Slump thwarts creative home sellers

By J.W. Elphinstone, Associated Press

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

NEW YORK — It seems home sellers practically can’t give away their homes these days.

Two home essay contests, one in Colorado and one in Oregon, both failed to attract enough literary enthusiasm and have left the sponsors in a lurch without buyers.

The deadline passed this week for J.J. Rodgers and her husband Wes Ludlow to give away their second home in Red Feather Lakes. The couple started the contest in January after their two-story home sat on the sales block for three straight summers.

From across the country, people mailed in essays and the $100 entry fee. Rodgers said she was “astounded and touched” by the stories strangers were willing to share.

The couple extended the original May 25 deadline but still fell about 700 entries short of the 2,000 needed to make the contest work financially.

“We knew going in the possibility of it not being successful. That’s historically true about essay contests,” Rodgers said.

The couple plans to put the mountain home back on the market and return the entry fees. As for the essays, Rodgers isn’t sure what she will do with them.

Likewise, Ray Sinclair and his wife, Sharon, canceled their essay contest for their home in Yachats, Ore., last week after extending the deadline from the end of May. They also are returning the $200 entry fees to contestants.

“The abrupt lack of entries and severely diminished web site activity since the end of June have triggered this decision,” Ray Sinclair wrote on his blog.

The Sinclairs didn’t respond to an e-mail request for comment.

Nationwide, home sellers are using a range of incentives to get skittish buyers through the door during the worst housing slump since the Great Depression. Most are offering traditional perks like a car, a free vacation or the home’s furniture, but others have gone to greater extremes to hawk their homes.

Deven Trabosh, a 42-year-old single mother, is offering her South Florida home and a shot at marrying her on the Internet. In Wisconsin, Bob Fanning, 69, will make the buyer of his home the beneficiary of a 10-year, $500,000 life insurance policy.

And Ricki and Bob Husick gained international interest after advertising that the buyer of their two-story colonial home in Wexford, Pa., would receive the full purchase price back after the couple dies. The Husicks, who had listed their home for $399,999, sold the property for $377,000 in early June, according to county records.

Ron Shuffield, president of Esslinger-Wooten-Maxwell Realtors Inc. in Miami, waives off such crazy incentives. What ultimately motivates a buyer, he says, is price.

“Of course you want to draw attention to your property any way you can,” he says. “But free trips or cars, that’s costing somebody somewhere, and a buyer would rather have a reduced price and decide what to do with their money.” Despite the lack of interest other contests inspired, a Boston developer hopes its competition will create enough buzz to sell the remaining 14 condos in a 46-unit complex in Canton, Mass.

For a $50 entry fee, contestants may submit a one- to two-minute video or one-page essay to win a two-bedroom condominium at Canton Park Condominiums. The developer, Davenport Investments II LLC, also will hand out six $2,000 prizes, six $1,000 prizes and 17 $500 prizes. A week into the contest, Davenport has yet to receive any entries.

“We’re selling units relatively well given the marketplace now,” said Managing Director John Quinn. “But we decided to be more proactive from a marketing standpoint and try something creative and innovative for the summertime.” The firm recently sold out a 30-unit condo complex nearby and owns two rental properties it originally planned to convert to condos. Those plans are now on hold.