Personal thoughts from within the Luxury Real Estate network
Courtesy of: Peter Linsey of Summit Sotheby's International Real Estate
The Canyons ski resort in Park City, Utah has just announced that they will be opening for the 2009-2010 season. The mountain is scheduled to open November 27th.
As Utah’s largest resort, The Canyons provides all the elements of a perfect vacation, right outside your door. The mountain is reporting 23 inches of total season snow fall with an average season snow fall of over 350 inches. Get an up to date snow report here!
The Canyons is a well known luxury real estate destination that offers an endless supply of winter activities including ski & snowboarding school, guided snow shoe tours, dog sledding and fly fishing. With 17 lifts and 163 trails, The Canyons invites any level of skier to hit the slopes.
Peter Linsey of Summit Sotheby’s International Realty has an intimate knowledge of The Canyons and would be happy to help you with any of your luxury real estate needs in The Canyons, Solitude, Park City, Deer Valley, Promontory or any other surrounding areas.
Courtesy of: Carina Sousa of IRG International Realty Group
Christie’s Great Estates hosted this year’s premiere luxury real estate conference, from 14th to 16th October 2009, for owners and senior management. International executives gathered in Boston to converse about housing market data, social media trends, industry best practices, and much more.
Ole Jespersen, owner of IRG International Realty Group (exclusive affiliate of Christie’s Great Estates in Portugal), participated in the Boston conference. He commented: “The results and figures shown are great in these times. This shows the strength of the top end independent brokers’ ability to link extremely expensive product to the very few clients around the globe based on our relationship with Christie’s. Remember, we are not franchise holders – we are owner brokers with a real connection with the world’s largest auction house – and it creates results!"
At the conference, Ole Jespersen gave a speech to the 150 participants from around the world about “Social Media in Marketing”.
About IRG International Realty Group
IRG International Realty Group is one of the leading international brokerage companies in Portugal and specializes in sales of Portuguese high-end and luxury residential real estate. IRG is the exclusive affiliate in Portugal of Christie’s Great Estates, a worldwide real estate network and subsidiary of the world’s oldest auction house, Christie’s. IRG’s Head Office is located in the prestigious Avenida da Liberdade in the heart of Lisbon and there are also boutique offices in Quinta do Lago in the Algarve, Estoril, Funchal in Madeira and in Kensington, London, United Kingdom. www.irgportugal.com
Courtesy of: Rodophe Chayla with R. CHAYLA Immobilier
Un an après le tournage de l'émission "House Hunters International" (voir le billet du 19/09/2008), l'émission a été diffusée sur la chaine américaine HGTV.
After months of waiting patiently for my TV debut to be aired it finally happened on the 25th October! I think the end result was worth the wait and although lots of the filming was cut the directors got some excellent footage of Carcassonne, Limoux and the surrounding area which looked stunning…….Enjoy!
Courtesy of: Paula Maia of O & O Property Collections
Located on the shores of the Atlantic Ocean, with year round peerless light condition, and only 5 ½ hours from New York city, the Algarve is about to become the Hollywood of Europe.
Portugal offers a very favorable high quality/ low cost of living ratio; which added to the fact that it has topography of 40 states of America combined and yet is roughly the size of New Jersey, makes of this project every producer’s dream.
The Holding Picture Portugal is the newest addition to international cinema, commercials, video games, music videos, and audiovisual production centers. This ambitious project has been developed by the Portimão municipality and the renowned international Portuguese actor Joaquim de Almeida, and comprises the creation of 11 super modern new studios fitted out with state-of-the-art equipment.
The prevision is for two of the studios to be up and running by the end of 2010, and wheels have been set in motion for various film projects. Amongst the feature films already planned are: - “Femina” with the renowned Italian actress Sophia Loren as the leading actress, -“Mendes”, a film based on the life of a Portuguese consul who saved more Jews than Oskar Schindler during the Holocaust. The consul role will be played by Richard Gere. - Remake of “Le Mans” which have Brad Pitt, Penelope Cruz and Al Pacino in the leading roles,.
During the first phase, the plan is also to construct post-production areas for audio and video, an area for shooting outdoor scenes and a «water tank» - a specially adapted pool for underwater filming.
The cinema studios complex will include a media park as well as a fun park for the entire family, and the central theme will be “the history of cinema and the world of cars”.
Negotiations have been taking place with CBS Paramount and Universal for the film studios, and Lynn Ferro, vice-president of CBS, has been one of the main supporters of this striving project.
