← Estate of Mind — The Art of Selling Luxury Real Estate
Estate of Mind — The Art of Selling Luxury Real Estate
Turning Open Houses into Luxury Experiences That Sell
00:46:51
In this episode of Estate of Mind, hosts Tami Simms and Jack Miller sit down with Jerry Hammond, luxury real estate professional with Coldwell Banker, to discuss how to turn open houses into unforgettable client experiences that actually sell. From micro-events to grand soirées, discover how strategic partnerships, brand alignment, and hospitality-driven details can elevate your listings, attract qualified buyers, and create powerful FOMO that moves luxury properties. Whether you’re hosting your first luxury open house or refining your high-end marketing strategy, this conversation offers real examples, proven results, and inspiration to help you stand out in 2025 and beyond.
Loading summary
Transcript107 lines
- [00:01]
A
Today's podcast is brought to you by Interlux Auctions. Your solution to guarantee competitive offers on your luxury listings with no compromise to commission. Visit interluxe.com today to find out more. That's I N-T-E-R l u x e.com welcome to a State of Mind, a podcast series all about motivating, inspiring and educating you in the art of selling luxury real estate. In this episode, we're going to talk about how to elevate the luxury open house experience. Joining us today is our guest, Jerry Hammond with Hammond International Properties Ltd. Based in the Greater Toronto area in Canada. Jerry's a fellow Guild elite member of the Institute and his award winning company specializes in luxury residential properties and developments around the world. Welcome, Jerry. We're glad to have you with us today.
- [01:00]
B
Thank you so much. And what a welcome. The Institute has a dear place in my heart because it's one of our first places where we launched the idea of entering into the luxury market. And of course, there was nothing offered in Canada. So I decided to head down to the US and find the Institute, which was in Coral Gables at the time. They were offering a course, took the course and fell in love with the entire idea. And here we are, ARC 12th year, but we've been working in the luxury market, I'd say close to about 18 to 20 years.
- [01:32]
A
Excellent. I'm glad to hear that.
- [01:35]
C
I'm just curious, Jerry, was Tammy your instructor by chance?
- [01:38]
B
You know what, Tammy was there, but Lori Murmur was the instructor at the time and boy, she had a great personality. That Texas, you know, personality, sense of hospitality and, you know, certainly knew how to get along and communicate effectively with people. So I really admired her at the time. But I think, Tammy, you were also involved with the Institute at that time.
- [02:00]
A
I was, I was. And for our listeners that may not be familiar, Laurie Mor Mor was the founder of the institute 20 plus years ago. And so it is a wonderful testament that the training and the relationships that you build in the Institute stick with you through all these years. So thank you for sharing that, Jerry.
- [02:23]
B
Absolutely.
- [02:24]
A
Now, interestingly, open houses are such a unique thing within the real estate industry, geographically and by price point. And so we wanted to talk today about kind of in general blending the luxury lifestyle elements with the open house format. And that could be public open houses, broker to broker open events or even prospective client events. So, Jerry, I would love to hear your thoughts, especially coming from the Toronto marketplace, which is so very different. So tell us what's on your mind today.
- [03:08]
B
Yeah, yeah. So We've been very fortunate. You know, as we, as we continue this journey of luxury, you know, we're always coming upon new ideas, searching for new concepts as to how to host things, how to invite people. And so open houses. For us, we do two different style of open houses. One is more what we call a micro event and the other one's called our macro event, which is more corporate in terms of style. So the corporation once a year holds these open houses and we call them our soirees. And what we do is we partner with other luxury organizations, whether they be car companies, art companies, food companies, the banks, anybody in the luxury arena that sort of shares in our consumer base. We extended an entire invitation. We just hosted one at a home that we're marketing for about 15 million. And after the event we sold the home. So it worked out very well.
- [04:02]
A
That's fantastic.
- [04:03]
C
That's the goal, right?
- [04:04]
B
Yeah. So we had great entertainment in the house. We had all sorts of things. We dolled up the pool with these spheres that lit up at night. We follow up to make sure that everybody's going to show up. We had about 500 guests at the event.
- [04:20]
C
Wow.
- [04:20]
B
Yeah. So that is the house could host it. And of course the size of the home could hold that type of crowd. And we had people coming in. We partnered with a company called Ferrari at the time and they, and they brought in some vehicles and it was a real spectacle. We got caught up by the media. And so, you know, these are the types of houses, these are the types of open houses that we do host on a macro level for the corporation and on a mic.
- [04:46]
C
Yeah, sorry Joe, before you shift gears to micro, a couple of things real quick. One, was this a resale or new construction? And you mentioned at night. So this is a nighttime event.
