A New Gatekeeper: Why Allie Beth Allman’s “Gates of Highland Park” Video is Important

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Gates of Highland park

Juli Harrison and Stephen White at Allie Beth Allman are marketing one (or actually, two) of the most expensive properties in Highland Park, and, for that matter, all of Dallas: 4311 and 4321 Lakeside Drive. Dallas dirt doesn’t get much pricier than this.

The two lots are being sold together, or separately. List price is $12,500,000 each or $25,000,000 for the both. These lots have an incredible history in Old Highland Park, as they sit at the very entrance to one of the country’s most upscale communities as you first enter from Dallas.

The lots have been available for a number of years, and Juli herself has been trying to trade them since 2010. Listing price started at $15,100,000 for one 1.17 acre lot back in 2010, $16,225,000 for the other. Pricing may have been a little aggressive for 2010. That was like $31 million for 2.34 acres at the gateway to Old Highland Park. But there is just no other dirt that compares.

Today, the duo released a beautiful new video marketing the property in a very unique way.

If you are selling a very high end property, you constantly wonder: is there any NEW real estate thing in the universe my agents or I can do to help move this dirt? 4321 Lakeside has been in MLS, advertised in almost every print pub in town (fat lot of good that has done), the Wall Street Journal, Zillow, the usual suspects. All bases have not only been covered, they have been saturated. Drenched. Drowned. So what now?

Enter Eric Pierce. I met Eric several years ago because he worked for Peter Kempf International, where he still consults today. (Peter Kempf was also one of our NAREE vacation home panelists in 2012.)  PKI markets haute luxury vacation home properties from Napa to Italy, villas to vineyards. Peter really is a “Who’s Who” in luxury real estate:

Having been the Director of International Real Estate for Christie’s, Vice President and Midwest Regional Manager for Sotheby’s International Realty and a member of Who’s Who in Luxury Real Estate, Mr. Kempf is considered to be one of the leading authorities in international real estate and is a frequent guest speaker at international real estate conferences.

Now Eric is running his own operation, Clearview Elite, a Boise, Idaho-based digital firm that builds custom property websites for luxury real estate properties luxury real estate properties.

The Gates of Highland Park from Goldeneye Media on Vimeo.

Eric Pierce

Eric’s growing list of clients include:

Hawking high end vacation home properties is probably one of the hardest jobs in the world. These are the play palaces of the rich and famous, homes that run from $1.5 to several million to cater to that very narrow slice of high net worth tykes everyone is trying to reach. These folks don’t care about appreciation or leasing the home when they are not there. They’d prefer to keep it ready for their possible 24/7 arrival. It’s like Donald Trump. It’s like Trump realizing the President of the United States earns $400,000 a year — that’s his McDonald’s money.

Clearview Elite is a “Lead Response System designed for the real estate industry”, which targets uber high end properties and agents. He is all about sharing a property, especially a luxury property, for as many eyeballs and page views as possible, with the right kind of audience. Because Eric knows the more zeros behind a sales price, the smaller the market of potential buyers.

Clearview Elite applies principles from vacation home sales to luxury primary home sales. It is very likely, with the exception of Andy Beal snapping up the Hicks estate, that the buyer of a mega million dollar property will not be in the same town.

“We learned that from selling real estate in Aspen,” says Eric Pierce, Founder, Clearview Elite. “You’re more likely to sell a $20M estate in Aspen to someone from L.A. or Manhattan than from Denver”

Eric has created a digital marketing system so unique he is considering patenting. The system creates an elegant, high quality web presentation to totally replace print brochures that can be so highly customized, agents can send it to other luxury agents pre-branded for them.

Wait, whoa. Did I say pre-branded for a competitor’s brand? Yes. The website comes across the internet branded for the email recipient. That way, this agent can immediately market the property to their high net worth clients. And they may do so privately, discretely, which is very important to high net worth clients.

Stephen and Juli may not know the high net worth buyers in LA or New York City who want to buy a $25 million lot in Dallas and can afford to do so, but their real estate agent friends out there certainly do.

What’s their motivation? The referral fee.

In the real estate world, which, for all its antiquity, works remarkably well, agents traditionally pay other agents a referral fee when an agent refers a buyer or a listing property. Thus the website also becomes a financial incentive for the agent(s) who receive it: find a buyer for this house among your network, and I will reward you with a referral fee.

“I really think we are moving to a different modem of showcasing high end luxury real estate,” says Stephen, a third generation Highland Park resident who comes to real estate from a 16 year financial services background in hedge funds.

“No more scatter shooting. We need to target the buyers who can afford these homes and get to them directly. Everything else is just wasting resources.”

I have long maintained that real estate agents, particularly in the high end, are like personal shoppers for the rich and famous. Because they are.

“Those agents who list the finest properties have enormous referral networks, often times through groups like Who’s Who in Luxury Real Estate or Luxury Portfolio,” says Eric.

“We provide them with a totally transparent and targeted referral program. They can reach the inboxes of high net worth individuals in key feeder markets around the world without huge international marketing fees. We believe these proactive, targeted strategies are the future of ultra luxe real estate sales.” 

We agree!

 

Candy Evans, founder and publisher of CandysDirt.com, is one of the nation’s leading real estate reporters.

2 Comments

  1. Gmit on November 17, 2016 at 4:22 pm

    That property has always seems more like a part of the park, or prime for some sort of mid-rise tower. It just doesn’t look or feel like a home-site. Take all the fancy drone videos you want they just add to the busy intersection appeal and traffic light proximity

    • Candy Evans on November 18, 2016 at 2:06 am

      You have more than 2 acres to wall off with the most private of drives. I see so many possibilities!

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