Selling real estate is a competitive business. It is also one in which there is both tremendous risk and high earning potential. That is especially true in the case of high-end luxury properties.
Real Estate Professionals Market Luxury Homes For real estate professionals, marketing luxury homes requires different strategies than selling more typical homes and properties. When trying to sell a half-million dollar home, and ad in the local Sunday newspaper is not the most effective approach to take.
How to Distinguish a Luxury Home The luxury home market is usually defined, depending on the local market, as the top 10% of homes listed by asking price or homes listed above $500,000. Something that makes luxury home sales different from others is that each property often requires its own marketing plan. Another difference is that the buyer is more likely to be from out-of-town or state, often more than 500 miles from the location of the property.
Luxury Property Market Another common challenge in selling luxury properties is that many of them are highly customized to the needs, wants and tastes of the current owners. Unusual and special features make a home unique but to many buyers, these homes would appear to require extensive renovating to make them more suitable for them.
Traditional Marketing for Luxury Property Placing ads in newspapers, local real estate guides, and running open houses is not the most practical approach to reach potential buyers of these homes. These tried and true techniques of selling homes often do not reach people genuinely interested in purchasing high-end luxury properties. Rather, they often attract people who are described as interior decorating tourists or just those curious about what’s inside these stunning homes.
Reach Luxury Home Buyers on the Web The Internet has opened up better avenues for reaching buyers interested in luxury homes in markets across the country and around the globe. Listing a luxury home online can extend a real estate agent or broker’s reach by hundreds or thousands of miles instantly.
List a Luxury Property Easily In addition to multiple listing services (MLS), the Internet is also home to a variety of sites offering other ways of listing real estate for sale. There are listing sites that sell nearly everything imaginable and others that are exclusive to homes and property.
With the ability to include detailed description of a luxury home and its amenities as well as photos and, sometimes, virtual tours or at least a link to drive traffic to an external site for more information, these sites are very economical to a real estate agent’s advertising and marketing budget. Some offer free listings or charge a nominal fee while others charge more for deluxe features.
Websites Where Luxury Property Can be Listed Craigslist.org is one example. Anyone can list almost anything, including real estate, largely for free. Craigslist.org is a collection of some 30 million online classified ads in 450 markets in all 50 US states, and over 50 countries. With billions of page views each month, craigslist.org is one of the most visited English language sites.
There are sites that are more specific to buying and selling real estate. One example is houselist.com. This site has different levels of listing from free to several hundred dollars annually. Each level includes more selling features for an unlimited number of listings. Like craigslist.org, houselist.com is searchable by state and city or by country.
Another option is to use an auction site. Ebay.com is probably the best known of these online companies. Listing expenses are generally linked to the value of the item for sale. There are nominal insertion fees for posting the item on the site. When the item is sold, additional fees are applied amounting to a percentage of the value of the sale.
HighEndCrazy.com Sells the Luxury Home to a Discriminating Market There are also websites that cater to more discerning buyers who are looking for luxury items and homes. An example of these is HighEndCrazy.com. The advantage of a site like HighEndCrazy.com is that it attracts people in the buying demographic would are most likely to be interested in purchasing a luxury property as their primary residence or as a second home. Thus, a seller is more likely to become a potential buyer.
When developing a marketing campaign for a luxury property, consider listing it online. The Internet is an ever-growing and changing wealth of advertising and networking opportunities that should not be overlooked. It is the latest twist on the “six degrees of separation†that many real estate agents and brokers rely on, especially when selling high-end luxury properties.
About the Author
Richard Green is a Civil Engineer who has been active in residential, commercial and industrial construction and development for over 30 years. Richard is currently developing an office park and townhouse project in Asheville NC. With his brother John, he is also co-owner of a new website designed for the discriminating buyer or seller of luxury merchandise. Visit http://www.highendcrazy.com or email ashmount@aol.com.
Saturday, May 17, 2008
The Secrets of Holding Successful Open Houses
Ah, the open house - that one chance that you have to either snag a buyer ... or cause them to run screaming from your home. Open houses can be helpful, but only if you know a few tricks of the trade.
