intero prestigio: the magazine

– The exclusive luxury PublicaTion of inTero real esTaTe services –

MODERN CHARMpresented byKatherine Couturesee page 15

INTERO PRESTIGIO IS LUXURY REAL ESTATE

volume 1, issue 1

www.InteroPrestigio.com

EleganceA RARE OPPORTUNITY to own the finest luxury estate near the San Francisco Bay. Custom-built with elegance and grandeur. Modern conveniences for grand-scale entertaining and family living, with more than 11,000 square feet under-roof and 8,000 square feet of A\C area. Additional amenities include a pool and gazebo, lower level with a summer kitchen

and museum quality construction. $10,000,000

John Smith REALTOR®

925.525.3380 DRE #01333990 [email protected]


Elegance By Alain Pinel Can any agent sell a multi million dollar residential property? Theoretically Yes… Practically: not readily, aside from “accidental” business. It takes a very special person who can relate to the client and the subject property at that level. Not every agent can play the part and be a maestro at comfortably managing the entire transaction with the clients’ trust. There are lots of Realtors, thousands of them just in the heart of the Silicon Valley. I feel fortunate knowing a good portion of them and I would not hesitate to say that most of them are very good at what they do, irrespective of the company affiliation. They are smart, knowledgeable and genuinely devoted to serving their clients and customers to the best of their ability. They do care about their fiduciary duties. That, of course, does not mean that they are equal and interchangeable. Some are better than others. This is especially noticeable in the high end. If I were to generalize a little, I would say that there are three classic levels of real estate professionals. Some gravitate from one to another during the course of their career, while some get stuck in the same box if they cannot or don’t care to change their profile. Here is the picture, painted with a very big brush to make the point: • The Average Agent: Sincere, friendly and committed to the principal’s satisfaction, but usually a train too late in a fast market to be truly effective and therefore successful. Typically, he/she waits too long to preview the new listings when they are fresh on the market. When they are finally ready to see them, at the weekly brokers’ tour or when they have an

opportunity to show them to a customer, those listings are often already under contract. • The Better Agent: Energized, mobilized, he/she knows and keeps current with the inventory of active listings, understands market trends and the menu of mortgage options….But most of them are just waiting for the office phone to ring. They rely on what may fall from the sky rather than the business they could generate on their own. They don’t prospect much and they don’t promote themselves in the local media. The result is predictable: they don’t have listings and they have a hard time finding buyers. • The Great Agent: They are ready 24/7. When the phone rings, they answer. No time to listen to voicemail. They “own” the market. They know every street and nearly every house within their “farming” area. They know who bought what, when & how. They know the owners’ names and, most of the time, the people behind the names. They are the top guns. They are back. Not that they ever left; they just relish this challenging yet exciting market in the high end. Who worries about a listings drought and tight credit when you know the people who would agree to sell their luxury property given the right price and the buyers who can pay cash to buy it? There are only a few superstars in each marketplace, mostly in very affluent towns or districts. They know each other very well and like to work between themselves, in spite of the different company flags. If a $25 million listing comes on the market, chances are it belongs to one of them, and chances are one of them will sell

it. Often those upscale listings never hit the MLS. They sell within the “club”. The top guns know best how to leverage their company’s marketing & technology strengths to complement their own. They are so powerful that you would think they are “making the high end market” instead of merely adapting to it better than others. No, they are just smelling the market before anybody does and pricing properties based on their anticipation of the traditional tango of supply & demand. Want one example? While today most agents are waiting for the Facebook IPO around May to sell real estate to the new millionaires who will be good enough to stop by the office, the top guns have established contact with hundreds of them long ago. There is no substitute for preparation, organization, focus and ambition. That’s life in the fast lane.

The Luxury Insider: The Top Guns are Back!