- [04:56]
B
Yes. So we do, we do evening events. We typically start them at about 5:30, 6 o' clock at night and they end at about 9:30 in the evening. So they're approximately three hours long. We also partner with some charities that we give a donation to during the evening. We have some great entertainment. We have some celebrity guests typically that show up at the events. Some very important people that just to make the place more enjoyable, where people can feel like they're networking and talk to others. And it's not a real sales approach. It's just a great way to get together, be thankful for the people that we've done business with and then looking forward to doing business down the road with people that we invite and in.
- [05:41]
A
That price range especially, especially that seems to me like it's a really good way to get the kind of exposure, to get that buzz, people talking about it that makes somebody who has that level of means want that house where that great event happened. So please go on.
- [06:02]
B
Yeah, there's a funny story, actually, an interesting story. So we show this lady the home, and she fell in love with the house, and we're about to host the event, and we extend an invitation to her to show up to the event. She shows up to the event, and she pulls me aside. She says, jerry, I'm really disappointed. I said, how can you be disappointed? Look at the turnout here. It's such a great turnout. The house is beautiful. We've had everything. Like, it was just the most perfect evening. She goes, well, I want the house. You know, this is my home. And I said to her, well, we start organizing these events about three months in advance, so it takes time to organize everybody. And so the week later, after we finished the event, she gave us the offer and bought the house.
- [06:44]
A
So, wow. And talk about creating the fear of missing out right now. All these other people have seen this home that she's decided is hers. That's a great story.
- [06:54]
B
And it's not the first time that it's happened to us at one of these events. So it seems to have worked if you can pull it off, you know, with the right people involved.
- [07:03]
C
Absolutely, Jerry. So in this case I mentioned a minute ago. So was this a resale or new construction?
- [07:08]
B
Yeah, this is resale.
- [07:09]
C
So. So resale property. When you have 500 guests come to a property like that, what types of protocols do you put in place to give the seller a comfort level? To have 500 essentially strangers in some cases, you know, walking throughout their home at night and getting the lay of the land, so to speak. Tell me how that works for you guys.
- [07:31]
B
Yeah, certainly. Well, first of all, we hire security. So we had about three or four security guards around the property just to make sure that everything was, you know, kept within the lines of what we expected. We limit the tour to the main floor and the lower level only, and the grounds. So we don't have anybody go to the second floor. There was also a third floor. In this case, we had our violinist or our entertainment up at the top of the staircase, which was a Scarlett o' Hara staircase. So we limited anybody from going to the second stairs as well as the secondary staircase was closed off to visit.
- [08:04]
C
That's a creative blockade. Yes. There's a bass, bass guitar, and a violin at the top of the staircase, yeah.
- [08:12]
B
So what was interesting is when you first entered into the home, she was at the top of the stairs, and it was very incredible just watching her there. If you watch our video online, you can see exactly what we did. And it was a spectacle when you first walked in, because the home had great acoustics and could carry the sound. And just her wearing a beautiful dress, playing an electric violin was very magical when you walked into this home.
- [08:34]
C
I think that. I think you're pointing out that you're not allowing guests to the second floor. Really interesting, because when we've talked about showing luxury homes in any type of capacity where it wasn't a guest, a buyer who we already had, you know, verification of assets before we showed the property, one of the biggest concerns they have is somebody casing their home. Of course, seeing where the children's bedrooms were, for example. And what you just kind of said in a more passive way is that we're protecting those spaces in the home where there might be kids or other members of the family off the main floor. So that's very interesting.
- [09:20]
B
Yeah. We have the homeowner sign off on an acceptance before we host the event. We explain in detail who we're partnering with, what type of security will be there. We buy insurance for the evening of. There's a lot of things that we get involved with to make sure that there's artwork there that we had to, you know, we. To make sure we had the insurance and proper insurance for it. So there's a lot of things that we do to get involved with the event. So it's. It's a very secure surrounding, and having the security guards there really helps. They make their rounds around the property, both in and outside. And so for that reason, I think that homeowners have felt very comfortable. We do them yearly, if not twice a year. So it's been quite constant for us. Some of the homes have been vacant, some of them have been occupied. But so far, you know, thank God we haven't really had an issue in terms of hosting any of these events.
- [10:10]
C
You said. You said twice a year. Go back to that. I'm sorry, I missed that part.
- [10:13]
B
Yeah. So sometimes, depending on how much inventory we have and how the market is, we typically host a macro event, so corporate event once a year and maybe a second time. So spring and fall is our peak seasons, and then we'll host micro events. So right now we're hosting two micro events, and they're more. They're geared to the agents within the organization who are farming these Areas, So it's strictly for them to bring, you know, notoriety to what they're doing in the areas and it's, and we sort of take away the corporate component of it and strictly focus on them making an announcement about them, introducing them to the general public and focusing on their, their farm territories.
