How We Implemented The Luxury Home Sales System™
to Sell an $11M Vancouver Luxury Estate
The 17 SECRETS We Did Differently BEFORE It Went On The Market
To Elevate The Home To Majestic Status
Extraordinary Luxury Photography Breeds Extraordinary Results
Professional Photography
By hiring the city’s top real estate photographer, we were able to shoot this home in the best possible light and make the key features of the home stand out. Most homes have low quality pictures taken with a point and shoot camera or worse, a cell phone camera.
Even with a DSLR, without professional photography skills and understanding of angles and light and positioning, pictures look ordinary and bland.
We Didn’t Just Get A Floor Plan, We Practically Put It On A Pedestal… LITERALLY!
Professional Floor Plan
Buyers looking at Luxury Real Estate homes have high standards and so floor plan measurements were done and the floor plan was incorporated in the 2 brochures and even printed on a large chloroplast board to be mounted on an easel placed at eye level so it’s easy for buyers to see it when they enter the home.
- have 2 copies printed in reverse print (white on black)
- placed it on 2 custom ordered easels
Imagery, Emotions, Family, Dreams, Fantasy, We Brought Hollywood to Shaughnessy
Cinematographic Video
The key to the video was to build a theme for this home. We felt that the buyer for this home was going to be one who had a family or who wanted to raise a family in this prestigious neighborhood.
We wanted to paint a picture of a family friendly home where buyers could imagine their kids playing in the home and dreaming dreams in different spaces inside of the home. A video this grand has never been done by a Realtor and so we wanted to use the video to capture media attention and exposure for this home.
- hired child actors
- hired acting coach
- hired makeup artist
- purchased set props
- set preparation
- 3 full days (36 hrs) of shooting
- had thumbnail designed
- input English and Chinese captions
So Prestigious It’s Even Got Its Own Book
High End Book Design (30″x30″ butterfly)
We didn’t want to use a typical 1 page feature sheet to showcase a multimillion dollar mansion. It just wouldn’t be representative of the elegance and prestige of the home. As buyers walk through the home, they can see copies of the brochure opened up to large pictures of the home in its splendor.
- designed the layout
- ordered 25 copies ($40 ea)
The Secret Psychology Behind Why We Swapped Feature Sheets For Luxurious Brochures
Brochure Design (8.5″x11″)
For Realtors and buyers who came to see the home, we wanted them to take home a 25 page brochure that displays the professional photography, floor plan, map and location, features and neighborhood amenities.
Once again we didn’t want to use a 1 or 2 page folded brochure or feature sheet where it’s easy to just toss out and looks cheap. We needed something that they would hold on to and keep.
- design the layout
- have pictures taken of the neighborhood
- write the copy for the brochure
- get QR code for brochure
- manually comb binded each copy
- print 50 copies ($9 ea)
We Didn’t Just Stage The Home, We Handpicked How It Should Look
Professional Staging
While the owner’s current furniture was anything but ordinary, we needed an extra decor pieces to truly highlight the property’s magnificence. We looked through multiple staging companies before shortlisting and interviewing 2 of them and choosing 1.
Even then, we were meticulous in how we wanted the furniture to showcase the home and so when some areas looked good but not great, we got the staging company back to redo certain areas.
- interview 2 staging companies
- got property staged, some furniture wasn’t ideal, had staging company come back and change some of the furniture
Who Creates A Theme For Their Home? We Do…
Domain Purchase
The theme for the home was that the buyer would see the home as a place where dreams are made.
Although we’d be marketing this theme and concept, some people may not be searching that online and may just type in the property address and so we bought a domain with the address and that anyone who input the address would be redirected to www.WhereDreamsAreMade.ca
- buy domains www.WhereDreamsAreMade.ca and 1238w37.com
- have 1238w37.com forward to www.WhereDreamsAreMade.ca
Build Custom Property Website
The vision was to create a website entirely dedicated to this property and have the floor plans, brochures, professional photos and cinematographic video and walkthrough video all in 1 place.
- wrote copy for the website
- put 2 videos on there
- put brochure on there
The Small Extras That Make An Enormous Difference
Preparing the Home
We worked with the homeowner to make sure scratches and marks around the home were touched up. When selling a multimillion dollar home, we are working with highly sophisticated and meticulous buyers and so it is incredibly important to showcase the home in immaculate condition.
