Luxury Real Estate

Sponsored by Zillow, this years “People’s Choice Best Real Estate Blog Award” in Dallas goes to the Ebby Blog!

With over 60 years of success helping buyers and sellers throughout the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex realize their dream of homeownership, the Ebby Home Team has become one of the largest and best-known privately owned residential real estate firms in the country. The Company participated in approximately 19,000 property transactions in 2006, exceeding a sales volume of more than $4.7 billion -- marking the best year in sales in the company's history.

The Ebby Home Team is proud of its standing as No.1 in the Dallas/Ft. Worth Metroplex, No.1 in Texas and No. 18 in the nation, as listed by REAL Trends, Inc. who ranks the top independent residential real estate firms in the country. Ebby Halliday has approximately 1,600 staff and sales associates, including more than 130 bilingual associates. It also offers in-house apartment and residential leasing locators, property management, and a counseling center to assist transferees and corporations with special and individual needs. Ellen Terry, REALTORS® was acquired by Ebby Halliday in 1995.

The boutique-style agency has been serving Dallas' upscale residential real estate market since 1981. It also is the exclusive Dallas representative of Leading Estates of the World, representing properties with national and international significance. Dave Perry-Miller & Associates, known for marketing properties of quality and character to the most discerning clients, was acquired in 2007.Additionally, through Home Team Mortgage Company, an affiliate of Ebby Halliday, mortgage loan officers are on site at Company offices providing convenience, expertise and unparalleled personal service for home-financing needs. And, in today's changing insurance environment, you can trust Ebby Halliday's insurance company, Home Team Insurance, to be your very own personal insurance provider.

Found on Zillow.com’s blog, LuxuryRealEstate.com member Sandi Phillip’s La Quinta listing is featured.

Frankie Avalon, singer and teen heartthrob actor opposite Annette Funicello in the 1960’s beach-themed movies (“Beach Blanket Bingo,” “Bikini Beach“) has listed his Spanish-style La Quinta home at 80373 Spanish Bay, La Quinta, CA for $1,180,000. It is listed by Sandi Phillips of California Lifestyle Realty.

Most recently, Avalon appeared on American Idol to surprise host Simon Cowell by singing “Venus,” the first of his two #1 hits from 1959 — the year Cowell was born. Avalon’s other #1 hit was “Why.”

Avalon’s home is located on PGA West, a “master-planned country club community” built in 1984 and the site of many PGA, LPGA, and Senior PGA tournaments. PGA West contains six golf courses and Avalon’s is on the 10th fairway of the Jack Nicklaus Tournament course. Avalon is an avid golfer and purchased the home in 2005 for $1,185,000, which is $5,000 more than its present listing price.

Whether you’re a golfer or not, the home looks to be a serene, desert getaway with views of the San Jacinto Mountains. It also has a popular “Quevedo” floorplan, which features open rooms with disappearing walls of glass that open the kitchen and family rooms to the outside. Also, if you like the furnishings you see in the photos, they can be purchased outside of escrow.

By Michael Edlund

We frequently get asked why we haven’t implemented Zillow’s Zestimates on LuxuryRealEstate.com. A Zestimate is Zillow’s estimate of a home’s current value. Some may think that we want to withhold information from consumers for whatever reason. This is not the case. We are somewhat interested in using Zillow’s services as we think that the database they have built contains a fair amount of interesting information.

However, my personal opinion, as I expressed it to Rich Barton in a meeting recently, is that Zestimates currently don’t work so great for luxury homes.

For a moment, toy with the thought of Zillow providing a formula for determining the value for restaurant food instead of homes. There are surely a number of variables that would be relevant for a food-value equation. Factors could include portion size, service speed and background noise level, just to name a few. But how do you put a price tag on the individual experience of taking the first bite of a perfectly cooked meal? The perfect taste that makes you drop your hands to the table, close your eyes to savor the full taste? The taste that sends your mind into blissful orbit even for a fraction of a second?

When it comes to luxury homes, there are, for sure, a number of hard data that are relevant for determining the value. But, like food, what makes a home unique isn’t just based on hard data. There is a unique, intangible dimension to every home value that could be based on ambiance, a spectacular view or something else. This holds true for any home, but it is extremely clear in the luxury market.

It’s my belief that a home’s intangible value can never be expressed in a formula.

I do think and hope that Zillow will become better at estimating values of luxury homes. Luxury buyers and sellers will surely benefit a great deal when that day comes. But until then, a living, breathing, skilled and experienced luxury real estate agent who can experience and appreciate the intangible values of a home is your safest bet to help determine the correct value of your home.


Editor’s Note:
Michael Edlund is the Director of Technology with LuxuryRealEstate.com. He is in charge of all of LuxuryRealEstate.com’s Web projects, including Web site creation, software updates and implementation, and much more. I think Michael is on to something here. Algorithms are fine for trying to get a general idea of the worth of a property that one knows nothing about, but the more you learn about a home’s characteristics and nuances, the better you can put cold facts into context and understand the property’s true worth.