As 2011 comes to a close here is some exciting news from some of our clients at Napa Consultants, International:

Mary Lou Castellanos

Congratulations to Mary Lou Castellanos, of Sotheby's for selling the highest priced property listed on the San Francisco MLS in 2011. Situated on one of the largest parcels on San Francisco's "Outer Broadway, also known as the 'Gold  Coast', this treasured landmark combines grand historical architecture with magnificent formal gardens and a backdrop of dazzling San Francisco Bay Views. This grand Tudor revival mansion is known as "The Crown Jewel of Outer Broadway.  The property was offered at $33,900,000

 Yvonne Jaramillo Ahearn

Congratulations to Yvonne Jaramillo Ahearn for winning the Aloha Aina "People's Choice" Award for 2011 from the Honolulu Board of Realtors (award program is sponsored by First Hawaiian Bank and the Honolulu Star-Advertiser).  Yvonne, the broker/owner of Home Shoppe Hawaii, also won this award in 2010.

The Aloha Aina People's Choice Award recognizes REALTORS who have gone "above and beyond" for their clients. All honorees must show the highest ethical standards, extraordinary professionalism and expertise, and dedication to their clients and the communities in which they live and work.

Ten Aloha Aina winners were selected from 436 individual REALTORS nominated and 868 total nominations, from a total membership of over 5000 REALTORS.

  Sharyn & Vicotoria Crown

 Congratulations, to Sharyn & Victoria Crown, Pacific Sotheby's International Realty in San Diego for closing 8 escrows over the Holidays! The Crowns specialize in marketing luxury real estate in San Diego, Mission Hills, Point Loma, Coronado, and Downtown San Diego

Follow this link to read the article:

http://www.aaronline.com/azr/2011/july/luxury-real-estate-blogging.aspx

Over 225 New Members Join in 3 Weeks

Thanks to the support of participating members of the LOL Team of Experts we exceeded our March 31^st goal of 2000 members by 22days!  We are, indeed, the fastest growing luxury real estate professional network on social media, today.

If you are not yet an LOL Member on Linked In we encourage you to join us there as well.  Click here to join LOL on Linked In:  http://linkd.in/e1B8xZ 

Congratulations to our 2000^th LOL Member on Linked In, Christina Phillips of Sotheby's International Realty in Princeton, New Jersey!  Check out her blog post on LanguageOfLuxury.com:

http://bit.ly/iaet1X

Market Analyst Maynard Um of UBS Investment Research forecasts that Apple could sell 28 million iPads in 2011, and warned this figure could be “conservative”.   Apple's total iPhone user base may reach as high as 100 million users by the end of 2011, according to Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty

Napa Consultants, International provides alternatives to Flash that can display the same elegant effect for slideshows and also offers video conversions.  Agents and brokers can now take care of this immediately before hearing complaints from your clients. 

An example of an iPad and iPhone compatible homepage slideshow can be viewed at www.MaryLeePresentsOceanReef.com, a luxury real estate website design produced by the firm.  Video examples that are compatible with Apple mobile devises can be viewed at http://www.maryleepresentsoceanreef.com/blog/category/stories

According to Ron Seigel, managing partner at Napa Consultants, International, “We help real estate professionals out-think (not out-spend) their competition and become the "breakaway" brand in their marketplace. With a 20 year background as broker/owners of a commercial real estate firm in Beverly Hills, CA, our expertise is providing strategic insight, creative instinct, and artistic flair to those professionals who are interested in gaining or sustaining market leadership in their area and/or niche.”

To set up a complimentary consultation, go to www.NapaConsultants.com  and contact Ron Seigel,

About Napa Consultants, International | Agents and brokers around the world turn to Napa Consultants, International for expert advice on luxury real estate marketing, personal and company branding and luxury real estate website design.   Ron and Alexandra Seigel, the firm’s managing partners, are the community founders of the Language of Luxury, which is one of the fastest growing luxury real estate professional networks on social media today.

The 8^th Annual Luxury Real Estate Spring Retreat was recently held Tuesday, May 4^th to Friday, May 7^th, at the Ritz-Carlton, South Beach. Keynote Speakers were Katrina Campins, Owner/Broker of the Campins Company, LLC and star of the first season of The Apprentice; Joe McAuliffe of Metamorphosis Consulting and Liz Christoffersen, owner of Empower Consulting Group.

The Conference was hosted by John Brian Losh, Chairman and CEO of Luxury Real Estate, (LuxuryRealEstate.com and Who’s Who of Luxury Real Estate), a membership-driven luxury brokerage assemblage based in Seattle, Washington. The network includes the most prominent global luxury brokers and meets three times each year, nationally and internationally, to discuss current real estate trends.

The recent event in South Beach covered multiple topics of great interest to those who serve the high net-worth demographic. An ongoing theme, covered at each of the conferences, is the state of the luxury market around the world. In addition, there were several discussions and break out sessions that focused on next generation real estate, how to differentiate your brand from your competition, ways to integrate social media and sales, how to use marketing, publicity and advertising to brand yourself and grow business, ways to grow your relocation business and financial strategies that will help double your business. Other distinguished partners and members hosted break out sessions: Jeff Bretherton, Ben Moss, Ron & Alexandra Seigel, Silvana Malpelli, and Jacky Teplitzky.

The highlight of the event was the Thursday night dinner with Featured Speaker Katrina Campins and the Awards Presentation, honoring the career of Joan Thomson with the Lifetime Achievement Award. This prestigious award is given twice annually to the Luxury Real Estate member who has set an example for the real estate industry and displayed excellence throughout their career. Joan Thomson has grown Waterfront Properties and Club Communities to become a dominant Florida luxury real estate firm through generous teaching, infectious learning and solid leadership.

About LuxuryRealEstate.com

LuxuryRealEstate.com, a 2009 Webby Award Honoree, has been voted ‘Best of the Web’ by Forbes magazine multiple times, praised by the International Herald Tribune, Town & Country, the Wall Street Journal and has been ranked ‘Best Website’ by consumers according to surveys by the Luxury Institute. Since its debut in 1995, LuxuryRealEstate.com has remained the #1 portal for luxury properties on the internet, consistently driving more traffic to member websites and generating more qualified inquiries than any other website. LuxuryRealEstate.com has several times more $1,000,000+ content of any near-peer.

Also known in the industry as the Who’s Who in Luxury Real Estate network, a global collection of the finest luxury real estate brokers in the world, this group of more than 1000 brokerage firms and 95,000 professionals in more than 65 countries collectively sells in excess of $190 billion of real estate annually, with an average sale price of $2,450,000. Members sell homes for record prices and handle transactions of incredible complexity and magnitude with complete discretion. Every member is carefully selected by CEO/Publisher John Brian Losh, one of REALTOR Magazine’s 25 Most Influential People in Real Estate and broker of fine properties and estates through his Seattle-based brokerage firm, Ewing & Clark, Inc.