- did some repainting, flooring renovations, cleaning
Copywriting for MLS description
The average person is exposed to thousands of ads per day and so an MLS ad with a boring description was not going to work. We needed something short and concise but also able to paint a captivating picture for potential buyers using imagery.
- benefit based instead of outlining features of the home
The Subtle High Level Technique That’s Never Used In Real Estate And Used Only By The Best Sales People In The World
Professional Walkthrough Tour Video
The goal of the cinematographic video was to capture audiences with a story and bring exposure to the home but the goal of the professional walkthrough tour video was to explain in detail the features and benefits to potential buyers.
We wrote a carefully crafted script incorporating subtle and advanced neuro-linguistic programming wording to captivate and mesmerize audiences so they could vividly imagine themselves buying and living in the home.
- wrote custom script for the video
- had custom thumbnail designed
- input English and Chinese captions
How We Marketed This Luxury Home To New York, China and The Rest Of The World
MacRealty Luxury Program
We put this home on the Macdonald Realty Luxury Home Marketing package because this program provides international exposure for the home by marketing on platforms such as Juwai.com and WSJ.com targeting buyers in China, and readers of the Wall Street Journal.
A specially designed luxury sign is also part of this program and people who drive by the home can see this is not a typical Macdonald Realty listing.
The home is also inserted into Macdonald Realty’s Luxury Homes quarterly magazine where only select multimillion dollar homes are showcased and Macdonald Realty Realtors often give this magazine to their clients to showcase their office’s luxury listings.
- ordered luxury signage
- put in Macdonald Realty’s Luxury Homes Collection quarterly magazine
- promoted on www.luxuryportfolio.com 3 million visitors per yr, traffic from 200 countries
- promoted on www.juwai.com China’s #1 property portal 1.9 million annual page views promoted on www.wsj.com/realestate searchable at the Wall Street Journal Online
A High Quality Video Is Only A Video Until It’s Converted To This
Blu Ray Disc
With the extravagant video, we needed to showcase this in an extravagant manner and so putting it in a custom designed blu ray disc and box seems fitting.
- have blu ray box designed, wrote copy for the blu ray box
- sent video to company to put video on blu ray and ordered 500 copies
How We Began To Create The Buzz For The Premiere of This Listing
Email Blast
To prepare for the Exclusive Listing Agent’s Open, we needed to build some buzz and so we created a custom designed flyer and we used it to exclusively invite Realtors to the home for a sneak peak. Since the home was not on the MLS, this strategy sparked the interest of many Realtors.
- email blasted flyer out to 3000 – 6000 Realtors to promote agent’s open (open house for agents)
- emailed out 1 week before agent’s open
- custom designed flyer used for email blast
- custom copy was used to promote the agent’s open
The Preliminary Debut To A Select Few
Exclusive Listing Agent’s Open
Before the agent’s open, we also personally called Realtors who had sold recently in the neighborhood because some Realtors may not have received the email blast. Since Realtors are always perceived as heroes if they have access to an exclusive listing, our personal invitations to them to come to our exclusive luxury listing were welcomed.
- pulled a list of 71 Realtors who had sold in the neighborhood in the past few months
- emailed them the flyer invitation to the agent’s open and also called all of them a few days later to follow up on the invitation and remind them of the agent’s open
Media Invitation and Exposure
1 week before the agent’s open, we reached out to 40 reporters and this was important because we wanted the press to write about this home. The more the people in the city knew about this home, the more exposure it would get and we wanted to drive more people to the website and further spread the word.
- carefully crafted email indicating benefits, the story behind the video and marketing tactics, possible article headlines, why they should pay attention to this listing
- emailed out to 40 reporters
Unveil The Curtains, The Ultimate Presentation That Made It On The News
Exclusive Listing Agent’s Open Presentations
It was important to provide this special sneak peak agent’s open for Realtors who wanted to know what the buzz was about. The launch was successful and buyers and Realtors came to the event and each was given a presentation at the grand entrance of the home to prime them for the guided tour that followed.
Similar to the walkthrough video, this was an opportunity to personally point out features of the home and let them experience the wonder of this luxury home. The media articles that came from the reporters visiting were also shared on social media platforms to increase exposure to the WhereDreamsAreMade.ca website.
