The 9th Annual Luxury Real Estate Spring Retreat was held Wednesday, April 27th to Friday, April 29th. Keynote Speakers were Dr. Rendel de Jong, Professor of Social and Organizational Psychology at Utrecht University; Stefanie Hostetter of The Social Host and Liz Christoffersen, owner of Empower Consulting Group. Members Elizabeth Stribling-Kivlan, Peter Kempf, Jim Kinney, Ann Chiasson, Rob Thomson, Brian Hazen and Mark Lippolt participated in panel discussions on various topics. José & Antonio Ribes Bas were honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award.
The conference was hosted by John Brian Losh, Chairman/Publisher of Who’s Who in Luxury Real Estate and LuxuryRealEstate.com, 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 Amsterdam 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. The attendees of this conference, luxury real estate professionals from over 9 different countries, report that there is a renewed consumer confidence in 2011 and that business is becoming increasingly more global. Many markets are seeing an increase in motivated cash buyers. General consensus is that the international luxury real estate market is rebounding, particularly in markets hit hardest during the recession. Additionally, attendees reported that Social Media vehicles such as Facebook and Twitter are proving successful in connecting with high net-worth consumers worldwide.
The highlight of the event was the Friday night dinner at which the Lifetime Achievement Award was presented, honoring the careers of José and Antonio Ribes Bas of Rimontgó. 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. José and Antonio have built Inmobiliaria Rimontgó from a respected family real estate firm in the Javea and Valencia regions of Eastern Spain into a leading international luxury real estate powerhouse. Additionally, drawings were held to win a week in Paris, courtesy of Paris Luxe, as well as a Kindle and an iPad, complements of Mason Morse Real Estate.
Photos: (left) Meeting in Amsterdam, (right) José & Antonio Ribes Bas with Who’s Who in Luxury Real Estate and LuxuryRealEstate.com Chairman/Publisher John Brian Losh
About LuxuryRealEstate.com
LuxuryRealEstate.com, a 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.
Known in the industry for the last quarter-century 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 70,000 professionals in more than 85 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 Chairman/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.