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A RARE OPPORTUNITY to own the finest luxury estate near the San Francisco Bay. Custom-built with elegance and grandeur. Modern conveniences for grand-scale entertaining and family living, with more

than 11,000 square feet under-roof and 8,000 square feet of A\C area. $10,000,000

Katherine Couture REALTOR®

925.525.3380 | DRE #01333990 [email protected] | www.InteroPrestigio.com

A RARE OPPORTUNITY to own the finest luxury estate near the San Francisco Bay. Custom-built with elegance and grandeur. Modern conveniences for grand-scale entertaining and family living, with

more than 11,000 square feet under-roof and 8,000 square feet of A\C area. $10,000,000



LuxuryA RARE OPPORTUNITY to own the finest luxury estate near the San Francisco Bay. Custom-built with elegance and grandeur. Modern conveniences for grand-scale entertaining and family living, with more than 11,000 square feet under-roof and 8,000 square feet of A\C area. Additional amenities include a pool and gazebo, lower level with a summer kitchen and museum quality construction. $10,000,000


925.525.3380 DRE #01333990 [email protected] www.InteroPrestigio.com

Elegance By Alain Pinel Today is a special day in the real estate industry. It is Day 1 for “Prestigio”, Intero’s brand new Estates Division and its exclusive menu of global marketing services. After many weeks of intense thinking, studying & selecting, we came up with a program which is second to none in our business, anywhere. Some may think that it is pretty gutsy for a real estate company to create such a new extensive high end program just coming out of five years of a brutal downturn which severely affected the luxury market. Yes, it is gutsy. For sure, it is more common these days to cut services to reduce expenses rather than launch an ambitious project with an arsenal of pricey print & online international advertising vehicles as well as impressive marketing tools and state of the art technology. The reality is: we felt compelled to do it. Business has changed; real estate firms need to change as well to adapt to the migrations and the profiles of new buyers at the top end of the market, not to mention the new ways to do business to best leverage the technology at our disposal. Let’s express this in the following simple way: “we cannot do business as usual in an unusual market”. Yet, not a heck of a lot has happened in the way of significant marketing changes in our industry over the last many years. It was about time. We, at Intero, want to be relevant and offer the best service possible to today’s homeowners who trust us with

the marketing of their exceptional property. We have a no-nonsense approach to marketing and we actually put our advertising commitment black & white on the customized marketing plan we prepare for the sellers, covering each and every month of the listing duration. That includes looking for buyers all over the US & abroad. Actions, not just words. That’s what sellers need today. They do understand that their opportunity to sell their home is predicated on the listing company’s ability to connect with a maximum of qualified prospective buyers, wherever they may reside or work. We created this new upscale marketing program

to deliver on those expectations.The need created the organ, as we say. Now we are excited at the chance of showing you how the organ will satisfy the needs.

The Luxury Insider: The New Magic Word in the High End: “Prestigio”







925.525.3380 | DRE #[email protected] | www.InteroPrestigio.com




925.525.3380 | DRE #[email protected] | www.InteroPrestigio.com

LuxuryA RARE OPPORTUNITY to own the finest luxury estate near the San Francisco Bay. Custom-built with elegance and grandeur. Modern conveniences for grand-scale entertaining and family living, with more than 11,000 square feet under-roof and 8,000 square feet of A\C area. Additional amenities include a pool and gazebo,

lower level with a summer kitchen and museum quality construction. $10,000,000



Elegance By Alain Pinel

I never ceased to be amazed at the fact that many Realtors are judging the value of a luxury home on the basis of its square footage. For a bank appraiser or a home builder to think that way, I can understand, it can indeed be part of the valuation methodology, but for Realtors? In the high end, not two homes are the same, even when they are….or they appear to be. Take two identical penthouses in New York, both brand new; same top floor, same square footage, same layout, and same amenities. I guarantee that one is worth more than the other, often a lot more. Perhaps one has a better sun exposure, or a nicer view, or sits next to another beautiful residential building while the other one has a service station for a neighbor, or one is further away from a noisy school yard, etc. Are these two properties identical? Of course not. I remember looking at fancy real estate while in the South of France, a few years back. One town got my interest, and yours too, probably, given the opportunity: Cannes, the site of the international film festival, stretching beautifully along the crystal blue Mediterranean sea. Right in the middle of “La Croisette”, Heaven’s local version of a boardwalk, there is a nice