If you have no real interest in selling your home, go ahead and follow a perspective buyer all around the house. If you really don't want to sell your home, ask buyers a variety of personal questions; pick up everything that they touch; and make sure that they know you are in a rush to sell - in other words, leave buyers alone.
Even though you may think that you are being helpful, resist the urge to act like an overzealous hostess when you are holding an open house. Instead, greet the buyer and spend your time in one room while a buyer takes their time to look around. Do not worry if a buyer opens closets, pulls out drawers, and touches everything in sight - this is all part of selling a home. Instead, worry about your home's overall presentation.
Some useful tricks include: baking a few cookies and arranging them on a plate inside of the kitchen; opening windows to let fresh air inside (if it is warm); strategically placing soft blankets and silken pillows around the home that buyers can touch; and leaving an album full of your homes "many seasons" on the coffee table for buyers to look at. The last tip mentioned is especially helpful if you home looks wonderful during another season. For example, if your home is near a ski resort, make sure to include a few snapshots of the home covered in snow. This way, buyers will begin to (subconsciously) decorate the home for various seasons (snowmen and hot chocolate, anyone?), which will help them to feel at home.
In fact, getting a buyer to picture themselves inside of your home is half the battle. In order to do this, make sure to remove any personal objects from inside of your home during that open house (diplomas, wedding photos, family pictures). Also, it is a good idea to remove any children or pets from the home while buyers are visiting (just in case a buyer is allergic to animals or gets distracted by a child).
You cannot sell a home without an open house of some sort, so take the aforementioned advice to heart. When it comes to selling your home, the open house that you host will be one of your most useful tools. Make sure that your house looks its best, and remember not to bother buyers as they walk through your home (no matter how nosey they get!).
About the Author
Raynor James writes about strategies you can use to sell your own home as a FSBO to avoid paying tens of thousands of dollars in agent commissions.
If you have no real interest in selling your home, go ahead and follow a perspective buyer all around the house. If you really don't want to sell your home, ask buyers a variety of personal questions; pick up everything that they touch; and make sure that they know you are in a rush to sell - in other words, leave buyers alone.
Even though you may think that you are being helpful, resist the urge to act like an overzealous hostess when you are holding an open house. Instead, greet the buyer and spend your time in one room while a buyer takes their time to look around. Do not worry if a buyer opens closets, pulls out drawers, and touches everything in sight - this is all part of selling a home. Instead, worry about your home's overall presentation.
Some useful tricks include: baking a few cookies and arranging them on a plate inside of the kitchen; opening windows to let fresh air inside (if it is warm); strategically placing soft blankets and silken pillows around the home that buyers can touch; and leaving an album full of your homes "many seasons" on the coffee table for buyers to look at. The last tip mentioned is especially helpful if you home looks wonderful during another season. For example, if your home is near a ski resort, make sure to include a few snapshots of the home covered in snow. This way, buyers will begin to (subconsciously) decorate the home for various seasons (snowmen and hot chocolate, anyone?), which will help them to feel at home.
In fact, getting a buyer to picture themselves inside of your home is half the battle. In order to do this, make sure to remove any personal objects from inside of your home during that open house (diplomas, wedding photos, family pictures). Also, it is a good idea to remove any children or pets from the home while buyers are visiting (just in case a buyer is allergic to animals or gets distracted by a child).
You cannot sell a home without an open house of some sort, so take the aforementioned advice to heart. When it comes to selling your home, the open house that you host will be one of your most useful tools. Make sure that your house looks its best, and remember not to bother buyers as they walk through your home (no matter how nosey they get!).
About the Author
Raynor James writes about strategies you can use to sell your own home as a FSBO to avoid paying tens of thousands of dollars in agent commissions.
Five Must-Have Skills to Be Successful Home Stager
Many individuals take for granted the things that they naturally do well and assume that everyone else knows how to do those things too. But building a business around those innate talents dramatically increases your chances of success. The following is a list of skills and talents a professional Home Stager should possess to be successful in this business.
