Marketing Sacramento Area Luxury Homes in a Slower Market

As we all know, the Sacramento luxury real estate market is quite different than it was just a couple years ago. More luxury homes are on the market, they are sitting longer, and the price points have come down from their record highs. Though the higher end of the Sacramento luxury home market hasn't been affected like the $300,000-$500,000 range, it isn't fully immune from difficult market conditions.

As a professional Realtor specializing in marketing Sacramento luxury homes, you are a business person. You run your own show, you look after your bottom line, and you always do your best to represent your clients in the best way possible.

Your first thought may be to cut back, and there is nothing wrong with that. We all need to be a bit more careful in this changing economy- taking the medium sized sedan to work instead of the large SUV, going out to eat once a week instead of 3 times a week, and taking a trip to San Francisco instead of Rome.

When it comes to YOUR business, it's all about making the CORRECT decisions. Sit down and truly evaluate where your money is going, and which avenues are the most effective. Let's assume you have just taken a new $1.7m listing in Granite Bay. Should you market it in a couple of cheaper, 12x yearly publications aimed at all price points including $199k condos and mobile homes? Might it be a better investment to consider a publication that specializes only in homes of this caliber, and at the very least…one that actually sells luxury homes? Has the sum total of your marketing in "all price point" publications to date, ever sold a home for you listed over 750k?

The consumer research has long been in, and it is as concise and conclusive as it was thirty years ago… luxury home buyers seek exclusivity and view themselves as part of a special "club." They differentiate themselves by the stores they patronize, the publications they read, and the cars they drive. Marketing that $1.7m Tuscan Beauty in a box in front of a Subway sandwich shop is akin to marketing Porsche's at a 7-eleven. When push comes to shove, even a $500 investment without return, is $500 down the hole. Making the decision to advertise in a well respected, targeted, upscale, and results driven publication may cost you more in the short term, but its something that will benefit your clients, and continue to benefit you and your business for months and months to come.

All businesses, from a mom-and-pop diner to a large corporation need to promote their product. As a Realtor, your product is your listings and your ability to sell them. Utilizing the proper promotional vehicle for a particular product is technically coined "niche marketing;" but in this market, or any market for that matter, it should simply be called smart marketing.