Luxury Real Estate

By Michael Edlund

LuxuryRealEstate.com is the #1 place to go to find a multimillion-dollar luxury property on the Internet. But we also allow our members to put the entire Luxury Real Estate collection of tens of thousands of listings on their own website and make them searchable right there, in a way that you control. Instead of potentially losing a valued client to another broker, you gain the referral fee and retain the client’s business.

This is the LRE Global Broker Reciprocity, and it comes in two flavors: generic and custom.

Generic is included with Luxury Real Estate membership, and has a set template that looks the same on every site. Custom reciprocity has an additional fee but is customized to blend in with the design of each website so that it gives a more consistent user experience for customers.

Examples of custom reciprocities:
www.miamirealestate.com/listings/global_property_search
www.ewingandclark.com/properties/global_property_search

If you haven’t put the LuxuryRealEstate.com listing search on your website, send an email to reciprocity (at) luxuryrealestate.com to learn more.


Editor’s Note:
Michael Edlund is the Director of Technology with Luxury Real Estate. He is in charge of all of Luxury Real Estate’s Web projects, including website creation, software updates and implementation, and much more. You should definitely take advantage of this great opportunity to give people more reasons to visit your site and to potentially gain more referrals. Check it out! The photo of the bee and the flower is from www.flickr.com/photos/chefranden/199057327 and it is the copyright of chefranden.

By Simon Turner
From his blog: How Google Maps can be used to make solar power decisions for your home

As energy prices continue to climb, the idea of utilizing solar energy is common sense. The process of getting solar panels installed, however, is quite the opposite.

RoofRay, a new Californian business, aims to give homeowners better information to enable them to make more-informed environmental decisions for their luxury home. Using the site’s modeling tools, consumers can estimate how much solar energy a home could capture and how that would affect their monthly bills.

The data provided is based upon historical weather conditions, current power usage charges, the gradient of the property, and the maximum amount of solar paneling the roof can hold. One tool uses Google Maps to let users calculate the size of their roof and build virtual panels. RoofRay then estimates the output potential of the solar panels as well as financial considerations like costs of installation, upkeep and return on investment.

Whilst not yet available in Australia, such a tool would be a welcome addition to our growing eco-conscience and our excessive reliance on fossil fuels. Furthermore, it would be useful for would-be real-estate buyers in making purchase decisions, something that the Marquette Turner team is increasingly finding is a factor in how and where buyers buy.

To find out the latest information available in Australia, a good start is the federal government’s portal www.climatechange.gov.au and Marquette Turner’s Clear the Air site


Editor’s Note:
Simon Turner is the co-Founder and Director of Marquette Turner Luxury Homes, a member of Luxury Real Estate in East Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Founded on Australia Day 2007 by Turner and Michael Marquette, Marquette Turner is a property consultancy company covering the Australian states of New South Wales and Victoria. Born in England, Turner traveled much as a child, finally settling in Australia. He joined the Australian Defence Force Academy and graduated with a degree in Politics and History as an Intelligence Officer in the Royal Australian Air Force. This is a very fascinating topic. Jean-Yves Piton actually wrote a blog entry on “green” luxury real estate a little while ago, too. I just finished writing an article on “green” luxury properties for the winter 2009 issue of LuxuryRealEstate.com Magazine.

By Brian Langhorst

Photosynth is one of the latest projects from Microsoft to come out of their Live Labs group and development business.

This unique program will take photos that you specify from your camera or computer desktop and find the similarities in each photo and create a visual presentation piecing these photos together. It might be hard to see what the big deal is based on this short description, but I encourage you to visit the Photosynth site and you will better understand just how fascinating this new tool is.

I feel this tool will be great for luxury real estate agent and brokerages. How many times have homebuyers or sellers commented that photos do not properly capture a unique or special high-end listing? This new tool from Microsoft could be a great way to create more eye-catching presentations to allow potential buyers to see the luxury property in its true form.

Our team here will be sure to continue to present our members with the most innovative tools and opportunities, such as Photosynth, for their business.

I look forward to hearing your thoughts and feedback on this new tool!


Editor’s Note:
Brian Langhorst is LuxuryRealEstate.com’s Membership Manager. He meets members’ unique needs through the dynamic services LuxuryRealEstate.com provides. It seems like there are endless possibilities and new technologies being created all the time. It will be very exciting to keep an eye on this Photosynth program and other innovative Web tools coming out. Thanks for the heads-up, Brian! The photo above is from www.flickr.com/photos/tommybart2000/2688931093 and it is the copyright of Thomas Barthelet.