After staging tens of millions of dollars worth of real estate and teaching over 800 others around the world how to start a home staging business, I have created the following list of skills and talents I feel a professional home stager should have. I developed this list by observing my students who were the most successful in building their own real estate staging business.
1. A talent for decorating and working with color. You should be a creative individual, have a sense of space and be visual. I am not, however, saying you need to be a trained Interior Designer to be a Home Stager. If you have a talent for it, it comes naturally and no amount of training can substitute for raw talent.
2. An interest in real estate. You have to love looking at homes. One of the homework assignments I give in my training program is to go and visit open houses and pretend the home belongs to your client. In your head, walk through the house and think about what you would do in each room. It's an excellent way to see if you have an innate sense for this line of work.
3. Organizational Skills. You need to be very organized and be able to pay attention to detail because it is the details in the house that make a difference in a home staging project. Often times clients are emotionally attached to the house and all its possessions, and they cannot look at it with the same objective eye that a professional can. When visiting clients' homes, you are going to walk into some of the most chaotic environments. You will be surprised at how many people live, no matter whether they are rich or poor or the price of their house. You have to be somebody who innately likes to create order out of chaos. 4. Work well under pressure. You must be able to work under very tight timelines. Few people call me 6 months before they are going to sell the house. Most call me one to two weeks before they are listing their home, or when it is already on the market. That doesn't leave much time to complete the transformation.
5. Work well with others. You need to be comfortable dealing with different types of people and with people who are often under stress, because selling a home can be very stressful. Many times, I deal with couples who are divorcing or somebody has died or somebody is getting transferred. Part of what makes a good Home Stager is being able to walk in to any situation and calm the person down. You are bringing proven experience to the table to help the homeowners expedite the selling process. It is a valuable service to be able to help someone through this stressful situation and break it down for them into manageable chunks.
Often we take for granted the things that we naturally do well and assume that everyone else knows how to do these things too. But that's not the case, otherwise there wouldn't be millions of ugly homes on the market. Not everyone has a natural talent for decorating.
But building a business around our innate skills dramatically increases our chance of success and enjoyment in what we do. If you feel like you have some or all of the above-mentioned traits, use your natural talents to seize the opportunity to make a living and a life doing what you love.
About the Author
Entrepreneur and Home Staging expert Debra Gould, The Staging Diva, knows how to make money as a home stager. Discover her secrets to business success in the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program. Free quiz to see if a home staging business is right for you at http://www.stagingdiva.com
After staging tens of millions of dollars worth of real estate and teaching over 800 others around the world how to start a home staging business, I have created the following list of skills and talents I feel a professional home stager should have. I developed this list by observing my students who were the most successful in building their own real estate staging business.
1. A talent for decorating and working with color. You should be a creative individual, have a sense of space and be visual. I am not, however, saying you need to be a trained Interior Designer to be a Home Stager. If you have a talent for it, it comes naturally and no amount of training can substitute for raw talent.
2. An interest in real estate. You have to love looking at homes. One of the homework assignments I give in my training program is to go and visit open houses and pretend the home belongs to your client. In your head, walk through the house and think about what you would do in each room. It's an excellent way to see if you have an innate sense for this line of work.
3. Organizational Skills. You need to be very organized and be able to pay attention to detail because it is the details in the house that make a difference in a home staging project. Often times clients are emotionally attached to the house and all its possessions, and they cannot look at it with the same objective eye that a professional can. When visiting clients' homes, you are going to walk into some of the most chaotic environments. You will be surprised at how many people live, no matter whether they are rich or poor or the price of their house. You have to be somebody who innately likes to create order out of chaos. 4. Work well under pressure. You must be able to work under very tight timelines. Few people call me 6 months before they are going to sell the house. Most call me one to two weeks before they are listing their home, or when it is already on the market. That doesn't leave much time to complete the transformation.
