A static luxury real estate market begs the question: How can we increase an overall sense of urgency in today’s luxury buyers?
Real estate market trends are showing that most markets are currently leaning in the buyer’s favor, and as a result, listings are sitting a bit longer on the market than usual. When there are too many luxury listings available, buyers tend to feel like they have more time to mull over their options and take their time making an offer.
As a luxury real estate agent, this can become a great source of frustration both for you and the sellers you’re representing. However, adapting to real estate trends in the luxury market means being able to see past the things you can’t control and leveraging the things that you can.
Use your sold, under contract and pending listings to motivate buyers to take action.
You can’t force buyers to be more decisive, but you can certainly motivate them by showing them that other buyers are taking action. This is called creating “social proof,” and it’s becoming more and more necessary to adapt to today’s real estate market trends.
Most agent websites focus heavily on their available listings, but giving just as much air time to listings that are under contract, pending or just sold is a direct, yet non-aggressive way to entice buyers with what you have to offer.
Similarly, posting about these unavailable listings on social media can help create a sense of forward motion in the market for prospects who are just passively following your accounts. When they see a property they were interested in is now “under contract,” it sends the message that they need to take a more active approach to their home search. When agents do this, it not only helps them, but the entire local market.
Today’s luxury buyers are responding to influencer marketing.
With the rise of social media also came the rise of all types of consumers seeking third-party influencers’ opinions on what to buy. People are being sold something everywhere: on their television, their radio and now on their social media feeds. They’re aware that whoever is doing the selling is likely going to say that whatever they’re offering is the best, whether it really is or not, which is what makes influencer marketing so appealing.
Influencer marketing entails having an unbiased, third-party person or entity of influence who already has an established audience within your target market endorsing whatever it is you’re trying to sell, whether it’s something as small as a book or as big as a luxury property.
Using established community influencers is another way to create social proof around your listings. This lets potential buyers know that the people they trust—or those who aren’t going to profit from whatever you’re promoting—are interested in what you’re selling.
While this is a big topic with lots of conditions to consider to apply it correctly to luxury real estate, one example would be to consider that health and wellness are major priorities for most of today’s affluent buyers. With this in mind, reaching out to yoga instructors or wellness coaches with a large social media following to host a yoga class or private wellness workshop at one of your available listings (that just so happens to have an incredible view, a meditation room or spa-like space), would be a great way to create buzz within the community about your listing.
Although influencer marketing might not work for all of your listings, it’s something to consider when you need to find creative ways to build momentum around some of your more challenging listings.
If you want to find out how other elite agents are adapting to real estate trends in the luxury market, come and network with the best at our upcoming Luxury Live Events! Click here for more information.
Diane Hartley is the president of The Institute for Luxury Home Marketing, a premier independent authority in training and designation for real estate agents working in the upper-tier residential market. Hartley brings her passion for luxury marketing and more than 20 years of experience growing and leading businesses to her role as president of The Institute.
