6 Smart Home Tech Gadgets Perfect for Luxury Real Estate

Categories: Home Selling Tips Luxury Real Estate Selling Your Home

The global smart home tech market is on track to reach $103 billion in annual revenue by the end of this year. At an estimated compound annual growth rate of 11% — that number is projected to skyrocket to $157 billion in annual revenue by 2023. So, how does this tie into luxury real estate? The answer is simple: property value. 


Smart home tech is on the rise and in huge demand with luxury buyers — especially the socially conscious and eco-friendly millennial generation. Adding just a few smart features to a home can pay off when making the sale. In fact, according to Chad Curry, MD of the National Association of Realtors (NAR), a home with integrated smart features can receive a premium over standard alternatives in the same neighborhood. 


Though, there are certain gadgets affluent buyers are more interested in when searching for smart-enabled houses, such as smart security, eco-friendly options, and enhanced entertainment. These tech gadgets go beyond Amazon Alexa or Google Home. 

 

With this in mind, we rounded up six options that are perfect for luxury real estate.


6 Smart Home Tech Gadgets Perfect for Luxury Real Estate

1. Arlo Ultra 

[Image Credit: @arlosmarthome via Instagram]


The Arlo Ultra is a wire-free and WiFi-enabled security camera touting some impressive capabilities. For example, 4K high-dynamic-range (HDR) image quality, enhanced night vision, auto-zoom and tracking, and more. Its weather-resistant build means that it works rain or shine, snow or sleet, to protect the home. It also has a smart subscription service that incorporates things such as advanced object detection (like notifying the owner of a package delivery) and 911 emergency services connections. 

2. Lutron Dimmers 

[Image Credit: Lutron Electronics via Facebook]


Lutron offers a full line of “eco-home dimmers, sensors, and timers,” that can be placed throughout the home to reduce electricity usage and extend the life of the light bulb. Utilizing their advanced technology, the homeowner can control the latest energy-efficient light sources, such as LEDs — making it easier than ever to go green. 

3. Rachio 3

[Image Credit: Rachio via Facebook]


Rachio 3 is a smart sprinkler controller that optimizes a home’s in-ground irrigation system through an automated watering schedule. It’s available in eight or 16 zones, and uses weather intelligence to predict changes in lawn watering needs. It also adjusts its schedule to ensure no water is being wasted. Rachio 3 works with Alexa, Google Assistant, Nest, and more. 

4. Ecobee SmartThermostat With Voice Control

[Image Credit: @ecobeeinc via Instagram]


Ecobee’s SmartThermostat with voice control is the crème de la crème of smart thermostats. Change the temperature, control the home, call friends and family, and more, all with voice command. The SmartThermostat also introduces a SmartSensor, which detects both temperature and occupancy to heat or cool the rooms that need it most.

5. Kaleidescape Strato Movie Player

[Image Credit: @kaleidescapeinc via Instagram]


Kaleidescape Strato is an award-winning movie player that’s capable of playing 4K ultra-high-def movies with high-dynamic-range at 60 frames per second, with immersive audio. It can be integrated with modern AV systems to automatically control light dimming or screen masking to adjust to a proper ratio. Think state-of-the-art home movie theater. 

6. Brilliant Control

[Image Credit: @brilliant_tech via Instagram]


Think of Brilliant Control as an all-in-one smart home hub, where the homeowner can manage all smart home systems from one seamless control panel on the wall, or through a mobile app. It features a 5-inch color touch screen that can change the temperature or lighting, play music, show who’s at the front door, and more. 


What smart home features have you noticed luxury buyers looking for in the market? Comment below!


Janet McAfee is a recognized luxury real estate agency in the St. Louis area. For more details about careers at our boutique firm or the luxury market, visit our website!

How to Sell a Historic Home

Categories: Luxury Real Estate Selling Your Home St. Louis Luxury Homes


For some unique luxury buyers and sellers, the history of a house or property plays an important role in their home search. But, finding a real estate agent who knows how to navigate the historic housing market can be equally as important—if not more. Experienced Janet McAfee luxury real estate agent, Kevin Hurley, shares his advice about how best to sell an historic luxury home.


Is there anything luxury sellers should do before deciding to list?

