Luxury Clues

There's No Such Thing as a 100 Percent House

Jon Douglas, the owner and founder of the Jon Douglas Company where I worked for 18 years, used to say that "There is no such thing as a 100 percent house." Even when you build a custom home on a beautiful piece of vacant real estate, there are always changes from your original plan. You may initiate some of these changes or it may be simply a matter of a supplier discontinuing a model you selected.

For example, we selected our plumbing fixtures for our new home about 9 months ago. The faucets we selected were no longer available. The builder installed what they thought was closest. We didn't like it--bingo, you get slapped with a $250 change order plus the cost of the upgrade to a diferent product. Consequently, it's important to negotiate with the builder up front how change orders will be handled when a product is no longer available.

The idea that there's "no perfect house" out there, is important whether you are representing new properties, custom builds, or resales. An important conversation to have with your buyers is to let them know that every house has problems. In fact, if the buyers find a house that meets 95 percent of their criteria, tell them to write an offer. Creating this expectation will help your buyers to avoid unrealistic expectations. It will also help you to close more transactions since the buyers won't still be searching fo the "perfect" house.

Posted by Bernice Ross, www.RealEstateCoach.com

Beverly Hills--Home to the Most Expensive Home on the Market

Beverly Hills has just outpaced both Montana ($155 Million) and Aspen ($135 million) as home to the most expensive listing on the market today. The $165 Million mansion, formerly home to publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst and Marion Davies, has 29 bedrooms, three pools, a state-of-the-art theater and is located on 6.5 acres just north of Sunset Blvd. The property was listed by Stephen Shapiro of Westside Estate Agency. Shapiro and his partner Kurt Rappaport have specialized in ultra high end listings for years. Their current inventory of listings contains prime properties from Malibu to Beverly Hills. Shapiro's latest listing has a colorful history. Jacqueline and John F. Kennedy spent part of their honeymoon at the estate and it later served as Kennedy's West Coast campaign headquarters. The property was also featured in the "Godfather." Since there has yet to be a residential sale in the U.S. for over $100 Million, it will be interesting to see whether Beverly Hills will break into this lofty bracket.

Posted by Bernice Ross, www.RealEstateCoach.com

Check the Drainage to Avoid Water Damage

If you've been following the news, you know that Texas has been ravaged with flooding across the state. If you're building a custom home, an important first step to take before you begin to build is to determine whether you are in a flood plain. (Check the search engines to see flood plain maps.) My personal recommendation would be never to buy real estate in one of these areas. Regardless, it's important to determine whether you will need flood insurance. Homeowner's insurance policies do NOT cover flood water damage (i.e. water that comes up from down below rather than up above.

Once they begin building your custom home, the process usually disrupts the previous drainage patterns. For example, when they began building the new home next to ours, the run off was substantial. Fortunately, our builder had the good sense to put up a "silt fence" to prevent the run off from the property above. The builder also raised parts of the back yard to enhance the drainage patterns that existed on the property prior to building. The places where we will be having run-off issues are evident in the pictures.  As you can see from the photos, there are certain places where we will be unable to plant or to place any kind of additional structures. Also, note the white places--that's water where we received about 2 inches of rain in about 30 minutes. Fortunately, the water is drained away from the house back to the raw land in back.

What's challenging is checking drainage in a dry climate. If at all possible, make sure you are present to see the water drainage during any rain that you may have. Inadequate drainage can destroy your foundation and cost you thousands of dollars to correct. Hiring a geologist or someone else who can evaluate drainage patterns is money well spent.

Posted by Bernice Ross, www.RealEstateCoach.com

The $6750 Shower Head

You may have experienced a Vichy or a Swiss shower at a luxury spa. For those who want the ultimate in a shower experience, either of these two options will provide the spa experience in your own home. The Vichy Shower is illustrated in the photo below and retails for $6750.

A Vichy shower normally has five to seven shower heads. In day spas, they may use a Vichy shower in conjunction with other treatments. The table is cushioned and the overall experience is complete relaxation.

A slightly different version is the Swiss Shower that has multiple shower heads built in to each side of the shower plus the over head shower head. The one in the picture retails for $6814. It's the equivalent of having a full body massage. The hot water provides moist heat and relaxes all the muscles in your body. If you're building a custom home, this can be a great addition to your master suite, gym, or pool area.

Posted by Bernice Ross, www.RealEstateCoach.com

Las Vegas, NV

This exquisite and privately gated Tuscan estate is 17,000 square feet and has a ten seat, 2 level theater room features an 11’x7’ theater screen with a surround sound system, and fabric padded walls for sound insulation.

Listing provided by Point2Homes

Big Screen Television Search Part 2—Blue Ray or HD?

Right now, there's been considerable debate as to whether the Sony Blue Ray DVD player will triumph over the Toshiba HD player. This is similar to the situation a number of years ago with VHS vs. Betamax video recording. (VHS won.) You can walk into virtually any video store and see the Sony demonstration of the difference between HDTV with a standard DVD player vs. HDTV with the Sony Blue Ray DVD player. It's quite impressive.

