Tuesday, 29 September 2009

Can Luxury Real Estate Be For You?

By Albert Northerly

What exactly is luxury houses and how does one go about acquiring it? The answer is that real estate -- meaning properties and homes -- that is of a certain price level (usually starting at $1 million and going significantly upwards from there) will qualify as such real estate. These are not typical run-of-the-mill residences, by the way.

Indeed, luxury real estate stands alone as the acme of success when it comes to taking that hard-earned funds that has been earned and turning it into something tangible like a serious luxury home. If there's still a doubt about what such real estate might be, envision a home sitting on an ocean side cliff in Malibu that's owned by a billionaire software entrepreneur and that's pretty much what luxury means when it comes to homes and real estate.

What might come as a slight shock to some people is that, these days, many such properties can be had at prices that just weren't possible a couple of years ago. This is partly due to the global decline in real estate prices, though it even at a discount we're still talking about millions of dollars and lots of maintenance and overhead.

This is actually the part that people who are considering moving into luxury properties fail to take into account, and that is the matter of maintenance and upkeep. While it's true that the $10 million home can now be had for maybe $6 million, it's also true that the cost of maintaining at home haven't decreased all that much. Still, luxury properties experts would say that if you have to ask how much it costs you probably can't afford it anyway.

Putting all that aside, if it's time to decide to make a luxury home a part of your life, and you want a home that would make you the envy of all those superrich celebrities who own homes on the Malibu shoreline, there are more than a few online brokerages that can help out. Holmes of this sort start at $1 million, minimum, and go from there, though $1 million is kind of paltry in comparison to what is out there.

As an example of what a a luxury home property is, remember the home that was used in the movie "Ferris Bueller's Day Off." At home -- in which the character Cameron crashed his father's for Ari through the sunroom windows -- is being listed at $2. 3 million. The people who are considering buying it only want the property underneath it and plan on demolishing the home.

What that says is that land is always a far more value than a home that might be sitting on top of it. In downtown Tokyo, a square foot of this stuff sells for around $10,000 in good years. Homes are located in cities like Honolulu or in Marin County, for example, cost a lot but the land underneath costs much more.

For most, the idea of luxury houses will be nothing more than an idle time fantasy. However, for those who want to jump into it and buy a home that might put something owned by Donald Trump to shame, this is most likely the best time in the last several decades to find and then owned a piece of property that really stands out.

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