Courtesy of: Jim Walberg of Caribbean Islands Realty
In order to post articles to a blog site you need to have internet connection. So, here I am in Road Town at Village Cay Marina with all intentions of producing four to five articles a day for the Charter Yacht Society’s annual boat show, but with only moments of having in internet connect. Because of the 80+ yachts and a 100 or more Charter Brokers wanting to get on-line the internet connection has been close to impossible. I made a commitment to Janet Oliver from Charter Yacht Society, and the various cjarter clearing houses to cover the show, and it is taking all of my creativity to get the articles to the internet.
Let’s back up. Here is the definition of an internet blogger – a citizen journalist writing about things she/he is observing in their world. What is around me in my world this week are charter crews doing all that can to show off their yachts in the best light possible so the Charter Brokers stopping by for a visit will mark in their books that this is a yacht and crew I will recommend to my clients for the upcoming season. My task each day is to discover four or five human interest stories a day to write about and add photos to the article. This is my third year providing this service to the BVI and the St. Thomas boat shows. THE critical tool in order to complete my daily work is an internet connection. With the jammed up internet service I am having to be very creative. For example, yesterday morning I was sitting in the lobby of Marie By The Sea at 5AM using their free wireless service in order to get my first day of articles posted. Yesterday at noon I spent two hours at CharterPort’s office using their wireless service to do my photo editing work – thanks to Dick Schoonover’s kindness.
Now, it is Sunday morning. The roosters woke me at 4AM so I need to get back to my writing. It is the last day of the show and the sweat is starting to show up on my brow because I have at least 15 more articles to create with photos regarding the BVI boat show. The solutions have not yet shown up, so I may have to wait for many of my postings to arrive on the internet until I get to St. Thomas where I can plug into a secured connection. The key now is for me to gather the stories from the crews, take photos, and figure out the details next week.
What I am looking for in each of my articles is the human interest side of the crews. Each of them have a unique and actually amazing story as to how they decided to get into the world of chartering. The yachts are all beautiful, but without a Rock Star crew the experience of having an unforgettable charter yacht experience may not be possible. Of course, the yacht must be in tip-top condition, but the ability of the crew to surprise and delight is at least 50% of making the charter unforgettable – from their customer service skills, their delivery of up to four gourmet meals a day, their knowledge of the sailing grounds, and of course, their ability to satisfy the daily cocktail needs of their guests.
It is the people who make up the unforgettable Caribbean experience, not the “things”. The crews are not the only ones who are part of this experience. It is EVERYONE ELSE that you meet along the way. How about Marva at the Village Cay dockside restaurant? She runs the show there. Janet Oliver from CYS is part of the show’s cast of characters. The many Boat Show volunteers such as Jane and Karen, the board members of the Charter Yacht Society such as Tim Schaaf from s/y JetStream, CYBA members lead by Louise Danley, the Brokers, and the clearing houses, ALL make up the experiences that are delivered to his amazing community of professionals.
In spite of the my momentary challenges I promise to get the word out about this community of professionals who are the ones that deliver the Caribbean experience everyday to first time visitors and those visiting the Caribbean waters each year. The charter yacht community is the unofficial ambassadors of my favorite part of the world, and I will do my part to make sure the world discovers the best way to experience the Caribbean – on a charter yacht. Well, I am off to see if I can find an internet connection to my posts up from yesterday. Until next time…your Caribbean lifestyle reporter remains on duty!
Courtesy of: Peter Linsey of Summit Sotheby's International Realty
Solitude Mountain Ski Resort has just announced that they will be opening for the 2009-2010 season. The mountain is scheduled to open November 13th.
The mountain is reporting 16 inches of snow at the mid-mountain base and over 40 inches throughout the year. Annual snow fall averages 500 inches across 1200 acres of terrain. Weather forecasts for the area are showing winds between 10-20mph with some snow fall later in the week, just in time for opening day!
Solitude Mountain Ski Resort is a well known luxury real estate destination that combines great summer weather activities like scenic chairlift rides, an 18-hole Frisbee-golf course, and mountain biking and hiking; not to mention its world famous winter activities such as downhill skiing, cross country and snowshoeing.
Peter Linsey of Summit Sotheby’s International Realty has an intimate knowledge of Solitude and would be happy to help you with any of your luxury real estate needs in Solitude, Park City, Deer Valley, the Canyons, Promontory or any other surrounding areas.
