The animated drawing of a Tahitian belly dancer on the home page may seem a tad unbusinesslike, but Pacific Island Investments’ new Internet site www.pacislands.com is anything but frivolous.
It’s all business and it exploits its niche as few real estate Web sites can. After all, what serious investor or armchair dreamer wouldn’t want to check out a site featuring bargain-basement prices on tropical islands (well, a few anyway) and other hot properties of the South Pacific?
“Paradise is more than a state of mind,” reads the copy accompanying an opening photo collage of idyllic sunsets and warm sands. “It is sun-drenched beaches, whispering tradewinds, breathtaking vistas and azure seas. It is tax havens and yachting heaven.”
The 20-year-old firm, based in Hawaii, knows a thing or two about the vast territory it covers, which includes Hawaii, Fiji, French Polynesia, the Cook Islands, Tahiti, Samoa, Vanuatu and New Zealand.
Led by broker-chief executive officer Karen Jeffery, it has closed deals on everything from tuna canneries to tony resorts for 1,000 clients from 20 countries, according to a company fact sheet.
Among the firm’s current listings are New Zealand wineries, a chain of boutique resorts, a vintage hotel and what could be the deal of the day, a 13-acre Fiji atoll for $325,000.
“Paradise may never be a better buy,” says Jeffery in her promotional material.
The move to the Internet is the first for an agency specializing in the region, says the firm’s marketing director, Clay Wilson. To make the change, the firm turned to Jack Harper at Real Estate Electronic Publishing Co., or REEPCo.
He designed the site to include maps (not everybody knows how to get to the island republic of Vanuatu), thumbnail sketches of each area and information on dealing with taxes, immigration, financing, escrow and property values, just what an investor might need to get his or her feet wet.
And getting their own feet wet is just what Jeffrey and her staff frequently do, as they island-hop about the Pacific.
Now how much was that island again?
— Liz Poppens
FIRST AND LAST RESORTS
The cost of lake property in Michigan is a drop in the bucket compared to the price of a piece of Rocky Mountain heaven, according to a new three-month study of resort properties by Coldwell Banker Real Estate Corp.
Coldwell Banker compared average low, medium and high-end listing costs for homes in almost 200 resort property markets nationwide in four categories: lake/stream, ocean/shoreline, mountain and desert.
At the most affordable end was Escanaba, Mich., where the average second home costs $58,000. The most expensive? Where else but Aspen, Colo., where an average little vacation hideaway will run more than $1 million.
Michigan also had an entry in the top 10 most expensive markets: tony Glen Arbor. Michigan and New York were the only two states in the survey with both most affordable and most costly vacation real estate. In New York, the Hamptons were on the top end and Lake Ontario made the top 10 most affordable list.
The Midwest overall was a haven of affordability, with five Michigan markets on the top 10 most affordable list, along with spots in Ohio, Missouri, Florida, Arkansas and New York state. The West dominated the most expensive category, including five California markets and one market each in Nevada, Arizona and Colorado.
California had the most variety of resort properties while Michigan and Florida had the most market areas numerically.
“We have seen an upswing in the purchase of vacation/second homes because of a stabilizing economy,” said Alex Perriello, Coldwell Banker president and chief executive officer. “Our brokers are seeing that Baby Boomers are investing in second homes to accomplish a dual purpose: vacation house now, retirement living later.”
Coldwell Banker is a subsidiary of HFS Inc., based in the Parsippany, N.J. For a copy of the full report, call 201-359-7199.
FASTER, FASTER
More, better, faster–that just about sums up the marching orders for any operator of a World Wide Web site who wants to hold the ever-shorter attention span of peripatetic site visitors.
The International Real Estate Digest not only recently changed its look to help readers sort through its 15,000 sites more easily but also changed its name from “Directory” to “Digest” to better reflect the site’s increasingly diverse content, according to IRED publisher Becky Swann.
“We’ve tried to create different tracks depending on what you regularly look for,” Swann says.
IRED’s home page is now a simple collection of icons directing traffic to 10 different tracks. Track categories are U.S. Directory, World Directory, For Consumers, For Professionals, To Buy/Sell/Invest, Skim the Cream (IRED’s monthly top 10 Web site reviews), The Digest (news), Mortgage Financing, Commercial and IRED.com. Several of the categories are new.
For Consumers and For Professionals contain articles, features and Internet links of specific interest to each group. To Buy/Sell/Invest contains upscale classifieds, properties wanted and investment opportunities.
In addition, Swann consolidated all U.S. mortgage financing information into the Mortgage Financing section, and routed financing information for other countries (87 countries are represented on the IRED site) to each country’s area in IRED’s World Directory, which is currently undergoing major reconstruction.
If this sounds like a work in progress, it is, Swann says, noting that the site has undergone a number of changes over the 2 1/2 years it’s been operating. “You either grow or you die on the Internet. There is no alternative,” she says.
SECOND-CHANCE MORTGAGES
Fannie Mae and the National Foundation of Consumer Credit are conducting a $50 million experiment to see if would-be borrowers with past poor credit histories can take on a mortgage with the help of heavy duty debt-management counseling.
The government-chartered corporation is purchasing up to $50 million in low-down-payment mortgages originated under the pilot program, which is open only to borrowers who had trouble repaying their debts due to uncontrollable circumstances, such as a divorce, job loss, death or medical emergency. They cannot have declared bankruptcy and must have continued to make mortgage payments.
Eligible borrowers also must have been enrolled in one of the credit foundation’s accredited debt-management courses for at least 18 months.
“This experiment will help (us) determine if intensive counseling can help borrowers take on the additional responsibilities of homeownership after an isolated financial setback that occurred through no fault of their own,” said Julie Gould, Fannie Mae’s vice president for community lending.
Agencies in 13 cities, although not Chicago, are participating in the program.
The National Foundation for Consumer Credit is a nonprofit consumer education organization. For more information, call 800-388-2227.
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Chicago Tribune Homes
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