Urban home shoppers are wanting a different kind of neighborhood, and so they're looking in a different way.
High gas prices and growing environmental concerns are making more home buyers interested in bicycle-friendly neighborhoods. Seeing a market, some real-estate agents have traded their suits for spandex and are leading clients from house to house on two wheels instead of four.
While the development is nascent, agents in many areas of the country are offering home tours by bike. Craig Della Penna of Murphys Realtors Inc. in Northampton, Mass., started the service more than a year ago when he realized it would help clients judge whether properties are easily accessible to bike paths. "Because of the bike niche, I have new calls coming in every week," he says. Mr. Della Penna estimates about half of his 18 closings last year came about because he emphasized homes near bike trails.
The number of people who use bicycles to commute to work grew 28% from 2000 to 2006, when 623,039 Americans said they did so, according to the latest Census Bureau data.
Other agents say showing houses by bike has been a boost. Matt Kolb in Bolder, Colo., started his bike-focused agency, Pedal To Properties, 16 months ago after he saw how much enthusiasm showing houses by bike generated when he was at another agency in town, Benchmark Realty. He now has a fleet of 48 Electra cruiser bikes (upright bikes with coaster brakes that are easy to ride). Every Wednesday evening, he and two other agents from his firm take out four to eight couples to see at least six houses.
The Post ran an article on this too.
For some real estate agents, the idea of biking with clients is just too casual.
"Anything client-involved should exclude a bicycle," said Charles Turner, a Portland real estate agent. "If you're meeting someone on location, you're not exactly business-presentable when you show up dripping with sweat."
I really didn't care what my agent looked like, I cared about what he knew and what he could tell me.
But Rojas said his clients have learned to accept it.
"If they don't want a sweaty Realtor, then maybe they want someone else," he said.
"Most people don't care -- the last clients I took out bought an $800,000 house -- they aren't exactly poor people living off the earth."
John Putcher, a Rutgers urban planning professor, said that as the real estate market continues to slump, more agents will turn to niche markets, but that bike agents have tapped into a potentially booming business.
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