By Fred Seely
Editor
What’s it worth to get your listing featured in The New York Times?
Two St. Augustine Realtors found out last month: it attracts attention.
The Times featured two homes in a regular real estate feature that highlights a high-end place and one nearer the low end.
A small home on Mulberry Street got the free plug for Sarah Dexter of Olde Carriage Realty.
“The person who called said she found the home on Realtor.com,” said Dexter. “She liked the look of it, the location and the price, which should appeal to people from that area.”
“I said, ‘How much will I owe you?’ She said, ‘Nothing.’ What a deal!”
She hasn’t been overwhelmed with offers, though. ‘Two emails, one call,” said Dexter, “and they may not have been a result of the story.”
Rob West of Premier Properties and his partner, Frank O’Rourke, have a big waterfront home that he admits “may be out of the price range for this market” at $4,350,000.
“I got lots of emails linking to the story from friends all over the country,” he said. “Our website had 180 hits in the first two days.”
The listings appeared in the “Escapes” section on November 20. The story, two photos and the two home descriptions took up the bottom third of the page.
The seven-paragraph story was mostly about the city and its history, and quoted the city’s public information officer, Cathy DuPont, as saying “We’re a city of restorers. Restoration is at the heart of almost everything we do.”
The headline was a Chamber of Commerce dream: “History, Sun-Drenched.”
The story touched on the local real estate market and mentioned that St. Augustine “draws second-home buyers nationwide, but Virginia, Washington, Atlanta and central and southern Florida are well represented, and there are increasing number of retirees making the city home.”
The two homes were chosen to show a “High” and “Low” cost of area housing that might appeal to the newspaper’s readers.
The “High,” with 3,956 square feet and a pool, is downtown on the bay.
The “Low” is a two-bedroom bungalow about a block from the bay with 878 square feet and a tag of $234,900. (Even the Times makes errors: the story said it was a one bedroom at $234,000.)
“We may not make a sale, but anything that highlights our city in The New York Times is very positive,” said West.