5. Work well with others. You need to be comfortable dealing with different types of people and with people who are often under stress, because selling a home can be very stressful. Many times, I deal with couples who are divorcing or somebody has died or somebody is getting transferred. Part of what makes a good Home Stager is being able to walk in to any situation and calm the person down. You are bringing proven experience to the table to help the homeowners expedite the selling process. It is a valuable service to be able to help someone through this stressful situation and break it down for them into manageable chunks.
Often we take for granted the things that we naturally do well and assume that everyone else knows how to do these things too. But that's not the case, otherwise there wouldn't be millions of ugly homes on the market. Not everyone has a natural talent for decorating.
But building a business around our innate skills dramatically increases our chance of success and enjoyment in what we do. If you feel like you have some or all of the above-mentioned traits, use your natural talents to seize the opportunity to make a living and a life doing what you love.
About the Author
Entrepreneur and Home Staging expert Debra Gould, The Staging Diva, knows how to make money as a home stager. Discover her secrets to business success in the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program. Free quiz to see if a home staging business is right for you at http://www.stagingdiva.com
8 Easy Ways to Make Your House Appeal to Energy-Conscious Homebuyers
In the Huntsville real estate market and across the entire country, energy efficiency has been steadily climbing the priority lists of homebuyers. The results of a 2007 NAR (National Association of Realtors) survey showed that more than 90% of recent homebuyers thought energy efficiency was an important consideration when searching for a home to purchase.
As concern over the environment and increasing energy costs continues, highlighting the energy efficiency of your home can be an excellent way to draw interest from energy-conscious homebuyers. But what if your home is not energy efficient? There are a number of ways you can easily improve the energy efficiency of your home without breaking the bank. Let’s take a look at 8 of the easiest ways.
1. Programmable Thermostat - This is an excellent idea especially during the hot summers of Huntsville. Real estate and home-improvement professionals recommend installing a programmable thermostat. It allows you to program the temperature so that less energy is used in heating or cooling the house during the times when you are away or sleeping. When used properly, it can save around $150 a year in energy costs.
2. Air Leak Sealers - An unsealed crack of just 1/16 of an inch can let as much air in as a window left open 3 inches. Check for drafts around windows and doors on windy days by using a tissue or lighted candle. Caulking or weather stripping can help eliminate drafts, resulting in energy savings as well as a more stable temperature throughout the home.
3. Insulation - Proper insulation keeps the heat out in the summertime and the heat in during the cold winter months. Many older homes are poorly insulated or have no insulation at all. Adding insulation will result in a house that is easier to heat or cool in addition to a quiet, more comfortable living environment.
4. Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs - Compact fluorescent light bulbs use 75% less electricity and 90% less heat than traditional light bulbs. Replacing just 5 of your most frequently used light bulbs with compact fluorescent light bulbs will result in a significant savings in energy bills ��" around $65 a year. The kitchen, family room, bedrooms, bathrooms and outdoor porches are good places to start.
5. Window Coverings - Windows contribute up to 25% of energy loss in a home. However, replacing them is costly and inconvenient. Installing energy-efficient blinds, curtains or shades is a cost-effective way to provide extra insulation and reduce the transfer of air from the outside in and vice versa. Cellular or honeycomb shades are considered among the most energy-efficient window coverings available today.
6. Ceiling fans - Ceiling fans help save energy year-round. In the summer, rotating the blades in a counter-clockwise direction will create cool air and reduce the stress on your air conditioner. In the winter, reversing the direction of the blades and setting it on its slowest speed will push the rising air downward, helping to prevent heat loss and keeping the house warmer.
7. Water Heater - Water heaters are already insulated, but you can further reduce the amount of heat loss by adding additional insulation. Timers are also available to prevent the water heater from using energy to maintain hot water during the times it’s not needed.
8. Appliances - If you have a little extra money to invest in energy efficiency, consider replacing an older appliance with a new Energy Star®-rated appliance. An Energy Star®-rated refrigerator can reduce energy costs by $30 - $70 a year. Replacing a top-loading washer with a front-loading washer will reduce water usage by 7000 gallons a year and cut energy costs by $50 a year. Replacing all your major appliances with Energy Star® appliances can save up to $400 a year.