I think the key for anyone selling a home, and especially an historic home, is to make sure the house is in great condition. Luxury buyers are critical buyers and expect a certain level of condition and presentation.


In the end, luxury homes are significantly different from most listings in that you must make a significant time investment to document the heritage, detail amenities and updates, and address lifestyle considerations.


What are luxury buyers looking for in historic homes?

I mostly list historic homes in the Central West End near Forest Park. There, buyers looking at one-hundred-year-old homes or older are generally looking for architectural integrity. They're looking for homes that have been well-maintained, updated to a certain degree and also enjoy a good location.


The West End that has a limited amount of these unique homes which are impossible to replicate. So, it's a very special buyer—one who likes history but enjoys today’s modern amenities.


What kind of updates are luxury buyers looking for in the Central West End?

Kitchens and bathrooms. More specifically, an updated master bath is typically the first thing on the list. But for the most part, they just want a home that’s in good condition because they’re buying these homes for the historic details and often have the resources to customize the updates.


Tell us about a recent luxury sale that you have made. How did it sell?

First of all, you have to have professional photography because that's how a home is first presented to a potential buyer. Then, it’s important to have good marketing materials, brochures, etc., especially because these are very complicated, extensive listings.


Luckily, I've lived in an historic house in the West End. I’m well-aware of both what people's concerns are and what attracts people in the area. It’s important to counsel potential buyers about those considerations.


Is there anything unique about the way homes in your area sell? How do your clients find you?

I've lived in the West End for 40 years.  I have a network of agents who regularly call to ask questions about my listed homes and see if there is anything else coming up. I place print advertising in the West End Word, I promote my listings on social media and I send out postcards of newly-listed and just sold properties. This helps solidify my reputation in an area.


I have former neighbors who refer me to clients with interests in the area. I am lucky because I've been in that specific area for quite some time which helps because I can keep my eye out and reach out to people when I know something’s coming up.



Are you looking to buy or sell a luxury home? At, Janet McAfee our real estate agents are seasoned experts in selling luxury homes. From how to research the value and market your home to helping stage for specific buyers, our luxury clients truly reap the rewards of working with a Janet McAfee agent—and you can, too!

Does Timing Matter?

Categories: Seasonal Preparations Selling Your Home

Yes.  There is seasonality in residential real estate and the time is NOW.  We are in the peak of the real estate selling season.  In fact, May, June and July are the peak months in our St. Louis metropolitan area.   I looked at closed transactions over the past five years and discovered that the month of June has 32% more closed sales than an average month.  Remember, a closed sale typically occurs 40-60 days after an offer has been accepted, which means contracts written in mid-May produce the closed sales the end of June and contracts written in June close in late July.   As we say in real estate “time is of the essence.”

Spring has sprung … Hooray!

Categories: Real Estate Market Selling Your Home

Finally, Spring is here!  It’s sunny, in the 70’s and the residential real estate market is in full bloom!  In the St. Louis Central Corridor, 309 listings were put into MLS in the last 7 days.  235 listings went under contract (both new and existing) and 188 sales closed.  In the same period for the luxury market (over $1 million), there were 18 new MLS listings, 6 went under contract and 2 closed.

STL Central Corridor MLS Listings

All Prices

Over $1 M

New Listings

309

18

Option & Contingent

235

6

Sold - Closed

188

2

My advice to our sales agents is “don’t delay.”  Do everything you can to take advantage of this robust time of year.  Be aware that service professionals are busy-busy so we must be persistent and resourceful in scheduling painters, plumbers, roofers and contractors.  When working with buyers, prepare them to act quickly when they find the home of their dreams.   You know the Benjamin Franklin adage “an ounce of preparation is worth a pound of cure.”  

 

Happy Spring Selling and Buying!

Janet

Staging Your Home to Sell: Physical vs. Virtual

Categories: Home Selling Tips Selling Your Home Staging Your Home



We live in a visual world where seeing is believing and believing is seeing imagery that excites each person’s individual tastes. Nowhere more is this true than with the staging of a home to sell.


In fact, 81 percent of buyers argue that staging a house helps in visualizing a property as a future home. The keyword there is home. A place that looks polished but lived in, laughed in and loved.


