Pedal Pushing House Hunters

More and more Americans are hopping on their two wheelers to get to work or to run errands

. Rising fuel costs, increasing traffic congestion, environmental awareness, and exercise are the driving motivators urging people to trade in four wheels for two. While many cities have been proactively focusing their infrastructure development around cycle and pedestrian friendly areas, driving a car through them while looking for a new home may not be doing justice to the efforts of the planners.

The last decade has seen a 28% increase in the number of people using their bikes to get to and from work and thanks, in part, to the Federal Government, which has bumped up the amount they contribute to the development of cycling/walking infrastructure, from $4.9 million in 1998 to $541 million in 2008, getting around in the city has never been easier. Dedicated bike lanes and better options for parking/storing bikes have been major components of this new trend in urban development.

In light of the recent housing crisis, realtors have been forced to come up with creative new ways of pedaling their services. One solution that appears to be catching on is bicycle home tours. Savvy realtors have realized that a large component of urban dwelling is the reduced dependency on automobiles; so it only makes sense that searching for a new home should happen on foot or on a bike.

While still a relatively new trend, the concept of bicycle home tours is catching on fast across the nation. Many realtors are trading their suits for shorts and offering monthly or even weekly tours of homes. Craig Della Penna, a realtor in Northampton, Mass. has been escorting cyclists on home finding excursions for over a year, hoping it would help clients better gauge whether a particular neighborhood is bike friendly; he estimates half of his closings have been the result of the clever marketing tactic.

Most tours have the clients riding their own bikes, but Matt Kolb, a Colorado realtor, has taken the concept one step further. He started Pedal to Properties and has acquired 48 cruiser bikes which customers can use on weekly tours of Boulder homes. He says his clients are generally in their late 30's to early 40's and vary between hardcore commuters and weekend riders.

Cycling through a neighborhood allows potential buyers to gain a better feel of what the area represents. Dana Reiter, a house hunter in Bend, Ore. says "It definitely gives you a chance to see what neighborhoods are like from a different perspective. Sometimes neighborhoods can be noisy or busy, but you don't notice when you are driving around". She also liked the fact that it was a greener option. Ben Gordon, another rider on the Bend tour, found it to be a much more thrilling way to shop for a home, "When you get to a place by car, you don't feel as invigorated as when you arrive by bike and are probably less excited about what you are going to see...There's something about getting some exercise, pumping some blood through your veins and letting your mind settle from whatever it was you were last doing. It enables you to think more clearly about the decision you are going to make".

The latest Census Bureau data (2006) indicates that over 600,000 people regularly cycle to work. With that number surely on the rise, realtors definitely have a new niche to tap into and add to their marketing campaigns. So get out of that car and go for a ride; you might be surprised by what you see.

by: Jamie Mathwig

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