Having difficulty selling a luxury home? High-end real estate can be both financially rewarding and challenging to sell. Factors outside of your control, like the economy and market in which you’re selling, can affect your ability to get a home sold. That’s when creativity can be a major asset. Choosing an unconventional method to market your luxury home can help a property spend fewer days on market. Even in a tough market, selling a luxury home at a fair price point is possible when you think outside the box. After all, unusual homes should be marketed in unusual ways.
Ready to sell that stubborn property that has been on the market for too long? Here are just some creative ideas that are shared amongst the members of the Institute for Luxury Home Marketing.
- Send Out Stunning Property Brochures
Instead of an online listing, use an old-school approach and send stunning property brochures to people in the neighborhood. Brochures offer the benefit of a lot of page space, which allows you to include images of the house liberally. Remember, everyone knows what the outside of the house looks like, but include inside shots and you’ll be sure to pique their interest. Plus, if you send out brochures to people who already live in the neighborhood, they might have family or friends who are looking to buy near them. Many people who live in luxury homes or gated communities would prefer someone they know to move in down the street than a complete stranger.
Distributing brochures will alert the neighbors that your property is for sale and increase the likelihood of referrals. Make sure your brochure mirrors your luxury home by using glossy paper, high-resolution images and a cohesive page layout. Choose a professional designer to prepare the brochure to maximize the features of the home—the difference is astounding. Our preferred partner, Real Marketing, provides just such a service.
The Institute provides members with detailed information about local demographics and real estate trends, which you can include on your brochure to emphasize your expertise.
- Create a Dedicated Website for the Home
Your luxury listing is important, so why not dedicate a whole website to it? Choose a website creation service, such as our preferred partner Real Marketing, that can help you make a beautiful landing page for the property. The home’s website is the perfect location to add as much information about the home as you can from pictures to square footage, unique features, local neighborhood amenities and whom to contact for further inquiries.
Making the page online is just the first step of a successful property website. Once you finish the website, you’ll have to get it in front of the right audience. Here are some ways you can make sure your stunning landing page gets seen:
- Promote the website through your social media channels.
- Implement a text marketing campaign and link to the website.
- Hand out flyers with one striking image of the home, and include the URL for the website at the bottom of the flyer.
- Include the website in an email blast so that your existing contacts see and tell their friends.
The Institute also helps their members network with other luxury real estate agents who, in turn, can circulate your home’s website within their professional network in case a colleague is representing the perfect buyer.
- Sell It at Auction
Some people make the mistake of associating all home auctions with foreclosures, but in this changing world that is no longer the case. Selling a luxury home using auctioneers such as our preferred vendor Supreme Auctions, as opposed to selling in a traditional way, can have a lot of benefits.
Firstly, they tend to have a very extensive network of potential affluent buyers as well as marketing strategies that can connect locally, nationally and even globally. They inspire a sense of urgency with a drop date for possible purchase being the day of the auction. A little bit of friendly competition encourages bidders to commit to properties they love, which increases the chances of the home selling at market value or above.
Buyers must put down a non-refundable deposit, which can help eliminate uncertainty in the selling process. While pre-auction preparation of the home to showcase it to its maximum potential is still incredibly important, properties sell “as-is,” which means there are no long drawn out negotiations about the additional renovations, repairs or extras that need to be done before a sale can be finalized.
Selling through an auction cuts out a number of the tedious tasks and keeps the sale process on the seller’s terms.
- Promote It Internationally
If you can’t seem to find the right buyer for your home domestically, it could be because the perfect buyer lives in a different country. International promotion is key if you’re looking to tap into new markets. You will be rewarded for the time and effort spent connecting with new clients, as every addition to your network brings access to their own connections. It can be hard to know where to start when promoting a property internationally, but, once again, we have teamed up with an awesome partner, Proxio International, to assist our members. Designed for brokers, agents and builders alike, Proxio International helps real estate professionals connect with new markets by offering training videos, webinars and conference calls between agents. By using Proxio International’s services, you can promote your luxury property online with advanced digital marketing strategies to expand your home’s reach.
- Stage It Professionally
Staging a home is standard when it comes to selling a home, but luxury homes give sellers the chance to take it to a whole new level. Affluent buyers want to be able to picture themselves in the home before buying, so consider who you’re selling to and then exaggerate the staging. Does your audience appreciate more modern decor? Update the property with unique furniture pieces and decorative art that will wow them. Do they appreciate luxury cars? Rent a Ferrari for a day to make the garage pop. Furniture, cars and attention-grabbing touches can usually be rented, so you don’t have to break the bank by going above and beyond. The opportunities to stage your luxury home are endless, and prospective buyers will remember the work you put into the details.
Now that you have some ideas of how to get started marketing a luxury home creatively, have fun with it. The high-end real estate market attracts those with an eye for the finer things in life. Use these ideas to make their experience both delightful and impactful as possible. Going the extra mile might not only get the home sold, but result in future referrals.
Learn more ways to think outside-the-box with your marketing at one of the Institute’s online or in-person training sessions.
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.Â
