Catch 2008: the most unusual ways to get rid of residential property

Last year will be remembered as a year of recession and crisis. USA, UK, Spain, India, Ireland and many other countries have seen a decrease of residential property demand, reduction of prices and absence of trust to the market. Sellers quite often had to invent various marketing tricks to palm off properties.

“Prian.ru – International Property” web-portal has prepared a short review: how could realtors, builders and ordinary homeowners get rid of “immovable cargo” (unsold houses, apartments and other properties) during 2008. Events are listed according to the order of appearance in world informational agencies news lines. In most of the cases agencies informed only on attempts to sell off the properties and unfortunately further destiny of real estate objects remains unknown.

Death as a deposit
First quarter of last year was not fruitful on such events, as many property markets have only started to suffer from crisis. However, already in April, 2008 69-year-old citizen of Wisconsin, US - Bob Fenning - has offered home-buyers an unusual transaction: if he dies within ten years after the sale contract conclusion, the potential buyer will receive $500 thousand of Fenning’s life insurance money. The buyer could get an access to Fenning’s medical card. Also the man asserted that his parents and sister have died, before reaching 79 years. The price of 520 sq. m house was $498.900.

Mortgage lottery
In the end of May, Spanish unemployed realtor Miguel Marina who could not find money to pay off his mortgage credit, decided to get rid of the apartment in Ciempozuelos by means of a lottery. He has put on sale 64 thousand 5-euro lottery tickets at Elpisodeloscincoeuros.com - a web site which name can be translated from Spanish as “an apartment for five euros”. The lottery winner would receive a property transfer contract for a flat worth 320 thousand euros. The money realized from the auction would allow Marina to pay off the mortgage credit.

Discounts for millionaires!
In the beginning of June an American California-based company Michael Crews Development, has declared that the buyer of a luxury-class country house (worth $1.6 million) in the city of Escondido would receive a $400 thousand house at a ribbon development for free. This promotion remained in force till the end of the month.

House and heart
In the end of June Deven Trebosh – resident of South Florida who has got tired of both single life and fruitless efforts to sell her house has placed an entertaining offer at eBay and Craigslist online auctions. The woman decided to kill two birds with one stone and has announced the sale of her house together with … her hand. The house was worth $340 thousand; also the potential buyer had to pay half-million dollars to marry Trebosh. However, eBay administration has removed her offer, reasoning the removal by the fact that it is forbidden to put people, human body parts and relations on sale on the online auction.

Would you lend me 600 pounds to pay off the mortgage credit, sir?
In July British pensioner John Hall, resident of a small town called Nottinghamshire in Kimberley County who could not find a buyer for his £450 thousand house within a year, has decided to take the following marketing step. He has offered financial assistance to a potential buyer. Hall was ready to pay off a quarter of mortgage credit which a new owner of his house would take in order to purchase it. Thus, John would contribute 680 pounds to a 2.7-thousand pound large monthly credit payment.

Cars to save Housing Sales
Right on the next day, news of a British realtor Stewart Shield offering a free car to property buyers have arrived from Cornwall County. A buyer of an apartment in a small coastal town of Newquay (price of which did not exceed 250 thousand pounds) received a “Smart” car worth 8 thousand pounds. In case if the investor purchased a more expensive housing he could receive a 30-thousand-pounds C-class “Mercedes”. And having spent 1.5 million pounds on a flat a buyer could count on Range Rover which costs 60 thousand pounds.

In September a 30-year-old British businessman Rick Hill has offered a yellow Lamborghini to potential buyers of his six-bedroom home, located in Hawkley, Essex County. He planned to receive 1.15 million pounds both for the house and the car.

Honey, I Shrunk the House!
September would be remembered for another peculiar marketing trick. Residents of Battle-Creek, Michigan, US - Jerry and Cindy Mann, tired of year-long efforts to sell their house which was worth $169 thousand, chose to be creative. They have decided to sell a miniature replica of their house as well as the house itself for the abovementioned price.

Bulgaria for Free
Same month an Irish developer PJ Doherty came up with a following scheme of property selling. Upon buying a flat at the Irish resort called Milford a buyer would receive another flat on Bulgarian Black Sea coastline absolutely for free. The developer had to arrange such a promotion because he could sell none of five properties in his Milford development. This dodge has helped the developer to sell a few properties in Ireland.

Test-live
In October a few Portuguese developers have announced an implementation of a special rental package which would grant the home-buyer a possibility to live in a house prior to purchasing it. This measure was aimed on attracting buyers to Portuguese resort developments. 3-months rental price for one unit in Parque da Floresta Golf and Leisure Resort worked out 2633 euro. This package granted a free access to a golf-course, tennis courts, restaurants, bars and maid-services. A similar scheme was also offered by Barringtons Company.

Bonus Islands
In November another Irish developer Warren Developments has offered a free flat in Cabo Verde for the property buyers in Desert Heights development, located in Clonakilty, Ireland. The price for the offered flat worked out 70 thousand euro. By the way, the cost of one unit in the abovementioned development began from 595 thousand euro.

Presents… presents… presents…
A decline on Indian property market has led to a growing number of tricks used by local developers and realtors in November. A developer Jaypee Greens presented luxurious cars to buyers of its 600-thousand-dollar bungalows. Realtor agency Cosmos offered a one-bedroom apartment free of charge as a bonus to each bungalow sold in Mumbai. Other promotions included giving-out 50-gramm golden nuggets and leisure trip tickets for the whole family of the property buyer.

British developer Andrew Mackeldon has declared his readiness to present an 110,000-pound Aston Martin DB9 to the first person who buys one of his more-than-a-million-pounds homes. This offer was in operation till January, 19, 2009.

Purse-hunters
The last month of 2008 can be noted for a proposal made by Hawaiian couple David Bangert and Linda Harris. They have promised $100,000 reward to a person who would find a buyer for their properties – a $1,7 million four-bedroom home and a land parcel which was worth $1,2 million.

Property via SMS
A couple of weeks prior to the New Year a few interesting marketing decisions were implemented by Chinese developers. They have allowed a three-day long property reservation for barely one yuan (app. 15 cents). Besides that a mobile marketing (mass commercial sms-mailing) is often used in Heavenly Empire to advertise properties.

Author: Aleksey Lahov