- [10:55]
A
Excellent. And do they get to bring clients with them?
- [10:59]
B
Of course, yeah, we extend the invitation list both on a corporate level and on a personal level so they can build up their own databases and to really build up their own, you know, recognition in the area.
- [11:11]
A
Excellent, excellent. And so these micro events. Well, let me go back to price point for just a minute because I know that you're in a market area that, that has a lot of very expensive homes and, and I actually bet that some of your very high end list hostings are hoping that they get to be that macro event host location.
- [11:38]
B
Some of them have asked for it. Absolutely.
- [11:42]
A
So on the micro events, are you still doing those both on the same price range or is there a different approach in different price points?
- [11:54]
B
Yeah, so for us, getting the crowds out is hosting where the home is really a spectacle and that's really important to us. But going back to your point about our price points, you know, our homes typically start at about 3 million. They currently go up to about $25 million in price point and our average sale is between 6 and $7 million here in the GTA. So it's, it quite, it's quite high. And yes, going back to your question in regards to the event, it makes a lot of sense. It's not necessarily focusing on price, it's focusing on the type of house and the style of home to earn the attraction in the market. So, so we name all our properties, we make sure that they're named properly. There's a story behind each property and that becomes part of the draw.
- [12:42]
A
Excellent.
- [12:43]
C
And when you partner Jerry, with various vendors and service providers who their businesses really speak to the luxury market, what do you ask of them in return? Are they helping to fund the events? What does the partnership look like?
- [12:59]
B
Yeah, you know, it was really surprising when we first introduced ourselves to these organizations. Whether it be retail or they love the idea because we were mixing in with their clientele. And their first point of contact for many homeowners is the house. Everything starts at the house. You start buying cars, you start buying art, you start buying jewelry. And so that was the key discussion that we had with a lot of these vendors and retailers. And when we approached them, they just love the ideas. They love our price Points they love the style of homes they've seen. We showcase our last events to them so they can get a really good indication about how professional they are and the type of clientele that comes out to the events. So they feel secure. They feel, I guess they feel like we're respected in the marketplace, which we are, and they owe it to themselves to be part of our events because they get a candid audience and we don't. We ask for collaboration, we don't ask for any costs. You know, they're bringing out whatever they're bringing out to the event, they're bringing some of their salespeople out to talk about their product line or whatever that may be. And then of course, in collaboration, we're making mention of them in all our social media campaigns, all our handouts. And of course making mention if we, if we create a speech at the event and make mention of each of.
- [14:17]
A
The vendors and that creates that algorithm.
- [14:20]
B
Exactly.
- [14:21]
A
Cross pollinates both in the social media sphere as well as word on the street and reputation, that, that sort of thing. I imagine that there's some vendors who are clamoring to be the one that gets, that gets picked. Right?
- [14:35]
B
Yeah. You know, we've had issues in the past where we can't have two of one type of vendor, you know, in terms of selling the same product or similar products. So we try to keep the exclusivity to each and every one of the companies and we honor that. And that way there's no real competition in the space that we're providing for the event.
- [14:53]
A
Excellent. Have you ever had a seller particularly, particularly for the macro event? Right. I can imagine that most of your sellers want that micro event that is getting those other brokers who produce in that arena. It's very common everywhere that I've been for an owner to want that kind of attention. Is there any time that, that you've wanted to do a macro event at a property and the seller pushed back? Right. Like it's kind of at a basic level. It's a. Okay, I don't want you to use my house to throw a party.
- [15:29]
B
Yeah. You know, I'd have to say we've never really had that pushback and we're, we're very selective as to where we host the events. We're very selective about the homes. And I'd have to say, like in the environment that we're in right now, we're in a recessionary period, homeowners are wanting to sell. There's a little more desirability to be open to the marketplace, especially if they want to get on with their lives. So they're very in tune with, you know, having something like this done at their homes. And they're very cooperative, I find, in many cases. So. And then we're limiting it. It's not like we're hosting an event every week. We're not hosting it all the time. We explain to them that we're very selective about where we host and what type of home we host in. So they feel they very proud about, you know, showing it to the clientele. It's very selective. It's only by invitation only. So we get the right clients out there. Most of them are qualified or they're past clients or current clients that we definitely want to have in the mix in terms of, you know, who we have at these events. So we've never really found there to be a pushback. Every time we select a home, the homeowner is actually very happy to cooperate with us. Once we sit down and explain everything and, you know, we respect what they want out of it. And then, you know, we have to do what we do best and then. And showcase the home accordingly. And once it goes viral, that's when really things start to happen because that's when the numbers start to grow and you don't know who you're going to get noticed by. Or, you know, that marketing, you can't put a price on that style of a marketing program.
- [17:03]
A
And it sounds like you're. You're funding all of that yourself.
