Luxury Real Estate

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 Courtney Jackson

Make sure to check out our latest Wall Street Journal ad. It hit newsstands on Friday, Aug. 1, 2008! If you weren't able to pick up a copy you can view it online.

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. Print and online advertising go great together. They both have certain weaknesses and strengths that can be overcome by using both in moderation. Keep taking advantage of this great offer through LuxuryRealEstate.com!

By Courtney Jackson

The summer 2008 issue of LuxuryRealEstate.com Magazine was just released. Be sure to pick up a copy or view it online.

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. It’s funny, but I just read in another website, called Asiaing.com, that LuxuryRealEstate.com Magazine came out today. Very cool!

By Janice Ridge

Don’t miss the opportunity to advertise in the August 1 issue of The Wall Street Journal! Here’s what other LuxuryRealEstate.com members are saying about the results from advertising in the Journal:

I received two calls from my ad in Luxury Real Estate’s June 27th Wall Street Journal ad. They were both within one week of when the ad ran. One from Arizona and one from Northern California. Both are genuinely interested and are planning to come down to visit.
Trudy Stambook, Centre City Properties
San Diego, CA

Editor’s Note:
As the Director of Membership at LuxuryRealEstate.com, and herself a licensed REALTOR®, Janice Ridge is devoted to coordinating the efforts of all of the LuxuryRealEstate.com Membership and Account Managers, so that each of our members is given superior service. Print is definitely not dead, and it’s actually a very useful way to reach target audiences. Plus, every Wall Street Journal ad we run is also posted online so it’s doubly useful. Check it out!

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 at 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 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.