Times are tough right now and most markets have slowed down a bit, values have gone down in most places, there are foreclosures in your neighborhoods and short sales abound.There is always an upside to every downside. 
Niching or specializing will add value and improve your income. One of the most important things to do when you run a business is to focus on your niche now but always have your eye on an open door. To read more about finding your way click here to read my post about open doors.
One of the signals you should look for in your geographical area is what types of markets are somewhat or more so insulated from economic downturns.
The other thing that you need to consider is how much money do you want to make? What is your income goal for next year? What is your NET income goal for next year?
Think about selling less units for more income. The easiest and fastest way to do this is to move into the Luxury home market.
One of the market niches that is somewhat to mostly insulated to economic turndowns, recessions and volatile markets is the Luxury Home Market.
Our main market niche and focus is the luxury home market. I remember when we were with a local Re/Max office before Re/Max had a luxury division. Our broker frowned on us getting high end listings because he was taught that it is all about the number of units. Well,that did not make sense to us. Why sell 10 $150,000 houses when you can sell one 1 Million dollar house was our question! So we graduated through the ranks of price ranges. Back then a luxury home in our town was $500,000 and over. Our goal was to get the Million dollar listings. That became our focus. I will never forget how our broker laughed at us when we brought in our first million dollar listing, ( a story for another post) and said we would never sell it. We sold it 5 months later. In those days the average time on the market for any listing was about 6 months to 12 months. We had the last laugh.
In fact, in our area many of the luxury homes are sold to buyers who pay all cash so financing is not a deterrent. Credit may be tight, but people buying luxury homes have multiple sources of income and we are finding some are cashing in their stocks and buying luxury homes right now because of the uncertainty as to capital gains so they are selling their stocks now before 2009 so they are taxed on their gains at a lower amount. Then they can put that money into a homestead property in Florida where we also have asset protection and no state income tax.
The luxury hotels in our county are cutting back on employees. The famous Breakers has reduced its' staff by about 200 employees compared to last year according to Paul N Leone who is the President of the Breakers. But they added on a new business right in the hotel. They opened up a Real Estate brokerage that will be catering to the luxury home market.
Some people would wonder why anyone would start a new real estate company in this meltdown and especially here in Florida. The reason is that when guests come to stay at the Breakers they are asking about luxury homes and properties. There is a market there and they are buying. And we aren't talking the cheap luxury either. We are talking multi million dollar properties and clients that don't need financing.
So what is holding you back from entering the luxury home market? Those clients put their pants on one leg at a time just like you do.
Here is a link to some of our luxury home listings. You can do this too.
So how about a new fresh perspective for the new year, increase your income by listing and selling less units for more income. That will give you free time to spend with your family and friends or to spend more time on Active Rain. Measure all you do with this question: What is the highest and best use of my time? OR Is this the highest and best use of my time?
Call Coach Katerina for Coaching and Consulting at 561-753-0135.
I am trying out some new html coding and some other applications to see if AR will take this code as they are making changes and some of our other programs may or may not work on AR. I am sorry about all the bolding, something happened and even after I erased the strong code in html, the font still showed up bold. I am sure there will be some growing pains as we learn new ways to pretty up our posts. Katerina
Your coding is fine.
Thanks Jenette! I usually use Nvu for my blog editor, but tonight it may or may not work do to AR changes going on at this time and did not want to take the chance of it not working so I used the AR editor instead.
My sister was a highly successful realtor in the western part of Michigan. When I became a realtor and she came to visit my office, she was impressed with all the great homes (Birmingham in Oakland County). After that, she started seeking higher end homes. I realize now that she sold a majority of $40K to under 100K homes. For the income I know she made, I can't imagine how many homes she had to close at those prices. I get many registered searches on my websites for $25K - 50K and I usually don't follow up on those. I hate to turn down business in these times, but it's just too much running around and paperwork for so little.
