Marketing Luxury Real Estate
In the Northern Virginia and Washington, D.C. area, the luxury real estate market is a booming market, from McLean to Loudoun County to Clifton, this area has some of the highest priced luxury estates on the east coast. Usually defined as the top 10% of the market in your area, the actual home value for luxury properties varies widely depending on where you are in the United States. The Washington, D.C. area, being a draw for many, offers some of the most beautiful luxury homes in the country.
Selling a luxury home requires a unique approach that differs from the marketing methods used for lower-priced homes. There are a variety of marketing tools that should be used to be competitive in the luxury real estate world. Keep in mind that someone that owns a luxury home pays close attention to detail. Sellers will be extremely discerning when choosing a realtor and will pay close attention to the other properties you’ve listed; what the photographs and marketing look like, how long they sat on the market, and how much they sold for.
Here is a list of marketing tools that should always be used when marketing luxury properties:
A Professional Real Estate Photographer
An experienced professional real estate photographer is the single most important tool in your toolbox. Over 92% of buyers start the search process for a new home online. The photographs of the property make the first impression that a potential buyer has. You have about 8 seconds to capture their interest before they scroll past your listing onto the next page.
No matter how skilled you may be with a camera, your photography skills are no match for a professional with years of experience. A professional real estate photographer has the ability to capture shots that showcase the most attractive features of the property. They can alter the camera angles to show important details and give the property the appearance of being larger and more light-filled. They understand lighting and how to capture it to make the room look the best. They also know and understand exactly how many pictures to capture and share on your listing to move the property quickly. Professional real estate photographers are also able to edit the photos quickly and load them directly into your listing site, saving you precious time that you can spend showing your property to, and finding potential buyers.
Brochures
High end properties are expected to have a high end marketing plan. A professionally designed and printed brochure is not only a nice touch, but almost a requirement to reach your target market. When the potential buyer wants to share property details with others, such as family members, financial advisors, business partners, just to name a few, a beautiful brochure can help close the deal. It’s something they can keep and carry in their hands and look at as they consider whether they’re going to make an offer.
Drone Photography
Drone photography allows you to show the property from an aerial view and accompany walk-through videos to give different angles. Aerial views for luxury properties are an important tool to get prospective buyers through the door. It gives the viewer, at a glance, a look at how the property and any exterior features like pools, patios, and gardens are laid out and how the property flows. Much like looking at a floor plan of a home, the aerial photo gives you a sense of where the home is in relation to exterior buildings and other features.
When choosing a real estate photographer, look for one that has experience utilizing drone photography, like Northern Virginia Real Estate Photography. Ask any photographer you are using to see samples of their drone photography work and make sure it looks like it was professionally shot and edited.
Video Tours
At Northern Virginia Real Estate Photography, we offer video tours that combine elements of virtual tours, walkthrough videos, and highlight videos. These are accomplished by our experienced videographer who pans and shows the highlights of the property as he does the walkthrough video.
Video Tours differ from other video services. You want to be clear when you are reviewing real estate photography services on what each type of video service includes. Virtual tours are usually a series of still photographs turned into a video slideshow. Highlight videos are simply videos that show the highlights and special features, only. For luxury properties it’s important that you go above and beyond these two services and offer a full video walkthrough tour, as described above.
Twilight Photography
Twilight photographs are taken at dusk with the lights on to give your photos a magical glow, making them more appealing and enabling them to show off special features. If there are water features on the property, the added element of light at just the right time of day can be a tool to really highlight those features. Twilight photos have a “magazine photo shoot” quality to them, potentially drawing in long-distance buyers and encouraging potential buyers to come view the property in person. It’s also a great way to highlight features like fire pits and outdoor living areas.
Floorplans
Floorplans are another often overlooked marketing tool that can help to market your luxury property. For someone making most of their screening decisions based on what is online, a floorplan can be a catalyst to get that person in the door to look at the home. At a glance, it shows them the layout of the home and how the floorplan flows, as well as where outdoor features are located in relation to the house. Using a floor plan also immediately elevates your credibility as a top-tier realtor that goes above and beyond to provide the absolute best selling tools for their clients.
Remember to Highlight Features Beyond the Property
How close are the closest neighbors? How convenient to the closest highway is the property? Does the nearest town have great tourist attractions? What are the school options available? These are all questions that those looking for luxury homes will ask. Be sure that your listing highlights these features and has plenty of pictures of the neighborhood or development. If you’re listing a rural property, highlight the acreage from many angles, capturing the picturesque elements of the property.
Virtual Staging
Should you use virtual staging for a luxury property? Yes, especially if the property is vacant. Vacant properties can be hard to sell for a variety of reasons, but from an emotional level, most people simply have a hard time visualizing themselves living in a property that doesn’t have furniture in it. Virtual staging allows photos to show the property furnished, in a neat, clean, and uncluttered way, and give your potential buyers a chance to visualize themselves actually living in the home.
Check Your Online Presence
Not only do you have to make sure you have a very prominent website that comes up high in Google searches, with professional, high-end photography, but you also need to be sure you utilize tools like Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest. All of which are great for sharing and making the listing get into the hands of someone qualified to purchase. Pinterest and Instagram, in particular, are places that homebuyers tend to go to search for images of homes. Professional images, such as dramatic twilight shots will garner the most shares on social media sites.
Know Your Market
You wouldn’t try to sell a condo to someone that has clearly indicated they want a single-family home, right? In this same vein, it’s important to know exactly who you are marketing the property to. The potential buying market for luxury properties is smaller than the general market. It’s important that you develop a profile of your ideal buyer. What do they do for a living? How do they spend their time? Where do they vacation? Once you answer some of these basic questions, it helps you to target your marketing of the property accordingly and ensure that the listing shows up in places that your ideal buyer will find them.
Northern Virginia Real Estate Photography specializes in capturing the best images of luxury properties in and around the Washington, D.C. area. We have vast experience helping agents list these properties, sell them quickly, and sell them for a higher price. Contact us today to discuss how we can help you market your luxury property.
Northern Virginia Real Estate Photography
571.377.8681 757.348.3402
Comments(0)