Folks walking through the Shops at North Bridge mall can browse the kiosks for hair and skin care products, purses, sunglasses and now, a new home.
That’s right, a new home.
In an unusual marketing twist that demonstrates the sort of out-of-the-box thinking that real estate agents are employing today, Keller Williams Realty Inc. agent Tricia Fox recently started marketing listings at a kiosk strategically placed right outside the main-floor mall entrance of Nordstrom.
It’s a slightly different take on the same kind of reasoning that has real estate agents flocking to blogs and social media sites like Twitter, because you never know where the next prospective client might be.
Fox thinks the face-to-face approach may be a way to differentiate her 22-person group in an industry that has moved away from human contact. “We do a lot with the Internet, but you’re not meeting people, you’re not connecting,” she said. “They click on your information, but then they go and click on 20 other people’s information.”
In fact, Fox’s office found that every 8,000 hits on the Web site produced just a single legitimate buyer.
Conversely, of the 50 or so people who stopped by the kiosk in its first two weeks, half of then ventured out with agents to tour properties.
Fox only signed a three-month lease for the space but with results like that, she so far likes what she sees and may extend the lease.
“My gut feeling so far is that it’s a resounding success,” said Fox. “People are stopping by and giving us real e-mails and phone numbers and going out right from there to look at listings.”
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Theoretically, real estate agents could replicate Fox’s idea and put a kiosk in every mall and try to engage every consumer, but Fox cautions that might not be practical for all offices. First, it can be a pricey experiment, depending on the mall.
Second, you have to have the right audience for your properties. An office that specialized in fixer-uppers wouldn’t fare well in a tony shopping arcade far away from its market. And third, there’s the manpower issue to consider, particularly since so many agents work for themselves. Fox’s team has to staff the kiosk whenever the mall is open for shoppers.
“You might be going for shoes and end up with a house,” quipped Fox, who admits she’s bought a few pairs of shoes herself since the kiosk opened.
Another sort of marketing program, this one a one-time-only event, is taking place Saturday in a bid to lure people to Michigan’s Harbor Country, one of the most popular summer getaway destinations for Chicago-area residents.
Back in January, Tom Hemingway, an agent at Re/Max Harbor Country in Union Pier, Mich., started talking to his counterparts at other offices about finding a way to draw potential buyers to the area at a time when much of people’s focus was on keeping their own homes, protecting their employment security and watching their investment portfolios fall.
The result is “Harbor Country’s largest open house,” a four-hour event that includes more than 55 real estate agents at 10 offices and 160 area homes for sale that range in price from $100,000 to $5 million. More than 50 sponsors have signed on, including lenders, retailers and local wineries.
“This was just a way to get some activity going,” Hemingway said. “Sales are slower than they have been in the past. Prices have dipped probably 14 percent in the past year. You pick your price point and you see as much as you can in a day.”
Most of the properties function as second homes and few are foreclosures. Many come furnished and already are booked with rentals for the season, good for new owners looking to help pay the mortgage but bad for those who envision escaping Chicago for the summer to sit by a different side of Lake Michigan.