Scottsdale, AZ – Luxury Portfolio Fine Properties Collection 2009 Spring Workshop

Leaving on a jet plane to Scottsdale, AZ for an amazing opportunity to attend a conference with luxury real estate’s most elite agents and brokers.

Some of the highlights scheduled are:

• David Crook, Editor, The Wall Street Journal Sunday
• Michael Saunders, Michael Saunders & Company
• Andy Nelson, Willis Allen Real Estate
• Peter Rodgers, McGuire Real Estate
• HGTV Frontdoor.com
• duPont REGISTRY
• Alf Nucifora, The Luxury Marketing Council
• Michi Olson, Alain Pinel Realtors
• Peter Rabitz, WETAG Consulting

The event is being held at the Westin Kierland Spa & Resort in Scottsdale, AZ… will follow up with some further details…

below is a link to TheRealEstateBeat.com which is Luxury Portfolio’s extraordinarily insightful blog:

 Many Industries Want to Follow a Zappos Model, Can We?

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Should buying and selling Luxury Property even be called a ‘market’?

In short…No. The people who buy luxury properties simply aren’t effected by ‘market conditions.’ They are certainly ‘aware’ of the conditions and may even cut back a bit on their spending; however, for the most part people with these types of income are not affected by abject economic downturns and upturns.

I presume this may raise some questions or even an argument. To the questions I ask you this? Do you think that Bill Gates or Warren Buffet are filling out loan apps at their local bank for a good rate on a 200,000 dollar home? No offense to a 200,000 dollar home, but this blog is about ‘luxury’ real estate which is a whole different ballgame.

The über-rich are not worried about this. I don’t mean to say that they ‘lack empathy’ or are ‘cold’ to the crisis that a small part of the country and bankers are facing, but I do mean to say it is not something that affects their decision to buy.

For the most part, these palatial residences (whether they have been there for 100 years or were tailored to their own specific luxurious pleasures) are bought and sold on (but not limited to) these least 6 types of buyers:

• Luxe Buyer A is an athlete and just signed a new contract, or was traded
• Luxe Buyer B is an Entrepreneur and would like a 2nd, 3rd, 4th, etc… home in location X
• Luxe Buyer C just developed a new way of ‘selling coffee to the masses,’ the ‘operating system,’ wrote a book about ‘wizardry’ (which I have still yet to read…),
• Luxe Buyer D just came into a large sum of money that was waiting for them
• Luxe Buyer E writes songs, has a family and a working band – in which case, this buyer would like a place in the Mountains, at the place where his family resides, etc
• Luxe Buyer F is investing in a sprawl of luxury properties because of their inherent value and surefire investment – this group may be from abroad

This is precisely why the gloom and doom ‘housing-market’ conditions that are cited over and over by the ‘if it bleeds, it reads’ news today is irrelevant to luxury buyers. Miami is a prime example of this. Yes, the luxury home’s ‘appraised value’ may be lower because of ‘comps,’ but it brings me back to something an associate used to say to me, and it applies – across the board… “you cannot pay too much for something you want’ . . . this is true no matter what tax bracket you are in.

Luxury buyers indeed watch the market conditions, and are often more keenly aware of the conditions than anyone. By identifying the aforementioned über-rich as part of a market, is kind of like identifying Harvard and Yale students as part of the ’school system.’ While both may be true in the logical sense, when we use our ‘less than common’ sense, we can conclude that it isn’t a market at all… it is an ever widening group of people who need more and more space to live, cars to drive, planes to fly and boats to row…

The art of Occum’s digital Razor

Simply stated, the ‘law of parsimony‘ or, “entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem”, or “entities should not be multiplied beyond necessity”.

One of my favorite writers pointed this very fact out in his most recent post. You can check his blog out in my blogroll.  In sum, there are an enormous number of ‘marginal’ applications that lack the ‘utility,’ ‘usefulness,’ and ‘ubiquity,’ that the ones that are going to rise to the top are the ‘digital’ applications that make ‘life easier’ – He points to the barebones, older apps like Craigslist.

To this, I leave you with this personal note… I love my MacBook. What do I like about it? It’s utility. For me and what I use a machine for, it does everything so simply.  I love my Honda Element.  Why? Hmm, Ruby (the Beagle) can jump in and out and it is easy to wash out, a lot of headroom, easy to carry my guitars, etc. It has all three ‘U’s.

What does this have to do with the Luxury Market of Real Estate? Well, to this I draw back to another post about the bright minds of the agents who sell multi-million dollar properties.  They are always out in front of the advertising and marketing curve… and they are always assessing ‘new’ technologies.  Again, the ones who will ride the wave to the end are going to be the ones who find ‘not the magic bullet’ but the most useful brand that fits their needs across the board…

Sorry this went on so long… ; )

You Love NYC

Boulevard Customs was chosen as one of four custom shops worldwide to participate in a competition hosted by Mercedes-Benz to promote the upcoming release of their new GLK350. Each shop was given a new 2010 Mercedes Benz GLK and a build theme. The four categories included Rally Racer, Rock Crawler, Autobahn, and NYC Urban Whip

blvd customs

. The build up to the competition has been intense, but we’ve had fun seeing our spy rendering all over the web, and even published in Auto Week magazine.

