Luxury Real Estate

By Brian Langhorst

The luxury real estate market place is filled with various companies with very strong branding messages for the corporation. What are you as an agent doing to stand out from the other competing agents in your own company?

Editor’s Note:
Brian Langhorst is LuxuryRealEstate.com’s Membership Manager. He meets members’ unique needs through the dynamic services LuxuryRealEstate.com provides. Short and sweet – just the way I like blog entries! LuxuryRealEstate.com can help you stand out with print and online advertisements in The Wall Street Journal, LuxuryRealEstate.com Magazine and more. The above picture is from www.flickr.com/photos/vieuxbandit/499540173 and is the copyright of vieux bandit.

By Courtney Jackson

Our latest ad in The Wall Street Journal hit newsstands today. If you aren't able to pick up a copy of this issue, you can view the ad in color at www.luxuryrealestate.com/wsj.

Editor’s Note:
Courtney Jackson is the Print Director for LuxuryRealEstate.com. She works closely with The Wall Street Journal, Unique Homes and a variety of other publications to help luxury brokers gain domestic and international exposure for their properties. Don’t forget to advertise in print as well as online. Publications like The Wall Street Journal are great for reaching specific audiences as well as online readers. Check it out!

By Brian Langhorst

You may have noticed that LuxuryRealEstate.com Magazine can now be viewed over the Internet, digitally. Our company did this for a few reasons: to increase distribution of the magazine and listings of our members, and to increase distribution in a manner that reduces printing and paper use, thus reducing our carbon footprint and environmental impact.

I recently learned that our distinguished Luxury Real Estate member, Jenny Pruitt & Associates in Atlanta, Georgia and surrounding area, took their magazine The Atlanta Collection digital as well.

We will be more than happy to speak with you and your print team about what is necessary to do this. Please feel free to contact me at blanghorst@LuxuryRealEstate.com to learn more.


Editor’s Note:
Brian Langhorst is LuxuryRealEstate.com’s Membership Manager. He meets members’ unique needs through the dynamic services LuxuryRealEstate.com provides. Reduce, reuse and recycle. Growing up in Washington state, those words were often impressed upon me. I’m all for being good stewards over the land we possess. Being able to reach an even broader audience than would be possible through traditional paper media is an added benefit of conserving resources. Excellent point, Brian! The cover of The Atlanta Collection is from Pruitt Pulse, an awesome real-estate blog.

By Robert Lockard

I just have a quick thought to share today. I wish I had more time to write more about this topic, but I’ll just do the best I can in a short space. I read a wonderfully informative Inman News article today entitled “Media create foreclosure hysteria.” As you can tell by the headline, this article is trying to explain what various media sources are currently saying and not saying to make our current real-estate troubles seem even worse than they actually are.

Perhaps there is not a concerted effort to cause a panic by inflating numbers. Maybe the reporters who are striving to meet their deadlines and report this important story to their readers simply don’t have enough time to fully analyze all the facts they’re reporting. Whatever the case is, author Bernice Ross points out some excellent facts in her article that have failed to be reported correctly or been lost in the editing process.

I especially like how she ends her article. She says, ”The question I would like answered: Why isn’t this positive news being reported elsewhere?” Now that’s a good question. This question has been raised many times and the answer is often simply that news distributors are in the business of selling news to readers and viewers and so they want to make their stories eye-grabbing and ear-catching. A story about foreclosure rates increasing slightly isn’t big news unless it’s spiced up a bit.

Ross points out that there’s plenty of good news happening in a variety of markets. I try to get the word out about these stories by publishing a weekly newsletter called the Week in Review with Who’s Who in Luxury Real Estate members’ positive news stories. I also try to keep the LuxuryRealEstate.com Blog filled with great content from our members and employees.


Editor’s Note:
Robert Lockard is the Public Relations & Media Specialist with LuxuryRealEstate.com. I am Robert. I create all of Luxury Real Estate’s newsletters, write the editorials in LuxuryRealEstate.com Magazine and much more. Feel free to share your thoughts on what we can do to share the good news happening in our markets.

By Brian Langhorst

Lately, the keyword in advertising is international! Everyone wants international exposure as foreign currencies are very strong compared to the U.S. dollar. This strength presents great options for investors to come to the United States and purchase real estate. I agree that this is a great target audience, given the current situation.

I also wanted to throw out some facts from Forbes.com, which recently compiled a list of the top billionaires in the world. These facts drew my attention to the importance of continuing to market domestically as well as globally. Of the 1,125 billionaires in the world, 444 or 39.4 percent are citizens of the United States. This is by far the highest number of individuals in one country anywhere in the world. In your marketing campaigns be sure to reach out to both audiences.

There are several print magazines that do a very good job reaching both international and domestic buyers. LuxuryRealEstate.com Magazine, Unique Homes and Country Life all work very well. We are happy to help you design ads and market to these key groups. Please contact me with questions or to advertise: blanghorst@LuxuryRealEstate.com.

What are you doing to reach both domestic and international markets?


