What do lions and tigers and trips have to do with real estate, you might wonder.
That’s what I was wondering when I read an open house flyer promising a trip to Rome – roundtrip for two – as a reward for selling a lovely $800,000 home.
That’s way up on the scale of inducements most real estate agents are used to. Starbucks cards and cold spreads used to be the standard inducements for previewing homes. During the summer of $4-a-gallon-gasoline, gas cards were a big lure. Some agents even gave out cold cash to preview their listings as home sales slowed to a crawl.
One Eastside builder offered a week in Hawaii for closing a set number of sales; others gave out week-end stays at exclusive resorts to reward sales. Now we have open houses complete with barbecues, gorgeous catered spreads, live music, a free bar and even drawings for pricey prizes.
The report on July home sales in Seattle tells us the number of home sales increased by about 10%, while the median price is down almost 14% from a year ago. The real kicker is that sales in the least expensive area of Southwest King County were up 54%, while on the Eastside ,where homes cost twice as much, sales were up less than 2%. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/realestate/2009607020_homesales06.html
This may be a bit simplistic, but doesn’t it make more sense to take that round-trip airfare for two to Rome and back and apply it to a price reduction of the home? After all, it is the home we want to sell! This may not put the house into another price range, but at this point in time, every bit helps.
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