- [17:06]
B
Yes. So the corporation does fund it. The biggest cost is the food, depending on how many people are out there. And then, of course, you know, there's all these minor costs involved. So, you know, I mean, you can budget anywhere from 20 to $30,000 for an event, I'd have to say, which is not hard to do. And. But. But the payback is quite significant, obviously, if you sell the house or just future business down the road.
- [17:31]
A
Sure, sure.
- [17:32]
C
Do you typically employ an event planner or are you guys putting this event on yourselves?
- [17:37]
B
Yeah. So we've had a few companies in the past, so we have two marketing companies. Both have their own responsibilities during the event, list of responsibilities of events. And one of them helps out in terms of creating the collaborations and the partnerships, and the other one helps out in terms of the marketing. But we have key people in our organization that now have it down to a science. We have it pretty much lined up in terms of what we're going to do, who we're going to call, how we're going to set up the event. We know we have it, you know, down to a science in terms of how long it's going to take, how many people will show up. It seems to be quite consistent at this stage. And we have a great following, which is a wonderful thing.
- [18:22]
C
That's terrific. It sounds wonderful.
- [18:24]
A
Excellent. Jack, are you seeing any type of events like that in, in your marketplace, whether it's in the more urban areas or outside?
- [18:35]
C
Yeah, both we are, but typically it's not by listing broker or real estate firm putting on the event. Normally we, of course, we have open house broker opens and, and public open houses in the luxury space. The level that Jerry's describing is more akin to what we would do, say, for example, with a Parade of Homes event. We have some luxury magazines here in town, and oftentimes the luxury magazines will have an annual event they'll host in a home that's currently for sale, luxury space in the luxury space for sale, or multiple homes, for examp. And so we have events of that scale here, but they're typically joint events with multiple brokers, multiple firms, across multiple properties for a large event. That's more, that's more akin to what we have here.
- [19:25]
A
Yeah, I see. And I've seen that in a lot of different geographies here in my area as well. Whether it's a orchestra guild fundraising event that floats across a number of homes, the, the broker to broker events. I know I hear a lot about the challenges of getting the producing brokers to actually attend. Right. There are a lot in our profession that will go to any event that they're invited to, but you want to focus on the ones who really have the likelihood of bringing a buyer or having a connection. Jerry, tell us how you, how you go about that. I mean, it sounds as though you've positioned yourself with a following. And again, the FOMO broker to broker, I think exists. But how did you get to that point?
- [20:18]
B
You know, we've been very fortunate where, you know, we have like a machine going on behind the scenes where there's constant marketing, there's, you know, it's 24 hours a day, constant recognition out in the marketplace. Our team follows a certain regimen month to month in terms of earning the recognition. And we seem to be outpacing our competitors in terms of, you know, how we produce, how we keep in touch with the people that we keep in touch with. So we've created this following and strictly by our branding, by, you know, our communication that's on all our material, we've really stepped it up in terms of, you know, what we're saying to the consumer out there. And our most important person, of course, is the consumer. So once they identify with who we are, we've been doing this for quite some time. People are just, you know, they become almost like a magnet, and they. And they love what you're doing. And if they do follow along your journey and they respect what you're doing and you've done great things for the community, you're going to have people show up, whether that be agents or not agents or, you know, but we keep in touch with all the agents that we do business with. They're on our database. We do send them out invitations. A lot of them come out because they want to be caught up on social media. Some of them are influencers. So we want that type of exposure. And of course, yeah, we, you know, we want to do business with them because we. We count on them to do business with them.
- [21:42]
C
So it's not a matter of closing doors. Sorry. Yeah. And, Jerry, with your database, do you. When you call that database of agents for your marketplace, do you do it based on past transactions? Do you do it based on production? Did you see with given agents throughout the various companies in area, how do you put that database? Because you're not sending out to everybody. Everybody's licensed, obviously.
- [22:05]
B
No, no, we track. We track the industry. We track it yearly. We update our database monthly. So no, we're always. It's always changing. It's a moving pendulum on how we want to strategically be in the marketplace and who we reach out to. Some are, you know, some were more selective because of the area that we're marketing in. We cover about 35,000 homes in the Greater GTA, only in the most expensive pockets in southern Ontario. So that be. That's a key factor depending on where the area is and where the house is.
- [22:36]
C
Because one of the challenges, I think this is what Tamia was getting at. One of the challenges that we have is when you have a broker open that's publicly advertised among real estate firms, you know, one of the challenges that you often have is getting the right people there. And so, right, you'll have a lot of agents show. And I can always feel it when I walk in the room. If I walk in the room, I'm in a luxury home. It's gorgeous. And that listing broker and the firm has put a lot of effort into the event. And you get there and you're looking around the room, you don't recognize anybody.