There is no end to the advantages of energy-efficient home improvements. Just a few simple changes can turn your ordinary house into a desirable money-saving home that is more comfortable to live in, boasts lower energy costs and is kind to the environment. And that will certainly be attractive to the growing number of energy-conscious homebuyers in the Huntsville real estate market today.
About the Author
Mike Manosky has over 16-years experience serving the needs of those who wish to buy Huntsville real estate. If you're thinking of moving to Huntsville, real estate listings that match your criteria can be sent to you immediately. Contact Mike today to get started. http://www.movetohuntsville.com. © 2008, All Rights Reserved
As concern over the environment and increasing energy costs continues, highlighting the energy efficiency of your home can be an excellent way to draw interest from energy-conscious homebuyers. But what if your home is not energy efficient? There are a number of ways you can easily improve the energy efficiency of your home without breaking the bank. Let’s take a look at 8 of the easiest ways.
1. Programmable Thermostat - This is an excellent idea especially during the hot summers of Huntsville. Real estate and home-improvement professionals recommend installing a programmable thermostat. It allows you to program the temperature so that less energy is used in heating or cooling the house during the times when you are away or sleeping. When used properly, it can save around $150 a year in energy costs.
2. Air Leak Sealers - An unsealed crack of just 1/16 of an inch can let as much air in as a window left open 3 inches. Check for drafts around windows and doors on windy days by using a tissue or lighted candle. Caulking or weather stripping can help eliminate drafts, resulting in energy savings as well as a more stable temperature throughout the home.
3. Insulation - Proper insulation keeps the heat out in the summertime and the heat in during the cold winter months. Many older homes are poorly insulated or have no insulation at all. Adding insulation will result in a house that is easier to heat or cool in addition to a quiet, more comfortable living environment.
4. Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs - Compact fluorescent light bulbs use 75% less electricity and 90% less heat than traditional light bulbs. Replacing just 5 of your most frequently used light bulbs with compact fluorescent light bulbs will result in a significant savings in energy bills ��" around $65 a year. The kitchen, family room, bedrooms, bathrooms and outdoor porches are good places to start.
5. Window Coverings - Windows contribute up to 25% of energy loss in a home. However, replacing them is costly and inconvenient. Installing energy-efficient blinds, curtains or shades is a cost-effective way to provide extra insulation and reduce the transfer of air from the outside in and vice versa. Cellular or honeycomb shades are considered among the most energy-efficient window coverings available today.
6. Ceiling fans - Ceiling fans help save energy year-round. In the summer, rotating the blades in a counter-clockwise direction will create cool air and reduce the stress on your air conditioner. In the winter, reversing the direction of the blades and setting it on its slowest speed will push the rising air downward, helping to prevent heat loss and keeping the house warmer.
7. Water Heater - Water heaters are already insulated, but you can further reduce the amount of heat loss by adding additional insulation. Timers are also available to prevent the water heater from using energy to maintain hot water during the times it’s not needed.
8. Appliances - If you have a little extra money to invest in energy efficiency, consider replacing an older appliance with a new Energy Star®-rated appliance. An Energy Star®-rated refrigerator can reduce energy costs by $30 - $70 a year. Replacing a top-loading washer with a front-loading washer will reduce water usage by 7000 gallons a year and cut energy costs by $50 a year. Replacing all your major appliances with Energy Star® appliances can save up to $400 a year.
There is no end to the advantages of energy-efficient home improvements. Just a few simple changes can turn your ordinary house into a desirable money-saving home that is more comfortable to live in, boasts lower energy costs and is kind to the environment. And that will certainly be attractive to the growing number of energy-conscious homebuyers in the Huntsville real estate market today.
About the Author
Mike Manosky has over 16-years experience serving the needs of those who wish to buy Huntsville real estate. If you're thinking of moving to Huntsville, real estate listings that match your criteria can be sent to you immediately. Contact Mike today to get started. http://www.movetohuntsville.com. © 2008, All Rights Reserved
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