Selling luxury homes

When it come to selling a luxury home, not all estate agents have the ability to sell a 10,000 square foot luxury home in Cheshire or a country mansion in Surrey. In fact, most estate agents like most of us and probably dream that our lottery or Euromillions numbers come up and we can buy one.

So the world of selling luxury homes is one that seems like an exclusive mystery. It is a shame that few of us do get to experience this world, because when it comes to marketing these stunning properties, there is a lot that that can be learnt from how luxury homes and estate agents in particular run their businesses.

What most estate agents know about marketing and sales is based on what they have had to learn from their peers who believed in the “old school” way of networking, handshaking and newspaper advertising. The internet has changed the way we sell property and none more so than luxury property.

Here are just a few of the lessons you could take from the world of luxury real estate that we've learnt:

Focus on your personal brand to demonstrate credibility
One thing that almost every estate agent does more than most industries, apart from entertainment, is focus on self promotion and branding.

They roll out their biography detailing how they made it to that point, what they are interested in and how many medals of honour or salesperson of the year awards they have won. All designed to give potential clients a sense of who they are before you consider working with them. In the world of luxury property sales, personal branding has everything to do with reputation and that reputation is a big part of how you can get deals done.

So what if you're new to the market, how do you gain that credibility? Well there are no short cuts to gaining a reputation, branding becomes even more important and knowing the luxury marketplace is absolutely paramount. If you don't know who are the top kitchen designers, luxury car dealers, watch and jewellery shops and or the best schools in the area then either learn or be left on the margins. The higher the luxury ladder you go, the tougher the competition.

Better target your communications to save yourself time
Most estate agents advertising campaigns head towards custom regional magazines, luxury publications and other highly targeted sources. One thing that estate agents understand is that hitting the wrong consumers will result in wasting their own time. So their advertising strategy is a function of selection because they only want to reach people who are real prospects to potentially purchase a home from them.

Most estate agents on social media believe, wrongly, that the more people they have following them the better they are at reaching their target market. If you want to be a market leader in your immediate area, then that's the tactic to employ. Luxury home estate agents don't care about reaching millions or even about reaching thousands. They care about reaching the right dozen people.

Use professional imagery to sell
We generally know about real porn, food porn, car porn etc but luxury property publications are an entirely different category that could almost be called house porn.

They feature lustworthy images of houses, villas and mansions that most people only dream about even walking into. The imagery sells the houses and encourages you to dream. However, you need to make sure you're in the right magazine and it's specialised.

There are loads of regional “pop up”, free through the door publications but these are not for the luxury home estate agent. Put your images on your website, social media pages and email a newsletter to subscribers, friends and family outlining what you have to offer them.

Throw in an unexpected benefit/offer
One thing I love about luxury property is that the "freebies" are often completely unexpected and sometimes irrelevant things that could sway the right buyer.

For example, I saw one property listed where purchasing it would also mean that the title of "Lordship of Frodsham" came with the property on completion. So not only do you buy a new manor house, you get to be a Lord too. Another property offered up a garage full of exotic cars along with the house.

When you are buying or selling a luxury property, these small things may not add up to a significant portion of the cost, but could mean the world when it comes to helping a customer make a decision on the right purchase.

Tom Benedict
Group Marketing Director
The BBH Group
@TheBBHGroup
@BritainBestHome