Luxury Real Estate

By Cedric Choi

SEPTEMBER 2008 STATISTICS FOR SINGLE FAMILY RESIDENCES – HONOLULU, HAWAII
Honolulu Board of REALTORS’® Monthly Statistical Report for September 2008 (released October 1, 2008). Each month, the Honolulu Board of REALTORS® issues a statistical report analyzing residential real estate activity on the island of Oahu. In addition to the general island-wide statistics, following is information for select individual neighborhoods:

Waialae/Kahala – See page 8 of Monthly Statistical Report
The statistics for this month are significantly different from last month, it is amazing! Comparing September 2007 to September 2008, the median price for a home in 2008 was down 33.3% (the same comparison for August 2007 and August 2008 showed the median price was up 37.8%). For the year-to-date statistics for January through September of 2007 versus January through September 2008, the median price for the neighborhood was up 7%.

Diamond Head – See page 8 of Monthly Statistical Report
The statistics are not specific (as provided by the Honolulu Board of REALTORS®), since the Diamond Head area (a high-end neighborhood) is mixed into the Kapahulu area (a moderately priced neighborhood). For the Kapahulu-Diamond Head area, the median price decreased by 3.3% compared to the same month in 2007. For the year-to-date (January through September of 2007 compared to 2008), the median price decreased by 3.3%.

Kailua-Waimanalo – See page 8 of Monthly Statistical Report
September 2007 compared to September 2008 had a -14.1% increase in the median price. Comparing January through September 2007 and the same period in 2008 shows a decrease of 4.9% in the median price. 



Other Specific Neighborhoods – There is no substitute for market information from people who are qualified and who know your market. The best way to view a specific neighborhood is to have your agent prepare and review a Comparative Market Analysis with you. For example, the MLS service permits us to do searches within very discrete Oahu neighborhoods, including Kahala/Black Point, Diamond Head, Ala Moana/Kaka’ako, Waikiki/Gold Coast, Hawaii Kai/Portlock, Hawaii Loa Ridge, Kailua/Lanikai and the North Shore.

It has been our experience that the neighborhoods that we concentrate on are less volatile than the market as a whole, which is down about 10%. Part of that involves the worldwide demand for spectacular luxury properties in outstanding locations.

Relative to the overall Oahu market, according to Harvey Shapiro, the Research Economist for the Honolulu Board of REALTORS®, “It appears that the Oahu housing market is reacting to the economic crisis that has been affecting financial markets worldwide.”


Editor’s Note:
Cedric Choi is the Vice President and Administrative Manager of Choi International, a member of the Luxury Real Estate Board of Regents. As a practicing attorney for more than 25 years, Mr. Choi has principally concentrated in areas involving commercial matters. Very interesting blog entry. Every one I post on the Luxury Real Estate Blog seems completely distinct in both tone and voice from every other. You can see similarities and fun little patterns when you read one person’s blog entries over a period of time, but it’s also fun to get a breadth of styles and information from a bunch of different sources, as well. Be sure to visit www.ChoiRealty.com for more resources on buying a luxury home in Hawaii.

By Jim Walberg
From his blog: East Bay Real Estate Community Supports “Stand Down”!

2008 “Stand Down” serves 600 homeless veterans at the Alameda County Fairgrounds August 7th - 10th!

Another example as to how your real-estate community and its service providers continue to give back to the needs of the Bay Area was demonstrated on Friday, Aug. 8 at 5:30 a.m. at the Alameda County Fairgrounds. Members of the REALTORS® Marketing Association served breakfast to a “village” of war veterans.

Every two years the Diablo Valley Vietnam Veterans Association arranges for an entire “tent city” to be set up in the East Bay so homeless veterans can be served. “Stand Down” is a term used during war to describe the practice of removing combat troops from the field and take care of their basic needs in a safe place. That is exactly what has been created for 600 homeless veterans this week. The RMA contracts Ruggie’s Restaurant in San Ramon to supply ALL the food they serve.

REALTOR® Mike Weber, a member of the Diablo Valley Vietnam Veterans, is the person who continues to invite the real-estate community to be a participant in supporting this important project. They always say YES! Some of the services available for these lost, but not forgotten, veterans are:

- Medical facilities to serve their health needs – including dental, plus a follow-up care program.

