Pity the poor indie real estate brokerage: it takes so much to stay in business and on top of marketing. Not only do you have to hire the best agents in town and keep them happy (read: selling real estate), you need to have an in-house marketing firm splish-splashing your agents and listings everywhere. Everywhere.
And now you really have to have your own controlled- circulation magazine. In spring of 2010, Ebby Halliday was the first indie brokerage in town to come out with their own magazine, Grand Vie, for which I contribute stories on vacation homes. Soon Briggs Freeman followed suit with Metaluxe, then Allie Beth Allman put forth THEIR own publication. Now Dave Perry-Miller and Associates joins the fun with Dave Perry-Miller Real Estate: Fine Home Collection. This is NOT just a glossy-gawker to showcase the firms many multi-million dollar listings, though it certainly does that. The magazine spotlight agents with stunning professional photos and biographies, and has actual editorial that makes an interesting read. The DPM inaugural magazine edition features articles on local DPM clients such as the brand new kitchen of Kent and Tracy Rathburn, and Dr. Robert McClelland, one of the surgeons who treated President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963.
Metaluxe Fall 2014 ran a feature on the highly-rated 21-c Museum Hotel in Louisville, Kentucky, a combo contemporary art museum and boutique hotel chain started by philanthropists and art collectors Laura Lee Brown and Steve Wilson to support urban renewal and regional architecture. 21c Museum Hotel has been voted among the Top 10 Hotels in the south, the USA and even the World. Allie Beth Allman focused on the dissolution of the Wright Amendment, a huge boost for Dallas, in last fall’s edition.
These publications even have their own luxury ads, and why not? Highland Park Village, NorthPark Center, private jet firms like Wheels Up Private Aviation, even Bentley all love getting inside the highest net worth homes in Dallas. Which is just where these puppies land. If your home is worth more than about $750k, one of these handsome pubs is sitting in your mailbox.
When Grand Vie came out, an agent told me the controlled circulation (sent directly to target homes) publishing concept was the best thing since sliced bread: Ebby self-published, and each full-page ad cost agents only about $500. The mags are also a necessary marketing tool when agents make listing presentations and homeowners ask the proverbial “how are you going to market my property?”
I still wonder how many direct sales agents can attribute to these glossies, and that may be interesting to find out. They certainly help branding and promotion. We are loving the beautiful design of the Dave Perry-Miller Fine Home Collection — a clean white background with the firms’ logo in Wedgewood blue, similar to the new yard signs that came with the firm’s recent re-branding.
