Buying a luxury home is an expensive and time-consuming activity, it’s normal to feel the need to be certain about the home and location for you and your family.
Therefore in this article, we’ll provide you with 10 tips for effectively buying a luxury property.
One of the mistakes that most people do is consider any expensive house as luxurious. “Luxury property has to be unique and exclusive, in a good way in a desirable way” says Randy Char, senior VP of operations at One Queensridge Place.
While it’s true that most luxury houses are expensive, the definition of luxury may still depend on your perspective or the features it possesses.
Features of A Luxury Home
When you’re looking for luxury real estate, you might have heard the term “curb appeal” a couple of times. Curb appeal is usually what makes a luxury property attractive to prospective buyers like you. It may include a modern interior design or the latest interior materials. However, what makes a property luxurious are the following:
- Exclusivity: Most of luxury homes are located away from the public’s eyes and it is mostly seen with celebrity homes. Luxury properties are geographically located in an isolated place or grouped in an exclusive subdivision.
- Architecture: Rare find and unique architecture from the prominent architects builds up the value of some luxury homes. The handcrafted doors and hand-painted ceilings are some of the features that make the property special.
- Price Point: Luxury homes are typically priced in the top 2% of all real estate in a given region.
- History or previous owners: Public figures that used to live in the property makes the place famous which adds up to its value. For example, how would you feel if you lived in the house of a former president or a famous musician like Jennifer Lopez?
- Tech features: Houses powered by Alexa or Siri are one of the most sought-after luxury properties because of the convenience brought by the extra help of technology.
- State-of-the-art appliances and fixtures: Custom-built appliances that blend with the interior design of the house can add up to the overall look and feel of the property.
- Landscape: Most of the luxury properties have big landscapes to accommodate a fleet of vehicles and have spacious lawns that build the property itself.
You need to take into account the features mentioned above to make sure if the selling price is worth the features offered in the property.
In every decision, it’s very important to have specific pointers. Property acquisition is something that can make your coming years the best ones or end up with years of regret.
Now, here are some luxury home tips for purchasing a home of your dreams
Tip #1: Know what you want beforehand
Whether it’s a typical residential unit or the luxurious ones, buying a property will always involve your emotions. Make sure to have your needs, capabilities and wants written or summarized into standardized personalized criteria. It will help you to not get swayed with astonishing marketing ads and the convincing power of some real estate agents.
Here are some questions that you may ask yourself while filling up your criteria sheet:
- What is the purpose of my luxury property?
- Where do you want to buy the property and why?
- What feature of the house are you specifically looking for?
- What kind of funding will you take for your luxury property purchase?
Tip #2: Consider a local real estate agent
The world of luxury properties are a bit different from your usual ones. There are what they call pocket listings which are properties for sale that are not listed to keep the privacy of the seller and protect the exclusivity of the sale.
Also, the agents for luxury properties are not as big as ordinary properties. It’s a smaller world and most of the agencies know their competitors well.
With a local luxury real estate agent, you can guarantee they know what’s on sale in their area without even looking at the listings. They will also be able to provide rich history and the way of life in the neighborhood.
All of this expert advice simply comes from the fact that they are living with the local area.
Tip #3: Learn the search process
There’s less competition in the luxury property market which means you have a bigger chance to get a great deal. However, the search will not be as simple as Googling everything. There are those pocket listings and the right local real estate agents that you get in touch can provide the best off-market deals.
Never solely rely on online listings in purchasing a luxury property.
Also, be sure to check the days on market of the property. If it’s taking a long time for a place to be sold, then there’s likely some fishy issues or underlying problems on the property.
However, it’s also important to remember that buying and selling times will fluctuate according to what time you are within the property cycle.
Tip #4: Spend time observing the area
Emotions change over time. They can either intensify or wear off depending on certain factors. For example, If you fell in love with a property during the day that you came to see it, try to imagine yourself living in the place for a while.
The best way to do this is to try to spend some days in the area just to get the ‘feel’ of the place. Things like the traffic, available shops, the overall scenery.
Always remember that if you purchased the luxury home, you would be spending years in that place.
Tip #5: Check the resale value
The future holds a lot of possibilities. At one point, you’ll be selling your luxury property for a reason. So, never make the mistake of neglecting the idea of looking for the value of the place and not the price.
Also a good real estate agent will provide you with details of the resale value ahead of time.
The features of the property can be unique and attractive but it’s location can cause a drop in value. A price is just a number but value lasts for a long time, so choose wisely.
Tip #6: Consider the future developments in the area
Major luxury properties have astonishing landscapes until a high-rise building is built beside it.
By contacting commercial chartered surveyors, the local government and any local residential developers you’ll be able to see if there any future developments within the local area that could overthrow the property feature you’ve been eyeing for.
This kind of detail is not usually disclosed by the agents so you should do your homework to gather information.
Tip #7: Look into the financial considerations like taxes
The property tax varies depending on the county where the property is located. You real estate agent should be able to give you the tax declaration of the property for you to gauge your ability to cover the expenses. Property taxes is one of the biggest financial obligations that you should be ready to commit aside from acquiring the house itself.
Tip #8: Inspect the house
Technology has a lot of ways to make everything better, even photos. Luxury properties often have the most picture-perfect catalogs online. However, these pictures don’t reveal the insulation of the property and the high quality of it’s fixtures.
It’s best to spend time visiting and inspecting the property more than just once.
This will allow you to check the whole area meticulously. At the same time, you should spend your visits at different times of the day to see how the place feels like at night or dawn.
Tip #9: Utilities and Maintenance
If you’re transferring from a humble to a luxurious replica one, there’ll be a big change in how you will maintain the property.
Similar to other material possessions, your property can change a lot in a year. The beauty of the property will greatly depend on how you will take care of it.
Tip #10: Measure twice and cut once
“Patient buyers often make the best investments,” says Cody Vichinsky of Bespoke Real Estate. You can miss out on a better deal if you let your emotions decide early on the buying process. You will also be skipping some inspection that can uncover hidden problems that will show up over time like roofing problems.
Just because you can doesn’t mean you should buy the property immediately.
The buying process of a luxury property is highly personalized. Nevertheless, you have all the time to decide because the competition is low in the luxury market.
Give yourself several months to decide and at least perform the tips we shared in this article. It’s better to shed some effort than it is to regret for a lifetime.
These tips on how to purchase a luxury home are only a guide, it’s important to add your own rules and standards depending on your own perspective and investment style.
After all, you’ll be the one spending most of your time within the property. We hope that these tips will save you from being deceived by any flashy home features and can empower you to live in a home that you deserve to have or and dream of.