- A “field court” with county judges to fast-track clearing up legal issues that may be preventing these veterans from securing employment.

- Job-placement services that also assists them in having DMV re-issued driver’s licenses.

- Assisting with identifying residential opportunities.

- A complete barber shop, new clothing, shoes and other basic clothing needs.

Members of the Diablo Valley Vietnam Veterans were inspired to create the first East Bay Stand Down in 1999 in order to provide a respite from the “streets.” In the midst of all the services provided, their commitment is to treat each of these veterans with respect and dignity. Most of us are unaware, and maybe don’t want to know, that there are about 154,000 homeless veterans on the streets of our cities on any given night. Just in our Bay Area there are over 7,000 homeless veterans! An even sadder statistic is that a BIG number of these veterans have little or no contact with Veteran Administration for either medial or financial aid. Stand Down directly addresses the issue that cannot be ignored any longer - aiding and assisting veterans in need to improve their lives, no matter how difficult it may be to do so.

The first Stand Down was held in San Diego in 1988. It has now been integrated into over 200 cities around the country with over 200,000 veterans and their families being served. A key objective is to break the cycle of the homeless epidemic within the veteran community. These are the men and women who have served our country, and we need to make sure they are not forgotten.

A quote that is appropriate for their mission is, “A community is often judged by how well it takes care of its own.” Serving the needs of those who have served to protect and create Freedom in the world is a worth activity for all of us to consider. Please contact Stand Down or Jim Walberg if you want to personally get involved, or to make financial contributions. Also, contact me any time to find out about other service opportunities for Bay Area community projects. Until next time… your East Bay real estate detective remains on duty.


Editor’s Note:
Jim Walberg is the co-Broker/Owner of The Bay Area Team, the most-successful team at Keller Williams Realty-Danville. He is also a member of the global LuxuryRealEstate.com network. Jim is an exceptional blogger, as you can see by visiting his blogs, East Bay Real Estate and Caribbean Islands Realty, and reading his great blog entries like the one above. He is the master of fractionals and other luxury homes in the Bay Area and the Caribbean, and he always has a lot of great opportunities to share. Philanthropy is awesome. We should all follow the Golden Rule as we go about our many activities in this life. Great people aren’t those who leave behind the most wealth when they die, but those who bless others’ lives and seek to lift their brothers and sisters on their shoulders. Luxury properties are what we sell, but people are who we serve.

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 Janice Ridge

As a member of Who’s Who in Luxury Real Estate, you have the opportunity to be included in the referral opportunities that come through our network. We have seasoned staff working with our members to provide value through this unique network of the best of the best in luxury real estate. I also want to remind everyone in our community that we have excellent referral opportunities coming through daily from all over the world for you. In our membership we are happy to help with broker-to-broker, relocation and need-an-agent referrals. We only refer within our network to our members.

As those of you who work with referrals on a daily basis can attest, it is important to know who you can count on to handle the various types of requests that come into a referral department. In that regard, I am calling out to all Who’s Who in Luxury Real Estate members to contact me if you are interested in either receiving or placing referrals. To speak more about our referral program and how you can gain value from your investment through LuxuryRealEstate.com, please either email me at JRidge at LuxuryRealEstate.com or call me directly at 206.838.7728 with questions or ideas!

My bio: Janice Ridge is our Director of Membership and Relocation. She is a licensed REALTOR® in California and Washington. She has previously served as a director of relocation in the San Francisco Bay Area for a major residential real-estate brokerage, as well as managed sales and leads for one of the largest online real-estate marketing solutions providers.


Editor’s Note:
Since Janice already introduced herself quite nicely, I will simply comment on her blog entry. Janice is certainly an expert on the subject of referrals and relocation, so I’m grateful to hear her views on this matter. Referrals are extremely useful tools to building your business in ways you might not be able to see on your own. In fact, I wrote an article touching on the subject of relocation and referrals in the winter 2008 issue of LuxuryRealEstate.com Magazine.

By Brian Langhorst

Rollie Jordan, our longtime member in Cherry Creek, Colorado is hosting an open-house charity cocktail reception at one of her listings in the Denver Country Club. All of the proceeds, including a suggested donation, benefit TAPS (Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (www.TAPS.org). Please contact Rollie Jordan at rolliejordan@aol.com or 303.336.0336 for more information. Click the link below to view the full invitation in a PDF.

