HAPPENING NOW! At Inman Connect Las Vegas, July 30-Aug. 1, 2024, the noise and misinformation will be banished, all your big questions will be answered, and new business opportunities will be revealed. JOIN US VIRTUALLY.

Want to succeed in the international real estate market? Know your audience.

That’s according to panelists at Inman’s Luxury Connect event in Las Vegas Tuesday, who spoke at a session called “From City to City: Trends & Opportunities in Emerging Luxury Markets.”

TAKE THE INMAN INTEL INDEX SURVEY FOR JULY

“When a high-net-worth individual in our network is referred, this is a person that is referred with a lot of care and I respect that,” said Daniel McVicar, ambassador and global director for Santandrea Luxury Homes & Top Properties in Milan, Italy.

“In the luxury market, it’s essential that people are taken care of. You don’t want to lose a client because you referred them to the wrong person. You don’t want to lose a friend because you referred them to the wrong person. I consider them friends and family when I receive the referral.”

Eloy Carmenate, a broker associate at Corcoran in Miami, agreed.

“Your client is trusting you to connect to somebody who is important,” Carmenate said. “Network is everything. You have to know the right people.”

In order to do that, you have to become an expert on your clientele, according to Carmenate. He knows where his clients live, where they have second homes, where they travel, how many kids they have, how many times they’ve been married.

“We know a lot about them,” Carmenate said.

You also have to travel to the places you hear your clients talking about, he added.

“Typically, it’s Spain, France, Italy and the U.K.,” he said. “Athens is emerging and we’ve all heard about the phenomenon that’s going on in Portugal.”

You also build your network through the people your clients introduce you to, Carmenate said, noting he had met a recent client with a Swiss connection at an American wedding.

“You never know where the next one is going to come from,” he said.

Victoria Levitam, managing partner at The Agency in Panama City, Panama, knows what her clients want and is using that to sell them on buying in her “very special country.”

“Panama is not just a destination; it’s an incredible opportunity,” Levitam said. “It’s the Singapore of the Americas. Everything in real estate is about location, location, location. Panama is the heart of the world, the heart of the Americas. The connectivity is amazing.”

“We have one of the seven wonders of the world, which is the Panama Canal. It has for several decades been one of the best-kept secrets for local elites and top business leaders around the world where they have chosen Panama because of its capable business environment, logistics and connectivity and security as well.”

Carmenate jumped in. “I’m going to be using you for my referrals. She’s sold me on Panama. I’m going to be visiting there very soon.”

McVicar, who is also a television actor, drew a connection between performing for a broader audience to performing for a client.

“There’s a big crossover,” he said. “Really, you’re a public figure when you’re a real estate professional.”

He advised agents to be themselves, but a version of themselves they create.

“Create a character for yourself to be that character,” he said. “And of course, the secret to acting is listening.”

Asked about emerging markets, Carmenate named Singapore, Dubai and Milan, all of which have good weather, tax conditions and healthcare. He advised agents to stay informed.

“If you’re going to raise the bar with your own clientele, you have to know what you’re talking about,” he said.

“You have to know what’s going on in the world.”

Email Andrea V. Brambila.

Like me on Facebook | Follow me on Twitter

HAPPENING NOW! At Inman Connect Las Vegas, July 30-Aug. 1, 2024, the noise and misinformation will be banished, all your big questions will be answered, and new business opportunities will be revealed. JOIN US VIRTUALLY.

Matterport on Tuesday appealed a court ruling that found the company’s ex-CEO was entitled to $79 million over an issue stemming from its initial public offering in 2021. 

The leading 3D digital home scanning company filed a notice of appeal on Tuesday with the Delaware Supreme Court in a case that could have implications for an ongoing sale to CoStar.

TAKE THE INMAN INTEL INDEX SURVEY FOR JULY

The appeal comes just days after Matterport’s shareholders voted overwhelmingly to approve the sale to CoStar. It seeks to challenge a lower court ruling that found the company improperly prevented former CEO William Brown from selling his shares before the company went public in 2021.

In late May, Vice Chancellor Lori W. Will ruled that Brown was entitled to collect money from Matterport based on the company’s higher share price when it went public.

