There are many encouraging signs that point to a luxury real estate market that is making steady strides toward recovery. Nationwide, we are seeing a trend where inventories are lowering, listings are turning over quicker and more buyers are opting to pay cash. These positive signs make the luxury market an enticing opportunity for many real estate agents.
If you are an agent interested in targeting the upper tier, know that selling in today’s luxury real estate market necessitates that you remain competitive, deliberate, and one step ahead of your competition. To do this, you must maintain a deep understanding of the unique luxury niche and have a commitment to the skills and strategies required to serve this exclusive clientele.
4 Tips to Selling Luxury
1. Leverage your brand marketing: Take advantage of the luxury marketing materials your brand offers. These resources impart credibility to your marketing and typically lend assistance to buyers and sellers as they make decisions relevant to their lifestyle.
Distinctive Collection by Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate™ is a luxury residential real estate marketing program designed to offer brokers and agents innovative marketing materials, specialized training and branding opportunities to capture listings in the competitive luxury market. Leveraging resources designed specifically for this high-end tier provides brokers and agents a unique branding edge within the industry and market.
2. Understand the unique needs of luxury buyers: Quite often, luxury buyers have very definite and unique purchase requirements and are seeking particular lifestyle benefits and amenities. For example, three-or-more car garages, dockage for boats and additional living quarters are all popular requests.
Luxury buyers also seem to be entertaining again, with professional chef-grade kitchens, outdoor cooking patios and well-appointed pool areas topping their hit list of amenities. When advising a luxury homebuyer, an agent must possess an astute appreciation for their unique needs and wants.
3. Meet expectations through superior service: In this vibrant environment, the luxury homebuyer and an over-heated market have mixed to create fierce competition. When consumers are in the market for—or considering selling—an exceptional home, they expect service and support from their real estate partner that is as distinct as their position in the marketplace.
Linie Chang Rand, associate broker at Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Rand Realty, says, “Servicing a luxury buyer or seller requires extraordinary marketing. Distinctive Collection by Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate offers agents a vast array of marketing materials with an understated, sophisticated look that is attractive to both luxury buyers and sellers. We also have access to a special training and certification course from the Institute of Luxury Home Marketing. This further enhances the quality of service Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate agents are able to provide to consumers in the upper segment of the residential real estate market.”
4. Price the home right: Similar to the general market, luxury properties that are priced well and that show well will be easier to sell. In a market that continues to heat up, consumers do not want to do a lot of work to a home once they move in. Make certain that you have done your homework and priced the home competitively.
As demand leads to once-in-a-lifetime opportunities, the sophisticated luxury homebuyer is prepared to move off the sidelines and into the market. For the real estate agent interested in marketing to the high-end buyer, there is opportunity and long-term success to be found.
Sherry Chris is president & CEO of Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate LLC.
