Home sellers turn to incentives to draw buyers

Cooler market prompts bonuses to take a look

By Rolf Boone | The Olympian • Published August 04, 2008

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A new Honda scooter, a trip to a Caribbean destination and a chance to win free gasoline are just some of the incentives that South Sound real-estate agents are using to entice prospective buyers in a slower housing market.

Some agents, though, are split on whether such incentives and other marketing efforts are worthwhile. Re/Max Four Seasons broker and owner Dean Stohl says the best approach for home sellers in this cooler housing climate is to think carefully about the sale.

"The most important 'non-gimmick' are sellers pricing the property competitively and making sure it is in 'tip-top' condition before putting it on the market," he said.

Still, some agents are rolling out increasingly creative hooks to land that next sale because sales have cooled since the piping-hot years of 2005 and 2006.

In 2006, more than 4,000 houses sold in Thurston County. Through June of this year, sales have fallen more than 20 percent compared with the same period in 2007, Northwest Multiple Listing Service data show.

Tamera Strawn of Riley Jackson Real Estate is working with a Tacoma builder giving away Honda scooters for sales at The Overlook, a new 138-lot development at the top of Tumwater Hill, she said.

"We're just looking for something new and out of the box," Strawn said about the promotion.

Not every lot at The Overlook has a prominent view, so buyers of homes on those other lots receive a Honda scooter valued at about $2,000, she said.

The fuel-efficient scooter promotion also tied in well with the environmentally friendly aspects of the homes, which include bamboo flooring and high-efficiency furnaces, Strawn said.

Real-estate company John L. Scott offers visitors to its open houses the chance to enter a drawing for a trip to a Caribbean destination or Hawaii, said Eric Shull, broker of John L. Scott's Olympia office.

Although the Thurston County housing market has slowed to the point where incentives are common, the market is nowhere near as slow as it is in California, he said. Shull said some homes in California are being marketed with BMWs. Buy the house, get the car, he said.