Milwaukee
Journal, Sunday July 7, 2002
Now Hear This
Talking House can lure buyers with celebrity voices. Among the messages the company offers:
Elvis Presley: "This is the king here, and I'll bet you ain't nothin' but a house dog . . . drivin' all around."
Bill Clinton: "My fellow American. I'm so anxious to tell you about this house . . . I can hardly keep my pants on."
By JEANETTE HURT of the Journal Sentinel staff
Anon-descript, gray two-story
house sits on N. Fratney St. with a Re/Max realty sign out front. But
a quick tune-in to the car radio reveals a bit more.
"It's a pleasure to tell you about this home in red-hot Riverwest. This easy-to-care-for duplex has two bedrooms and a dining room in each unit with separate utilities and a fenced yard," the radio broadcast begins in its constantly repeating spiel.
The two-minute radio broadcast makes the property one of the area's "Talking Houses," which are becoming increasingly popular with real estate agents.
First introduced to the Milwaukee market in the mid-1990s, at least 10,000 U.S. real estate agents now use Talking Houses - 160 in Wisconsin alone.
The concept was created by Richard Matthew, of Gilman and Matthew Real Estate in Fond du Lac. said Mark Goulais, spokesman for ActRadio, of Fond du Lac, which manufactures the Talking House transmitters. Matthew, who is now retired, invented the radio transmitting device in 1985 and sold the technology to ActRadio 18 months ago.
Talking houses market themselves through two-minute radio broadcasts potential buyers can tune into while driving around the neighborhood. A radio transmitting device unassumingly sits in the seller's living room or basement, advertising even when the seller isn't home.
The owner of the Milwaukee duplex. Chris Ott, was impressed with the Talking House. "Within a couple of days, it was a done deal," he said.
The agent who made the property a Talking House, Tom Telderer of Re/Max Realty 100 in Brookfield, said the radio broadcast was only one reason the Riverwest duplex sold. "I know (the buyer) did listen to it," he said. I think it helped speed the process along because people were able to get more complete information more quickly."
The Talking House radio transmitter is a four-pound black box about the size of a VCR. It is installed in an attic, living room or basement and away from glass, which disrupts the radio transmission. It is designed not to interfere with home electronics.
"If I set it on top of an all-black stereo system, it would blend right in like a component," Telderer said. "Nine times out of 10, if you asked my seller, they might not know where it is."
Ott, for one, did not know where the transmitter was in his duplex.
A Talking House delivers information about specific homes to potential buyers who often drive through neighborhoods where they would like to live.
"It's going to capture people at a different stage in the game," said Scott Fortier, of Re/Max Southeast Inc. in Racine. "A lot of times people are afraid to talk to an agent right off the bat."
Celebrity voices also are available to lure buyers with the familiar tones of Arnold Schwarzenegger, Clint Eastwood and even Curly of the Three Stooges. Ex-ample: "Whohh. a wiseguy? You wanted to know who can show you the best homes in the area? Why, soitanly!"
Some brokers choose more conventional ways to reach those buyers, such as data sheets or fliers attached to the unit's for-sale sign. But fliers can get wet or stolen, and they sometimes end up as neighborhood litter. "Fliers are a pain in the butt," Fortier said. "People take hundreds of them, and they never call you."
Many realty agents also use the Internet as a selling tool, but one problem with placing a house for sale online is that the property sometimes is sold by the time it actually appears, said Carole Townsend, of Townsend and Townsend realty in Wauwatosa.
Talking House is an especially good selling tool for homes with misleading exteriors. "We've had a couple homes that are very deceiving," Townsend said. "People drive by and never ever call. But they turn the radio on and then they think, 'Oh, gosh, it has a (special) family room off of the back that I can't see,' or 'Oh my gosh, it has three bedrooms.' "
Talking Houses have become even more popular nationally. "What we've noticed in different states, it's used a lot," Townsend said. "But Wisconsin's a tough sell."
Some realty agents might be hesitant to use Talking House because they can lose some potential buyers, Townsend said. If buyers listen to the Talking House message and decide they're not interested, they don't call, and the agent loses the sale.
Also, each device costs between. $300 and $800, depending on the quantity purchased. "There's quite a bit of upfront expense, and there's also a fear of doing something new," Fortier said. "My upfront expense was excess of $2,000, but, after that, the equipment is reusable."
The technology is not suitable for every house on the market, nor every community "In Elm Grove, we're not going to use it there," Townsend said of tile. upscale market. "It just doesn't fit that community- We do not use them for million-dollar homes.
Overall, though, the device has proved helpful, Townsend said "Some people think it's just kind of dumb and the sign looks dumb but we've had some houses that were very hard to sell, and this has worked wonders," she said
A Talking House never would work as the only method of selling, and there are some situations it cannot help.
"It's never going to overcome bad pricing or bad house," Telderer said. "And Talking House alone is not going to sell a house; but it's a nice adjunct to the package I provide."
