53.7 F
San Diego
Thursday, Mar 28, 2024
-Advertisement-

Coldwell Sees Added Value in Architects’ Design

Coldwell Sees Added Value in Architects’ Design

Real Estate: Marketing Plan in Works for Division Focused on Home’s Designer

BY MANDY JACKSON

Staff Writer

Catering to a very particular set of clients, Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage San Diego is rolling out a new division focused on architecturally designed properties.

The Architectural Properties Division, or APD, will be a part of Coldwell Banker Previews, the portion of the brokerage dedicated to high-end properties.

APD, solely a Southern California endeavor in the last few years, has been slowly emerging in San Diego County for about a year. Later this summer, Coldwell Banker will roll out its local marketing plan for the new division for the rest of 2002 and 2003.

Jill Morrow, president and chief operating officer of Coldwell Banker San Diego since Jan. 1, heard about the APD concept when it began in Los Angeles. She hoped to bring it to the San Francisco Bay area, where she was executive vice president and general sales manager.

Now that she’s here, Morrow is overseeing the marketing plan for the division in San Diego.

Marketing architecturally designed properties takes specialized marketing tools, she said. “When something is unique, it limits the number of buyers interested in that house,” Morrow noted.

Coldwell Banker is in the process of certifying its agents as architectural specialists, according to Jan Horn, executive director of APD for Southern California and creator of the program.

To be certified, agents have to be full-time at a Coldwell Banker office in Southern California, have to have sold five architecturally designed properties in the last five years and must complete a yearly seminar.

Meeting Standards

Certified agents should understand what makes a home significant, know the architects around the area and know the different architectural styles, Horn said.

“It helps agents tremendously in communicating with their clients,” he said.

A house qualifies as an architecturally designed property if it was designed by an architect, including famous and relatively unknown architects, is historically significant or published in a book or magazine, or is a design by a new architect that signifies a new style. Homes that have been remodeled under an architect’s guidance are included.

Not all houses are architecturally designed. A draftsman, not an architect, usually designs tract homes, Horn said.

Horn said there are a few thousand architecturally designed properties in San Diego County, mostly in higher-priced markets such as Del Mar, La Jolla, Rancho Santa Fe and Cardiff. There are some pockets of Craftsman-style and historic homes around the county.

“There are a lot of people that are specifically interested in architectural properties and not specific about location,” said Elizabeth Courtier, a broker associate at the Willis Allen Co. in La Jolla.

Courtier specializes in selling historic and architecturally significant properties in San Diego County. Courtier has a designation from the National Trust for Historic Preservation to market and sell historic properties.

She sat in on one of Coldwell Banker’s APD training sessions for their local agents. Courtier said the focus appeared to be more on homes designed by architects, not necessarily architecturally significant homes.

“You get things built now that are built by an architect, but they’re not necessarily examples of good architecture,” she said.

Also, Courtier said she doesn’t focus on price points, selling architecturally significant homes from $150,000 to $2.5 million.

The minimum listing price for APD is $1 million in coastal communities and $750,000 for inland properties.

“People that own these houses feel very much the same as if they own a Picasso or Renoir,” according to Horn.

Because of that, he noted, an architecturally designed home sells for a higher price than a similar-sized house on a similar-sized lot, and the properties take longer to sell.

Instead of advertising in general newspapers, an architecturally designed home would more likely be advertised in a specialty magazine, like Architectural Digest, Morrow said. The properties will be promoted among Coldwell Banker’s 10,000 agents in California.

“We’re very excited to be able to showcase homes in this area and architects. It’s really about quality of life in San Diego. That’s why so many people want to live here,” Morrow said.

-Advertisement-

Featured Articles

-Advertisement-
-Advertisement-

Related Articles

-Advertisement-
-Advertisement-
-Advertisement-