- [23:06]
B
Right.
- [23:06]
C
You know, you know, immediately like the. Right. Well, didn't show up for this. This agent. And so one of the things I find that.
- [23:14]
B
That.
- [23:14]
C
That we've tried to do to kind of overcome that is I see a lot of my colleagues in the industry spending a lot of money paying assistants and event planners and third parties to put all the. The invitations out and things done by bots and AI, Et cetera, et cetera. And I know one of the things that we've really tried hard to do, and I've got a lot of colleagues to do this as well, is doing personal invitations. So I would rather have this. This would be what you would probably describe, Jerry, as a micro event. I would much rather have a broker open with 30 to 50 brokers attend who are the right people, right. 200 faces showing up to have mimosas and, you know, charcuterie and. And I don't recognize the crowd that's there. You want the people that, you know, have the ability and have the database and. And the wherewithal to sell the property.
- [24:06]
A
You know, a couple of things come to my mind. I agree with you, Jack. I am more likely to respond to something that I know is by invitation only, very specific invitations, whether that's something that I receive in print material, whether it's a phone call. My lender, for example, invited me. She called and she said, I have the privilege of being the lender that's helping with this event at a spectacular private residence in downtown Tampa in the channel side district, overlooking where the hockey team plays and all of that. And she said, I have a handful of invitations, and it would mean a lot to me if you would come. Now. I drove an hour. I paid $50 to park, right. And. But it was that kind of invitation. And they had the mayor. The mayor of Tampa came to speak, who I knew, and. And that was. That was fantastic. And so I was outside of that niche market area. And the other thing I was going to say is sometimes I end up on an invitation list knowing I don't have the numbers of production, and that's by choice because I spend a lot of my time with the institute, and I have the luxury of being able to pick and choose my clients, so I don't fall into that category on paper, but people see me as a valuable asset. Who knows, I might actually talk about their property on the podcast or when I'm training in Sarasota or someplace else. I guess I'm an influencer. Certainly not on social media, but I guess there's some other nuances. And I was invited just a couple of weeks ago to a very small gathering of agents. Right. We're not all brokers here, but real estate professionals from two different firms that represent. That have the affiliation, a global, exclusive affiliation. And probably a total of 24. A dozen of them from this local market area, a dozen from Sarasota. Right. Which is a feeder market. This property is. Is. Is quietly available for $20 million, which will set a benchmark in this area, in this particular area. So we're pushing the price point. It's discreet. It's not. It's not being marketed publicly. And interestingly, they let us tour the home. The agents representing the owners let us know that they were very private. And the only reason that they allowed the event is that it was a small, select, handpicked, and particularly from an hour away, hour, two hours away. But we had a lovely plated lunch on the terrace. There was no food and beverage inside the property. There was no alcohol served. And it really was a discreet way to address the. We're not letting you have a party at our house. We are letting you expose our house in a very, very elegant manner. But it's palpable when you're in a situation like that, Jack, just like you said, you walk into a room and you know what's going on there. And so I've walked into rooms before.
- [27:34]
C
Where There was only 15 people at a broker open and. But it's all the top players, like they did. Well, I mean, it gets the right people because they're the ones that have that. That. That effect of going viral face to face with all the right people. Both the agents, you know, in their offices, or they're. Perhaps they're managing brokers or owners, but they just know the right people, period. It's. It's a. It's a very exciting thing to see when you see the right faces in a room like that.
- [28:02]
A
I agree, Jerry, in the price points, that would be more on your entry level of luxury. Do you do what we would consider to be traditional open houses to the public? I'm imagining that in the very higher end, that would not even be a consideration. But tell us about that. How do you approach those public open houses?
- [28:25]
B
Yeah, you know what? So our team prepares probably about two weeks in advance of the open houses just to send out invitations to invite the initial neighborhood and then put it through our social campaigns to capture attention through social media and of course, the agents that we have on our database. And so that's how we prepare for an open House. And typically they're pretty successful. You know, we get anywhere from 10 to 20 people at them, but it's a candid audience looking at that price point, and they don't end up empty, which is a good thing. And we do something at them in terms of, you know, some catering or just something to say thank you for showing up. Our last one that we held in Etobicoke was very successful. It was like a revolving door. People just kept coming in, and it turned out to be a great success. So, yeah, we do these. We do do open houses more. More on a smaller level. And they're done once in a while. They're not done all the time. Just because we don't want to overexpose our properties. We don't want them to feel like they're just sitting and not really. You know, we want to be very selective about what we're showcasing in the market. We have a lot of inventory, and we just want to be selective about how that inventory shown out to the marketplace. So there's this sense of scarcity, and it's just not. It's not overkill in terms of how. How often you're showing the property.
