On May 3rd, Modern Estates hosted, “Facts, Fun, & Secrets,” at the opulent McCormick & Schmick’s Rodeo Drive. The event featured guest speakers, Kelli Handi, Sales Manger for Modern Realty, and Marie Chung, Director/Broker of Modern Realty and Modern Estates. The event had over 60 real estate professionals from around LA County to hear Kelli and Marie speak about the new office that is just a few streets away from Rodeo Drive.

The event was entitled, “Facts, Fun, & Secrets,” because:

• Fact- It highlighted the reasons why Modern Realty/Estates is opening a new office in Beverly Hills to capitalize on luxury foreclosure business.
• Fun- It gave attendees the chance to meet & greet with Director, Marie Chung, while enjoying wine and lite bites.
• Secret-Marie Chung gave an eloborate presentation that revealed a few tips and secrets to her success in the industry

Modern Realty is hosting another, “Facts, Fun & Secrets,” event on June 7th, 2012 to promote our Orange County Office opening. The details for this event will be posted soon and will be for Agents ONLY

                                            Director/Broker- Marie Chung

                                         Sales Manager-Kelli Handi

Marie Chung had the amazing opportunity to be one of the panelists for the Short Sale Symposium at Sea this past weekend. Marie, along with the great group of speakers, were asked challenging questions regarding their strategies with selling luxury homes and REOs. All of the speakers had great insight on how to effectively market their assets as well as their brand. Here are some great commentary from Marie herself:

Marie explains there are TWO  neccessary characteristics to possess in becoming a successful real estate professsional: Competence and Confidence.

• When selling any home, it is critical that you identify who your buyer will be. Will this be a cash buyer, FHA buyer, conventional buyer?  
• Treat every luxury asset as a customized market plan. Every home is different, and every home has its own unique features. Make those features known to your buyers. That’s how you take your own customized marketing approach. Highlight the great features, but don’t neccessarily omit the aspects that can be portrayed as negative.

Insight on Selling a Luxury Property:

• Know the market that your property is listed in: this includes the buyers and cooperating agents that will help you sell that asset
• Know the vendors, designers, stagers, or anyone that will help you market this asset
• Remember, you are selling a service. Provide the BEST service to all of your clients (as well as your property).

“Staging” a Property:

• Look at “staging” as one of your best investments when you are marketng a luxury property.
• Promote your property, and continue to use that in your future presentations. Good publicity is necessary to promote your luxury assets.
• Provide additional services to these luxury homes without expecting reimbursement. I.e, lawn service, cleaning service, high-quality brochures, virtual video tours, etc.

Social Media

• Social Media is amazing. You can reach out to local, out of state, and even international communities through various social networks.

There are no costs to using Social Media, except for one thing…your time.

Our team at Modern Estates sends its sincere best wishes to the very kind sponsors and about 80 guests of last night’s fundraiser for GrowingGreat at Bodega Santa Monica.  Due to the generosity of the silent auction sponsors Babakul at Fred Segal, Equinox Santa Monica, OrganicsRX, Love This Planet, The Art of Shaving – Beverly Hills, Cooking Italiano For Kids, http://365Hangers.com, and ClickedPR (ExhaleSpa gift card), Pure Bar,  who donated thousands of dollars worth of products, and the very generous guests who extended their hearts and wallets for a successful and really fun evening.

Here is a little picture collage from the GrowingGreat fundraiser, which we hope you will share with your friends:

Modern Estates organizes philanthropic events every so often as a way to positively impact the community that it serves.  GrowingGreat was selected for its great work in educating kids on how to eat healthy, and live healthy lives, by growing gardens in their schools.  Studies have also shown that outdoor school gardens are a successful way to teach kids discipline, and also math and science: a multi-decade study was conducted on 40 schools around the nation that have campus gardens. The study found an increase in standardized test scores and an improvement in the behavior of children that participated in the school gardens (source: UrbanHarvest.org).

Luxury Hollywood Hills Home

R&B singer, actor and model Tyrese recently purchased a brand new Mediterranean-style mansion in the Woodland Hills suburban area. Originally listed for $1.499 million, Tyrese was able to purchase the mansion for $1.038 million this past July. Considering that the LA mansion was built this past year, Tyrese was fortunate enough to acquire this home for a discounted price. This mansion holds five bedrooms, a tropical themed backyard (which includes a waterfall), private pool, basketball court, and a garage that can fit up to 10 cars. For more information on this story, read the entire article here: http://bit.ly/sSPzIl.

Tis’ the season in the city of Beverly Hills

Many people who occasionally visit Beverly Hills are not aware of the holiday spirit that floats around during the month of December. Throughout all of December, thousands of Swarovski crystals illuminate and sparkle on the famous Rodeo Drive. Aside from the sparkling crystals, a helix-shaped sculpture that contains LED lights and electronic “ticker tape” will be used for people to tweet or text their holiday messages. By sending their personal text messages and tweets, hundreds of people walking past the helix can enjoy the holiday messages that are being sent from any mobile device (Tweet #letitsparkle, or text 877877 with the word “Sparkle” followed by your holiday greeting). On selected nights in December, snow will float at Two Rodeo Drive and Beverly Canon Gardens from 5-8pm. In addition to sparkle, snow, beautiful holiday lights, carolers, and horse & carriage rides, 65 stores and restaurants throughout the Golden Triangle will stay open late for your dining and shopping needs.