Here in Austin a small company Magnetronics specializes exclusively in selling Sony television products at prices even lower than Sam's or Costco. The owner, "Dwight" has been selling Sony products for 26 years. You can't buy anything else there. Needless to say, he's an expert in which Sony big screen products are your best bet. According to Dwight, the battle of Blue Ray vs. HD is already over. Blue Ray is the winner. Of course, Dwight may be biased, but he points to the fact that Blockbuster is dramatically expanding their Blue Ray offerings rather than HD.

Here's what really surprised us. Sony is releasing the latest version of the Blue Ray DVD player. The new version is about $200 - $300 LESS than the old technology. Dwight advised us to wait and purchase the new version. We're definitely going the Blue Ray route, but the jury is still out on which big screen to buy.

Posted by Bernice Ross, www.RealEstateCoach.com

Meet Me at the Dam

Yesterday, Frances Flynn Thorsen, the Managing Editor of RealTown, and her husband Ralph, joined us for a guided tour here in Austin. Fran and Ralph are moving to sunny Tucson from Bethlehem Pennsylvania. The picture to the left shows the four open flood gates at Mansfield Dam on Lake Travis in Austin, TX. For those of you unfamiliar with the area, Austin has several "constant level" lakes, including Lake Austin and Town Lake. To keep these lakes at a constant level and to avoid flooding, they allow Lakes such as Travis or Buchannan to fluctuate. Currently Lake Travis is 20 feet over the full mark. Hence the open flood gates. This is a rare site.

Also, check out Fran's blogs at The RealtyGram blog and The Fat Lady Blog to see Fran's pictures from the Care Web Giving Circle trip to Peru. The hats Fran and Ralph are wearing are the traditional sun hats worn in Peru.

Posted by Bernice Ross, www.RealEstateCoach.com

Help Your Clients Avoid the Mortgage Squeeze & How to Sell Listings that Don't Sell

This week at RealClues, the newsletter for RealEstateCoach.com, our main article provides great training tips on how real estate agents can survive the rapidly changing mortgage market. This is part 2 of our on-going series. If you're not one of our subscribers, there's no charge to receive this newsletter. Please register at RealClues Newsletter.

Our reprise this week first ran in 2004 and provides you with proven real estate sales training strategies that will help you sell those hard-to-move listings. This is the first of a four part series on this topic. Check out the article:  How to Sell Listings that Don't Sell or "Bury St Joseph in the back yard."

In Creating a Better Life, we focus on how to exercise your "No" muscle. Inability to say "No," can cost you business as well as your health and well being. To learn more, visit Saying "Yes" to Saying "No"

Posted by Bernice Ross, www.RealEstateCoach.com

Custom Building Series: Should I Have an Inspection on My New Luxury Home?

The answer to this question is an absolute, unequivocal YES! Unless you are well versed in construction, it's best to hire an outside inspector.

You will have several inspections throughout the building process. While the local building inspectors will watch to make sure your new luxury home is built to code, it's imperative that you hire a thorough physical inspector as well.

The first inspection should examine the foundation. The second inspection is called a "Pre-drywall" inspection. This takes place after the framing is complete and the roof is built. (The shingles may not be on the roof yet.) At this point, your inspector can walk through to make sure that everything is where it's supposed to be before the builder puts up the dry wall. Once the dry wall is up, whatever is going one behind the walls is permanently hidden.

Your third inspection will be a walk-through with the builder. You will be asked to create a punch list of the items that you would like to have touched up or any other items that need to be addressed. We literally had well over a hundred nicks and dings that needed to be fixed. The good news was that the builder as well as a representative from Home Warranty walked the property and caught items that we had missed. This is why it's a smart time to have your physical inspector back one more time. Once the gas, electricity, and water are on, make sure your inspector checks every aspect of the property. The $500 to $1,000 you spend will be well worth it in terms of avoiding headaches.

A final item to note. Take plenty of pictures during the building process. This is your digital record of the construction. We had a number of problems and because we had so many photos, the builder was able to spot immediately where the problem occurred. As I mentioned in a previous post, it's up to the owner to track all the details. Take pictures of the fixtures you order, obtain carpet samples, cross check the appliance numbers to make sure they match what you ordered, obtain samples of the wood and the stains you use, etc.

Posted by Bernice Ross, www.RealEstateCoach.com

A Lesson about Luxury Real Estate Service from San Francisco's Top Blues Spot

Recently I had the pleasure of meeting with Gale Frandsen, Prudential Utah Real Estate in San Francisco where he was being honored for his outstanding performance. We had a lovely lunch and discussed the value of service in the luxury real estate industry as compared to other industries. Clearly excellent care is both expected and appreciated, especially in the upper tier.

Shortly after my conversation with Gale, I had the opportunity to visit “Biscuit and Blues”, a blues night club in San Francisco. We were seated in the press section, and I had the pleasure of meeting Dorothy Hill, a music journalist. We began a conversation and I was amazed to discover that this small nightclub is rated #1 for “The Blues” on the entire West Coast. We discussed the “why” and, I was impressed to hear that it is about the excellent service they deliver to both the locals, the talent and to tourists. This “care” brings in the best groups….and return visitors.

I loved the wonderful service that night, loved an introduction to Zydeco Blues…and am more convinced than ever that…personal service will make all business grow….and….it can’t be outsourced!

Posted by Donna Lee Laue, www.UniqueGlobalEstates.com