Bah. Who wants to spend a Sunday afternoon going around to open houses? Wouldn't it be great if there was a Second Life, where prospective home buyers could take a virtual tour of their potential dream house?
Oh, wait. There is.
Last month Coldwell Banker became the first real estate company to offer a real-world home for sale in the online virtual community. The Mercer Island, WA property (www.coldwellbankervirtualhome.com) can be yours for a cool $3.1 million.
Coldwell Banker has been involved in Second Life since March, when it began developing virtual land and selling homes there. The site encouraged the company's involvement, to help deter “land barons” who had been buying and selling virtual property to consumers at inflated rates.
Charlie Young, Coldwell's senior vice president of marketing, says there were interesting parallels to the company's start. Colbert Coldwell founded it as way to help average citizens acquire property after the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake.
Participating in Second Life has helped the firm connect with the new breed of tech-savvy consumers, while driving traffic to Coldwell Banker.com. But the company isn't ignoring the traditional channels: local print, open houses, direct mail and e-mail.
