4. Marketing the Neighborhood and Facilitating Sales
Neighborhood markets need more than an absence of problems to thrive; they need great reputations and active marketing by real estate professionals, residents, and others. Many groups can become involved in helping to facilitate sales of properties listed by real estate professionals, including local government, nonprofits and residents.
Strategies include:
- Neighborhood marketing plans (e.g., Milwaukee Healthy Neighborhoods Initiative, Layton Boulevard West Neighbors Marketing Plan).
- Websites that promote neighborhoods and properties for sale (e.g., Live Baltimore and Belair-Edison Neighborhoods in Baltimore).
- Neighborhood-based open house days (e.g., Rochester City Living).
- Tours of available property for homebuyer education class participants (e.g., Brand New Day’s foreclosure bus tours in New Jersey, and Boston’s Department of Neighborhood Development foreclosure trolley tours).
- Neighborhood marketing committees
- Financial incentives, including grants, second mortgages, and purchase-rehab loans (e.g., Minneapolis Advantage Program)
- Marketing of tax credits and other incentives for first-time homebuyers when available.
- Real estate agent sales bonuses (e.g., Neighborhood Housing Services of Milwaukee’s Neighborhood Home Buyer Guide).
- Location Efficient Mortgages help people become homeowners in neighborhoods in which residents can walk from their homes to stores, schools, recreation, and public transportation.
- Shared-equity homeownership strategies significantly reduce costs for buyers, enlarging the pool of those who qualify.
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