10 Tips to Selling a Luxury Home in Portland 2018

Top-of-the-line appliances, thirty foot high ceilings, a mother-in-law apartment, two acres of landscaping — if this sounds like your home, consider these tips before you put it on the Portland real estate market.

1. Price it right. Selling a luxury home is different than selling a typical 3 bedroom, 2 bath home in Portland. Sellers often get stuck on naming their price because there is no clear formula for doing so. Comparable homes are few and far in between because luxury homes tend to stand out from all the others. The stakes are high — price it too high, and the home will languish on the market. Price it too low and you risk losing tens of thousands in equity. The solution is to find a real estate agent who has experience selling luxury homes in the Portland metro area and ask for a comparative market analysis. Read through this report and don’t forget to factor in the agent’s commission.
2. Leverage the 440. The first tip in this article was over 600 characters long. The RMLS system, which is the system used by Portland real estate agents to list homes for sale, only allows 440 characters in the listing description. It’s not enough space to do the home justice, but it’s still the first place most luxury home buyers or their agents will learn about your home. We get around the 440 character limit by pointing the buyer to the virtual tour link, once they click that link they will go to a mobile responsive website for the home that contains additional photos, description space, 3D walkthroughs, aerial videos, downloadable PDF brochures – whatever we have created for the property. We point the buyer to the virtual tour link in multiple spots in the MLS listing that broadcasts out to tens of thousands of real estate websites: in the public description, the virtual tour link itself, and a slider in the picture list telling them to go there for more information.
3. Make it mobile. According to the National Association of Realtors, 74% of home shoppers use a mobile device to search for homes, which means that not only should your Portland luxury home be listed on all the major real estate websites (we do that and then pay those sites extra for additional exposure), but that its online presentation should be mobile optimized. 
4. Professional Staging. Everyone knows that luxury homes should be professionally staged, but the term no longer has to mean “furnish every room”. Luxury (and main-market) home buyers this year are looking for homes that are move-in ready. If your home is vacant, a professional stager may only need to stage the key rooms. If your home is occupied, we pay for an interior designer to do a walk through consultation with you, working with what you have, so the home looks its best.
5. Get a bird’s eye view. Portland is surrounded by breathtaking scenery — rolling hills, majestic forests, and sparkling rivers. Professional aerial images of your luxury home are a must, whether the home is architecturally unique or is in a beautiful setting like the Columbia Gorge or the country vineyards of Northwestern Oregon. In 2018, there’s no need for luxury home sellers limit themselves to still photography, either — we have seen drones capture some amazing video footage that even longtime owners of the home can’t believe. There’s also impressive 3D tours and (true) video walkthroughs available to our clients. Our team offers this service when listing luxury homes and we rely on it to capture the uniqueness of homes and properties that photos simply can’t do justice.
6. Go 3D. Luxury home buyers are the demographic least likely to have the time to tour a home in person. In addition, many of them are shopping for a luxury Portland home as second or third residence, so there is no urgency to their purchase. However, there is urgency once they’ve fallen in love with a home, and falling in love is possible with a 3D home tour! Using this technology, buyers can “walk through” the home without leaving their computer monitor, and no other special equipment is needed. Again, our team believes this technology is so important that we offer it on all our luxury home listings.
7. Find an agent with luxury home experience. Real estate agents often specialize working on the buyers’ or sellers’ side. Be sure to use a seller’s agent experienced in selling luxury homes. They must be familiar with the market as well as your homes non-standard features.
8. Find an agent who works the area. Yes, choosing the right real estate agent to list your luxury home is so important, we think it’s worth two separate tips. This time, it’s about that all-important real estate term: Location. Whether it’s Riverwood or Troutdale, buyers who are choosing a luxury home are not just shopping for the house — they’re looking for the right neighborhood. Can your listing agent name the closest schools, the local crime statistics and the distance to the nearest shopping center? We have extensive experience throughout the greater metro area. Often we sell more homes in a given location than the “local agent”.
9. Use buzz. There are many, many ways to market a home. Marketing pros use the term “buzz” to describe the thing that happens when everyone is looking at and talking about your home. It’s a tricky thing to generate and requires displaying your home in as many venues as possible. In addition to listing it on the top real estate sites with excellent media options, your listing agent should also be paying to have the home featured to appear at the top of search results. Great luxury home real estate agents will offer all these services and more to ensure you get top dollar for your home.
10. Global Reach. Unless the real estate agent you’re talking with tells you about their global marketing program – they don’t have one. The local MLS does not go out to all the developed countries in the world. Almost without exception, you will only be broadcasting nationwide. We’ve partnered with a global marketing program that puts our listings into every developed country online and translates the description into the local language and the price into the local currency! We have the best global marketing program available.

Sell Your Luxury Home Right

Contact us to find out if your home qualifies for our luxury home program, and do your research before hiring your next real estate agent! We hope to speak with you soon.