Luxury real estate
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Luxury real estate (American English) or luxury property (British English) describes a niche in the real estate market dealing with the highest socio-economic group of property buyers. Since real estate buyers in this group tend to own many homes, the terms vacation property and second home are inaccurate.
[edit] Defining luxury real estate
Luxury real estate has many identifying characteristics, contingent on geographic regions of the world. Location is one of the definitive characteristics of luxury real eastate. Inclusion in this category can stem from views (particularly waterfront views), or amenities such as golf, school districts, downtown proximity and conveniences. A 750 sqaure-foot waterfront home with less than one acre of property, two bedrooms, and one bath, might be worth more than a 10,000 square-foot mansion with ten acres of property.
In the above example, the term that would better suffice would be "luxury property" as opposed to "luxury home," whereas the 10,000 square-foot mansion would fit under the definition and category of luxury home or estate. Both properties, however, should be classified as luxury real estate."
General rules of classification must take into account a broad average price range in a particular region and define a lowest limit (e.g., "all homes priced above $1 million" is a common definition in the United States). Other factors involved in classifying properties into the luxury category are surrounding homes, amenities, views, waterfronts, absence of crime in the area, absence of industrialization or unwanted commercialization, customizations of the home, and historical or architectural significance.
[edit] Differences from ordinary real estate
In addition to simply defining and classifying a property, Luxury real estate also carries with it a much weightier responsibility for those who serve the luxury real estate buyer or seller and that is due to the buyer or seller's ability to pay for added services and their expectation for performance of service. For example, a luxury seller expects a real estate agent selling their home to advertise nationally and sometimes internationally in luxury print media whereas a non luxury seller is usually satisfied with very localized advertising and exposure in the local Multiple Listing Service. Many luxury buyers expect a real estate agent to understand how to work with attorneys, trusts and anonymity. They expect a luxury agent to have resources at their disposal when needed that non luxury buyers wouldn't expect. Frequently a luxury home buyer will take a home through multiple inspections (perhaps 10 to 15 if the property is truly an estate), whereas a non-luxury home will typically go through one inspection.
