Selling Your Luxury Frederick Home
If you are considering selling your luxury home in 2015, there are a few things to know about the local real estate market and about the best ways to market your home in today’s home selling environment. Successfully marketing a Luxury home for sale takes experience and attention to details. Here are 5 main points you need to know:
1. Connecting with an Experienced Real Estate Agent
Real estate marketing has changed in the recent decade with the proliferation of real estate specific marketing sites on the internet. Today’s buyers often start looking on the internet as their first step in the home search. More than 90% of home buyers look online at some point in their search.
An experienced Realtor who also specializes in 21st Century marketing is an important choice for selling your luxury home. Getting your home in front of the most likely buyers, in the highest level of technical and visual sophistication, is the key to the best outcome. At the Highland Group we put our 22 years of experience in the Frederick County real estate market, combined with our understanding of internet marketing to work for you. Read on to learn about our marketing plan:
2. Correct Pricing of Your Luxury Home
The most important step in marketing any home for sale is to get the price right…from the first day it hits the market. The key to the quickest sale is to list the home as close to market value as possible.
A common misconception is that “we need negotiating room“, but overpricing has negative consequences. It’s well known that overpriced homes sit on the market longer than well-priced homes.
Additional Reading: How do we determine the correct list price? 
Some Local Real Estate Statistics:
Homes that went under contract in the previous week (from 3/23 to 3/30) did so after 60 days on the market. The average price was $309,124.
Listings that haven’t sold as of March 31 have been on the market an average of 140 days.
The 23 Homes listed in the price ranges $700,000 – $800,000 have been on the market for an average of 186 days, The 37 homes listed above $800,000, an average of 191 days, both are the highest of all price ranges.
Conclusions: The demand for luxury homes is still soft in Frederick County; it takes longer to sell a higher end home. Even so, the homes that are in great condition and priced at market value are the first to sell. With less demand for luxury homes, pricing correctly from the start will position you in the most positive place in your market. If your home hasn’t sold in the average time it takes to sell a home in your price range and area, its time to consider a price adjustment or a condition adjustment.
More Pricing Statistics:
We currently have a bifurcated market in Frederick County.
Seller’s are getting 97% of list price on average, at time of contract.
Homes under $300,000 sell very quickly and have had 4% appreciation since March 2014.
Homes priced $300,000 to $600,000 have had 0% to 4% appreciation, depending on location.
Homes priced above $600,000 have not shown appreciation, but have leveled off for the most part. “The patient is out of intensive care.” ~ to quote Wayne Six, local Frederick appraiser. “But he’s still in the hospital.”
Conclusions: Selling a home in the higher price ranges is still a challenge in 2015 in Frederick County, although that market is seeing signs of health. Sellers need the right price, great condition, and patience. And great marketing will surely help. Let’s talk about condition:
3. Staging Your Luxury Home
Even high-end homes need to be staged to show their best features. Staging a home is not just decorating. A home stager knows how to promote a home in the real estate marketplace.
Professional home stagers are practiced in the 
art of preparing a home for resale. They work with the “flow” of a home, eliminate clutter, edit and arrange furniture, and even assist in enhancing curb-appeal. With the aid of a professional home stager, your house can make a notable first impression on potential home buyers.
At the Highland Group, we recommend professional Frederick home stagers to show your home off at its finest. The goal of staging is to make a home appealing to the highest number of potential buyers.
No amount of staging can cover up poor condition. Condition is of utmost importance in homes in the higher price ranges. The home must be perfect to stand out in the competition. Most buyers in the higher price ranges are not looking for a project. If by slight chance they are, they don’t want to pay the market price for something that they have to then put work into.
Most importantly, bathrooms and kitchens must be updated. These are the most expensive rooms to update and the first to appeal to today’s luxury buyers. Dated fixtures, lighting and appliances are the easiest to address and update. More expensive updating should be considered. Your agent and stager should be helpful in suggesting the best updates and fixes for a dated kitchen or bath. And for inspiration:
Additional Reading:
Decorating Trends 2015
Kitchen Trends 2015
Bathroom Design Trends 2015
4. Visual Marketing for Today’s Buyers
High Definition Photography is a must for marketing your luxury home. In a recent survey from Homes.com, 91% of buyers reported they are “less likely to see a home in person if the listing has bad photos or no photos.” Professional photos will be the first impression for buyers looking online. If your home stands out from the start, buyers will be sure to put it at the top of their “must-see” list.
