Luxury Real Estate

Gloria Nilson, REALTORS®, Real Living is pleased to announce that Dick Schlott, Chairman and CEO of Gloria Nilson, REALTORS®, Real Living and RLS, REALTORS®, Real Living, served as one of the panelists for RISMedia’s 15th Annual Power Broker Forum during the recent REALTORS® Conference & Expo in New Orleans.

“We assembled one of the finest panels we had ever seen at this year’s Power Broker Forum,” says RISMedia President & CEO John Featherston. “It is hard not to notice how much consumers want information. Now, as we move toward 2011, as an industry, we really have to figure out how to harness our knowledge and provide it in the best possible manner to consumers—that is what will bring clients back to you. This panel offered key strategies on moving your business ahead and bringing that information to the forefront.”

This year’s Power Broker Forum was held at the Morial Convention Center on Friday, November 5th from 2:30-4:00 p.m.

During the 90-minute session, panelists:

- Educated attendees about the importance of actionable real estate content, which they, in turn, can strategically insert into their individual offline, online and social media practices to increase profits now.

- Identified how to create relevant relationships with consumers.

- Identified how to use the “third screen”—the mobile Web—to better communicate and educate consumers.

In addition to Dick Schlott, a 40 year veteran of the real estate industry, other panelists included: Georgianna Finn, Broker/Owner, Coach Realtors; Todd Hetherington, CEO, Century 21 New Millennium; Peter F. Hunt, Chairman & CEO, Hunt Real Estate; Seth Kaplan, President, Mobile Real Estate ID; Ed Krafchow, Chairman, Better Homes and Gardens Mason-McDuffie Real Estate; Rei L. Mesa, President & CEO, Prudential Florida Realty; Bill Plattos, General Manager & EVP, First Team Real Estate; and Greg Rand, CEO, OwnAmerica.com.

For more information about the Power Broker Forum, visit www.rismedia.com/events.

By Brian Langhorst

I have heard many times over that print is dead, but this is false information! Whoever is saying this does not know the audience for luxury homes and their habits. Yes, people look to the Internet for information and, according to a National Association of REALTORS® survey, over 80% of home seekers are starting their search online for real estate.

The main question we should think about is how do they know where to look for real estate online? The answer is print!

I had a very interesting conversation yesterday with Victor Lund, co-Founder of the WAV Group. He said that the typical consumer segment of the luxury property market still looks through newspapers, magazines, and other print media for news and information. Customers need guidance and print provides this guidance to learn more about real-estate opportunities on the Internet. With a proper call to action this high-net-worth audience will be driven to your website through your print advertising campaign.

I look forward to your replies. Let me know how we can help you create targeted print ads to drive more traffic to your website.


Editor’s Note:
Brian Langhorst is LuxuryRealEstate.com’s Membership Manager. He meets members’ unique needs through the dynamic services LuxuryRealEstate.com provides. Victor Lund was so kind and helpful when he came to the Luxury Real Estate headquarters here in Seattle. He had a lot to share about our Web site, which is the most-viewed luxury real estate site in the world, and many other topics like the one Brian just discussed. It’s always nice to meet nice geniuses and well-grounded visionaries. The photo above is from www.flickr.com/photos/joebeone/2528716096 and it is the copyright of joebeone.

By Allyson Metters

Nearly one in five REALTORS® has sold a home to an international client in the past year, according to new research by the National Association of REALTORS®.

The 2007 NAR Profile of International Home Buying Activity explores the characteristics of second-home purchases in the United States made by international clients.

Some interesting points:

• Twenty-eight percent of foreign buyers bought their houses with cash, compared to 8 percent of U.S. buyers.
• The median sales price of homes purchased by international buyers was $299,500, which is significantly higher than the U.S. median of $221,900 during the same period.
• The South attracted nearly half – 49 percent – of international buyers last year, while 31 percent purchased homes in the West.
• Nearly a third of the REALTORS® surveyed worked with international clients or prospects during the previous year.
• Among international clients, the top five countries of origin were Mexico, United Kingdom, Canada, India and China.

By Terri MacDonald

The Real Estate Top 200 rankings were announced this month at the National Association of REALTORS’® Annual Conference & Expo in Las Vegas at a gala awards presentation and dinner.

The Walt Danley Group, a LuxuryRealEstate.com member in Phoenix, Arizona, achieved a closed sales volume of $245,638,856 and is ranked sixth among real-estate teams nationwide by sales volume. Although sales units closed were down nearly 20 percent in 2006, the nation’s top 200 real estate professionals were within 5 percent of the record they achieved in 2005.

The Paradise Valley real-estate team is led by Walt Danley, who last year achieved a No. 3 ranking among 126,000 Coldwell Banker sales associates worldwide. Danley was named one of the “35 Most Influential People in Luxury Real Estate” in 2006, along with such names as Donald Trump and Jack Nicklaus. This is also the fourth consecutive year Danley has been ranked as the top Coldwell Banker agent in Arizona. Danley sold more luxury real estate than any other real-estate agent in the State of Arizona during 2006, regardless of company affiliation.

“Becoming a member of The Real Estate Top 200 is no small feat, considering these accomplished professionals are competing against more than one million real estate agents nationwide,” said Anne Randolph, publisher of lore Magazine. “It is an elite group, and this national recognition is our way of saluting the hard work and accomplishments of America’s top real estate agents like Walt Danley.”


Editor’s Note:
We welcome stories from LuxuryRealEstate.com members for posting on our blog. They are the experts in their local luxury real estate markets, so they can give us great insights that we might not otherwise see. Plus, it’s nice to hear good news.