Former Matterport CEO Bill Brown is entitled to recoup $79 million from the company he once led. Brown had sought to recoup $141 million from the company, an amount he came to based on the peak value of his shares when Matterport went public.

The opinion came at a sensitive time for Matterport, which CoStar is attempting to buy for $1.6 billion. CoStar CEO Andy Florance told Inman this month that the sale was on track and passing through regulatory review. He didn’t mention the legal issue with Brown. 

“What we know is that a high-quality, easy-to-build, 3D digital twin is the best way to experience real estate online. And it’s been underutilized in commercial real estate, in residential real estate,” Florence said.

Florence has said he has no intention of making Matterport’s features exclusive to real estate professionals using Homes.com.

“We’re going to provide it to anyone. Everybody,” Florance said. “What we’re doing is Homes Pro members, we’ll just Matterport their listings and generate floor plans. But anyone that wants to do Matterport, that’s fantastic. We think we win by jumpstarting demand, by putting Matterport up on homes.” 

Email Taylor Anderson

HAPPENING NOW! At Inman Connect Las Vegas, July 30-Aug. 1, 2024, the noise and misinformation will be banished, all your big questions will be answered, and new business opportunities will be revealed. JOIN US VIRTUALLY.

Glennda Baker, considered by many to be the real estate industry’s queen of social media, did not come to Inman Connect Las Vegas to discuss video.

The leader of Glennda Baker & Associates at Coldwell Banker had something more pressing to talk about on Tuesday: relationships reimagined.

“There has never been a more important time to be in a relationship with your client,” Baker told an energetic Inman Connect audience Tuesday at the Aria Resort & Casino in Las Vegas.

TAKE THE INMAN INTEL INDEX SURVEY FOR JULY

“Everybody is telling the consumer that we’re not worth it. We’re not worth the money,” Baker told the crowd. “All we do is open doors. All we do is take you on a tour. We’re glorified tour guides. I disagree with that.”

For a long time, agents have been slotted into a service provider role, Baker continued, but today, client relationships are more important to focus on.

Baker took the opportunity to take a subtle dig at Zillow and its vision for the industry.

“There’s this tech provider — I won’t say their name on video — and they think they can replace us with their platform,” Baker said. “Ladies and gentlemen, we’re not here to be replaced.”

“Everybody wants a piece of the commission and that’s why it’s so important to be in a relationship with your client — so you’re not replaceable and they don’t forget you.”

Baker went on to explain how an agent’s past clients and sphere of influence, their community, and their agent-to-agent referrals are the biggest relationships that pay back in terms of returns.

When Baker creates a new relationship, instead of inputting details that will get lost in the vast black hole of a CRM, she puts their contact information, photo and any notes about what she’s learned about them as a new contact into her phone.

“You gotta take soft and hard notes, and you’ve got to exchange life stories,” she said.

In addition to exchanging stories and becoming a source for everything for clients, agents should also learn how to be a stalker, Baker said, tongue-in-cheek.

“This is where I’m supposed to tell you, it’s ok to be a stalker,” she told the Connect audience. “If someone posts something on Facebook or Instagram, they want you to know about it … It’s a great opportunity for you to memorialize it for them.”

“If you’re not capitalizing on the birthdays on Facebook, what are you doing?” she later added. “Y’all, it’s free.”

Baker said she likes to “surprise and delight” people in her circle by wishing them a happy birthday with a customized video or by sending them cupcakes.

She also likes to host events that “create endless opportunity” for client connection, Baker added, like her “coffee and comps” event, where she hosts coffee and discusses neighborhood comps and one of her new listings, or her “eight at eight” event, where she invites three couples to her home for dinner made by a private chef.

She also hosts an “appetizers and appraisals” event, which clients find especially helpful in today’s market. “People have never been more confused about the value of their home than they are today,” Baker noted.

Breaking bread with people or inviting them into your home establishes a more personal connection, Baker noted. During these types of interactions, clients cross the threshold from just being a client into being a friend. The same transformation occurs when agents help clients memorialize the milestones in their lives.

Baker added that, although closing gifts can be tricky, they are one more way to establish a more personal connection with a client.

