Luxury real estate marketing isn’t like any other type of marketing…
Upping your price point requires changing your strategy.
Every agent wants to know what it takes to break into and then dominate in luxury real estate. The obvious first step, I’d say, is luxury real estate marketing.
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Notice how I didn’t just say “marketing” right there? It’s because luxury real estate marketing when done correctly is distinct from traditional marketing in quite a few ways. The same thing that works for $300K homes isn’t going to fly if you’re looking to move up into the multimillion-dollar listings.
Luxury real estate isn’t for everyone. But if you’re serious about it – and it’s right for you – luxury is an absolute goldmine.
That’s why today’s blog is all about luxury real estate marketing. I’m going to show you five tactics to break in with higher-budget clientele and establish yourself as the luxury agent of choice.
Let’s jump on in…
Luxury Real Estate Marketing Tactic No. 1: Find Your Niche Hobby
You know I’ve said over and over and over again that you need to be grinding in your career at this moment. But if you read last week’s blog about work/life balance, you’ll know it’s important to maintain a healthy social life doing the things you love to do.
So wouldn’t it be great if enjoying your hobbies also directly earned you more business? If your interests and hobbies fall into what would be considered the “luxury realm” then you’re in luck.
Exotic cars, art collecting, rock climbing, racquetball, golf… These are more than just things to do – they’re ways to meet people.
Ian Barta from Los Gatos, California, credits a lot of his luxury success to the connections he forms through his luxury hobbies such as fine dining and wines. His knowledge of wine and the communities he’s joined through it have become a pillar of his real estate business.
The question is, what’s your niche? Think of the things you’re truly passionate about that wealthy homeowners are also interested in, and then see if there are clubs or groups you could join to meet them. Just make sure you genuinely enjoy it, because inauthenticity is something your new friends will be able to sniff out quickly.
Luxury Real Estate Marketing Tactic No. 2: Community Events
Dave Archuletta from Rancho Mission Viejo has only been in real estate since 2020, starting just before the pandemic hit, but less than three years later he was already doing $80 million in volume. And the craziest thing of all is that he never has to directly ask for business. It all comes naturally from the awesome community events he throws such as hosting a weekly softball game.
This has made Dave known around his community as the guy everyone wants to know and be close to. Naturally, people will ask what he does, allowing him to casually bring up his track record. When the time is right for them to buy or sell, he’s already positioned himself to be the one they trust to work with.
This strategy can also serve to leverage your luxury listings into many more. Valen Lindner from Park City, UT, throws epic open house parties where she actually recruits her past clients to spread the word and come out for a great time. Her parties attract Lamborghini and Rolls Royce collectors – and best of all, 300+ wealthy people at her open houses.
Luxury Real Estate Marketing Tactic No. 3: Tell a Story
To take a step back for a second, there are two main points I want you to get out of this blog….
One of them I’m going to get to at the end. The other is that when it comes to luxury real estate marketing, you’re selling a desire, not a necessity. If these people just needed somewhere to live, they wouldn’t be spending the amount of money they are.
You’re selling a dream, a fantasy… You’re selling a story.
That means you need to know EVERYTHING, not just about the property itself but all the other homes in the area. This is how Gary Gold has managed to work his way up the luxury ladder to selling properties such as the Playboy Mansion.
Gary says what sets him apart from other agents is the level of detail he’s able to go into on each property and his ability to frame it through a storyteller’s lens. When driving around with a prospective client, he’s able to point at each and every home along the way and tell the story of who lived there, what happened, and why the property is special.
Even if he’s never sold the home, it makes him seem as if he did!
He puts hours of time into preparing for each and every meeting to ensure he’s aligning every interaction with the interests and intentions of the person he’s talking to.
Likewise, fellow LA-area luxury broker Christophe Choo helped establish his expertise through his driving tours of high-end neighborhoods. He’d simply mount his camera looking out his car’s front windshield and narrate as he drove, sharing valuable information and insights about the area, its homes, and when appropriate, its residents.
Remember, you’re not just selling the home. You’re selling the desire.
Luxury Real Estate Marketing Tactic No. 4: Beauty & Style
This should be a no-brainier, but your luxury real estate marketing materials and content should have the essence of… well… luxury! That means they should be beautiful and stylish.
The clients you’re interacting with in the luxury space care about the quality and the time spent on the things they invest in. And you’re asking them to invest in you.
Make sure your website, social media accounts, and presentation materials are something you’d expect to see on an HGTV show. No more shaky hand-held walkthrough videos. You want to be shooting 4K and using a gimbal or a stabilizer (learn more about the kinds of video tech tools that increase your credibility in this blog).
Most important of all here are the physical things you present or hand out. Multi-million-dollar homes usually don’t have cutesy refrigerator magnets. Oriana Shae has an entire luxury marketing arsenal of props such as gorgeously designed mailers, takeaway books that look like professional art books, free ebooks, and more. Also in the episode I just shared in the link, she talks about the cooking show she runs on her YouTube channels that attracts almost as many interested home sellers as it does home chefs! (Proving the importance of point 1 above.)
Luxury Real Estate Marketing Tactic No. 5: Partnered Listings
For those who haven’t yet made their mark in luxury but are ready to pay their dues to take the step, partnered listings are an opportunity too good to overlook.
Will you likely put in a ton of work to find a listing and then have to split your commission? Yes. But if that means taking the listing and being able to say you sold a luxury home, you just upped your price point for potentially the rest of your career.
If you’re curious how it’s done, I’ll let NYC agent Randy Barah explain how he does it. And then you should do it, too.
It’s About Boots on the Ground
As we’re wrapping up, it’s time to come back to that big takeaway I promised you earlier. Have you figured it out yet?
Most of these strategies don’t have anything to do with posting ads online or working alone in your office. Luxury real estate marketing is about being out there in front of people. It’s a relationship business that’s all about who and what you know… and who knows you.
Luxury clientele will have real estate agents in their lives; they don’t need to Google to try to find one that’s willing to help them. Your job is to already be in their inner circle so that when the time is right, there’s no one else they’d rather work with.
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