Bait is enough

As pressure to sell! sell! sell! mounts in this paralyzed housing market, Chicago Realtors and by-owner sellers are offering creative incentives to entice home shoppers to open their padlocked wallets. A quick glance at local real-estate ads shows property baited with everything from a two-year buy-back guarantee to plasma-screen TVs. “Everyone is looking for some bonus to buy right now,” says Jamie Smith, a sales agent with the Kopley Group, which is advertising $20,000 toward furniture or a new four-door Suzuki car for those who sign a contract before April 30 on loft units in North Center. Smith says Kopley’s summer 2008 promotion at the same location—a free Vespa with purchase—was an effective attention getter, but most buyers took the purchase-price discount instead of the scooter. According to Realtor Eric Rojas—a Rubloff Residential Properties agent who’s listing a Rogers Park condo that includes a free canoe at closing—sellers often overrate incentives. However, “in an apples-to-apples situation,” he allows, a pot-sweetener can be the deciding factor. Rojas recalls a recent example when the seller of a townhome extended $40,000 toward the purchase of a compact car to an interested shopper who complained the garage was too small. “Talk about sign of the times,” Rojas chuckles.

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