High-end homes - Memphis Business Journal:

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An agent with , Grehanm has built a solid clientele and watched that clientele mature through her years inthe "Over the years, I've sold people their first housesz and watched them move into biggerd houses and watched as their businessez and success grew," she says. "It just kind of I remember when I sold my first house for amilliomn dollars. I had to pincuh myself -- I couldn't believe it was happening." Whilw more than half of Shelby County homes are valuedbelowq $100,000, there remains an elite group of homesa in the Memphis metrok area that boast big price tags.
The opportunities are few but the payoff s for the agents who list them can be well worth the Obtainingthose upper-end listings usually takes a tenurede career and a solid reputation, says Judy an agent with . McLellan has been in the businesxs for nearly 30 years and says reputatiohn and referrals are what has allowed her businessto thrive. Most of the higher-price listings she lands come from past customerw who have achieved success laterin life. But most agentzs will contend they treat clientsepurchasing $150,000 homes the same way they would treat clients purchasing $1 milliomn homes. McLellan says she crosses all price point lines in order to continue building anemerging clientele.
"The ones that are less those areyour move-up buyersw for tomorrow," she says. "Yohu certainly want to take as good care of them as theotherr ones, and you really want to give the same servicre to all people." There are currently 329 houses for sale in Shelby County between $495,000-$1 million and 55 homezs for sale over $1 million, according to the Multiple Listinvg Service on Sept. 9. And whils the supply of expensive homes in Shelbyu Countyis growing, the demand is definitely growingt with it. In 2003, there were 254 closed salez inthe $495,000-$1 million range. So far in there have been 240 closingzs in thesame range.
For homee priced over $1 there were 26 Shelby County sales in and there have been 23 sales so farin 2004. "Fod two-thirds of the year, we almost have the same salesx forlast year," says Joel Hobson, president of the . "u think that shows that the upper end has reallyu picked up from wherre it wasin 2003, but it also showds that there's really a two-year supply of million dollat homes.
" Jimmy Reed, president and co-owner of Marx Bensdorf Realtors, says he has also seen the high-price d residential market in Memphis continue to mature over the last several "The city has grown up, and there'as more wealth in this town than ever before," he The wealth is coming from a variety of industries. Hobsobn cites several sources accountable for the increased wealtuh inthe city: the large physician population, the investment bankingf and bond divisions at businessees like Morgan Keegan and First Tennessee, Fortune 500 companies like FedEx and International Paper, the distribution industry and even the additionm of the professional athletw market via the Memphix Grizzlies.
"There's no one thing that dominates the real estatedmarket here," he says. "But you put all those and you kind of start to understand why there are a lot of expensiverhomes around." Barbie Dan, an agent with the Hobsohn Co., says there is a recognizec group of Realtors that deal in the high-priced but as that market has continued to the number of Realtors workingf in it has also grown. "Five to 10 yearas ago, there were very few million dollar homesein Memphis," Dan says.
"Now there are many, many millio dollar homes in Memphis, and there are more buyerz than you would imagine in that price Marketing expensive homes can present its own set of uniques challenges although many of the marketing efforts are consistent in allpricwe ranges. Gail French with Realtors says marke knowledge reigns supreme inthe high-pricedx market, but the Internet is an ever-increasing tool that is especiallt convenient for capturing those movinb into Memphis.