

I appreciate your commentary and your interpretation.  It is a pleasure to have such brilliant insights from the likes of you. a

Sep 15, 2011 10:08 AM
Ron and Alexandra Seigel
Napa Consultants - Carpinteria, CA
Luxury Real Estate Branding, Marketing & Strategy

Toni,

Amen, so many are running away and leaving more business to the ones who really understand the leading edge, and want to give their clients the latest and greatest...A

Sep 15, 2011 10:09 AM
Ron and Alexandra Seigel
Napa Consultants - Carpinteria, CA
Luxury Real Estate Branding, Marketing & Strategy

Steve,

I have spoken to surfers, and they are so attuned to the waves and the water, that they develop a sense to feel the wave as it approaches from a distant.  Trends are the same way, you can feel it.  A

Sep 15, 2011 10:11 AM
Cherise Selley
Selley Group Real Estate, LLC - Colorado Springs, CO
Colorado Springs Realtor

Alexandra,

Cherise and I tried some fly fishing for the first time in our lives in mid-August.  Part of the skill to this way of fishing is to know where the fish are located.  There are trends, markers, patterns in the water to tell you where to go. The same can be said about marketing trends.  Eliminate the waste and focus on where the fish are biting.  You wrote something similar to us about this idea.  Great series here... g

Sep 15, 2011 12:50 PM
Ron and Alexandra Seigel
Napa Consultants - Carpinteria, CA
Luxury Real Estate Branding, Marketing & Strategy

Gordon,

As always we are heartened by your comments and your faithful following of all we write.  Yes, the clues are alwasys there pointing the way.  A  relaxed focus will always illuminate the road ahead.  Thanks from the bottom of our hearts for your kind words and valuable insights.  We appreciate them. A

Sep 15, 2011 03:42 PM
Patricia Feager, MBA, CRS, GRI,MRP
DFW FINE PROPERTIES - Flower Mound, TX
Selling Homes Changing Lives

A,

My first order of business was to click suggest - this IS a POWERFUL post! Nobody wants to drown, especially when they're surfing. I could say, I'm not a surfer, but that's not true. We are ALL surfing the WEB and as business professionals, we have to know how to ride the waves. Being loyal to those antiquated ways that kept us afloat, doesn't mean success anymore.

The challenges we face is astronomical; but not impossible. Thank you for leading the way. I appreciate you and Ron very much.

Sep 16, 2011 04:11 AM
Ron and Alexandra Seigel
Napa Consultants - Carpinteria, CA
Luxury Real Estate Branding, Marketing & Strategy

Patricia,

Thanks for suggesting.  I love the point that you make about surfing the web.  You are so astute in your thinking and interpretation.  I always look forward to reading your comments, as they add to the discussion and the expansion of thought.  Thank you as always for your kind words. A

Sep 16, 2011 05:57 AM