. . .if you want to reach the luxury niche, you must innovate: you must study the demographics of your Target client,: what does he or she care about , where do they live, what are they afraid of. The way this is done now is with a blog, . . .

Interesting thoughts, and unfortunate that no one has replied in all this time. I belong to a luxury real estate professionals group in Sedona, Arizona, and we were discussing luxury property owners and buyers at this morning's meeting. The question was posed, "Other than by price, just what constitutes a luxury property?" As you may suspect, sales of luxury properties has dramatically slowed in our area (largely a resort/second home market) due in part to the difficulty buyers face in obtaining jumbo loans. With the decline of prices, when a home was listed two years ago for $1.8 million, and is now listed - perhaps as a bank-owned property - for $799,000, does it still qualify as a luxury property? (We used to define luxury properties for our purposes as homes over $1 million, condos over $700,000 and lots over $500,000.)

The consensus among those present (including many of the area's top Realtors) was something akin to "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder." So, it would seem propitious to explore who is buying luxury and just how THEY define it -and what would make them part with their money?A blog, if one could get luxury buyers to use it, would be a great tool! Very creative thinking on your part.

There are many ways to target a market. If you can get your target audience to talk to each other, they will reach each other for you.

After working on "bread and butter" properties for the last 25 years, I have decided to start farming the luxury market in my area. I am starting with my own "luxury-targeted" website. Last night I secured the domain name "MilpitasLuxuryHomes.com". I think to attract clients in the luxury market, you need to display special expertise by the products and services you offer. It may be a month or two before I finish designing my site....but keep your eyes open!

You should seriously consider making it a full blown social media community, see our new offering for $99 here:

http://socialmediasystems.com

Or, do it yourself here:

http://3netsocial.ning.com/

Looking forward to seeing your new website! Ron & Alexandra

Pam: We define the Luxruyr Market as the top 10% of the price range in any given market but not less than $500K. Hope that helps! Ron & Alexandra

Hi Everyone! I couldn't help but notice that 3 of the 4 discussion participants are from California. I'm a former Santa Barbaran myself and graduated from San Marcos High School in 1976. I'd like Pam to elaborate on her luxury real estate professionals group. I haven't heard of a special group in my area for this purpose. Do you have a link to describe the activities of this group and what it provides?? I'd be very interested. Also, thank you "Social Media Guru" for the "social media community" recommendation. It has me thinking about the possibilities. I just finished Module 3 and gave Ron & Alexandra my "thumbs-up" for their blog.

My name is Israel Rothman. Thanks for the thanks. It is about being the source of a feed, and a website that grows.

Learn more at socialmediasystems.om

. . .I'd like Pam to elaborate on her luxury real estate professionals group. I haven't heard of a special group in my area for this purpose.

Hello:

Our luxury real estate professionals group was formed over 5 years ago with the intent of promoting luxury lifestyle and luxury properties in Sedona, Arizona. It started with a small group of agents meeting a couple times a month for breakfast to network and to put our heads together to come up with ways to promote our area and our listings. We came up with a name, a logo, a slogan, a marketing plan, a website, and a luxury publication that was widely distributed. And luxury property sales took off - timing is everything! Our membership currently numbers about 30 and we still meet twice a month. We've cut way back on marketing efforts in response to members' reduced budgets and lack of advertisers in our publication. We have found, however, that we all enjoy and benefit from our market chats, plugs and wants, property tours with feedback sheets, shared experiences and expertise, and our educational events. The networking is invaluable. We have a loose structure and policy and procedures which helps keep our meetings and discussions focused. Since our membership represents various brokerages and both buyer and seller agents, and we are all people with strong opinions, it is something of a feat that we have stayed together and our meetings are so productive. You can visit our website at http://sedonaluxuryrealestateprofessionals.com.