Please Click Here and support our craftsmanship:  www.mbusa.com/glk

And TEXT here: GLK25 to 48457

All four customized GLK’s were unveiled at the Wynn Casino on November 3rd to kick off the competition being hosted at this years SEMA show in Las Vegas. All four vehicles are being displayed during the SEMA show, and will then be making their way to the world famous LA Auto Show afterwards, where they will be on display at the Mercedes Benz booth from November 19th thru 30th.

Just being a finalist in this competition is an honor …

Boulevard Customs is up against some well respected competition; including a well known competitor from Canada, as well as two factory sponsored tuners, one direct from Germany (with 350 employees!). The overall winner of the ‘GLK Tuner Challenge’ will be determined by an online and text message voting campaign starting November 3rd and ending on November 30th. Voters can only vote once from each computer and mobile phone, and we need your help! On the website there are fun and informative videos documenting each tuner and their build from start to finish so make sure to take a minute to check them out as well.

Form & Function in Online Marketing tactics

Yesterday I wrote about the iPhone and it’s imminent ubiquity. After I blogged, I read an article on a ‘free app’ that is also known as the nytimes… I will cite it later since I a ‘blogging’ on my iphone right now…the writer made a useless point about ‘how bloggers’ have nearly destroyed the written word … To this I cannot understand because it speaks to my point that I was making yesterday -

There is a huge media revolution that has been happening – and if you desire to be part of it – join in!!!

While I agree there are some grammatical atrocities out there (I am guilty of a few), the whole Internet isn’t that bad plus – the word ‘blog’ itself is not Daniel Webster approved…

The point… The generation that doesn’t pick up the ‘times’ (I do, by the way, I also pick up the WSJ, and enjoy content in both) – READING social blogs and online stuff – maybe they aren’t using a large heavy unabridged dictionary and strunk, but this is what’s happening – these are tomorrows leaders, inventers, teachers and millionaires … In sum, I try not to criticize what I cannot understand… I try and learn about it… Print will NEVER die, because there will always be people like me who like to use it, but if publishing a daily… just make sure people are allowed to use dangling participles however the choose.

Online Marketing changing quickly… get on board… the spaceship (not the boat)

Simple truths always prevail. Number one… advertising has been morphing, changing and picking up where no one ever thought was possible… Number two… if you do not adapt to the changing ‘tides’ or should I say… ‘wind shear’ – you will miss the space vessel to the next advertising mediums…

I don’t profess to know exactly what forms they will take, but I do proclaim this: I still believe PRINT, especially ‘niche-oriented,’ ‘highly-targeted’ print, will remain a special commodity for agents/brokers to broadcast highly effective messages… BUT, if you don’t believe that ‘dynamic‘ content has presented a slew of broadcasting opportunities, than you missed the launching pad and ended up at the ports. (no pun intended if you know what ports are in regards to programming).

The larger point (being a self-confessed gadget junkie – I had a PSP, a Mini-Disc player, a DAT, all the latest and greatest of cell technologies, a phonograph, a plasma TV, a DVD, HD TV with 5.1 surround, a CD burner way before they were standardized, the 1st Generation iPod that now looks like a phonograph, a Handheld Mini Cam which still operates quite well… you get the point) is if you don’t have an iPhone, (and I am not promoting it), or if you weren’t interested in one, you at least saw the lines and the public interest.

I have one – I also love Apple stuff – but I have one (not only bc of my gadget illness), but I am in a career that requires it. Everyday I offer marketing tools to agents / brokers, builders, etc. This device is not really a phone (though that is what it is marketed as). This is what our wallets, credit cards, computers, blogpads, iPods, books, televisions… are becoming… quickly… Don’t get me wrong – all of these things will still be around for a long, long, time… but so are TV’s with antennas, passenger trains, car phones, landlines, VHS tapes, cassette tapes, vinyl records, and record contracts.

I hope you get my point… I still love the sound of vinyl and riding a train… but if you can get on an airplane and be in NYC in 2 hrs while listening to every vinyl record you owned without bringing a phonograph player… why wouldn’t you get on the flight?

Atlantis Magazine™ defines Resort Living and luxury property

It occurred to me today that if you have an ‘Island Resort’ than it must be luxurious… just a random thought for a random post since I have been so completely on top of this (joke)… but… maybe there are some living resorts that aren’t luxury … so, maybe the logic only goes one direction, like… Pitcairn - it is very famous or an ‘infamous’ island in the South Pacific… I bet it’s beautiful… not sure I’d want to hang out there – maybe though… can’t rule it out… but the Bahamas… I am all over it!!!