white building where, every so often, condos are “offered” for sale. I saw one I liked –of course I am easy to please. Third floor, bay windows and a balcony open to the ocean, the harbor full of the most amazing yachts, and a full view of the street action underneath, at the level of Cartier, Hermes, Prada…You see what I mean. That little pad was available for the taking at over $10,000 per square foot. No, I did not buy it. In the back of the building, another condo was unofficially on the market. Bigger and on a higher floor, but the asking price was not even half that of the first. The view was nice but who wants to overlook a pool, a garden and a bunch of rooftops when the alternative –for only twice as much- is a panoramic piece of the Mediterranean? Square footage is largely irrelevant in the high end. Buyers buy benefits, real or perceived. Bigger is not necessarily better. Depends what you really want, or what you really need. It’s OK to want to live in a 20,000 square foot home. It might even be pleasurable. But please understand that if & when you decide to sell it, it may fetch only what a nearby property of similar quality but smaller size will obtain in the open market. Size usually needs to serve a purpose to be worth the money it costs to build. For example, you can get your money back

and sometimes make a little more if you put a home theater in your home, or a library, or a wine cellar, or an indoor pool, or a racket-ball court and perhaps even a ballroom, why not? However, if you have a huge house just to have huge rooms, square footage could be more a handicap than an added value. Having said that, if you want a huge home because you like the feel, the space and have no concern about an eventual resale, don’t listen to me. What do I know, for the time being I live in a condo! A nice one though.

The Luxury Insider: The Price Per Square Foot Fallacy




Breathtaking..A RARE OPPORTUNITY to own the finest luxury estate near the San Francisco Bay. Custom-built with elegance and grandeur. Modern conveniences for grand-scale entertaining and family living, with more than 11,000 square feet under-roof and 8,000 square feet of A\C area. Additional amenities include a pool and gazebo, lower level with a summer kitchen and museum quality construction. $10,000,000


925.525.3380DRE #01333990

[email protected]

A RARE OPPORTUNITY to own the finest luxury estate near the San Francisco Bay. Custom-built with elegance and grandeur. Modern conveniences for grand-scale entertaining and family living, with more than 11,000 square feet under-roof and

8,000 square feet of A\C area. $10,000,000



A RARE OPPORTUNITY to own the finest luxury estate near the San Francisco Bay. Custom-built with elegance and grandeur. Modern conveniences for grand-scale entertaining and family living, with more than 11,000 square feet under-roof and

8,000 square feet of A\C area. $10,000,000



A RARE OPPORTUNITY to own the finest luxury estate near the San Francisco Bay. Custom-built with elegance and grandeur. Modern conveniences for grand-scale entertaining and family living, with more than 11,000 square feet under-roof and 8,000 square feet of A\C area. Additional amenities include a pool and gazebo, lower level with a summer kitchen and museum quality construction. $10,000,000




LuxuryA RARE OPPORTUNITY to own the finest luxury estate near the San Francisco Bay. Custom-built with elegance and grandeur. Modern conveniences for grand-scale entertaining and family living, with more than 11,000 square feet under-roof and 8,000 square feet of A\C area. Additional amenities include a pool and gazebo, lower level with a summer kitchen

and museum quality construction. $10,000,000



Cover HomeA RARE OPPORTUNITY to own the finest luxury estate near the San Francisco Bay. Custom-built with elegance and grandeur. Modern conveniences for grand-scale entertaining and family living, with more than 11,000 square feet under-roof and 8,000 square feet of A\C area. Additional amenities include a pool and gazebo, lower level with a summer kitchen and museum quality construction. $10,000,000


925.525.3380DRE #01333990

[email protected]

A RARE OPPORTUNITY to own the finest luxury estate near the San Francisco Bay. Custom-built with elegance and grandeur. Modern conveniences for grand-scale entertaining and family living, with more than 11,000 square feet under-roof and 8,000 square feet of A\C area. Additional amenities include a pool and gazebo, lower level with a summer kitchen and museum quality construction. $10,000,000




intero prestigio: the magazine

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