Brokers Out-Marketing Competitors

I attended Luxury Connect last week in Beverly Hills. If you are not familiar with the event, it was expertly delivered by the team from Inman News that is host to the Real Estate Connect conferences held annually in New York City and San Francisco. I don't think that anyone really appreciates how difficult it is to put on a great event. This group does it with ease and grace even when pitted against seemingly insurmountable challenges.

There was so much fanfare about this event, it is speculated that the original property selected for the event was sold! A week before, they had to move the conference to a new location – another $100M+ listing in Beverly Hills. It was as perfect as possible, despite a few logistical challenges that everyone quickly forgave.

Luxury is different, and this Luxury Connect highlighted just how different. One quote that put it all together for me came from my friend Mark McLaughlin, CEO of Pacific Union: "We develop lofty strategies that are different and difficult, and that nobody else will do." It took me awhile to understand how profound this statement was. I did not fully internalize it until I watched Steve Ozonian of Carrington look at a new product from Matterport – a "3-D virtual tour."

I had seen the Matterport product in the past. They have signed up a number of large and progressive brokerages. I naturally put them in the category of a very fancy virtual tour. What I learned from watching Steve Ozonian look at the 3D Showcase product for a few minutes is that it is so much more. It is what Mclaughlin was talking about. It is a product that stops you in your tracks. It differentiates home marketing. It provides firms, who want to offer elite services, the ability to translate excellence into something that stuns affluent clients. There is not much that Ozonian has not seen before.