- [29:43]
A
Got it. And how do you draw in those lifestyle features in. In that level of an event, whether it's vignettes of activity or capitalizing on. On a particular lifestyle.
- [29:56]
B
Yeah, so lifestyle on those types of events are. They're less. They're certainly not like the larger events, the micro events or the macro events that we host through the corporation. But we do request partners. And sometimes it's just, you know, simple partner, a financial advisor or somebody that can come in and talk about mortgage financing or, you know, somebody, an interior designer that might host it with us, who might just talk about the house. The great points of what the house has to offer, things like small, things like that, that really help us out. Sometimes we'll get. Get cars displayed in front of the house just to showcase, you know, the vehicles parked in front of the home. So we'll play on little ideas. Plus, within what's embedded in our marketing is a lot of the lifestyle aspects of the properties. So imagery, you know, lifestyle imagery. Whether somebody's a family sitting in a. In a theater room in the home, or whether they're enjoying their kitchen, having a barbecue in the backyard, you know, enjoying their families. That's the sort of thing that we embed within the lifestyle aspect of all of our. All of our marketing.
- [31:00]
A
Excellent.
- [31:01]
C
And Jerry, both have either one of you ever hosted an art show in One of your listings?
- [31:06]
B
Yes. Oh, they all. They all include art. We've got. We've got a lady who specializes in glass art here in Toronto. She represents about 20 different artists from around the world. And she. She's at all our events. She loves our events.
- [31:18]
C
So she's not an artist. She's a gal. She owns a gallery.
- [31:21]
B
She owns a gallery, yeah. So we do with the owners of the galleries, and this way we have a variety of different art. One of the homes that we're hosting this week, we're actually bringing in the artist and he's bringing in about three or four of his pieces just to showcase around the house. So, yeah, no, we get involved with art all the time. Arts. We get involved with jewelry. We've gotten involved with, you know, perfume companies. We've gotten involved with makeup companies. We've gotten involved with so many different organizations that just. Just enjoy the spectacle of being there. And of course, they're all willing to give out something at the event. And it's.
- [31:56]
A
It's.
- [31:57]
B
It's very. It's a very beautiful, you know, as I mentioned, a soiree, and people are happy to be there, and people linger and they. They talk. They talk about the real estate market, they talk about the product lines. You know, it's a place of engagement. There's no real selling involved. It's just, you know, more or less just a happy occasion to be there and to. To. To, you know, be part of the experience, I'd have to say.
- [32:20]
A
And I imagine that you get to capitalize on. I'm sure that you have a professional photographer, videographer on hand, so you get to capitalize on that in the. In the long term. So you're amortizing the investment from a single event and marketing dollars.
- [32:35]
B
Yeah, no. We have our photographer and videographer show up to almost everything that we do, and we make sure that it gets captured. And then we can use it for. Down the road in terms of, you know, putting it in a library and then bringing it out whenever we need it. We host everything on our Google Drive so all the agents can share in that material, take it, and utilize it within their social channels. And so there's a great sharing environment here in the office.
- [32:59]
C
And again, from the department of specifics department, have you ever. Have you. Have you done a wine tasting at one of your open houses?
- [33:08]
B
Yeah. So we choose. Well, if we're serving wine, it's usually prosecco or white wine or water or sparkling water, because we just don't want to damage the house. In case there's any spillage. We've never done a wine tasting, that's true. But we've hosted something at one of our country clubs where we've had a wine tasting, and that was an invitation, guest list, but never at one of the houses. We just don't want to, you know, we want people to show up and engage. We just don't want to focus on the alcohol aspect of things. We like to feed them. That's a good thing. We got these great companies that we'll partner with and they'll give little nibbles, I guess, to everybody that's walking through. We've got to make sure that we have enough by the end of the evening because people do linger for a while, but yeah, never a wine tasting. There's certain things that we try to restrict just because we don't want the liability aspect. Because I think having a lot of people and keeping it under control, making sure that people are there for the right reasons is to us.
- [34:14]
A
Yeah, yeah. That makes. It makes a tremendous amount of sense. And I hear that quite a lot. Even if there is. If there is something that it's going to be in the. In the white family so as to avoid any stains or that sort of thing. And again, like I mentioned, in some cases food and beverages outside the house, there's not any food and beverage consumption inside. So you get to tour the home, step out to the terrace and there's something. Move along to another spot. Maybe poolside, there's something. Or at another terrace. But really controlling the, as you say, Jerry, liability in terms of damaging the home.
- [34:52]
B
Yeah. So everything for us is bite size. So it's just a one bite so you can get a taste of things. But we, we do serve in the home, but we promise the. The house, the homeowner, that we'll be cleaning the house right afterwards.
- [35:05]
A
Sure.
