Los Altos Real Estate Blog

Selling a luxury home requires creating an image that engages buyers.  A couple of basic descriptive paragraphs and some photos will not get the job done.  Once the elements of a luxury home's unique story are assembled, you need to craft the visual side of the marketing.  The combination of the story and the visual elements become the basis for the marketing.  Once the home is cleaned up, it's time to work on...

Staging:  Many agents and nearly every stager will tell you that staging is essential to selling a home.  Yes and no.  If a home is vacant, then yes, it's important to show how rooms are used.  If it's occupied, it depends on how the home is decorated.  I review the home and decide which is best.  A vacant home can benefit from "Virtual Staging" which uses photos of various rooms in the house into which digital furniture is placed.  This is cost effective and often enables more rooms to be staged.  Virtual staging can cost several hundred dollars (only once) for 7-8 rooms, compared to thousands of dollars per month for long-term live staging.  A combination of live and virtual might be desirable.

For homes that haven't been built, we get into some interesting options.  I use 3D virtual staging combined with 3D virtual tours to show how a home under construction will look when it's all done.  These detailed digital interior models do a "fly through" of the home so buyers can get a sense of the floor plan, views, and overall look.  The cost of virtual tours is expensive with high-quality tours costing $10,000 or more.  Virtual tour and 3D tour companies I recommend include:

• Virtually Staging Properties
• Obeo vStager
• iTour
• Archiform3D

Professional Photography:  This is a must in luxury home marketing.  The photographers I use all obtain the highest quality pictures to emphasize views, perspective, and colors to make a home look its best.  Depending on the size of the home and number of rooms, its easy to get 25 or more photos.  There are also aerial shots for larger homes and lots that run about $1000 each!  Those all become the basis for a virtual tour (not the 3D type) and printed materials including brochures and ads.

Videography:  Virtual tours are fine but a professionally shot video can really make a home stand out.  Having a presentation by the listing agent, tour of the neighborhood, walk around the property, and other shots can highlight features that would otherwise be "flat" in pictures.  You can go the Hollywood route and include a dramatic drive up a long driveway or a walk through grounds. 

Branding:  Having the story and visuals enables creating a "brand", just like Mercedes or Burberry.  The brand is the image conveyed by the home using those elements.  The home can be shown as impressive or understated, luxurious yet casual, and many other combinations.  The brand will then appeal to the appropriate buyer.  For example, BMW tends to appeal to sporty luxury car buyers and the brand conveys that.  A home that is luxurious but low-key might appeal to buyers wanting quality but a low profile.  That's where the brand has power.

Once the overall brand and image are done it's time to work on the actual marketing.  That includes...

• Broker tour events
• Advertising campaigns
• Special buyer/market events
• Agent targeted marketing
• and more in part 3...

Marketing is everything in real estate.  Some would say it's sales but it's really marketing.  First-class, high-quality marketing brings in buyers - lots of them.  There are varying degrees of marketing but for high-priced, high-end homes you have to give the "extras" that get a buyers attention and an offer on the table.

This is the first of a three-part series on how I approach high-end marketing.  How much of this is done depends on the home, what the seller wants, and what the budget is.  When I sit down with a client, we talk about each of these areas, the cost, time involved, and specific details that need to be addressed.  A complete "action plan" is created that outlines everything that needs to be done.  The first areas to be addressed are...

Inspections:  No matter what, every home needs these!  However, luxury homes may have other considerations that need to be addressed such as commercial grade power, security system, intra-home networks, and other features that need to be verified as working.  I use a home inspector who has experience with these sorts of things and more.  When an issue is identified, it needs to be addressed as part of the repairs so the home is in the finest possible condition.

Repairs:  Every little detail that can be fixed, should be fixed.  Some common issues I run into include floor scratches, nicks in walls, chipped paint, broken switch plates, and leaks.  The physical impression is critical and even the smallest detail flaw will stand out in an otherwise gorgeous home.  I have a list of contractors who do high-quality work quickly and at a reasonable cost.  The emphasis is always on quality.

Clean up:  As with any home, preparation is key but a luxury home takes even more.  Beyond just dusting, polishing, vacuuming, and general cleaning up, sellers need...

• windows washed
• roof and gutters clean
• landscaping trim and clean (add new if necessary)
• house and hardscape pressure washed
• remove anything that doesn't compliment the home

Features and Story:  When reviewing the pros and cons of a home, it's important to note what materials were used, who the architect is, who the builder is, and what unique qualities it has.  Along with that is research into the history of the property and area to make sure that the "identity" of the home is clear.  As with any luxury product, the message used to talk about the home has to reflect what it is in the right way to connect with possible buyers.  If the home has a custom feature, that should be identified and the name of the manufacturer noted.  This information becomes the basis for writing the story and describing the home.

There's a lot more to this than meets the eye.  For example, a home that has a unique location or history may have a "story" that can be told to make the home more appealing to buyers.  Perhaps a famous person lived on the site or it was part of the local town growth.  This research helps make the marketing much richer and interesting beyond just bedrooms and bathrooms.

Next up....

• Staging
• Photography
• Videography
• Aerials and more...