Courtesy of: Katrina Campins of The Campins Company
Katrina Campins, entrepreneur and star of Season 1 of NBC's The Apprentice and Bravo's Miami Social, annonces that her Website has been revamped with a new and improved design. The Campins Company out of Miami, Florida launches its brand new website today! The Campins Company specializes in luxury real estate in the Miami real estate market. Featured on the website are virtual tours of several properties as well as a convenient search tool to find your perfect home in Miami! Visit the site now, and see how The Campins Company can assist you!
By: Peter Linsey of Sotheby's International Realty
Park City Ski Mountain has just announced that they will be opening for skiing and snowboarding for the 2009-2010 season. The mountain is scheduled to open November 21st with limited operation dependant on new snow fall. The local weather in Park City has been below freezing almost every night allowing the mountain to start artificial snow making to cover the ski mountain runs. ETC.
Park City is a well known luxury real estate destination that combines great summer weather for hiking, mountain biking, road biking, fly fishing, golfing as well as world famous winter activities such as downhill skiing, cross country, snowshoeing. Peter Linsey has an intimate knowledge of Park City and would be happy to help you with any of your luxury real estate needs in Park City, Deer Valley, the Canyons, Promontory or any other surrounding areas.
By: Christine Watson of Marquette Turner Luxury Homes
The past two weekends in Sydney have been festivities of football grand finals. Our streets, stores, cars, buses and trains have been decked out in streamers and balloons supporting the teams playing.
In Sydney, we are lucky. We have four codes of football – Soccer (football), Australian Rules Football (AFL), Rugby League (league) and Rugby Union (union). Our home is a League and Union “home”, although some in the house would say more League than Union!
Last weekend in Sydney saw the League grand final between Melbourne Storm (purple) and Parramatta Eels (blue and gold). Supporters went overboard and the city was awash of bright colours. The weekend before was the AFL Grand Final held in Melbourne between Geelong and St Kilda. Although held in another state, it didn’t stop the supporters in Sydney dressing up in red, black and white or blue.
Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) – Home of the AFL Grand Final
This got me thinking about the sports I have played over the years, the finals I have entered, won and lost and the good and sad times associated with getting to those finals. There is nothing worse than losing a grand final, its bad enough losing a preliminary or semi final. I always went out to “win” (and I guess I still do) and losing is not something that came easily (and again I guess nothing has changed here). I always tried to be a “good sport”, hold my head up high in defeat, but that didn’t really make it feel any better. It just made my Mum proud of me for not “losing it”.
Sport was such an important part of my growing up. At dinner tonight, we spoke about my school reports – “Christine should spend more time working on her scholastic abilities than she does on her sporting abilities! The pride I always felt when competing for my school, my club, my association was enormous. I loved it. It opened up so many opportunities for me. It allowed me to grow mentally and socially, Being involved in sport allowed so many friendships to evolve.
I loved all sports, but the two I excelled at were swimming and netball. I had a mean backstroke and was a fabulous defence! I even qualified as an “A” grade netball umpire. As time went on, I changed direction and went back into classical ballet, which I had started as a very young kid. To get through my exams I studied as a ballet teacher – the examiners were not looking for dancers with the figure of a ballerina – just a dancer who could do the steps, look reasonably ok, and have the ability to demonstrate and explain each movement. Margot Fonteyn I was not!! There was a method in my madness!
Sadly I don’t play the sports I once did, however I try hard to keep fit and active at the gym. Every now and then I get this little inkling to head back to a dance studio – unfortunately pictures of the Sugar Plum Fairy keep coming to mind!!
I now watch James play union and league finals and always feel every win and loss he has. His determination is similar to mine – neither of us like to lose!!
By: Christine Watson of Marquette Turner Luxury Homes
Marquette Turner Luxury Homes and Total Body Conditioning are running in support of the Murdoch Children’s Institute in the Foxtel Lap at Martin Place, Sydney on November 13, 2009.
If you have 30 minutes to spare, we’d love you to join our team. You can help great causes such as research into the prevention and alleviation of asthma, allergies, diabetes, mental health and premature births.
Simply by a gentle walk on a treadmill (or a leisurely run if you prefer), you will also help in the raising of $800,000 for the Institute, as well as getting free singlets, caps, gym towels and refreshments!
Please contact Christine ASAP to register your interest in taking part with us.
Submit Your Blog
To submit a blog entry for consideration on this web page for FREE, please send your materials to our PR Department: pr@luxuryrealestate.com