Home > Blogs > Meg Zoller > Meg Zoller Blogs Bellaire, Houston, Texas

ALHS (Accredited Luxury Home Specialist) - What Can I Do to Improve Marketing?

By Meg Zoller

Real Estate Agent with Keller Williams

December 10, 2007 04:52 PM

I've been selling luxury homes for a number of years now . . .I just "kinda" grew into selling them because of my neighborhood. Many of the homes here are 50+ years old. Custom home builders started coming into the area a number of years ago, tore down the old homes and began building the new. I'm always looking for better ways to improve myself and improve marketing techniques.

A couple weeks ago I was frustrated with one of my luxury listing, because I just hadn't had the traffic through it that I thought it needed and deserved. I was glancing through my email and saw that Champion's School of Real Estate was offering training for the ALHS designation (Accredited Luxury Home Specialist) to provide agents with advanced luxury home training. I thought that this class might have an answer for me on marketing techniques I hadn't tried yet.

I finished my first day of training today. I want to share one idea that I decided would work for me in my market.

Agent open houses . . . we want luxury home agents to see our luxury home listings who have sold in the same neighborhoods in the past. How do we get those top producing agentsto our open houses when they are so busy selling? It's too easy just to go onto the MLS system and see the 16 pictures or so that are available to view. One can also look at the virtual tours to get a great idea about what the listings may look like inside and out. What would motivate the agents (luxury home top producers in the area) that I need to see the houses to stop and take their precious time . . .to come see my listing if they don't have an immediate client who would want it shown to them?

I got one answer out of the class that I'm going to use.

I'm going to invite ONLY "well qualified agents" to preview the home. Then instead of feeding them at the home (where agents usually stand around eating) . . .I'm going to take the entire group to a very nice restaurant and treat them to lunch. Hopefully, they'll have time to relax, talk about my property and tell me about their listings. Instead of catering for 40 agents like I normally do, I would probably be spending time with 4 - 10 agents (depending on the neighborhood) who are each very knowledgeable in the luxury home field.

Eventually, it's possible that the other agents would want to do this on a regular basis when each agent has a new listing. I can see this scenario becoming a great networking and support group in the luxury home field.

I have some other ideas that were presented that I'll share with you at a later date. Knowledge via continuous education . . .it's so good!

Please take time to share with me some of your ideas.

Have a GREAT week!!

Meg

Meg and Jim Zoller - The Zoller Group of Keller Williams Realty, The Metropolitan

550 Post Oak Blvd., Ste. 350, Houston, TX 77027

Website, http://www.finehomeshouston.com/ .

Direct: 713-661-0884

Toll Free: 800-808-6153

E-mail: Meg@FineHomesHouston.com or Jim@FineHomesHouston.com

Cells: Meg - 713-875-4844 Jim - 713-545-6338

Comments(8)

Comment

Show All Comments

Sort:

Jeannie Kontis

Lancaster, PA

Meg - that sounds like a very unique idea! I am definitely going to pass this along to a team member of mine who has been trying to come up with a creative idea for a broker's open. I don't think a luncheon out has been done here. Please share some more ideas from your class!

Dec 13, 2007 03:31 PM

Meg Zoller

Keller Williams - Houston, TX

Houston Fine Homes

Jeannie - I read about the luncheon out in a book about a year ago, but I had never heard of anyone trying it out until this week. My family loves the leftovers from the lunches I have at the houses themselves, but I believe it may actually be more economical and more productive to take the agents to a nice restaurant after spending 15 or 30 minutes or so at the home you want to show them. It's target marketing, I guess.

Thank you for your comments. I do plan on writing more about some of the things I learned in this class later on.

Have a fabulous weekend!

Dec 13, 2007 04:02 PM

Bobby Carroll

Jaclyn Smith Properties - Clayton, NC

Clayton NC New Home Happiness Coordinator

Hi Meg - I think you're on to something. Linda Craft, one of Raleigh's top producers in Luxury Real Estate and a Dakno client has formed a group of area luxury agents similar to the concept you are considering. I recommend you contact Linda to see what ideas they have formulated to enhance the marketability of their luxury listings. They even have their own website. Linda also dedicates a page on her website to this group as well. Be sure to let Leslie know how your conversation with Linda goes. FYI...Leslie also coordinates Linda's task for Dakno, so she is very much up on all that Linda is doing in the Raleigh market.

Dec 18, 2007 08:01 AM

Gail Robinson

William Raveis Real Estate - Southport, CT

CRS, GRI, e-PRO Fairfield County, CT

Meg - I'd like to know how well the lunch idea works. I had a high end listing in which I held a cocktail party with expensive appetizers. I invited 4,200 agents via e-mail and only 2 showed up. I've seen other agents hold wine and cheese parties in high end homes or wine tastings with limited success. One idea might be to have someone at the luncheon that high end agents want to meet and talk to. Perhaps a Public Relations professional who can tell them how to gain free publicity for luxury homes (I use the publicity approach in selling high end homes and it works much better than advertising). It's very difficult to get luxury agents to spend their time on more than a brief tour of the home. I'm open to any strategies that might work.

Dec 20, 2007 02:35 AM

Gail - Your story sounds quite familiar to me. Publicity approaches are supposed to work. I understand that one agent had a famous chef come to the agent's open house to talk and share stories. The agent was able to encourage a few more agents to the home.

I'll try the private lunch idea after the first of the year.

Have a terrific week!

Dec 20, 2007 02:11 PM

Vickie Arcuri

Coldwell Banker Realty - Fort Lauderdale, FL

South Florida Luxury Real Estate

Meg, thanks for sharing the idea about actually taking them to Lunch. I like that idea! Keep up the great work!

@ Gail- I think that calling to invite the targeted Agents and/or mailing an invitation would be a better idea. I'm not sure which method you used to e-mail the invitation, but many e-mailed Agent property flyers and invitations are being directed into e-mail spam folders, so you can't be sure that they were actually received unless you were using one that providing a tracking system (but even the tracking system misses some that were actually opened because of differences between people's e-mail providers). In addition to Agent Open Houses, we also schedule "by Invitation Only" Catered Open Houses/Parties (evening events) with an invitation list that includes Neighbors, people from the Owner's Sphere, and other people from "high end" professions who may be interested in buying this house or a similar one. I'm sure you're already familiar with that idea though.

Mar 01, 2008 03:37 AM

Vicki - Thank you very much for sharing your ideas. The turn out for catered open houses and parties has really gone down in our area. That's why I zoned in on the lunch idea at a nice restaurant. It's just something a bit different from the norm. I greatly appreciate your comments. Have a fabulous week!

Mar 01, 2008 02:02 PM

Michael Krotchie

Tierra Antigua Realty, LLC - Tucson, AZ

Tucson Realtor, 520.261.MIKE

Meg/Jim - Did you guys end up trying the luncheon idea? If so, how did it turn out?

Aug 31, 2008 04:24 PM

ALHS (Accredited Luxury Home Specialist) - What Can I Do to Improve Marketing?

Comments(8)

Meg Zoller

Service Areas

Real Estate Resources

Recent Posts

Additional Information