Staging plays a vital role in prepping a house for market. While the practice can be time consuming and costly to sellers, virtual staging has changed that by transforming how buyers can envision the home of their dreams. Let’s take a look at some key differences between physical and virtual staging.

Cost

The physical staging of a home will typically involve the clearing of clutter, furniture rearrangement and occasionally, replacement. If a home is completely empty to begin with, a design expert will sometimes be hired to gauge the feel of the house with decor to match. All in all, this process can be extremely costly to the seller, ranging anywhere from $350 per room on the low end to over $200,000 for luxury homes.


However, virtual staging is a fraction of the cost. Most rooms can be fully furnished—virtually, that is—for about $100 per room.

Time and Flexibility

The coordination it takes to physically stage a home far outweighs that of a virtual stage based on the convenience factor alone. For a physical stage, clients must consult with a designer, clear out and move decor around accordingly, have new items moved in and then capture the look with a photography session.


Virtual staging, on the other hand, is done without much contact at all between consultant and seller. With the exchange of some photos and guided direction, stagers are able to arrange and rearrange virtual furniture throughout a room many times over within a matter of a few short hours.


Seeing is Believing

It can certainly be argued that seeing is believing, and when a potential buyers view images online that don’t sync with the views in real life, it can be a bit jolting. On the other hand, walking into a completely empty space (or one with opposite design taste aesthetics) can be difficult to imagine as anything other than that. As Danielle Schlisser of the Corcoran Group in New York City says, “In an empty space, people can’t really understand how big a couch or bed is… They’ll come in and think they’ll never fit their furniture in there because they really don’t have an understanding of scale.”


Whether looking to cut costs or re-envision your home decor with ease, virtual staging has opened the door to new possibilities for sellers and buyers alike. Choosing the best option comes down to understanding what works best for your goals, timeline and overall asking price.

 

Need help deciding on whether to opt for physical or virtual staging when it comes to selling your home? Contact Janet McAfee Real Estate today for three decades worth of home buying and selling insights you can count on.

Cyber fraud and Real Estate

Categories: General Real Estate Market Selling Your Home

Cyber fraud and Real Estate

 

I just read a scary fact in Realtor magazine: $969 million was diverted or attempted to be diverted from real estate purchase transactions and wired to “criminally controlled” accounts in fiscal 2017.  The fact is attributed to FBI data as reported by the Washington Post.

Scammers are targeting real estate professionals, title companies and mortgage lenders with phishing emails and fake text messages.  One way home buyers are scammed is they receive an email providing wire instructions for funding their new home purchase.   Please be aware - this is a fake email.  You should NEVER respond with your account information without speaking first hand to your agent or title representative.   I read a recent story of a Memphis home buyer who responded to a genuine-looking request to wire the full purchase amount of $203,000 to an account, which turned out to be fraudulent.  The money was gone, wired to a bank account controlled by an invisible thief.

 

Another risk is hacking.  Realtor magazine also reported about 80 percent of hacking-related breaches were through stolen passwords or passwords that were easy to guess.  If your password is “password,” stop reading, immediately close your browser and change your password. 

Be safe,

 

Janet Horlacher

Principal, Janet McAfee

What is your home’s best-selling feature?

Categories: General Home Selling Tips Selling Your Home St. Louis Luxury Homes

The marketing strategy for promoting a listing should address your home’s best features.  Each and every selling feature of your home adds value and justifies the asking price to the buyer.  As a listing broker, our job is to communicate your value proposition in order to achieve the highest possible purchase price.  Here’s a couple of thoughts on how your marketing strategy can support your home’s best features.

1.       If acreage or land is one of your homes best features ….

Areal or drone photography is a great way to showcase your home’s manicured lawns, expansive lot size and exterior amenities, like swimming pools, lakes, pool houses and out buildings.

 

2.       If outdoor amenities create an unbeatable lifestyle…. 

A swimming pool, loggia with outdoor fireplace and lush gardens should be displayed to buyers at their peak.  Time your market launch to coincide with opening your pool and spring leaf greening.

 

3.       If your home’s architectural lines are captivating ….

Twilight photography might just be the ticket to transform your house into a magical English manor.

 

Please contact your Janet McAfee Realtor for more ways to customize your marketing plan to promote your home’s best features.