Anatomy of A Highly Successful High-End Home Sale

BACKGROUND – Before moving to Pensacola Beach in 2023, my wife Carla and I spent five(5) years visiting the Emerald Coast from Rosemary Beach to Gulf Shores, Alabama studying the towns along the way in tremendous depth. Our goal was to find the proper place to semi-retire, enjoy the fabulous coastline, and be among like-minded good people. We settled at The Portofino in Pensacola Beach, a decision we never regretted. Unfortunately, Carla was stricken with leukemia in 2023 and passed late in the year. I remain here, and un-retiring: I am ramping up a real estate career from my days in the Washington, D.C. area. Building on the knowledge gained during our many visits, I can provide potential buyers a better perspective across-the-board of the many and varied attributes of each beach-front location. This could also prove to be invaluable to coastal homeowners looking to list their homes with a seasoned professional who brings a dynamic element to the listing process not seen previously in this area.

I have recently joined forces with the most dynamic brokerage in the country, LPT Realty. In a little more than two years, LPT has been awarded the highly prestigious “Most Innovative Brokerage of 2024” Award from Inman and our truly unique cloud-based platform allows for ways to effectively and efficiently reached a wide range of clients never before seen in this industry. My vision is to dramatically improve the way in which coastal properties are sold, leaning into the style and media presence promoted by Million Dollar Listing guru Ryan Serhant. No longer is it acceptable for high end Realtors to “promote” and list homes in the same way, using the same templates, as we see throughout the country, and especially here along The Emerald Coast.

The attraction to you will be to have a savvy, dynamic representative designing strategies and marketing plans that provide maximum outreach, a high level of professionalism, and unquestionably unique approach to your home and your situation. In high-end coastal sales, there should never be a one-size-fits-all approach to sales, and I assure you that I will never treat your home sale the same as anyone else’s. I also assure you that I will provide a more hands-on approach than you will find elsewhere; you are signing up with me, not some large “team”, and your home will be promoted and sold through me. A common practice I avoid is the practice of a known “team leader” engaging fully in the interview process, only to often pass on important execution elements to a team member you never met in the interview process, or a random agent who is seeking to hold your home open in an attempt to meet buyers who may have interest your home or another property. This has become a common practice throughout the real estate sales world that I will avoid. You deserve better. I am here to promote YOUR home, not yours and a dozen others. The agent who presents his/her plan for the marketing, promotion, and sale of your home should also be the one hosting special events and open houses for your home, and be as aggressive in engaging with potential buyers as he/she was in pursuing your listing.

As a blueprint for the attitude, style, and performance I intend to bring to the Emerald Coast, I am printing my most recent testimonial from a sale Carla and I engineered in Washington, D.C. just before moving here. Greg Gainer was the seller of an exclusive home in Reston, Virginia, and subsequently had to buy a home in a very tight market immediately after his home went under contract. I will attempt to highlight the thought process and reasons why I acted and reacted as I did at every step along the way, and why such agility and market savvy are crucial to achieve the highest price and best terms on an upper-end home sale. Anyone can memorize formulas, and most agents list and sell according to strict formulas. While consistency is important, there is no substitute for hiring those rare people who go beyond the formulas to your benefit.

Mr. Gainer’s testimonial is below, and I inserted my reasoning behind his comments in red.
“Ray Wedell possesses an unconventional but highly effective skill set for buying or selling residential properties. It is grounded in a keen awareness of the local real estate market, enhanced by experience, and strategic thinking to real world real estate.

When he explains the reasoning behind different pricing strategies, for instance, he does so clearly and without bias. But if asked, he will give his opinion, and back it up with convincing rationale.

Beware of the “one size fits all” mentality here. The truth is that there are many different alternative methods and strategies you can employ when selling your home, and being presented with “the way” (generally derived from a template-generated “Listing Strategy”) gives you nothing more than the same standardized approach to your sale that is offered everywhere. Make sure your potential Realtor partner is well-versed in several means of marketing/listing your home and allows you time to fully understand and digest each alternative.

His insights include what some might call hunches or gut instinct, but I also recognized elements of advanced game theory, and risk management in his thinking.

Understanding your unique needs is crucial to final determination of a game plan/strategy. Everyone’s circumstances are different. Hire professionals who can adjust their thinking and strategy to accommodate your situation.

Ray called me whenever a new home was listed that matched most of my criteria. More importantly, he also emailed to report when there were no new prospects listed. I knew he was leaving no stone unturned, and I believe I slept better for that.

In Mr. Gainer’s situation, studying the market for his upcoming new purchase was as important as the strategy for selling his home. Our thinking adjusted daily, often multiple times daily, from seller-oriented on his home to buyer-consciousness following the sale.

