In my conversation with a mortgage executive in Cary last week (that’s not him in the picture,) he questioned me about the wisdom of focusing on the luxury market in Durham. I believe he used the expression “tilting at windmills.” Why focus on one of the few stagnant segments of what, until recently anyway, has been a robust market? Is Durham generally still stuck in a decades long ditch that it won’t get out of in my lifetime? Unfortunatly, this reflects a widely held view around the Triangle that makes climbing out even tougher. It was hard to argue that Durham was ready to lose its rough and ready reputation when the day before our lunch I could see the police helicopter hovering for hours over a nearby neighborhood while police were trying to flush out the young thug on parole who was eventually arrested for murders of a Duke student from India and the UNC student body president. Like the still festering lacrosse case, this brings unwanted worldwide negative attention. Still, these are my reasons for sticking with Durham…
- The opportunity is where the pain is. Data elsewhere in this blog and in the accompanying Durham Luxury Home Report show that there is nothing certain about trying to sell a luxury home in Durham. It’s fertile ground to try a more robust marketing mix than has been traditional. The “inventory” of homes is good. There are no illusions about pricing. There has been a significant rebirth of Downtown Durham and our school system. We are convenient to two major research universities with medical centers and RTP. All these are things to build a marketing effort on.
- Durham is the market that I know best. I’ve done business in Wake and Orange but I don’t know them as well. In a sellers market there’s not as much danger of spreading yourself too thin since everything sells eventually. On the other hand, in a buyers’ market like we are seeing now, where the role of the listing agent should go beyond being a transaction facilitator to become more of a marketing director, focus becomes more important.
- Durham is my home and it needs help. I’d like a share of the business, of course, but I don’t want nor could I handle all of it the way it needs to be done. The Durham Luxury Home Report and this blog are available to sellers, buyers, and other agents alike. I hope it will be thought provoking for my competitors and that they will try some different approaches and contribute additional ideas and help make Durham the desired residential location in the Triangle and the rough and ready image a quaint memory.