- [35:05]
B
We bring in a cleaning team and make sure that the house looks exactly like the way we, you know, when we arrive.
- [35:11]
C
That's terrific.
- [35:12]
A
Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. What do you have in mind, Jerry, for your next one or our next one, the next macro event?
- [35:24]
B
It. It depends what we have in inventory, but we've already got some great homes that we're lining up. We anticipate that we'll market them into next year's market. We're hosting two micro events, you know, in the next. Actually this week and next week. So that's going to happen. And we typically have them spring and fall. So we try to choose some of our best Inventory in areas where we're very welcomed and we've got great market share, that's very important. And where the home, as I've mentioned, is a real spectacle in terms of architecture, design, you know, something. Something that people haven't necessarily seen from the inside so they can come and have a look and really, you know, they can start chattering with their friends and talking to the people that they know. And that becomes a great way to be an advocate for the property and to market the property indirectly.
- [36:12]
A
And I'm assuming, I'm assuming that this is largely single family homes, if not entirely, versus a condominium environment.
- [36:21]
B
That's an interesting point. So we just hosted an event with a very large developer, Canada's largest developer for condominium residences here in Toronto. And it was by invitation only. We had about just under 100 guests there and we're working with them to help them sell their, their 23 large last suites, the building standing. So we're able to go through the amenities, go through the model suites, and they were happy to host it with us. And that turned out to be a success.
- [36:47]
A
That makes sense.
- [36:49]
B
Yeah, we're working on a 12 million dollar penthouse sale right now. So we just had the meeting yesterday with the buyer and the seller.
- [36:55]
A
Excellent. Excellent. Yeah, that makes a lot more sense versus an individual resident in a condominium environment. So that makes sense.
- [37:03]
C
I mentioned a few minutes ago, Jerry, a parade of homes. And yes, you guys have that same, you know, branding there in your area. But the parade here is typically new construction builders and we're showcasing some of the finest new construction by various building groups here in our market. In fact, we just recently hosted our pareto homes here in the Nashville area. Do you do something similar for builders that you may represent who build luxury homes and where you cooperate with other brokers and other builders? Simultaneous out of an event certainly would be a macro event.
- [37:39]
B
Yeah, no, I can't say we have. What we've designed here in our past is what we call our tour of homes. So we'll host something for a weekend. The homes will be open for, let's say a half an hour to an hour. There'll be a representative from our company at each of the properties and then people can come to each and every property during the designated time and then we'll have a tour of our homes and there typically are listings and some of them may be new with builders and some of them may be resale. And then we showcase the neighborhood to people looking in that particular area.
- [38:10]
C
Those are all homes in the same neighborhood then obviously.
- [38:12]
B
Yeah, yeah. For us, I'd have to say, you know, leveraging what we have and that continuation of leverage to bring notoriety, to bring notoriety to our company. And what we're doing is very important because that's the keep. Like you can host an event, but if you're not creating longevity out of it, or if you're not, you know, really thinking strategically, you know, like a business person, you know, what are you going to get out of it for a year, six months from now, a year from now, two years from now, then I think, you know, it can all go for nothing, you know, and so you hosted an event, but if you haven't benefited from it, you know, there's no reason, there's no reason why that becomes an investment rather than just an expense and expense.
- [38:53]
C
I think that is, I think it's one of the wonderful things you've shared so far in this podcast because I think a lot of us, when we're always, when we're focusing on marketing, we focus very specifically, oftentimes on a social media piece or marketing piece, a mailer or an open house or broker open or whatever the event is. And we've got to think a lot, we've got to really think about the long term goals and how it fits in with our business plan and a marketing campaign. And I don't think a lot of us are necessarily thinking about the word campaign, which is exactly what you're describing. It's got to have longevity, it's got to have a return down the road and all the pieces should tie together. Absolutely, you said.
- [39:32]
B
Yeah, no, no, you're absolutely right. Listen, there's a very important world called cash flow which, you know, we don't want to go through these ups and downs in our business and we got to keep it consistent or increase it. So, you know, a long time ago, I've been, I've been very fortunate on my journey to meet some incredible people, some very wealthy people. And so I've had a lot of engagement with them, a lot of interaction with them. They've taught me a lot of life's lessons and ideas towards business. And obviously cash flow is a key component, I think if you're an agent or not, and it depends on what your goals are because, you know, we all go through these cycles, you know, in cycles like this that we're going through here in Toronto and in Canada, which is a softer market than what you're experiencing in the US we have to reinvest and increase our budgets accordingly. To help support the market. So we're kind of acting in reverse of what the market's behaving in. But that's, you know, that's the chance we're willing to take. And of course, it's paid off tremendously. And so we've realized that the industry has kind of softened on their approach and we've been more aggressive, if you want to call it, in terms of our expenses, in terms of our approach, in terms of our campaign strategy. And that's really enabled us to increase our market share during a downtime when everybody decides to disappear or maybe go to sleep or.
