By Kyle Magin
BONANZA STAFF WRITER
Dan Schwartz and Tawny Stanton, two Coldwell Banker Realtors in Incline Village, believe in a philosophy for bad times in the real estate market.
Spend. Invest. Grow.
When everyone else is hurting is when you look for new opportunities, said Schwartz, a 41-year Realtor.
The past two years have been tough on the local real estate market, but Stanton and Schwartz, a father/daughter team, saw an opportunity to grow their business and sell Lake Tahoe. Stanton embarked on a series of business trips to the Bay Area, Florida and Europe in the last year to sell luxury properties, at great expense, but one that is worth it, Schwartz said.
“What is interesting is that the last two years affected every real estate company, and many of them just spend money on the bare essentials,” Schwartz said. “We’re going full speed ahead, though, as far as what we’ve been doing travel-wise.”
Stanton said real estate is like many other businesses, growing to international levels and past its national bonds. That’s why she used Coldwell Banker contacts across the globe, from the Bay to Lake Como, Italy to Ireland and a bevy of other European and Central American destinations to sell Lake Tahoe.
And, it’s a good time to do it, Stanton said.
“We’re cautiously optimistic we’ve hit a low point in the market and it should rise from here,” Stanton said. She cited numbers from the Schwartz-Stanton Group, the Coldwell Banker entity both belong to that show May home sales were double what they were in any prior month this year.
Stanton was quick to point out those numbers represent only a modest, single digit increase, but said they could be the stirring of a rebound in the market.
She said one indicator of that a turnaround could be that three homes sold this year went for more than $3.5 million, and another is in “solid” escrow for $7 million. All four of the aforementioned properties were bought by people already living in Incline.
“These are the people who are most familiar with the local market because they live here, and if they are looking to make a step up or trade down, now is the best time and they know that,” Stanton said.
With that in mind Stanton started to form alliances with top luxury Realtors, first in the Bay Area. She said the SSG worked on a referral program with the Realtors, where they were given a percentage of the commission Coldwell made on each Incline/Crystal Bay sale if the Realtor referred the buyers to the SSG. Then Schwartz and Stanton added a twist, a double commission on referrals.
For example, a Bay Area Realtor who referred their seller to the SSG received a second commission if the seller sold their Incline/Crystal Bay home and the SSG represented the sale.
“We talked with the top Realtor in San Francisco and she said she was just waiting for something like this to come along,” Stanton said. “Realtors are very excited about it. People are only staying in their houses for three to six years, so we gave other Realtors a chance to cash in on the sale of that house.”
Stanton then shopped the idea, both of Tahoe and the referral bonus-commission, to top real estate agents in Italy, Germany, Ireland, Prague in the Czech Republic, England and Switzerland. It was anything but a grand tour European vacation, though. Stanton hit six countries and had 19 appointments on her trip, which she described as nonstop.
“I think my persistence in cold-calling paid off, because we went to six countries and met with luxury agents or directors of large real estate firms,” Stanton said.
She visited with real estate firms in London, a city she said had a market which was going “like gang busters” but showed signs of slowing in the first quarter.
“We tried to sell Tahoe to investors and buyers there, sell one of the most beautiful areas of the world, a place tripadvisor. com rated the No. 10 best vacation spot in the world and No. 1 in the United States,” Stanton said.
Besides Tahoe’s picturesque views, lake and mountains, Stanton said she tried to sell buyers on a great investment.
“With the dollar being so weak right now, and buyers selling their European houses for American dollars, it’s the perfect time to get in,” Stanton said.
She pointed to the bottoming- out of the market and a possible resurgence as other attractive reasons for buyers to take a look at Tahoe.
Also, Stanton said that while the lakes like Italy’s Como rival Tahoe’s size and beauty, building restrictions are far tighter in Europe.
“Some people have to get a permit to put a hole in the wall, it’s so historic,” Stanton said.
Schwartz credits his daughter for working hard to turn people’s perceptions — especially in Europe.
“Some people may have thought, Lake Tahoe? Why would I want to move there,” Schwartz said. “But once they get that handshake, that face to face meeting and see what Tahoe actually looks like, they start to come around.”
Stanton said she has a trip to Asia set up for the spring of 2009, hitting destinations such as Singapore, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing and Tokyo.
Printed North Lake Tahoe Bonanza
June 29, 2008
