Alpha Agent Donna Lee Laue Reviews Luxury Marketing Council Program

Donna Lee Laue Chairman of Unique Global Estates ~ Last week I attended the Luxury Marketing Council’s “Alpha Agents” Meeting, where we were privileged to experience Alf Nucifora, Chairman of the San Francisco Chapter, pilot a panel of the most successful leaders of the Bay Area’s Real Estate Companies.The panel discussed our current market, what they believe to see in the future and the information they gathered while attending the recent National Association of Realtors Convention.

Donna Lee Laue

The panel was impressive and clearly delivered their very best opinions when presented with the difficult questions including, “Where are we, how long, liquidity, who’s funding, what price points are selling and being funded, agent attrition and how are you advising your agents during this period.”

The biggest consensus of opinion was to the “No one really knows”. This crisis is different than anyone has ever experienced, and each member expressed that we are either in a “V” curve coming out or…in an “L”, but all were in agreement that we are seeing an increase in sales. It was also agreed that a good portion (a 50% number was discussed) is in the short sale segment. The new terminology for the luxury segment underwater is called the “shadow people”, the high end homeowner who is quietly losing their home. The top, successful agents are focusing on this niche.

Re: When will the market turn:  the responses ranged from Q4 2009 to 4 years to it will never return to the halcyon days of past.

Re: Financing. Consensus is that financing at all ends seems to jump from financial institution to financial institution, almost on a daily basis with B of A and, interestingly, Citibank expressing interest in funding jumbo loans. Neighborhood banks are in play.  Qualifying has very strict parameters especially, and if at all, at the jumbo level. Jumbos are still bottlenecked. It was heartening to hear that there are buyers out there and they are purchasing – many with cash- and there was talk of multiple offers on well priced properties.

Re: Agent attrition: Numbers from 20-30% attrition is happening and expected. The advice given to agents during this period is to gain all the information possible. Take classes, explore social networking and to just get out there. All down turns purge the real estate community, and this crisis, because it is so long and so deep, will have even a greater impact.

Re: What’s selling: Price and value. The panel agreed that buyers are performing on well priced, good value homes in all price ranges. There is movement in the first home buyer segment and they expect that to begin to impact the move–up market. Clearly the trophy homes are still commanding top price and a few of them are trading. Over all they were in agreement that the new criteria is price, price, price.

Re: Appraisals: Going forward they will be more and more difficult. It was suggested that agents must be more pro-active in supplying appraisers with the comps they know of- especially in the luxury segment. It was also noted that we will be seeing multiple appraisers on each case, many from completely different locations with little or no local market knowledge.

All in all, it was a fascinating panel and we give kudu’s to Alf Nucifora for directing this esteemed group in delivering valuable, timely information from both 20,000 feet above and from on the ground observation.

Connect with Donna at Unique Global Estates Luxury Blog