U.K. and USA
May 19, 2010
FROM OUR STRATEGIC PARTNER IN LONDON, MAYFAIR INTERNATIONAL REALTY:
Please find attached Nick’s latest Market Comment following the General Election and an illustration to accompany it. So many of you have company, or individual, blogs or news sections on websites and it’s great to add a little piece from your London office. We love seeing the creative ways you have of using these. You may even like to send it to your local press or magazines “from your London Office”. Even add it to Twitter or your company Facebook page as we do on ours.
Feel free to use the attached for your own blogs.
Enjoy!
Nick and Annette
Director
Mayfair Office/Mayfair International Realty - Cashel House - 15 Thayer Street – London - W1U 3JT
Direct Line : 020 7467 5332
Mobile : 07740 679715
Office : 0870 112 7099
Fax : 020 7467 5339
Skype: annette.reeve1
Email: annette@mayfairoffice.co.uk
Time to Move
Now that the UK General Election is over Nick Churton of Mayfair International Realty considers the real estate market that Britain’s new government inherits.
Well now we know. The UK general election didn’t pan out as anyone thought. No party received an overall majority. So we find ourselves in an unfamiliar country. The Conservatives could have set up an unstable minority government. Or two parties could have banded together and form a majority coalition government – rare in the UK. But after a great deal of fascinating horse-trading this is just what happened. The Conservatives have been joined by the Liberal Democrats who managed, having effectively come third in the election, to get their feet under the cabinet table for the first time in seventy years. Their leader, Nick Clegg, becomes Deputy Prime Minister while David Cameron, leader of the Conservatives, becomes Prime Minister – at 43 the youngest in the UK for 198 years. Having come second, outgoing Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, and his Labour government are consigned to the pages of history.
British politics is adversarial and brutal. No sooner does a Prime Minister lose an election than he or she loses their home at 10 Downing Street. There is no gentle period of incumbency here. One minute you are sitting pretty in one of the best-known addresses in the world and the next you are retreating miserably out of the back door while the new PM enters triumphantly through the front.
But it seems that it’s not just the Camerons and the Browns who are moving home. Lots of other people in the UK have decided that it is time for a change also. This new coalition government inherits many challenges of an economic and social kind, but the UK real estate market they inherit isn’t in too bad a shape, despite the recession. Recent activity in the property market is at levels not seen for several years, and now the election is well and truly out of the way there should be even more decisiveness in the market.
After considerable falls, prices in prime London areas and in other large metropolitan areas around the UK have surged back to 2007 levels and - in some key locations - have exceeded even those. Most other areas have seen prices rise but not to such a generous extent.
First time buyers in the UK have recently been given a good tax break here to help stimulate this sector and this will have a positive knock-on effect further up the market. As mortgage lenders become more accommodating to borrowers, and more competitive with each other, more people will enter the real estate market, and this goes for overseas homes including the US.
With ever more of the UK population reaching retirement age, the demand for homes in the US is set once again to rise. But as the UK and the US move into a period of faster recovery there will, no doubt, be a residual level of caution from buyers. Fiercely competitive pricing will reward bold sellers on both sides of the Atlantic. More rigid and optimistic sellers may find themselves neither bounding out of the front door nor sloping out of the back. They will be somewhere rather nasty in between called Limbo.
Annette Reeve MNAEA CIPS
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February 15, 2010
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February 12, 2010
Lake Tahoe Home Features Interiors By Noted White House Designer
For Immediate Release
Lake Tahoe, Nev., (Feb. 8, 2010) - Obama White House designer Michael S. Smith’s sophisticated, yet inviting design style is reflected throughout a stunning Lake Tahoe residence now offered by Chase International for $19,950,000.
Known for his work with Hollywood celebrities and most recently the first couple’s Pennsylvania Avenue residence, Smith’s low-key luxury sensibility was a perfect fit for the owners of this stunning 10,000 square-foot home (including exercise room and wine cellar) set on the sandy shores of cobalt blue Lake Tahoe.
“StoneGate is an extraordinary home,” comments Smith, who has written two home design books. “The attention to detail and craftsmanship is unmatched on Lake Tahoe. It can hold its own with the most beautiful homes in the world.”
According to listing agents Shari Chase and Kerry Donovan, Smith’s lush country lodge décor compliments a home that features unrivaled quality construction from its mechanicals to the impeccable artisan stone masonry and ironwork.
Chase and Donovan, who represent many lakefront homes, explain that with its private pier, sandy beach and buoys, this gated estate really has it all. According to these Lake Tahoe real estate experts, this caliber of property is very hard to come by.
“StoneGate is for a buyer who desires and appreciates attention to detail where no expense has been spared,” says Donovan, of Donovan Group of Chase International’s Incline Village office.
Acclaimed Tahoe builder John Brink believes “the quality of a home lives in the details” and nowhere is that more evident than in this five-bedroom, 10-bathroom estate that was completed in 2006.
