The Luxury Home Council, a 1600 member group of REALTORS® who specialize in selling luxury homes, announced today the release of a new online version of their popular Accredited Luxury Home Specialist designation course. The ALHS course which will continue to be taught live nationwide includes information on national and local housing trends, specialized luxury buyer and seller needs, development and delivery of unique services, representation, liability and risk management, negotiating, builder services and marketing.

NEW YORK AND LONDON.- A survey of the world’s leading luxury real estate brokerages that comprise the Christie’s Great Estates international network reveals that despite the widely reported downturn in housing, high-value real estate in many markets worldwide have sold in record numbers and at record prices.

“Recent news stories about housing prices have failed to report on the robust sales achievements in the luxury real estate sector,” says Kay Coughlin, President and CEO of Christie’s Great Estates, the world’s leading luxury real estate organization. “The high-end category worldwide continues to outperform expectations.”
 

Toll Brothers, the nation's largest builder of luxury homes, said this week 28 percent of customers canceled agreements in the fiscal quarter ended Jan. 31.

Toll Brothers, beset by customers walking away from agreements to buy new homes, said that one cancellation last month came from the daughter of co-founder and Vice Chairman Bruce Toll.

Wendy Topkis and her husband, Douglas, told the company last month that "they did not intend to make settlement" on a $2.5 million Florida condominium, according to a filing Friday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Toll Brothers said the company "intends to pursue its rights" under the purchase agreement.

Great article in USA today about the largest luxury home builder in the nation Toll Brothers - and how the CEO Robert Toll has been forced to amend his strategy in light of the new market reality:

Robert Toll's father, Albert, was a multimillionaire investor by age 24, then lost it all in the 1929 stock market crash. To support his family through the Depression, Albert delivered laundry and sold used cars. Gradually, he rebuilt his fortune by buying discounted real estate bonds. By the end of World War II, he owned several office and retail buildings.

Robert, 67, who goes by Bob, remembers the hard-learned lessons his father taught him and his younger brother, Bruce. "Be careful, be wary," he recites. "You make a mistake, it could be your last."

Have you ever wanted to know how to do something and would rather watch someone than attempt to read a manual, or old fashiond text? Personally I am a visual learner so I prefer watching rather than reading. Because of this I stumbled on a list of the top 10 How to Video Websites on the internet which I thought many might find useful:

1. VideoJug: VideoJug mixes user generated clips with professionally made content. Videos are accompanied by a text version, and you can download clips to your iPod or PSP. This UK-based site is receiving a lot of hype from the British press.

Great article just released on how to use Google to track regional trends within the luxury market:

Should you auction or raffle off your listings? It's a great question - This article provides some great information on the topic: 

It wasn't long ago that residential real estate auctions were only used to sell foreclosed homes, fixer-uppers and other hard-to-sell properties. Today, all types of properties are sold at auctions, from small fixer-uppers to large luxury homes. Many newly constructed homes are now being auctioned, including single-family residences, condos and townhomes.

This article is a great resource for those agents reaching out to the luxury market: We came across this great resource and thought you might find it interesting as well. This is a listing of the Top 100 Luxury Blogs and it even sorts the 100 by topic and pulls out the top 10. Check it out! We found some really interesting sites included in the list.

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Looking for a new and wild way to market your luxury listing?

HGTV is launching a new show Tuesday, "Sleep On It," which gives buyers a chance to spend 24 hours in a house they're thinking of buying. Prospective buyers cook dinner for friends, stroll through the neighborhood, take a shower and hear how loud or quiet the neighborhood is. The show's producers were inspired by a story in The New York Times two years ago, but apparently the concept is confined to a small, elite segment of the market. It's anyone's guess whether this phenomenon will trickle below the million-dollar price range.

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Excellent article on the trend of luxury home buyers moving towards green building design: 

We're seeing more and more clients requesting that green homes be built for them," says Robert Wieboldt, executive vice president of the Long Island Builders Institute. Currently, 35 out of 200 builders belonging to the trade group are constructing green homes. That number was less than 12 a year ago, he notes.

Geothermal systems can add $20,000 to $25,000 to the price of a home, Wieboldt estimates, but the money can be recouped within seven years. Energy Star features add $5,000 to $8,000, with costs recouped in four to five years, he says.

While the doom and gloom of the residential real estate market seems to have no end in sight, there is some good news for agents specializing in the high end side of the business. Check out these recent sales:

Excellent new report on Luxury consumer trends for 2008, while the comments are directed to the travel industry, the report does contain excellent information that applies to understanding the luxury consumers mindset:

These are among the many forces that will help dictate luxury tourism trends and lifestyle trends in 2008.