By Robert Lockard

I originally planned on writing this blog entry earlier this week on the proposed settlement between the National Association of REALTORS® and the Department of Justice that would allow multiple listing service members to make private MLS information available to non-members. However, immediately after the story broke, plenty of real-estate bloggers came up with all sorts of reactions, positive, negative and neutral. Now I’m having trouble coming up with something to add to their expert opinions. I hope you’ll bear with me.

I’ll start by quoting Malcom Forbes (1919-1990), the father of Steve Forbes, current publisher of Forbes Magazine, “It's so much easier to suggest solutions when you don't know too much about the problem.” My knowledge of the MLS is certainly not as impressive as those who have already voiced their opinions, but I’ll just try to bring my thoughts to the table in an interesting way and you can feel free to correct me if I mistake some details.

It seems to me that this really shouldn’t be that big of a deal. I agree with what Geoff Lewis, Senior Counsel for RE/MAX International, said in Glenn Roberts Jr.’s Inman News article entitled “Blogosphere reacts to proposed NAR/DOJ settlement.” He basically said that a lot of the information that will be opened up to public use by this decision has already been made public through free online sites.

The majority of home buyers start their search for a new home online and so, if you think about it, they’re already finding the homes they’re looking for without needing to log on to websites controlled by MLS members. There’s a lot of free information already available online. For example, buyers don’t have to pay anything to search for luxury properties on LuxuryRealEstate.com, even though they can find more than 55,000 such properties in 100 countries on that site.

It’s advantageous for brokers to share information freely with buyers and sellers because then they can allow the right people to find the properties they’re seeking more quickly. At least that’s what I think.

As Mr. Forbes eloquently pointed out earlier, it’s easy to say what I think, but I might not have the whole picture. The MLS, which I understand is not a completely homogenized collection of listings but a variety of different ones in different formats, is not necessarily a public good. It was created by a private organization to give a competitive advantage to specific professionals, and there might be less of an incentive to provide this service if there are few limits to who can access it.

The Internet age is changing the way we think about many things, including marketing and real estate. But perhaps it’s still true that the more things change, the more they stay the same. Anyway, that’s my contribution to this wonderful exchange of ideas known as the blogosphere.


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. I welcome your input on this story. The Multiple Listing Service logo above is from: www.nsrealestate.ca/listings4.htm.

By Brian Langhorst

Rollie Jordan of The Kentwood Company at Cherry Creek, Colorado was recently awarded 5th place among all Denver REALTORS® for total sales volume in 2008! This award was presented by the Denver Board of REALTORS® at their annual roundtable awards luncheon.

Rollie is a long-standing member of LuxuryRealEstate.com and Who’s Who in Luxury Real Estate. She has listed many of the landmark listings in the greater Denver Metropolitan area. She is currently one of the listing agents for Greystone Manor in Evergreen, Colo. listed for $24,000,000 USD. This listing is truly one of a kind in the state of Colorado. The listing is set upon 57 acres with seven outbuildings, including an entertainment pavilion.


Editor’s Note:
Brian Langhorst is LuxuryRealEstate.com’s Membership Manager. He meets members’ unique needs through the dynamic services LuxuryRealEstate.com provides. This is wonderful news. Congratulations, Rollie!

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.

By Brian Langhorst

This morning, when Ben Bernanke and the U.S. Federal Reserve cut the benchmark interest rate by 0.75 percent, they made a strong move to show individual consumers and the world market there is nothing to fear. Rates are at an all-time low! Now is the time to buy! Markets are flooded with great deals and unprecedented value. With a professional REALTOR® to guide you in your transactions, there has never been a better time to buy!

If you would like to speak with a REALTOR® in your market of interest, please contact Allyson Metters, the Luxury Real Estate relocation manager, at 888.711.2010. She will be happy to direct you to the leader in your market of choice.

Buy low! Now is the time!


Editor’s Note:
Brian Langhorst is an Account Manager with LuxuryRealEstate.com, so he works closely with our members to meet their marketing needs. I really like this blog entry because it’s timely and it has a lot of exclamation points! That just shows what an energectic man Brian is.