“The owner hired and gave creative license to the team consisting of an extremely talented architect, Larry Henry, an award winning interior designer, Michael Smith, my lead project manager, Pete Dittle and myself to collaborate on the design and construction of his home,” Brink says. “It was a quality-driven project where we used only premium materials and left no design or construction detail to chance; the result being a truly extraordinary home that we are all very proud of.”
Like an exquisitely wrapped gift, the wrought-iron gated drive creates an enticing prelude of the detail and craftsmanship that lies ahead. Similarly, upon entering through the massive Alder doors, one’s line of sight is drawn to the end of the corridor, which connects the front of the residence to the primary living spaces and concludes with a dazzling view of Lake Tahoe. Natural flooring mined in Colorado, Jerusalem Gold Grand Granite and Southern Yellow reclaimed vertical pine and wrought iron are the residence’s signature design materials.
The 10,000 square foot home was aptly named StoneGate for its impressive exterior granite stonework. The main living area features a grand living room, formal dining room, gourmet kitchen and master wing, which includes the library.
With its sunlit lakeviews, 22-foot high-beamed ceilings and massive granite hearth, the grand living room epitomizes mountain elegance. Paned French doors provide access to the stone patio and barbeque. Adjoining the patio is a level landscaped lawn and garden. And best of all, a lovely private sandy Lake Tahoe beach is just a few steps down an adjacent stone path.
The gourmet kitchen showcases a 60-inch Wolf range with double ovens and a French country ceramic hood rising to the beamed ceiling. Perfect for entertaining, a butler’s pantry provides an additional prep area, wet bar and auxiliary refrigerators and freezer.
The richly appointed master wing offers a library complete with wood burning fireplace, plus a full bathroom. The master bedroom has high-beamed ceilings and picture windows that beacon the natural light and English garden views during daylight hours, and starlit skies by night. Encompassing a magnificent space, the master bath features Waterworks fixtures from London, a double steam shower and spa tub.
An impressive open winding stone staircase leads to the second floor lower living area, which includes three guest suites and a family room accessed on each side with French doors. Opening out to the backyard and close to the pier, a separate valet garage offers room for summer furniture, kayaks, and other Tahoe recreational gear.
The lower third floor level offers an exercise room with a full bath, cork flooring and windows with garden courtyard views. Also on this level, is a temperature controlled wine cellar with 1,200-bottle capacity. The upper third floor level features a private executive office with full bath and a peek of the lake as well as a staff or guest quarters with full bath, kitchen, den and sitting area.
And finally, two symmetrical double car garages with convenient built-ins flank the entry.
StoneGate is listed at $19,950,000 with Chase International. For more information or to arrange a private viewing of the property, contact Shari Chase at 775.588.6132; sharichase@chaseinternational.com or Donovan Group’s Kerry Donovan, at 775.750.2190; kdonovan@chaseinternational.com.
February 2, 2010
Lake Tahoe real estate: How to sell a $12.5 million home in Incline Village
Maybe it’s a story about the role of the home in history. Or the part it played in a famous life.
So when the Donovan Group of Chase International sat down to begin developing the marketing plan for a 7,130-square-foot home in Incline Village that just hit the market with a $12.5 million price tag, one of the first jobs undertaken by Warren and Kerry Donovan, the co-listing agents, was development of the home’s story.
Built in 1999, the house at Lakeshore Boulevard and Highway 28 hasn’t been around long enough to carry tales of history or celebrity.
Instead, the Donovan Group built the story of the house around its builder — longtime Incline Village contractor Ira Rodman. The story of the house focuses on its design that takes advantage of an unusually shaped parcel along a private cove on Lake Tahoe. The story pays substantial attention, too, to Rodman’s craftsmanship in details ranging from hickory flooring to massive ceiling beams.
Equally important, Warren says, is the creation of a name for luxury properties on the market — “Secret Cove” in this case.
Preparation for the marketing of the home also includes creation of a portfolio of professional photography as well as the registration of a domain name, www.1169lakeshore.com, as a home for the photographs and marketing materials.
Getting that message into the right hands, however, can present a challenge.
“Our buyer could be 20 years old. Or 50. Or 70,” Warren says.
That dictates a strategy that includes everything from social messaging and text messages to traditional advertising in glossy magazines such as Premiere Homes.
The marketing plan also includes Realtor.com, the Web site that’s used by shoppers for $12.5 million luxury properties just as it’s used by shoppers for $150,000 starter homes.
“It generates tremendous traffic for us,” Warren says.
Public relations efforts by Truckee-based Switchback Communications also help carry the word. Last fall, press releases about another of Donovan’s listings at Lake Tahoe —the $34 million property known as Osprey Point — landed on the pages of both the Wall Street Journal and Architectural Digest.
Even with all the marketing efforts, Donovan says the process of selling a home priced above $10 million takes time to find a buyer whose heart and pocketbook match the property.
In fact, Warren says, Chase International tells sellers of properties priced at $10 million or more that they typically can wait two to four years to find a buyer.
Happy New Year life is good,Incline Village,Nevada!
December 30, 2009
Take the time to enjoy every minute .Skiing at Diamond Peak Ski area,in Incline Village, Nevada,will boost your spirits and energize all who take the time to appreciate why we live here!