- [40:50]
A
I've spoken to some of your colleagues from the Greater Toronto area and some of them have shifted their focus to buyers given the shift in the market conditions. But it sounds as though you are still going full bore on that listing segment and having that consistency that's going to play through whatever the market does and wherever it comes back.
- [41:18]
B
You know, I often look at it like a store. So if you have one product in your store, you're going to have limited people coming in. But if you have a multitude of product in your store, you'll cast a larger net over a larger audience. And of course, yeah, listing has always been our mainstay, but, you know, it's how we list. So, you know, we've been fortunate enough to get a lot of business that has gone through other brokerages and we've had to fix it, so to speak. So we had to rebrand the product, we had to remarket the product accordingly, and then we make it work. And sometimes we even increase the price if we have to, or keep the price at bay. Because, you know, in luxury, you don't want to decrease value too much. Because in the world of luxury, everything's gone up, whether it be vehicles or, you know, a new dress or a new purse and all that sort of stuff.
- [42:05]
A
Stuff.
- [42:06]
B
So you have to be very strategic and understand the language of luxury. I also attend something in New York which is by invitation only through another luxury network. But it's more. It's more. It's hosted outside of real estate. So you got a lot of the top executives from around the world showing up from very favorable companies in the luxury world. So there's a lot to learn outside of our sector in order for us to, you know, understand service. You know, you look to the hospitality side or. Or understand what they're doing in the world of private aviation, for instance. And if you bring on some of those ideas into your organization, you can really leverage in a marketplace and really sort of adhere to the values of the luxury market because that consumer is living that lifestyle and they're feeling it everywhere else. And if you're not in tune with that, you're out of tune with your market and your consumer.
- [42:58]
A
Yeah. Wow. Jerry, I was going to ask you, as we approach the end of our time together, whether there were any need, like, you know, summations or, or closing remarks, but I'm, I really was taken by what you were just talking about is that we get away from the, the conversation of open houses and, and real estate and all that and put ourselves in the, in the position of being in that luxury space and, and providing the level of service that our luxury clients are, are expecting, which I think takes us right back to where we started in terms of elevating the, the luxury open house experience. But I will offer a last opportunity as we wrap up. Is there anything else that you'd like our listeners to know or, or any words of wisdom that you'd like to share?
- [43:46]
B
Yeah, I think, you know, get out of the real estate game, so to speak, for a while, step into another luxury arena and start gathering ideas, you know, whatever that may be, whether that be, you know, in private aviation or yachts or, you know, just, you know, fine dining or staying in a very specialized hotel. And listen to how they're talking to you. Listen to how they're serving us, because we're in a service business, and if we can pick up on some of those attributes and then adapt them accordingly into what we're doing, we're going to be able to adhere to higher values, because at the end of the day, we do sell the most expensive product in the world. And so if we don't step it up because we deserve to step it up, then, you know, there's going to be, there's going to be a loss to individuals that are servicing in this marketplace. So you really have to step out of the box, look at other industries, find out what they're doing. Those will give you all the success tools that you need to adapt into your own organization. And then make sure that the entire organization is in sync with what you're, what you're demonstrating, what you're saying, what you're preaching, so to speak. And so that'll really get everybody in line, get them excited, you know, get everybody on board and inspired by the message. Because when you go out there and you're working as a team or you're working with the same enthusiasm in one organization, that's very powerful, especially when a community latches onto that and they see the effort that's being made and they see the difference in the type of work that you produce. That is a real game changer, because a lot of agents aren't necessarily reinventing. And reinvention is a very important key point in our industry because every other, every other industry that's doing well or really, you know, excelling in any industry, they're reinventing themselves all the time. So we're always doing the same old, same old. We kind of step, if we step out of our, you know, our little box that we, that we think about all the time, you're going to get some great new ideas and offer that to the marketplace and you'd be pleasantly surprised as to the outcome.
- [45:55]
C
By the way, Tammy, that'd be a topic for a podcast all by itself, Reinventing Our Brand.
- [46:00]
A
Absolutely.
- [46:01]
C
Thank you. That was wonderful.
- [46:03]
A
Absolutely. All right, well, thank you so much for being with us. And to all of our listeners, thank you so much for joining us on this episode of Estate of Mind, the art of selling luxury real estate. If you're interested in learning more about the institute, you can find more@luxuryhome marketing.com if you like what you just heard, please share it with a friend. And don't forget to subscribe, rate and review this podcast. And if you've got a hot topic that you'd like us to discuss in a future podcast, feel free to let us know. Send an email to infoluxuryhomemarketing.com thanks so much for listening.