“Some people don’t believe in closing gifts,” Baker said. “I’ll be honest with you, they’re tricky. You sell someone a $1 million home, what gift do you give them? They can buy whatever they want.”

One gift that has worked well for Baker is a cake with a photo of the client’s new home on it. Her clients have cherished the gift, even if they’re celebrities.

“He saved that cake; he wouldn’t let anybody eat it, because it meant that much to him,” Baker said of one high-end client in Atlanta who she helped purchase his first home. “That guy bought a $2.3 million house — he can buy anything he wants.”

As Baker showed off the custom gift wrap she has made with her face printed all over it (courtesy of giftwrapmyface.com), she expressed her gratitude at the Inman Connect audience for sharing their time with her.

“I love being a real estate agent,” Baker said. “I’m honored that Inman gives me a platform to stand up and speak to you. It means more tho me than you’ll ever know that you took time to sit here. But more than anything else, is that you gave me your attention. Give that attention to your clients. Treat them like the valuable asset that they are.”

Email Lillian Dickerson

HAPPENING NOW! At Inman Connect Las Vegas, July 30-Aug. 1, 2024, the noise and misinformation will be banished, all your big questions will be answered, and new business opportunities will be revealed. JOIN US VIRTUALLY.

Alex Elias, CEO and co-founder of Qloo, was asked by a skeptical investor to further demonstrate the power of his company’s “cultural artificial intelligence.”

The challenge was to determine the fashion preferences of his neighborhood. So Elias launched the application, drew a polygon around his investor’s home, and asked Qloo for a report.

It predicted the very brand of pants the investor was wearing.

Artificial intelligence’s use in predicting consumer trends is driving remarkable change in the accuracy of advertising messaging, how music services recommend new artists and, to the interest of Inman Connect’s Las Vegas audience, what homes a person may buy.

“We’ve all been using AI longer than we think, from Pandora to Spotify and Netflix, you’re getting intelligence from behind the scenes that sort of decides what it is you consume,” Elias said. “When we started Qloo, we wanted to take that kind of data science and that type of AI to expand it across all categories.”

The company has scaled its AI across a range of industries, such as dining and music and, according to Elias, is most excited about the “enormous implications for real estate.”

Alongside Elias on stage was the founder and CXO — Chief Experience Officer — of Torque, Eric Masi. The Chicago-based company works with real estate companies in all sectors, including industrial. A component of Torque’s mantra is that branding begins with people, and that AI is doing a lot to help us understand how people operate.

“How can you use AI to really build a brand, the brand of a home, the brand of a neighborhood? Well, it’s like dating,” Masi said. “We all want to read the mind of the other person; reading your date’s mind is kind of an obsession.”

Elias agreed, saying that when AI is applied to real estate, it suddenly becomes more individualized and qualitative. He provided an anecdote about how an agent’s intuition will always be valuable to buyers and sellers, but that AI can scale that intuition, and create models around the fundamental expertise of the agent.

“What we’ve come to realize is that [agent intuition] is not that different from how Spotify makes a recommendation,” Elias said. “There’s a super exciting opportunity now with the consumer-friendliness level we’re at with AI to scale that intuition, to empower brokers to really understand the tastes of the people they’re serving.”

The pair agreed that if AI can learn what kind of pants a person in a specific neighborhood is most likely to buy, there’s no reason the industry can’t become better at helping buyers determine what kind of home they want, and general consumer tastes — clothes, music, dining choices — absolutely play a part in that.

A number of startups are capitalizing on Elias’ and Masi’s collective take, using it to better align lifestyles and deep personal wants with available inventory. LocalizeOS, Lundy, Eden, ListAssist and Tomo are a few examples. The major portals, which have a bigger lift to achieve integration, are moving toward more a human search experience, as well.

“Where this gets really interesting is that you can tell your customer base that you have this tool, that you have the ability to really get to what matters to them,” Masi said. “That’s a differentiator. Instead of advertising on a billboard that you know your city, you can say, ‘We have data; we have tools.’ Once you have a great tool, claim it. It’s an edge.”

“In this climate, having data is an edge, it’s an advantage,” said Elias.