What do you picture when you think about a luxury home? A big yard, pool, hot tub, chef’s kitchen, large bedrooms, and premium detailing? Today’s luxury home can have any number of these features to many degrees. In some cases, the home simply has that je ne sais quois that makes it unique.
However, when it comes to buying and selling luxury homes, it’s a different ballgame altogether. Luxury homes require nuance and experience. In most cases, buying or selling real estate is the biggest transaction of your life. Multiply that by 10 if you’re buying or selling a luxury home with a price that can hit multi-million dollar levels.
In this post, we’re going to cover what you need to know about how to sell and buy luxury homes.
What is a Luxury Home in Hamilton?
Luxury is often in the eye of the beholder. For example, if you’ve never lived in a traditionally “luxury” home, your idea of what’s luxurious might be different from someone who has been buying and selling luxury homes all their lives. Basically, it’s all relative.
However, in Hamilton, most luxury real estate agents will be able to quickly define a few striking features of local luxury homes.
For example, these properties are usually located in desirable neighbourhoods like Ancaster, Waterdown, West Hamilton, and some parts of Stoney Creek. You can look at our full list of communities here to see the most prominent Hamilton neighbourhoods.
In many cases, Hamilton luxury homes are unique, custom-built properties with beautiful features and high-quality details. Sprawling front and back yards are common with gorgeous landscaping and a pool, hot tub, or both, for good measure.
The interiors of these homes are striking, with grand staircases, large primary bedroom suites, multiple bedrooms and bathrooms, games rooms, theatres, wine cellars, you name it. The main appeal when you buy luxury homes is the ability to completely customize the property to your unique tastes, interests, and lifestyle.
In terms of pricing, most luxury homes for sale exceed the million-dollar mark, with some even reaching the multi-million dollar level depending on the location, size, features, and amenities.
How to Buy Luxury Homes
If you’re considering buying a luxury home there are a few things you need to consider. It shouldn’t surprise you that these transactions tend to be a little more complicated and require a little more attention to detail than your average real estate sale.
Here are a few tips to get started:
Start the Hunt Early and Work with an Agent
Many luxury properties are sold as “off-market” exclusives, either to protect the privacy of the seller or to only appeal to qualified buyers. This means you will need to rely on your agent’s personal network and industry experience to gain the upper hand.
Do Your Research
When you buy luxury homes, you can’t take everything you see at face value. Chances are, this is a multi-million dollar investment, so you need to be sure it’s a smart move. This means researching the property, touring the property multiple times, and doing extensive research on the area’s development plans. Trusted luxury home real estate agents should be able to help you here as well.
Hold Onto Your Records
Large financial transactions are often put under much higher scrutiny than smaller transactions. This is why it’s incredibly important to get everything in writing and to keep all your records and copies of all your correspondence regarding the sale.
How to Sell Luxury Real Estate
Selling a luxury home requires care, nuance, and experience. The higher the price, the more details you need to consider. The best way to sell a luxury home is to work with a luxury home real estate brokerage that has experience in this market.
A few other things you need to consider include:
Enlisting the Help of Professionals
There are certain things that luxury home buyers expect when looking for these types of properties. First of all, we strongly recommend investing in professional staging for the home. Although you might have a passion for interior design, staging a home to live in versus staging a home to appeal to buyers is different. You should also work with professional photographers and videographers. When it comes to luxury real estate, you need high-quality imagery and video to best promote your property, and you need a lot of it.
Flex Your Marketing Muscles
One of the key differences between listing a regular home and selling luxury real estate is how the property is marketed. In the case of a regular home, our goal is often to get as many eyes as possible on your property to reach the highest number of potential buyers. For a luxury home, we recommend honing the strategy a little more to only appeal to qualified buyers, ie., the buyers who have the budget to actually afford your home. This means ensuring that your home’s most unique features are prominent throughout the marketing materials and that your home is sold as a lifestyle, or a brand, not just a piece of property.
Find Nuance in Pricing
With higher price points, selling luxury homes is often a challenge when it comes to creating a compelling pricing strategy. It’s critical that you get this step right from the get-go. If the home is priced too high, you might miss out on enticing potential buyers, and the market will lose interest in your home. Price too low, and you might attract the wrong kind of buyer and end up missing out on profit from your sale. The pricing strategy is always a balancing act that needs to be determined between you and your luxury home real estate agent.
Benefits of Working with a Luxury Real Estate Agent
When you’re preparing to buy or sell luxury real estate, you want to make sure you have a real estate professional on your side. But more than that, you need a luxury real estate agent who is experienced in the differences that come with the luxury real estate market.
Working with a luxury real estate broker means that you can leverage their extensive experience, knowledge, expertise, and resources to facilitate your transaction. These professionals know what luxury clients need and can ensure that your luxury real estate transaction goes smoothly with the best results for you.
Michael St. Jean Realty Announced The Premier Collection for Luxury Real Estate
If you’re looking for a top luxury real estate agent in Hamilton, Michael St. Jean Realty is here to help. With The Premier Collection marketing program, our aim is to create custom selling experiences for unique, luxury properties that exceed the multi-million dollar price point.
This marketing program and listing service are designed to better serve luxury properties and ensure that luxury sellers achieve their goal of selling their luxury property for the highest price.
Here are a few things you can expect from listing your luxury home through The Premier Collection:
- Receiving top-dollar for your home
- In the shortest time
- Completely stress-free
- While protecting your investment
We do this through elevated marketing strategies, pricing, and more. With access to over 100,000 qualified buyers in our database, we are able to perfectly position your luxury home on the market, poised to sell. Learn more about The Premier Collection here.
For luxury real estate, expert advice makes all the difference. If you have a question about buying or selling your home, call us at 1-844-484-SOLD or email us here.
