Good morning, welcome back to another S.L.G. Meetup. Happy Monday. I hope everybody had a beautiful weekend.
Now, do you know what it takes to sell luxury real estate with one of the latest components of fine art? Well, we're gonna have the founder and owner of Carousel Fine Art Group to tell us everything about how art is revolutionizing the way that real estate it's been sold. So he's originally from Switzerland. Now, it's based in Miami.
They're gonna have their big grand opening for one of their galleries, which is in the design district, and he's gonna be having all the insights on what it takes to sell luxury real estate to art. Hey, what's happening in Philip? Oh, yes. Good to see you.
Philip, home of it. There we go. Founder and owner of Carousel Art Group. How are you?
I'm doing well. Thank you. It's been a long weekend. Very good.
Very hard work. How are you? Good. Super good.
Thank you. I mean, you guys are getting ready for the grand opening, right? Yes, on the 13th this Saturday. On the 13th.
I'll be there, and I'm very excited to see what is gonna be happening because I love your business model. You have the Carousel Fine Art and also the art group. You have multi-channel distributor when it comes to art, but you also have the gallery coming up and tell us a little bit about how you are really revolutionizing the way that real estate is being sold through art and all the components that you bring to the table. Sure.
So there was a stats that was released, I believe last year, about 78% of houses that are staged properly, self-faster and over market value. And when COVID hit last year, as a gallery, we had to find a different way of sell and market artists. And we were able to collaborate with multi-million dollar properties and stage fine arts as well as furniture in those properties. And it just basically boomed.
The realtors realized the difference between having an empty wall or an inexpensive print from different countries instead of a fine art, something that's original. That's an oil painting or an acrylic. It just gives a different atmosphere to the home. And people really, when they come into those homes, they feel the difference.
I love it. And you said one sentence, I saw one of your latest articles that says, fine art, they're ultimate weapons to sell luxury real estate. Yes, correct. I believe that.
I believe that. I mean, especially these days, you have to be creative. And I think like marketing one-on-one is finding an emotion, right? That's why sometimes you see a commercial with a car, but you see little puppies in the car.
And then you'll be emotionally, you'll remember that commercial. And I sell this service as a marketing tool for Realtors as well, because they can use something that's beautiful and emotionally, emotional, and use that in the advantage to sell at home. Of course, no. And I know you and I have been talking about doing that in some of the properties that we have here.
And I believe that is the ultimate way to really bring in value in a different way. Art is something that you will set, adds character, adds value to the property. And most of the properties that you see these days are either really bad stage or they look empty. They look cold.
So art is really a nice component. So great business model. Now tell us a little bit about how do you get into it and why are you here in Miami? I'm not sure if we talked about that, but my mother, which I'm going to turn the camera on very quickly.
This is my mother. My mother is, honestly, came from a very normal family in Holland, moved to Switzerland as a non-evil leader in a model, and then tried to paint when my sister and I were born. And from that thing, she was able to create a big career in art. And as a son growing up as a mother as a mother as an artist, I learned the ins and out of the business.
I'm not talented enough to paint, but I understand numbers. I understand business. And yeah, after university, after studying marketing and being an athlete, I just decided to go into this venture. And it just made sense to me, because I saw the struggle of an artist to make it in this industry.
And if I'm able to help other artists do what my mother did, it would be amazing for me. It wakes me up in nights to write it down, how I can help this, how can I market it, how can I know. And so, yeah, that's why we started a couple years ago. I love the story, by the way, because it's also giving character an opportunity to the artists to put their pieces of art in some of the most incredible places.
Because you do all the real estate, but also in some of the galleries and exhibitions. But I really love the concept of bringing the art to the real estate. I think it's a perfect combination. So now, you've been working with some of the most incredible homes.
I'm not just in Miami. You were also recently in the Hamptons. You also go to LA back and forth. So you have brought market right when it comes to the States.
I do. I mean, it's expanding, you know, and that's the beauty of Instagram. It reaches the world. Anybody can see it.
So, yes, we were contacted by somebody in the Hamptons to do this amazing $25 million property, incredible architecture. And they sold the value of having fine art integrated into the home. So it's offered as they can buy the house with or without the art, of course. But also if somebody rents the house, they also rent the art at a 10% valuation of the retail price.
So it just makes sense for us. It makes sense for the artists. It makes sense for whoever lives in it. It's just a win-win on all sides.
Okay, so that's a good concept. So whenever somebody's looking to buy the property, it's already with the value of the art included on it. Or you can also do it both ways. Okay, yeah, it's a smart concept.
I think it's great. Especially, you know, for those that see the value of pouring it out with you. How do you find these people to want to put their art or the art that you have into their homes? For us, they are, besides my gallery, I also collaborate with a lot of Tatsu galleries, especially in Miami because I know them so very well.
And just to give you a bit of background on that. So every gallery rotates, or most of the gallery, they are, every few months. So every gallery has a warehouse when we store all these arts that's in rotation. And I utilize that not even for our gallery, but for all the top tier galleries.
I use the art that's in storage and I market them through real estate. For us finding the contacts, I team up with, you know, real estate agencies, I team up with developers, I team up with actual homeowners, I team up with these people who then we use their financial investor home. It's an LA based company. So I team up with different people when we just collaborate.
