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HOW TO SELL LUXURY RESORT PROPERTY

When you have made your decision to sell your resort real estate, there are several questions you will need to consider including but not limited to the individual broker you select, the company they are affiliated with, that company´s office locations, the broker´s specific marketing plan for your property, the broker´s sales track record, their negotiating skills, and increasingly important are the luxury broker networks that the company and individual broker belong to.

First, Let´s Discuss The Broker:
Just like selecting an eye doctor to perform lasik eye surgery you probably don´t want to select someone that hasn´t been in the business very long or who has not performed hundreds to thousands of lasik eye surgeries. It´s the same in the real estate business. Pick a broker that is seasoned and has years of experience and a successful sales record as a minimum requirement. Some sellers might think the most important factor is how many transactions a broker has closed. I´m not sure that is a perfect way of making a decision. McDonald´s may sell the most hamburgers in the world but you may not want to eat there. Select a broker that can get your property sold and is not just adding one more property to the many already in his/her portfolio. Find out how many his/her properties go unsold and if your property will get the special unique attention it deserves. You don´t want to be just another McDonald´s hamburger but rather as a special luxury burger.

Websites:
You need to not only check out the company´s website but the individual broker´s website as well. These two should be linked together since over 77% of luxury resort buyers first review a resort area online. It is imperative that your broker´s and his company´s website is not visible but has good sticky factors as well. It needs to have content that brings website visitors back to that site on a regular basis. Luxury real estate brokers are not just selling your property but also selling the resort in which they´re located, which is just as important as the benefits and features of your property.

Broker Education:
With the constantly changing real estate laws on a local, state, national, and international basis, you need a broker that makes a concerted effort to keep their knowledge and skills not just at a minimum requirement but at the maximum level. You don´t want a broker that is going to classes only because the Real Estate Commission requires them. You want a broker that takes your business seriously enough to increase their knowledge about like-kind tax exchanges, single family home exemptions, international tax considerations for foreign national buyers, and the continuing seller and property disclosures required by local and state governments. If you´re broker isn´t excelling at continuous education why hire the second best? Do you want a surgeon that made poor grades in college and just does the minimum to get by? Your real estate is valuable, so hire the best educated.

Advertising:
While advertising plays an important role in the marketing of real estate, according to the National Association of Realtors Resort and Second Home Committee´s research, only 7% of all second homes in resort areas are sold through any form of advertising whether it is magazine, newspaper, billboard, radio or television. Unfortunately sellers continue to believe that is the number one reason their property sells. How does real estate really get sold? It´s sold through brokers, not by buyers calling in on ads. The other 93% of the sales come from three places-previous clients, their referrals, or co-brokers in a resort community and throughout national and international broker networks. The most effective marketing plan that your broker can do for you in selling your property is marketing to other brokers in their community and other communities that have the same demographics of buyers. That´s where the rubber meets the road with over 80% of transactions happening with some sort of co-broker network. Advertising plays a role, but is not as effective as broker networking.

Networking:
This is probably the most important asset a listing broker can bring to the table for his/her seller/client. Not only is it important for a listing broker to make sure that all of the other brokers in the resort community are aware of the listed property in question but it´s also important that broker have as many co-broker feeder systems bringing in luxury buyers from all over the U.S. and internationally as well. For example, in Telluride the Harvey Team knows the names of the ten top cities where buyers have come from to purchase property in Telluride region over the last 20 years. Obviously marketing to those brokers in those communities is of high priority. Networking is probably the most important part of a listing broker´s game plan. Find out how your listing broker is going to access those pipelines of buyers through co-broker networks.

Conclusion:
Just like the process that you take to hire the best lawyer, best doctor, best specialist in any field it is important that you hire the best well-rounded, experienced, and successful real estate broker and all of the skills they bring to the table to get your property sold. Just like any other profession, it´s in your interest to hire the best and not the cheapest. Hiring the cheapest can be the most expensive decision you make especially when it comes to high end luxury real estate.