High Resolution Walk-through Video
In today’s highly visual internet age, video is an important part of selling a home. And yet, only 8% of real estate agents use video to market their listings. Even then, many videos are compilations of still photos, not at all effective in showing the real flow of the home and the feel of the rooms in relationship to the floor plan. High Def, Walk-through video is available and very accessible in our market.
When buyers search on the internet, a home video shows up high in the search results, (video is 50 times more search friendly than written words!) YouTube is the top video research destination for home shoppers. (NAR) With high resolution video and photos, your home will NEVER go unnoticed.
Additional Reading: The Best in Video Marketing and Video Marketing for Real Estate
A 3-D Interactive Tour of the home is a valuable tool to show your home at the highest level of elegance to today’s internet-savvy buyers. A home buyer can touch the screen and move from room to room, navigating all angles of the space. The technology works great on desktops, laptops, tablets and smartphones. See an example at http://matterport.com/.
Mobile applications are used by 68% of today’s home buyers at the onset and throughout their home search. (NAR)
Make sure your listing agent has mastered internet and mobile marketing to spread the broadest net to market your home. All of the places that your listing shows up on line must be mobile ready. In today’s marketplace, internet marketing must be part of a listing agents plan.
Additional Reading: Real Estate and Internet Marketing
5. Geo-Targeted & Demographic Marketing
Social Media Marketing has become a buzzword that many agents are happy to use, yet I find that many people don’t really know what it means. In a study of how agents use social media, NAR found that 91% of Realtors use social media to some extent. The average agent has 175 social media contacts…many of whom are Realtors. Posting your listing to their contacts will not get your home sold.
One of the best things about social media marketing is the ability to use demographics to get your listing, images, 3-D tour and video in front of the most likely buyers. Targeted demographic and geographic marketing is one of the best tools that is only growing in it’s accuracy and efficiency. Make sure your agent is well-versed in social media and internet marketing, your home will never go unnoticed.
Don’t Just Take Our Word For It:
High-End home sales take a special marketing touch. Several of our real estate friends from other luxury markets have some great advice:
Debbie Drummond, Las Vegas Luxury Home Sales has some great advice that applies to any market: Buying and Selling Luxury Real Estate in 2015
And Debbie’s article: Outstanding Luxury Home Marketing – Photography and Video
Ten Things to do Before Selling Your Luxury Home
Frederick MD Luxury Market
As the real estate market continues to show signs of recovery, luxury home owners in Frederick Md can expect better news than they have had in several years. We have been experiencing a bifurcated market here in Central Maryland, with homes above $500,000 seeing a slower market than homes in the lower price ranges. Homes under $400,000 are seeing 3% to 5% appreciation, while luxury homes have been continuing to see declining values.
As the market and the economy improves, we are seeing more move-up buyers in the higher price ranges. As first time buyers enter the market in 2015 and 2016, many homeowners who have not been able to sell will see appreciation and will enter the market, moving up. As the demand increases, the normal market forces of supply and demand will trickle up to luxury homes.
Luxury Neighborhoods in Frederick Md
Are you searching for a luxury home in Frederick, Or just want to find out what trending prices are? There are several neighborhoods in Frederick County with luxury and upscale homes. Luxury means different things to different people. In Frederick County, we tend to think of homes above $600,000 the entrance to the luxury market.
As you can see by the above statistics, there are fewer than 75 homes on the market that are considered luxury homes. At this time there are 18 homes on the market listed above $1,000,000.
Holly Hills and Fairways at Holly Hills, Hoot N Hollow Woods, Winpenny Tel, High Meadows, White Flint, Whiskey Creek, Baker Park, Baker Park Estates, Villages of Urbana, River Meadow, Potomac Hills, Windsor Knolls, Holbrook Heights, Edinburg Forrest in Braddock Heights, Aspen in Lake Linganore, Westwinds, Arrowood, Vistas At Springdale, Haythorn Ridge, The Legends, Old Frederick Estates, Glenbrook, Weller Estates, Ridgeway Farms, Willow Pond Estates, The Paddocks, and Estate homes throughout Frederick County (not in neighborhoods).
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