Editor’s Note:
Brian Langhorst is LuxuryRealEstate.com’s Membership Manager. He meets members’ unique needs through the dynamic services LuxuryRealEstate.com provides. In addition to these excellent publications, we also run group ads in The Wall Street Journal, and we have one coming up on June 27, 2008 that you can sign up for. Contact our Print Director, Courtney Jackson, for details.

By Brian Langhorst

Kaira Sturdivant Rouda, the Chief Operating Officer of Real Living Inc. in Columbus, Ohio and our select Board of Regents member for the entire state of Ohio, has been very busy lately. Several months ago Kaira wrote and published a great book, “Real You Incorporated.” This empowering book for women and all businesspeople recently broke into the top 25 books corporate America is reading!

Congratulations, Kaira!


Editor’s Note:
Brian Langhorst is LuxuryRealEstate.com’s Membership Manager. He meets members’ unique needs through the dynamic services LuxuryRealEstate.com provides. In addition to being an accomplished business leader and author, Kaira Rouda is also a great public speaker, which she showed at the 6th Annual Luxury Real Estate Spring Retreat in San Diego last month. Her presentation was entitled “Real Marketing for Today’s Consumer.”

By Jean-Yves Piton

Just passing your business cards around to everyone you know will not cut it. Hoping that your good word of mouth will pay off soon? That single effort will not be enough either. Distributing flyers anywhere you possibly can distribute them? You might also fall short of results quickly. Upgrading to a new and flashy website? Do not expect a big turnover if your name is not out there, either.

So you might ask yourself: What does it take to run a successful ad campaign here and abroad?

A single factor: Frequency!

Indeed, you can certainly use any of the above tactics to complement a main advertising plan. Namely, frequent advertising in outstanding periodicals. You might also try TV ads if your advertising budget allows it.

If you are not consistent with publishing ads in various publications, you are not making an impression with customers. The more people see your logo, your tag line, your name, your properties, even the same colors in your ads, the more they will begin to associate your company and properties with the place they need to be spending their money.

You might even be surprised to suddenly enjoy a surge in traffic on your website and much more transactions taking place!


Editor’s Note:
Jean-Yves Piton is the Global Services Membership Manager for LuxuryRealEstate.com. He assists Bente Madtsen, the Director of Global Services, in expanding the LuxuryRealEstate.com brand into even more countries around the world. Jean-Yves is very knowledgeable on the subject of international marketing, and I can second his words of wisdom. Consistently doing even small things is much better than doing something big only rarely.

By Scott Rudolph

I’ve been a fan of Forbes since I helped usher in our first “Best of the Web” and “Forbes Favorite” awards back in the year 2000. Since then, we’ve continued to earn “Best of the Web” status and I continue to tune in. Recently, I noticed an analysis of America’s Recession-Proof Cities by Joshua Zumbrun.

Don’t fret if your community is not listed in this particular article, there are many more:
Rebecca Ruiz files a special report after extensive research regarding America’s Best Cities For The Outdoors and while we choose to provide our high net worth private clients some privacy, Lauren Sherman satisfies the curiosity of those insatiable for scoop regarding their favorite stars in Second Homes Of The Stars. The list goes on and on of course. At the end of the day, I find there are talking points and real estate opportunities everywhere. Remember, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: all real estate is global.


Editor’s Note:
Scott Rudolph is the Director of Business Development for LuxuryRealEstate.com. He works with a variety of luxury-focused companies to expand the LuxuryRealEstate.com influence. These Forbes lists are great for us to review and enjoy. Check them out!

By Allyson Metters

As part of my position as the Relocation Manager here at LuxuryRealEstate.com, I manage the consumer inquiries that come into our office. Most buyers and sellers who contact us have found us through a Web search for luxury properties. Being the most-viewed luxury real estate website in the world gives us a key advantage online.

This week in particular I had a few calls from buyers and sellers who saw our ad in the May 2 issue of The Wall Street Journal. One call in particular led to a listing referral for eight homes in the Caribbean!


Editor’s Note:
As she mentioned, Allyson Metters is the Relocation Manager for LuxuryRealEstate.com. She helps people who are moving to find a perfect broker to meet their needs in their new area. Our website is a great spot for people to search for luxury properties around the world. Check it out.

By Brian Langhorst

We are featuring a special section in the upcoming Summer 2008 issue of LuxuryRealEstate.com Magazine on golf properties and developments. This is a phenomenal opportunity for our members to showcase their knowledge of the golf community marketplace and share sales opportunities. Please contact Robert Lockard, our PR writer, to be included in this great opportunity!

I look forward to hearing your ideas, and seeing your sales opportunities!


Editor’s Note:
Brian Langhorst is LuxuryRealEstate.com’s Membership Manager. He meets members’ unique needs through the dynamic services LuxuryRealEstate.com provides. As the author of this upcoming editorial in LuxuryRealEstate.com Magazine, I can definitely vouch for Brian’s sentiments. I hope to hear from you soon, as well. By the way, you can find the photo above at www.simonperry.org/golf-courseaircraft-carrier.