You have chosen where you want to buy your luxury home. The next step to buying luxury real estate in your chosen market is getting to know that market, so you are ready to act when the ideal property comes to auction.
Successful buyers understand that ongoing research reaps big rewards when buying a luxury home. Many luxury real estate buyers research their chosen market for five to ten years before buying. Regular searches using web resources and connecting with a local agent who is an expert in luxury real estate in the particular market are essential to buying a new property.
Start your search on your own. Check out well-established property websites such as Zillow and Trulia, and become knowledgeable about the prices that comparable luxury properties in your chosen market are commanding. Both of these sites reveal sale prices, tax assessments and other property details going back ten years or more.
After you have started the search on your own and have a general picture of luxury sales in the local market, it is important to find and talk regularly with a real estate agent who is an expert in the luxury real estate market in your chosen city. Tell your agent what you are looking for, including price first of all, but also your must-haves such as views, lot size and number of bedrooms and bathrooms. Ask him or her to show you properties that meet your criteria and to send you sold prices periodically to give you a ‘feel’ for the market. How many luxury properties are coming to market? How many are being purchased? What are the sold prices?
If you have done all this work, then you will know what the going market rate is and be ready to buy when the perfect property comes along. Or even better, when a luxury property that you like comes to auction, you will be ahead of the curve compared to other buyers and will know what price you want to bid at auction.
When purchasing at a luxury real estate auction, you are assured the market price on auction day — the highest price that you and the other registered bidders are willing to pay. By researching ahead-of-time, you will know the price range that you think is reasonable for the property, but regardless of what you bid at auction you will have confidence knowing that you didn’t overpay. Remember: The auction day winner is always only one bid above the next highest bidder.
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