1. Traditional demographics won’t define luxury consumers. Buying behavior, geography, interests and connoisseurship will become the new definition of wealth, particularly in emerging markets where luxury status will be displayed outwardly via symbols: luxury goods and labels such as Louis Vuitton handbags or Chanel cuffs, ubiquitous among their peers.

Excellent Article posted in the San Fransisco Chronicle about the need to be careful when showing homes in the high end market: They seemed like just the sort that most high-end agents would thrill to see crossing the threshold of their open homes. Arriving in a Jaguar and dressed to the nines, the two fashionable women in their 30s enthusiastically posed all the questions that serious buyers are wont to pose. But their interest had nothing to do with the real estate available for sale. Instead, the sophisticates reportedly had set their sights on the personal property available for looting: wedding rings, designer luggage, expensive Champagne.

The Luxury Home Council today announced the release of the latest version of their prestigious Accredited Luxury Home Specialist (ALHS) designation course. The two day course taught nationwide provides real estate professionals with invaluable insight into the highly specialized field of high-end housing.

“The ALHS designation course is a fantastic education opportunity for real estate agents who would like a strategy change in 2008. As many of the lower tiered markets have cooled the luxury home market has done extremely well “said Jim Remley co-founder of the Council.

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The most expensive home in America sells! Check out this press release:  

Estes Park, CO, December 11, 2007 - The most expensive single-family home sold in America was set in Colorado with the recent sale of The Trinchera Ranch in the San Luis Valley to billionaire hedge-fund manager Louis Moore Bacon for an estimated $175 million. Colorado also held the distinction of the most expensive listing in America at $135 million for the Aspen (CO) home owned by Saudi Prince Bandar bin Sultan bin Abdul Aziz. The property was taken off the market.

See the rest of this press release

The Luxury Home Council recently released a new report entitled - The 2007 State of the Luxury Home Market Report which highlights some interesting facts about the affluent market. Not surprisingly, real estate professionals who sell luxury homes are optimistic about the affluent market with 55 percent expecting to see either strong or modest growth within the high-end housing sector over the next twelve months. This positive outlook is bolstered by the fact that the world economy grew 25% in 2006 according to Forbes Magazine, the fastest growth in recorded history.

According to new information released by Data Quick, a market reserach firm sales of homes priced at $5 million and above jumped 18 percent last year and rose 31 percent in the first quarter of 2007...

The Luxury Home Council today released the results of The 2007 Membership Survey of Luxury Housing Market Trends. The survey's findings provide revealing insight into the trends of the luxury home market. Highlights from the report include:

-The largest percentage of luxury home buyers falls into the 40-50 age group (48%) followed closely by the 50-65 age group (44%). These affluent buyers are what marketing experts describe as the "Baby Boomer" market, a 78 million strong segment of the population that has reached its peak earning years and is now benefiting from a rising stock market and historically high home prices.

-The most common occupation of luxury home buyers is that of an entrepreneur (51%), followed by large business executive (46%) or medical doctor (24%).

Great Report on CNN.com about"?the growth of High Net"?Worth"?Growth in US...

It's getting less and less lonely at the top. The number of U.S. households with a net worth of $5 million or more exceeded 1 million for the first time, according to a report released Tuesday.And that doesn't include the value of their primary homes.....

No guts no glory!

Tim Bliseth, a timber and real estate mogul, is building a spec home with a price tag of $155 million dollars! Listed as the 322nd richest person in the world according"?to Forbes magazine he is making his gamble...

The number of millionaire households has increased in each of the past four years, with the biggest growth spurt occurring in 2004, when the number of high-net-worth households jumped 33 percent!

Sutherlin, OR ' March 22, 2007' The Luxury Home Council announced today that it has surged to a record 1,000 members nationwide and is growing rapidly with a scheduled 46 Accredited Luxury Home Specialist (ALHS) courses still to be delivered nationwide in the remainder of 2007. To accommodate the growth and to better reflect the growing brand the council announced today the launch of a new website and logo...

According to a recent online survey of 683 Coldwell Banker Previews International^"? property specialists, 96 percent reported that their customers who buy multi-million dollar homes are "self-made" millionaires with "new money."

It's amazing how many homeowners don't view cleaning their home as an essential part of their sales strategy. Sure, if you invite a few friends over for dinner it might be fine to hide the dirty clothes under the bed, throw the dishes in the dish washer, and dust bust the cat's litter box.

But when you're selling your home it will take more than just a quick once over to satisfy picky buyers, it will take a deep thorough cleaning. Because let's face it there's clean, and then there's clean.