Homes & Estates

“Our affluent sellers are very interested in the buyer profile,” says Danny Hertzberg, a sales associate affiliated with Coldwell Banker Residential Real Estate in Miami. “They always want to know, ‘Where is the buyer coming from?’ They often have a profile in their mind already, but the data from CBx may not support that point of view. Some sellers in Miami, for example, might assume their buyer is going to be coming from Brazil or Russia — but that’s not so much the case anymore. We have more buyers coming from New York and California. For our market, age demographics are particularly helpful. Maybe sellers are going to do a renovation, and they’re wondering if they should incorporate a wide-open floor plan to appeal to a younger buyer? Or should they keep their existing traditional floor plan because their potential buyer may be older? Are they going to stage their home for millennials or the older generations?” Within CBx, buyers are divided into 67 segments that help agents and sellers understand the lifestyle of the potential buyer. For example, “Top Tier” is the wealthiest tapestry of residents in the system, who earn more than three times the U.S. household income — which represents the majority of buyers in Walker’s market area. “Laptops and Lattes” are predominantly single, well-educated professionals in business, finance, legal, computer and entertainment occupa- tions — a segment that is highly attracted to areas like Chicago’s Gold Coast and Lincoln Park. “Urban Chic” is a category of professionals who lead a sophisticated, exclusive lifestyle. And “Silver & Gold” is the most afflu- ent senior market segment — a majority group seeking residency in Miami’s highly sought-after Fisher Island.

Already, agents are using the data to improve the targeting of their marketing initiatives. Young uses the unique buyer profiles to target Facebook ads for her million-dollar listings. For each listing, she plugs in the home’s information and a buyer profile is created, listed by town. “For one $1.8 million listing in Basking Ridge, for example, one of the towns — Edison, New Jersey — was a 63.89-percent match and a highly visited demographic on Facebook,” explains Young. “Based upon this fact, I ran a campaign using Edison, New Brunswick, Westfield and a few other targeted towns, so Facebook ads would appear in people’s news feeds who live in those towns. In just over one week, the ads were shown to 38,000 pages, and 2,244 peo- ple actually clicked to visit the pages on my website.” Traffic to her website increased by 25 percent during the ad campaign. Facebook was also refer- enced by people at the open house and by those agents who made calls on behalf of their clients. “My closed sales volume increased by 20 per- cent over the last year,” reveals Young. “Buyers and sellers are calling me after seeing the Facebook ads, but CBx is the wheel behind it.” The brand has no plans to stop at the agent level, either. In fact, the Coldwell Banker Global Luxury program is already preparing to use the information generated from CBx to power its latest Luxury Market Report, expected to release later this spring. “The real power of CBx comes from the fusion of big data with the expertise of the affiliated agent,” says Craig Hogan, vice president of luxury. “When these two forces are combined, it’s unbeatable.”

Coldwell Banker Real Estate LLC. “The whole idea behind CBx is to help the agent confidently explain the story behind the marketing and selling of a home in a visual way. We don’t just give them the raw data. When I conduct agent and broker education courses, I always tell them, ‘It’s humanizing big data.’ It’s a conversation piece for the agent and seller as they sit around the kitchen table.” Notes Sean Blankenship, chief marketing officer, who spearheaded its creation: “CBx gives our sales associates and brokers a competitive edge — especially at the high-end, where no two properties are alike. It’s yet another experience that no other luxury real estate brand today provides.” A luxury real estate agent can now easily cus- tomize a marketing strategy, using CBx. They can quantify a home’s unique features — such as an updated kitchen or custom pool — to generate a mar- ket price estimate and target the right buyers in the right places. Even those who list homes in the ultra- high-end segment will have the ability to add custom comps such as a recent sale or a recently leased property. Real estate professionals affiliated with the Coldwell Banker Global Luxury sm program from Miami to Malibu recognize the power that big data provides them, especially as more of their sophisti- cated clients want and expect a targeted approach to marketing to a smaller pool of buyers. “Our marketing is very customized and costly,” says Wendy Walker, a sales associate affiliated with Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage in Paradise Valley. “It provides a more strategic approach to find- ing qualified buyers.”

SNAPSHOT: “WHO IS GOING TO BUY MY HOME?” A look at who’s acquiring real estate in three top affluent markets.

CHICAGO ZIP Code: 60614 Neighborhoods: North Side and Lincoln Park Median Age: 34 Average Education: Bachelor’s degree Average Commute: 30 minutes Average Home Value: Just under $700,000 Average Sale Price in Top 10%: $2,331,000 Trends: Last year, about 27% of homes changed ownership Profile of Homeowners: 45.77% Laptops & Lattes, 42.21% Metro Renters, 4.42% Dorms to Diplomas

SCOTTSDALE ZIP Code: 85253 Neighborhoods: Paradise Valley Median Age: 52.6 Average Education: Bachelor’s degree Average Commute: 20 minutes Average Home Value: $1,400,000

MIAMI ZIP Code: 33109 Neighborhoods: Fisher Island Median Age: 60

Average Education: Graduate degree Average Home Value: $3,150,000 Average Sale Price in Top 10%: $15,024,775 Trends: Only 4% of homes change hands each year Profile of Homeowners: 100% Silver & Gold

Average Sale Price in Top 10%: $3,954,257 Largest Employer with Open Jobs: Nextiva Profile of Homeowners: 78.19% Top Tier, 9.24% Urban Chic

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