I often spot a new listing and think, “Hmmm … I know that house, but it looks nothing like it did a few years ago.” Such is the case with this magnificent Preston Hollow Italian Renaissance mansion.
It’s the same stunning 15,530 square feet of luxurious living with five bedrooms, seven bathrooms, five powder baths, a home theater, and an exercise room. You also still have over an acre and parking for at least 25 cars. So what is different?
The buyer base is different, that’s what. This Preston Hollow Italian mansion looked fantastic in 2018 and made it into our Monday Morning Millionaire, but it was being marketed to a Dallas buyer then. Things have changed — a lot.
Game-Changing Buyers
If you are not marketing to out-of-state buyers, you are living in a dream world. Selling luxury real estate in 2021 is about a completely different buyer that has completely different tastes. So, kudos to Compass listing agent Amy Detwiler for improving on what we thought was already perfection.
Yes, you know I’m going to talk about staging and photography. This luxury home was beautifully staged in 2018 by the team at George Bass Stage & Design. Guess what? They did it again.
A couple of years ago, George spotted what was starting to happen with migrating clients and new style choices. The market began shifting in 2018. According to Texas Realtors, more than 86,000 Californians moved here. The Metroplex attracted the highest number of out-of-state movers with 200,966 new residents.
Then we had a global pandemic, and people realized working from home opened up a new world of possibilities. They could live anywhere, and they still overwhelmingly chose Texas. The writing was already on the wall in 2018 and 2019, but the pandemic accelerated migration like crazy.
I turned to CBRE, the world’s leading full-service real estate services and investment firm, which tracks all the data you could ever wish to know. They reported that in 2020, moves from California to the Dallas-Fort Worth area were up more than 19.1 percent over 2019. That is 16,076 people. The latest statistics show California residents moving to Texas grew to 36 percent! Yes, that’s a game-changer.
We have to do things a bit differently now, and that applies to builders, architects, interior designers, stagers, and photographers. We have had to up our game and offer what these new luxury buyers want.
Poised to Pivot
George saw this back in 2018 and went into overdrive producing furniture that was not available here with his in-house manufacturing and upholstery team Uphold Designs. And he slowly started shifting the design conversation.
So when Amy was asked to represent this Preston Hollow Italian Renaissance mansion, she and George put their heads together for a refreshing new spin.
“We certainly have seen a different design sensibility unfolding in the past few years,” George said. “This house was a case of less is more. We had to let it breathe. We created an airy editorial look by using bright pieces and unique items, as well as some of the owner’s pieces. We brought in large custom art to draw attention to the architectural features. Staging is even more important in our current climate because we find buyers are also purchasing all of the furnishings along with the house. It’s because the staging creates ambiance. It is part of the lifestyle dream. A buyer can live in the home immediately and not worry about finding an interior designer or dealing with long lead times on custom furniture orders. It’s one-stop shopping.”
Showing Off a Home’s Best Side
Every Realtor has to decide what’s important about a home because they are responsible for selling it, and they know what new buyers today are noticing.
“When you walk in, I wanted to be able to see straight back to the pool and outdoor area, so we repositioned the piano,” Amy said. “There is a huge amount of natural light in the house. I wanted to warm it up with the right pieces and the right scale of art to accentuate the expansive art walls. It feels clean and fresh, like a completely different house now.”
An integral part of the refreshed look of this Preston Hollow Italian Renaissance mansion is the new photos.
Passable photography has long been an issue in our market. Regardless of price point, photos need to be executed properly. You can’t shoot a house in an hour, and if you expect that, you can also expect less than stellar results.
Photographer Jason Anderson did a superb job here, and guess what? It took all day, as it should!
“He paid attention to detail and captured the house in a whole new way,” Amy said.
Embracing Change
So there you have it. Things are changing. Embrace it. Understand what buyers are looking for today, and deliver it.
Amy has this Italian Renaissance mansion at 5400 Edlen Drive listed for $7.995 million. The buyers are circling Texas ready to pounce on our multi-million dollar listings. From what we saw in Austin last week (a $17 million property sold in two days with multiple offers, and over list), I’d jump on this as soon as possible.
