One Upscale Marketing Idea That Could Launch Your Career in the Luxury Home Market

Open houses are a dime a dozen. Traditional real estate agents continue to churn out mostly useless, droll events that attract few Realtors and fewer buyers. Here’s an out of the box idea that could launch you into toughest market segment around… Luxury Homes. Interested? Read on…

An Open House that actually attracts people…

What if you help an open house that was marketed well, had something to offer, and gave people another reason to go other than to just look at a house? What if it was so cool and swanky people were calling you to get on the guest list? What if the people that came were the ones that had loose pockets and money to burn? That’d be sweet right?

Here’s the idea… Hold a 1-Night Only, Art Show and Home Tour.

You can call it something snazzier if you have something in mind, just make sure people know what it is. Here’s what I would do.

1. Take your (or some other agent’s in your office) top-end listing in a high-end neighborhood. You want the home to be spacious, impressive, and easy to entertain in (most high-end properties are). You also need lots of room for art.

2. Approach a reputable local artist… someone who sells their art and would love the exposure (who wouldn’t?). I would go with an artist that sells pieces in a wide price range from $500 up to $20,000 or more. You want people to actually go in and buy things instead of just looking at them.

3. Arrange vendors to cover expenses… banks, title companies, insurance companies, art galleries, museums, all these establishments love new ways to get their name in front of the public. They can help you provide catering, prizes, and entertainment.

4. Pick a date and market your event. While it helps to ‘know people’ that run in these circles you can throw the event successfully without a bunch of old money connections. Make sure you do the following…

Create some nice invitations and send out to as many high-end property owners as you can get addresses for. Also get lists from local art galleries (or give them invitations if they won’t give you their list) and the artist you are showcasing.
Call gallery owners and your vendors and make sure they are getting the word out as well.
Drop off invitations to agents that deal in luxury homes and ask them to invite their clients. Mention any prizes or giveaways going on at the event.
Create a Facebook Fan Page for either for the event or for this type of event if you’ll be doing more of them… hopefully. You could even do one for the artist if they don’t have a page yet.

There are lots of other things you could do. Just make sure you get people there. People who will buy art and who can afford the house you are showcasing. 50 is probably good… 100 is better… I would think 200 people would be a great turnout and the number to shoot for. If you’re an overachiever you might go for more.

Make sure the event is property branded by you, your artist, and your vendors. Place business cards, pamphlets, and brochures wherever you can. Make it EXCITING! Have a band, a dj, or a string quartet. Serve wine, decadent finger foods, or a custom ‘event drink’. Have exorbitant prizes… maybe even get the artist to give away a piece of art?!

You guys picking up what I’m putting down? Do you think other luxury home owners might be impressed with your drive, creativity, and ambition? Think you might get some more listings out of this event? Heck, you might even sell the house. Win-win, either way.

Anyone have any other suggestions on how you could promote the event or what you could do to capture clients?

Photo: Danielle Short

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Article Author: Ben Roberts

Ben has written 9 articles for us.
Visit Ben's Website: http://theexitpro.com/

Ben's an 'out of the box' Realtor and Internet Marketing guy. He's recently started a brand spanking new Training, Coaching, and Marketing company for Realtors called The Exit Pro. He likes all things blogging and teaches Realtors to be more professional through training. He spends most of his time getting the word out about his cool new real estate company and writing guest posts for great sites like BiggerPockets.