By Tracey C. Velt
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When Ree Fritz Cole, CIPS, GRI, plans a luxury home event, she means business. “We’ve rented helicopters to fly prospects into wine tasting events at a luxury home listing,” says Cole, broker of Skywater Estates Inc. in Fort Lauderdale and District II WCR vice president. “We park a yacht at the listing’s dock and have live music and catered food to make it festive.” (Read more from Ree in "Helicopter Tour Lets Wealthy Buyers Scout for Homes by Air.")

Like many sales associates in the luxury market, Cole has been forming innovative alliances with companies that cater to her clientele to boost business in a part of the market that’s slowed considerably in the past year. “Up until recently, the high-end market wasn’t really affected by short sales and foreclosures,” according to Cole, “but when the stock market crashed, so many people tightened up, and that’s been a big challenge for us.”

However, Cole and others are seeing more activity in recent months. “We’re finding that we have fewer homes on the market, and they’re selling faster,” says Suzanne Volkman, CRS, PMN, broker-associate of Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage in Roseville, CA.

Here are some tips and innovative ideas for reaching this market:

1. It’s all about lifestyle. “A huge challenge is understanding the luxury buyer and seller,” according to Laurie Moore-Moore, founder of The Institute for Luxury Home Marketing in Dallas, TX. (Read more tips from Laurie in “High-end Opportunity.”) You must focus on finding a property that’s a match for their lifestyle. “The perfect illustration of this is the sale which holds the record for the most expensive residential property in the U.S. Investment tycoon Ron Barron bought a Long Island waterfront estate for a whopping $103 million. Then, he asked that the lovely home on the property be removed so he could build a custom home, which better met his specific lifestyle needs.” Luxury agents are lifestyle matchmakers, matching the lifestyle of the buyer with the lifestyle of the house.

2. Partnerships are important. Cole’s business partner is a pilot who’s been leasing and selling private jets for years. She also has an alliance with a yacht company and reaches out to the luxury car market. “It’s a nice crossover. If someone buys a jet, there’s a good chance they’ll buy a nice house as well.” She and her partner take qualified buyers out in a plane or helicopter to “give them a bird’s eye view of where the property sits and where the ocean is,” she says. “We have a closing coming up, and I want to bring in the buyer via helicopter just to make it special. Their time is valuable, and we like to treat our clients special.”

3. Events bring in crowds. In Dick Leike’s Memphis market, events help sell their luxury homes, which are on the lower end of the luxury spectrum at $400,000 and up. Leike is president of Crye-Leike, REALTORS®, and has seen his sales associates offer wine tastings, charity events and even car giveaways. “We’ve parked a luxury car in the garage and said it would go with the house,” he says.

“Many sellers don’t want big open houses as they’re private, but a recent $100 million listing in Tahoe gathered a crowd,” says Moore-Moore. The listing agent, Shari Chase, CIPS, GRI, president of Chase International Distinctive Properties in Tahoe, held a charity event on the grounds of the house. Invitations were extended to qualified buyers who wished to pay a fee, which went to charity, to see the inside of the house.

4. Pack an online punch. For Volkman, event marketing is passé. “We’re not hosting cocktail parties anymore. The buyers and sellers we’re working with say that’s not money well spent,” she says. Instead, Volkman focuses on her Internet marketing. “We hire a good photographer and videographer to take high quality photos and put them on listing sites that are well trafficked,” she says. She also holds broker open houses and invites local brokers who specialize in high-end properties. “That’s where I get my best sales—interest from local brokers—so I may invite them to tour the property privately.” During those tours, she hands out a glossy brochure about the home.

No matter how you break it down, marketing to the luxury market is all about hard work, reaching the right people and discretion. “It’s not who you know; it’s what you know,” says Moore-Moore. “Who you know becomes important when networking, but if you don’t have the expertise, all the networking in the world won’t help you.”

Tracey C. Velt is an Orlando-based freelance writer.