How to Sell a Luxury Property

The luxury real estate market is a hyper-competitive multi-billion dollar business and any edge brokers can use to improve their skills and increase their visibility can offer a huge advantage. With that in mind, Laurie Moore-Moore, a Dallas-based former luxury real estate agent and manager, founded the Institute for Luxury Home Marketing (ILHM) in 2003. Moore-Moore wanted to fill a need that she felt was lacking; providing better training and networking opportunities for other luxury brokers.. 12-years later her organization has “thousands” of members in North America and later this year she plans to expand globally. The ILHM provides brokers with the Certified Luxury Home Marketing Specialist (CLHMS) designation for agents who are top ten percent sellers in their local markets . (No homes that sell for under $500,000 are considered with sales numbers.) More: Rising Demand for Seattle’s Luxury Homes Through the years, the Institute has become the designated trainers for brokerage firms such as Keller Williams, Berkshire Hathaway Home Services and Remax. Moore-Moore and her trainers travel throughout North America to training and networking events usually hosted by brokerages firms and real estate associations. Two-days classes start at $495 and includes the first year's membership. Online training is also available. Certification is only available to those who have completed the training.

Mansion Global spoke with Moore-Moore about the luxury market, her training standards, why she contends her certification provides an advantage for both established and up-and-coming luxury agents-- and why you should never refer to the wealthy as “wealthy.”

MANSION GLOBAL: Why is there a specific need to train luxury brokers?

MOORE-MOORE: There is a very different service expectation with regard to buyers and sellers of high-end homes. They’re not measuring the service of what a real estate person delivers based on the performance of other real estate agents. It’s based on their experiences with the absolute best purveyors of luxury goods and services: How does my realtor compare to the service I got from my personal shopper at Barneys or Bergdorf’s? How did it compare to the service I got the last weekend I spent at the Ritz Carlton or the Mandarin Oriental? Luxury property is not about selling 5000 square feet, six bedroom and 8 baths. It’s about selling lifestyle. Whether it’s a primary property, a second, third or fourth residence, or a portfolio play, it’s important that real estate professionals understand that there are financial considerations that are different from the financial considerations of average buyers. The thing you have to understand is that your selling a lifestyle, whether it’s provenance or exclusivity, or innovation or a fabulous resort community Marketing is storytelling. You have to tell stories in a compelling way to secure the. best prospects.

MANSION GLOBAL: What do you offer your clients during the training?

MOORE-MOORE: Our focus is on helping agents provide better service for the buyers and sellers of luxury homes, because we believe by doing so, they will become more successful. We’re all about extensive training: Who are the affluent, where do you find them and what are their expectations with regards to service. We talk quite a lot about how to market a luxury property, teaching advertising and marketing principles to real estate professionals so they can better do their jobs. We also award the Certified Home Marketing Specialist Designation (CHMSD) It’s a recognition for agents that not only have attended our training --but also met performance requirements that demonstrate their competency in the luxury market. We define luxury on a market-by-market basis. It’s the top ten percent of an area’s sales in the preceding 12 months, based on price. The threshold will obviously be lower in Peoria than in Beverly Hills or New York City.

MANSION GLOBAL: What’s different about the luxury buyer that a good broker needs to understand?

MOORE-MOORE: They need to understand who are the wealthy and why you should never refer to them as wealthy. Research shows that a majority are self-made and a there’s a lot of new money. They prefer to be recognized as very successful. They need to understand what they are looking for in a luxury agent and what the expectations are for how their homes should be marketed. These insights are very important for a real estate professional to know We discuss how to price a property and why it’s not just about x dollars multiplied by x square feet.

MANSION GLOBAL: Why should an agent who is already in the top ten percent of their market want to become a member?

MOORE-MOORE: We find we get many top agents who understand the power of branding themselves effectively in the luxury arena. They want the credibility of having a specific designation in luxury. They seek us out. They might come in saying: ‘I probably won’t learn anything I don’t already know.' But invariably they come away with a couple of good ideas. We try to keep our training on the cutting edge. Our top agents share ideas and our training is constantly improved by our members.

MANSION GLOBAL: Who are your trainers?

MOORE-MOORE: There are five of us who do the training and four are very successful working luxury agents. One just listed Michael Jordan’s property in Chicago, even though the agent is based in Beverly Hills. They understand that he knows celebrity and sports stars property marketing and knows how to get luxury property sold.

MANSION GLOBAL: How are you different than others offering similar training?

MOORE-MOORE: We’re going to feed you with a fire hose--we’ll give you more information than you could probably use in a two day period. One of our members, a Florida agent told his wife that if our training didn’t work, he was going back to being a veterinarian. He’s since moved to Palm Beach and set sales records there. He’s had an amazing career. View full listing (pictured top)