If you decide to take the whole family out for an evening stroll, there are many fun activities for adults and children alike. OVO from Cirque du Soleil Family Day is on December 17th from 10am-1pm at Beverly Canon Garden. This fun-family day will consist of face painting, chalk and balloon artists, and other interactive type of activities for everyone in the family. And if your little ones have yet to visit Santa, he and Mrs. Claus will be present in the Paley Center and Two Rodeo on selected dates. Mr. and Mrs. Claus will be at the Paley Center on December 10^th & 17^th, and Sundays 11^th & 18^th. They will also make an appearance at Two Rodeo on Fridays, 9^th, 16^th, and 23^rd. Click here to learn more about the event, location, and contact information: http://bit.ly/v9XBRq.

The Institute for Luxury Home Marketing last week featured Marie Chung, CCIM, CLHMS, as a speaker in its annual Leaders in Luxury Conference at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Laguna Niguel.

Marie, a “Million Dollar Guild Member” of the ILHM, shared her luxury home marketing strategies and stories with an audience of 200+ luxury estates brokers across the U.S.  Other featured speakers include Catherine Marcus of Sotheby’s International Real Estate, who was involved in the record-setting $100 million residential sale earlier this year in California’s Silicon Valley.  Fellow speakers on the panel “Developing and leveraging your luxury business” include Darren Weiner of Antigen Realty (celebrity/pro-athlete specialist), Mary Anne Simmons of Premiere Real Estate and Home Services (a concierge real estate services specialty co.), and Mike Brodie of Keller Williams (upscale suburban and corporate executive market specialist).

“Developing and leveraging your luxury business” provided important knowledge and insights, giving attendees a competitive edge in meeting the needs of the affluent.  Important points included:  surprising clients with special perks and relationship-building gestures, being mindful between the differences in traditional luxury home marketing and distressed luxury home marketing (the liabilities associated are the broker’s responsibility), enhancing real estate marketing services by providing concierge services, and unique situations that arise among a celebrity’s “entourage,” that may challenge the broker’s efforts.

The purpose of this prestigious conference provides cutting-edge information on what’s happening in the luxury market segment, offers insights on best practices in the business, and creates valuable networking opportunities.  ILHM Founder Laurie Moore-Moore interviewed Marie Chung about her Modern Estates luxury marketing strategies – click on the link below to watch the interview:

For Immediate Release

Marie Chung, CCIM, Broker and Director of Modern Estates Announces New Website

The Los Angeles-based Modern Estates Certified Luxury Home Marketing Specialists, established by Marie Chung, is announcing the release of their new website. The website will enhance the services provided to those who are in the market to buy or sell Beverly Hills real estate.

Los Angeles, California – October 28, 2011 – The professionally trained and experienced home specialists at Modern Estates have a new website. A SMART Press site,   www.TheModernEstates.com has been specifically designed to augment services currently provided. Modern Estates is based in Los Angeles, California and serves both luxury real estate clientele and elite buyer agents.

Marie Chung, CCIM, Broker and Director of Modern Realty and Modern Estates, and her team of real estate professionals specialize in providing best-of-class service to sellers and buyers of luxury properties in the Los Angeles area. Sellers will benefit from the advanced technology, innovative resources and the professional expertise of agents. Buyers receive maximum exposure in the upper level market, through strategies that set apart the features of luxury properties to properly represent their true value.

Marie is a pioneer in the luxury real estate business. She is a licensed real estate broker with vast knowledge in buying and selling $5MM+ properties. She is Luxury Marketing Institute certified, a Certified Commercial Investment Member, and Los Angeles Business Journal Award Finalist. Marie is a Magna Cum Laude graduate of UCLA in Business Economics as well as graduating from the highly desirable USC Ross Program in Real Estate Development.

Modern Estates Certified Luxury Home Marketing Specialists offices are located on the Miracle Mile. This location is central to Bel-Air, Brentwood and Beverly Hills. The office is equipped with remote access to their server and all real estate agents and staff receive updates on properties which include the status, condition and price changes. The marketing staff and public relations also work from this location providing a convenient location for clientele.

The website provides a variety of services for clients. Buyers can refine their search for properties in a number of ways. The price, number of bedrooms and bathrooms, square footage and more can be accessed. The MLS number may be used. Searching within boundaries set as well as drawing your own boundary to look for properties is another feature.

Sellers will have access to the unique strategies used by the team at Modern Estates. These are strategies they have implemented to maximize the presentation and marketability of properties up to $5,395,000. A free Home Sellers Guide is available on the site. This is an invaluable tool for information on home sales, housing trends and market predictions.

If you live in the Los Angeles area and are in the market for a home or are interested in selling Beverly Hills real estate, the experts at Modern Estates can help. Contact them by visiting www.themodernestates.com for all your real estate needs.

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The SMART Press website was introduced by 1parkplace, Inc. a national real estate marketing company based in San Diego, California. 1parkpace provides innovative solutions for real estate professionals.  SMART Press real estate websites with integrated SMART BOSS Client management systems allow REALTORS® and Brokerage firms to deliver a buffet of information that enhances a customer experience.