Excellent information about the luxury market!

Eric, Monmouth County is home to several luxury markets. You definitely pinpointed the social and emotional attraction to the executive abode.

Things like the Ritz Carlton and Trump Tower in White Plains is what sells....

Pam, thank you!

I particularly liked Michael Cage's admonition to "include an exceptional experience and a great story to tell about it".  If you can work that kind of sizzle into a listing presentation or a showing, you're going to sell property!

Andrew, the high-end market is a great place to be right now.  The challenges are there, but so are the buyers.  The luxury home market is one of the bright spots in the midst of the poor economic climate.

Thanks for commenting!

Ruthmarie -- The Ritz-Carlton really knows how to put forth a luxury experience!  The 2007 LuxuryRealEstate.com Spring Retreat was held at the Ritz-Carlton in Key Biscayne..what a place!

Eric:  Although I have never had what I might call a "luxury" listing... it just makes sense to present them this way.  Those able to buy these properties can buy just about whatever they want to... so it makes sense that the overall "experience" to be encountered and lived... in purchasing the property... especially in view of the fact that many of these purchases are so "ego" driven.  I have always been taught that the approach you describe is the way to sell "townhomes and condominiums"... regardless of the price.  You sell lifestyle, or any of the other "hot buttons" rather than just the sticks and bricks.

Culture is a hot button.  So is social responsibility.  Exclusivity equates to ego... and also privacy.  Identify the hot button, then sell "to" it.  Thanks for sharing.

Karen Anne -- So many agents are taught to sell bricks and mortar, to sell square footage and features.  The luxury market takes this to a new dimension.  It's not enough to sell features anymore.  You must sell features and benefits.  If you can paint a picture of the lifestyle that goes along with a property, you'll always be more likely to succeed in real estate! 

In my opinion, you'd make a great luxury properties agent!

Eric:  When I started real estate in 1973... I attended three different three-day training sessions taught by Tom Hopkins.  One for closing techniques, one for listing, and one for selling.  One of his big things was Feature-Benefit selling.  List and demonstrate the feature, and then explain the benefits of that feature.  I did fine with that until 1982.

In 1982 I moved to Dallas/Fort Worth, and went into new home sales with a builder.  My first twenty-one days were spent in training.  Monday through Friday in the training office memorizing total closing techniques, and then spending all day role-playing those closing techniques on video, then replaying the videos and critiquing them.  It was there that I learned about F-B-E's.  List and/or demonstrate the feature, then explain the benefits of that feature, and then attach an emotion to that feature... bringing the whole thing home four-square to the buyer.  It is all part of "hot button selling."

Find out the buyer's hot buttons, which is actually pretty easy to do, and then sell to them using features, benefits, and then emotionally tying down that concept with "emotions."  As I said... I have been doing this since 1982... and then when I moved to Northern Virginia, and primarily selling townhouses... I coupled the F-B-E's with selling townhouses by mainly selling the "townhouse lifestyle"... whatever the heck that was... LOL.

Karen Anne -- Chuck Bode, who teaches CRS, has a great method of bringing out those buyer emotions during a showing.  He teaches agents to ask, after a client has viewed a property, "can you picture yourself living here and enjoying this home"?  

If you can get them to stop and think about that question for a moment, and then answer it, the result is powerful.  Chuck taught us that 75% of the time, when they answer "yes", they will buy.

I've used that technique a lot.  And it works.

great article eric....I enjoyed reading it!

Steve, the upscale market is a mystery to some agents.  People are people, but with the upscale buyer motivations and desires are different.  And marketing to them can be a challenge. 

Eric, This is dead on right. Deanna and I focus on lifestyle and exclusivity in our marketing. It really catches attention more than the same old stuff. Great post!

Jason, luxury property clients want to cut to the chase.  They can do the numbers by themselves, including calculating the cost per square foot, number of bedrooms and all the other mundane details.  What they want to know about, among other things, is construction quality, area amenities, decorating, style and other unique detail issues and "intangibles" that set a property apart from everything else on the market.

Eric - it IS about lifestyle, the higher you go in price. One agent with a $125,000,000 listing had three tiers of marketing materials. The top one cost $1,000 each - and it didn't feature photos of the house or property, it was all about lifestyle.

Sharon -- That's an excellent idea.  Having a separate marketing piece that addresses lifestyle exclusively is a clever concept.

Brilliant article and 100% correct  

Well thanks, Kevin!

I occasionally notice luxury homes marketed in very mundane ways.  The seller of a luxury home is looking for creativity and style.  Anybody can do the "4 BR, 2 BA, 2 Car GAR" routine.  Agents sometimes forget what they are selling in this bracket.

Thank you!     Exceptionally "well said".    Lifestyle is the main allure of my Island paradise, too.

Li

Li Read, RE/MAX Salt Spring, B.C., Canada

liread33@gmail.com

Li, it sounds like our marketing goals share much in common!

Eric - I think The Experience is part of the interest in Fractional Interests - most of the buyers are people who can well afford multiple properties, but choose to be pampered.

Sharon, perhaps there's a generational difference involved as well.  My more mature clients seem to prefer full ownership to fractional.  I wonder if anyone's done a thorough demographic study to see if there's an "old money" versus "new money" preference.

Good post, thanks.  The high end clients I am working with are very up front about wanting an impressive house for guests or clients and wanting this 'lifestyle' too. 

Christine -- It takes training and learning for agents to get used to the idea of selling lifestyle instead of "little boxes".  I still read so many agent ads that are about "3 bedrooms, 3 baths, 2 car garage", with no mention or implication about lifestyle, community or environment.