Friday, Aug. 19, 2005 | ||
Bad Links? | Listings pass 75,000 markHow many homes do you think are for sale in the Atlanta area? Sixty or seventy thousand? How about a whopping 77,876 homes for sale as of less than a week ago? The 75,000-plus mark represents a record for the number of houses listed for sale in metro Atlantas two listing services, the Metro Listing Service and the First Multiple Listing Service. The listings in MLS and FMLS predominantly come from the 20 counties in the metropolitan statistical area, but include listings from as far north as Blue Ridge in the north Georgia mountains and as far south as Valdosta in Lowndes County, just north of the Florida border. The total number of homes for sale in MLS and FMLS has never been available to the general public and most agents arent aware of the number because theyre usually focused on the number of homes for sale in a specific area of metro Atlanta. Beginning next month, however, everyone will know how many homes are for sale in MLS and FMLS. Metro Brokers/GMAC Real Estate is launching an outdoor billboard campaign that will feature electronic message centers displaying the combined number of homes for sale in MLS and FMLS (excluding duplicate listings). The billboards will be updated on a daily basis by a computer modem and a telephone line wired to the message centers. The billboards will include the address of the companys Web site, the only site in the world to display every listing from both of Atlantas listing services. Dac Carver, marketing director for Metro Brokers/GMAC Real Estate, said, We think the billboards will become a great conversation piece, especially as the number of homes for sale fluctuates during the course of the year. And since a home is the largest investment most people will ever make, there should be keen interest in what that number is on a daily basis. The billboard locations already secured by Metro Brokers include I-85 southbound (immediately after the GA-400 merge), I-75 southbound in Marietta (just south of exit 265 North Marietta Parkway), and I-75 north in Forest Park, just south of I-285. The company expects to announce a fourth location later in the year. Production and installation costs for each billboard range from $80,000 to $120,000 because all of the copy will be produced in neon channel lettering. The cost also includes the electronic message centers and a dimensional, internally lighted image of the companys mascot, Metro Mike. The components of each billboard will take a week to install and require the use of commercial crane trucks. Metro Brokers/GMAC Real Estate, established in 1979, has 20 metro Atlanta offices and offers a wide range of real estate services including residential and commercial sales; pre- and post-license training; corporate relocation; new home sales and marketing; and insurance, mortgage and title/closing services. The company is the largest GMAC Real Estate franchise in the world and the 38th largest real brokerage company in the country in terms of units sold. The company has more than tripled in size over the last five years with more than 2,300 licensees, making the company the largest license holder in the state of Georgia. To contact Metro Brokers, call 404-843-2500 or visit metrobrokers.com. |
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