No, that's great. And these collaborations have been going on through social media. As you said, it's become one of the great platforms to utilize and communicate. Yeah, Instagram has been an extremely, extremely good tool.
So I've been using that all my team been using that a lot. But of course, at the beginning when we first started Carousel and using real estate, we had to call, call, call, which personally I hate. I truly hate. And I think everybody else in the world hates it.
But we had to make an effort for ourselves. So we called all the design firms, the inter-design companies, the realtors and the record. One out of 100 kids who said yes. And that's how it started.
There we go. There we go. Never give it up. They're leaving in the way that you want to do things and stay consistent.
Now, Philip, let me ask you because you obviously are surrounded by incredible pieces of art, working towards putting those pieces of art in amazing homes. And you've been looking at in a bigger scale, the luxury it's all about. But I always ask this question to our guests on what really luxury is for you. It's a good question.
And I'm sure it gets answered many different ways, right? But to me, luxury comes from hard work, which becomes a privilege. It's living a life that not everybody can, not just afford, but live like. It's hard to say because luxury doesn't only come from money, but it helps.
So I think it's a privilege to be able to live in luxury. And I really, really believe that it's only hard work, discipline, and a written path in a sense, like a strategy to get to it. I will lead you to a luxury living. So I like that, by the way.
That's very well said. Now, with what you said, I believe that it's also about the capacity of thinking forward. You are a young guy, young interpreter, really disrupting the way that art has been promoted and real estate has been promoted. You're combining two sexy worlds together to really bring value and create a win-win scenario.
So I find that very fascinating. I'm a true believer on how much value can art bring to real estate and vice versa. Because it's not the same thing, a piece of art showcased in a garage versus in a $25 million home. So I think that it helps both ways.
You're combining both worlds. So that's very exciting. I definitely see the future in it. So you mentioned about the collaborations that you're building.
So we have also a big network in that world. So I would love to offer that up and see how we can open doors to extend this. I'm looking forward to it. I know we've discussed it.
I know we're going to do some amazing collaborations together. And simply this space, we're going to do, I mean, say it's a 400, 4,000 square feet space. It's a beautiful gallery. I look over two spaces and besides that, all those homes are going to be a wonderful adventure.
That's amazing. Well, I definitely look forward to that. And for the ground inauguration, the ground opening on the 13th, what can you tell us about it and how can people find out more information? Sure.
So obviously everything is shared on our social media and our website. The ground opening will be just welcoming us into the design district, which is the, for most people that know Miami, it's the main luxury vlogs, if I may call it in Miami, in a way where all the luxury stores are and up to galleries. And we exhibiting a range of artists from emerging artists to internationally known artists. So it's a really good mix.
Great price points, really well valued. And we're having a little bit of a surprise fashion show that will be starting at 7am as well on Saturday. That's to be the release of a wearable article. 7am.
I'm sorry. Sorry, no. My apologies. 7pm.
Yeah. So the events are from 6 to 9 and we're trying to have people come early so they can actually see that fashion show is going to be really great. And it's always coming from the art. So it's wearable art, beautiful girls will be walking the gallery and it's definitely something that you don't want to miss.
Amazing. So what will be some of the takeaways that you will share with us today? Artists, obviously, you know, I don't want to say it the wrong way because commercializing an artist is never a great thing. But in these worlds, you need to utilize social media.
You need to see the trends. You need to commercialize yourself as an artist, obviously, a little bit because that's how you're going to market yourself. You know, I'm really trying to artist if there's any artist who are looking at this. They have to know what they want in their life.
They want to be in a museum and promote it that way or they want to be sold. It's a win-win on all sides. Artists used to be quite skeptical. Even galleries used to be quite skeptical about staging art because sometimes a house won't sell for six months.
So what then, you know, if the art stays for six months, it's not great. But we find a way to curate such good works and team up with such good houses, realtors and furniture stores that it usually sells within weeks, if not maybe a month or two. So, you know, if anybody's ever interested in hiring us, we have an amazing team that curates extremely well and we can find any art, not just our own, but art from the top to gallery around the world. And I don't know if I responded to your question on the stage.
No, yeah, that's great. That's great. For those that are looking to really elevate themselves, whether you are art or in real estate, to always find that synergy to social media and collaborations. You want the next value.
No, that's great. Amazing. So, Philip, I know you have also a busy day and you're preparing everything for this grand opening, so I do appreciate your time. I'll put all the contact information below so people can find you on social media and go to your site.
Anything else that you would like to share before we wrap this up? No, I appreciate the time. Indeed, like you said, right, Monday morning is always the busy stuff. We are coming up.
So, thank you so much for taking the time. I love what you're doing. I'm really looking forward to working with you and actually meeting in person because we've never yet. And yes, really, thank you for that.
And for all the listeners and followers, really follow his page because it's incredible. Thank you so much for leaving. Likewise, thank you again for your time and we'll talk soon. Thanks again for everybody tuning in today.
We hope you enjoyed it. And remember, embrace its beautiful success in life. My name is Alvaro and I'll see you next time.