Can bike trails help sell a house?
By emitchell
Monday, September 29th, 2008 at 9:39 am in Uncategorized.
To help show the two-wheeler appeal of a neighborhood, some real estate agents are giving bike tours to potential buyers , according to a Seattle Post-Intelligencer story. Would a bike-friendly be a selling point for you when it comes to buying a house?
With gas prices high, bicycles flying out of stores and a buyer’s market for houses, several real estate agents around the country are touting the two-wheeled appeal of their listings.
Some even show houses exclusively by bike, wheeling through the neighborhood with potential buyers to show off bike lanes and bike-focused businesses and repair shops.
Clad in a purple helmet with plastic flowers dangling from her handlebars, Kirsten Kaufman, of Portland, is part of a new generation of agents eager to replace the stereotypes of hauling clients around in fancy sedans or sport utility vehicles.
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September 30th, 2008 at 8:18 am
Bike-ability was a key requirement for me when I purchased my condo three years ago in Seattle. My agent wasn’t a cyclist, had I known about bicycling agents I would have used one, but she was very patient and carefully listened to my reasons why some areas didn’t work for me and why others were great due to the bicycle connections.
Bicycling, moving more slowly without windows and a roof, also lets me experience the area better on my way to a place. I notice the vegitation and people and sounds of traffic and sounds of children more.
A friend of mine has always decided where she was going to live based on proximity to bus routes to get her to work and walk-able neighborhoods. The walk-score and bus maps are other valuable things to pull out and show clients who are interested in using alternate modes of transportation.