The food and drink was good so people would stick around and they would be able to experience the home for a little longer. Psychologically and scientifically, the longer someone stays in a home, the easier it is for them to feel comfortable in the home and remember the home.
Scented candles were used around the home for scent control to enhance their experience. The classical music helped provide the ambiance needed for guests to feel like they’re in a prestigious destination. We intentionally played the 5 minute cinematographic video at the end to help them have an amazing lasting impression on the home.
- Open House signs were placed around the neighborhood
- Buyers came to see the home
- Guided 10 min Tours for Realtors
- Prepared food and drink
- Interviewed by 2 Reporters (REW and Westca)
- 2 Articles were written
- Gave a facebook live video tour to REW reporters
- Played classical music in the home’s central speakers for the main floor and upstairs
- Played the 5 min cinematographic video in the basement home theater to conclude the tour
- Had scented candles throughout the house
These 4 TACTICS Executed AFTER The Launch Takes It To The Next LEVEL
Own A Piece Of Luxury With This Limited Edition Collection
DIRECT MAIL
It’s important to let the neighbors know of the new listing in their area. One of the best ways is by direct mail. A boring flyer or postcard would get thrown out and so we needed to send something where homeowners would actually open and look at.
The key was to make this direct mail package marketing the home memorable and something they would tell others about.
- Handpicked 500 properties in the area to send blu ray disc, book and brochure to
- Custom Luxury Gold Bubble Wrap packaging to emphasize the luxury of the contents and stoke the curiousity of those receiving the package
The Buyer For Your Home May Be Closer Than You Think
MACDONALD REALTY OFFICE TOUR
Often homes are sold very quickly because Realtors in the same office have the right buyer for the home. Promoting the listing within the office should be the 1st place to promote because the office colleagues are almost always the 1st people to know that you have a new home for sale.
- Presented the listing at the company sales meeting
- Placed home on Monday morning office tour where the agents from our office get to tour office’s new listings
We Don’t Just Show Homes, We Take People On An Experience They Never Forget
PRIVATE APPOINTMENTS
In these private showings, people are given a 10 – 30 minute tour where we showcase the home and all its splendor and answer any concerns or questions they may have.
We strategically showcase the overview of the floor plan, interior craftsmanship of the home on the main floor, then paint the picture of the spacious and lavish living quarters for the family upstairs, then the finale concludes by helping buyers visualize the sanctuary in the basement.
A dream where they grab a drink from the grand wet bar, hop on over to the heated swimming pool and hot tub, relax in the sauna before jumping into a steam shower and finally enjoying the beautiful Where Dreams Are Made movie that we play for them. The last thing buyers remember about the home as they are leaving is this home is Where Dreams Are Made.
The Psychology Behind The Series Of Exclusive Gatherings
VANCOUVER WEST AGENT’S OPEN HOUSE
Many Realtors like to stay up to date with the new listings in the area so they can give their clients the most up to date information. Unlike the Exclusive Listing Agent’s Open, this home is now on the MLS and Realtors who are watching the Vancouver West market know it’s a new listing.
This is their 1st opportunity for a sneak peak at the home and it’s our opportunity to sell them on why this home is Where Dreams Are Made.
- Realtors put their Vancouver West homes on tour on one of the weekday mornings and Realtors visit these new listings
NEIGHBORHOOD IN PERSON INVITATIONS
Often, the public do not search on MLS regularly to see what new listings are new to the area. It’s important to let the neighbors know in person. They may know someone who would buy the home or they may be personally interested. They might not even be thinking about it but we may find the ideal buyer just by talking to some neighbors.
It’s important to walk that extra mile to give more exposure to our client.
- Door knock several homes on the street and in the area to promote the sale of the home and invite neighbors to the open house
PUBLIC OPEN HOUSE
As private and exclusive it has been up to this date, we want to give the public the opportunity to see this home as well and so we hosted 1 Open House 2 days after the Vancouver West Agent’s Open House.
A luxury home of this magnitude, you want to host a series of small exclusive gatherings and then 1 public open house, followed by private appointments for showings.
By setting the showing structure like this, it maximizes exposure and maintains the property’s exclusivity and image of prestige.