Most of my interaction with Ray was during a very active seller’s market in late 2021. He walked me through various strategies for setting the price for my home, given the prevailing market conditions and buyer expectations. He also thought of some “out of the box” ideas, one of which lured in the ultimate buyer of the property.

This went to the crux of the most important issues we faced. A multiplicity of events had to occur to maximize Mr. Gainer’s sale and accelerate his time frame. One trick you will see from virtually all real estate agents is to attempt to promote their ability to “sell your home above list price.” The majority of the time, this results in agents under-listing in a hot market, convincing you that they will develop “offers above list price.” The problem here is that if you fully expect the market to yield a price of, say, $1 million, listing at $900,000 to guarantee a quick sale AND an above-list offer is NOT in your best interests. Sure, a $950,000 or so offer likely will result, and THAT will be marketed as a Realtor “getting you more than list price.” Please do not fall for this technique.

In Mr. Gainer’s case, he had a very unique contemporary in a hot neighborhood in which every home was being sold over list price. We decided to list at the price we would expect a sale, and rely on superior marketing to generate interest beyond that. A Realtor has to have the confidence to make this work, and not be hung up on self-promotion needs to always sell above list price (causing them to always recommend you under-list your home).

Carla and I proposed to Mr. Gainer that we use a strategy I had adopted from a California agent: hold a Saturday neighbor’s event that would precede the initial Sunday public open house. By inviting all neighbors, you attract those who love your neighborhood and will likely aggressively promote the Sunday open house to friends, co-workers, family, etc. Our theme was a “Tacos and Tequila” event, and who does not enjoy a summer evening with this venue? So the neighbors are in an enjoyable state of mind, and the home is showing in pristine condition.

At this moment, a unique decision was made in the process that likely increased Mr. Gainer’s sale price by at least 10%. Rather than accept offers and evaluate them as they came in, we decided to set a firm offer time and date as being Monday at noon, the day after the open house. This would allow for people with interest to see the home without feeling rushed and work with their representative to craft an offer that “will work.” When faced with a very competitive situation to buy a great house in a tight market, time works on the side of the seller. We decided to let it work for Mr. Gainer, and expect multiple offers above our HIGHER list price on Monday. No other real estate agent was operating in this manner at the time, nor proposing to Mr. Gainer that he consider such a strategy.

The ultimate buyer lured is a fabulous story in and of itself. I had listed this home ten years prior, and the previous owners had done so much custom work. I contacted them to come to our Saturday night party with neighbors, and they did. Was that ever a big hit. Nobody knew the exact details of all work done as they did, so they operated as our de facto sales arm. But the story gets better—- the previous owners told their son about the home being for sale and he showed up with his wife and two small children at the Open House the following day. Nostalgia sank in, and the son decided that his children should have “the wonderful upbringing and environment I had as a child”, and he and his wife offered 20% above our already-high list price. Three other above-list offers came in at noon on Monday as well. Moral of the story: None of this happens without the savvy and creativity of the agent team and Mr. Gainer’s open mind.

THIS is the type of imagination, skill, and professionalism I intend to bring to the coastal property market.

Less than two months later, with those same market conditions (all seemingly stacked against the buyers), I closed on an excellent, highly sought-after house for the list price, defying national trends of paying well over list. Ray noted some details of the previous owners’ furniture, and with almost Holmesian deductions, used those observations to tailor a bid that won me my home.

This speaks to the buy side, after the sale. Remember when we discussed this hot market and most Realtors will accept offers as they come in, not allowing the hot market to percolate? After searching through 15 homes or so, a home in beautiful condition was listed at the same price as the neighborhood comp from 6 months prior, and we seized the moment, putting in an offer on day one, before the weekend traffic would arrive. It was clear that the seller was in a hurry based on positioning of furniture, etc. Sometimes you just “get the feel” for a situation that is not in text books or training manuals, and this was one such case. Not only did we close at list price (which I believe was set way too low), but the seller agreed to leave some beautiful pieces of furniture that Mr. Gainer would have had to purchase otherwise. This purchase was a huge win following a major home run on his sale. Bottom line: happy customer.

Realtors….Who knew? When I was a kid, I thought they just wore matching blazers, smiled a lot, and only appeared during breaks in post-season football games. I am glad to discover this is not always the case.”

Well, Mr. Gainer, there are some that are still that way, but this is 2024. With LPT Realty, the fastest growing and most innovative firm in the country, I guarantee the best run for your money can receive on the Emerald Coast. You deserve nothing less.