Katerina,
Newport is full of luxury homes and so much of what you say makes sense, especially since we're lucky enough to live where there are so many luxury homes as big ticket items.
There are some areas in the Las Vegas luxury market where homes are available at 2004 prices. This presents some great opportunities for both buyers and for agents to move their production up a level. This is something I am definitely looking at for 2009.
Very true. This is an area we're focusing on, we just took the Accredited Luxury Home Specialist course and received our ALHS designation.
With our move to Austin, my husband is begging me to get into a higher price range home. He doesn't understand how hard it is. You can't just go to a neighborhood and say, "Here I am, buy and sell with me!" He doesn't understand it's going to take some time to step on the toes of the other agents in the market. But my goal is to get into a higher price range, even if that just means averaging $250k (Dallas median and averages are LOW).
Katerina, I sooooooooo need to upgrade my market. I have submited 11 offers on properties in the last 3 days. In TOTAL it's only about 2mil!!!! Some are as low as $70,000. The highest is $159,000. I'm working way too hard for the little commissions I get.
Katerina- It does seem the luxury market is a profitable niche for many of us to consider! I know that my areas sales are slowing way down but the higher end homes are still selling on a very slow and steady pace.
BTW: I sent you an email with my contact information.
Best wishes,
Scott
Katerina,
This is an awesome & inspirational post! I agree with your perspective on niche marketing and the luxury market in general. I don't think one should put "all their eggs in one basket" but I definitely believe in doing the same or less work for more $$$ whenever possible.
I just took my expensive listing to date...A $1,875,000 waterfront home in South Amboy, NJ on the Raritan Bay. It's a beauty! You can view it on my blog or via my website.
Thanks so much for sharing.
All the best,
Amber
You know what? You've inspired me. I'm gonna seriously explore this niche. I've focused so much on the Hispanic market...going where no one in my area had ever gone before. I've added commercial to my plate...why not luxury homes also? I'm in. :-) GBU~
Wow, I can't imagine a Broker would frown on high end transactions in favor of quantity.
Me, me me. I would love to have a high end luxury home to sale. The commission would be great.
Thank you for the words of wisdom. There are many ways up the proverbial hill of life.
I'd like to break into the luxury home market....great post! Any life shattering ideas to get your foot in the door?
Jeff and Lisa- I offer a coaching program for breaking into the luxury home markets. It is mostly a mindset. I will be writing more posts on it, so please subscribe if you have not yet, so you don't miss any.
Hi Katerina! I LOVE your new coding BTW! It's so nice to see something different and colorful! As for your niche market move--good for you getting the last laugh! That's a great story. You are ONE DETERMINED WOMAN and you get it done when you put your mind to it, don't you?!
Jeff & Lisa: Email me or give me a call if you'd like a referral on Katerina's coaching. I'm sure you would love how she works and lucky you, there's two of you to do the homework!! :-)
Debe- Thank you so much Debe! You are such a wonderful client, student and Friend! The world is a better place because your are in it.
Katerina,
I appreciate reading your blog. You're always so upbeat! Way to go!
Mike in Tucson
Katerina, You are such a wonderful leader and coach. The luxury listing market is a tough market to crack here. However, targeting luxury buyers is something I would like to do~
I think it is important that agents pick their niche based on their interests and background and not just the money. Do what you enjoy doing!
Mike- Thank you! I believe in abundance not scarcity! We have so much to be grateful for!
Nestor & Katerina, it's been our experience that first editing the html code and then submitting, followed by reopening and submitting in wyg.. and then once again reopening and then submitting with the right html code works to stop any issues with data not dissapearing from the blog post.
hope that helps.
btw: luxury real estate is a great way to distinguish yourself from other real estate companies but a total makeover has to occur. For those considering it we recommend reevaluating your marketing plan and business goals before attempting to reach new clients. Image is everything in this market. Nestor and Katerina are great examples of what works. Keep up the great work associates.