A recent debate surrounding open-house signs in Vail has highlighted tensions between real estate agents who want more tools to sell homes in a slowing market and owners who worry that such efforts will reinforce perceptions that values are dropping.
The Vail City Council voted recently to allow real estate agents to put up three temporary directional signs to advertise each open house, changing a restrictive sign code that previously allowed just one.
“There’s some concern from people in the community that this is making us look tacky, but I just think that it’s helping us do a little bit of business,” said Councilman Kevin Foley.
Directional posts help
Real estate agents, especially those in ritzy Vail, are the last ones who want to look tacky, said Cynthia Kruse, the Vail Realtor who started the lobbying effort to change the code about a year ago.
So they’ve committed to policing themselves, allowing the extra signs to be up just one hour before and one hour after the actual event, Kruse said.
“We’re selling a lifestyle, which includes these beautiful properties, so I think that the limited hours will work,” Kruse said. “It’s a real benefit to people looking for property, and they like the signs.”
Now that the formerly go-go mountain real estate market has slowed, any new advertising signs may scare current home owners, warned Jim Lamont, a spokesman for the Vail Homeowners Association.
“As Realtors always say, if there’s a proliferation of for-sale signs on a block, it means trouble in the neighborhood,” Lamont said.
The Vail Homeowners Association represents some of the wealthiest families in town. It was formed to deal with parking issues, but Lamont represents homeowners on a variety of topics ranging from employee housing to marketing.
Sign of economic woe?
Vail Mayor Dick Cleveland also thinks additional signs could signal a poor economy.
“It’s bad public policy to let economic factors such as we’re experiencing today change things that have been in effect for a long time,” Cleveland said.
Most real estate agents have remained sanguine about the minor brouhaha, saying that Vail is much bigger these days and that the additional signs solve that problem.
“It’s as simple as that,” said Chad Brasington, president of the Vail Board of Realtors. “Now the buyers (will be able to) actually find a place.”
The long, winding road up Potato Patch Drive, which has sweeping views of the ski area and across the valley, is a good example of a spot where more directional signs will help potential homebuyers, said Councilwoman Margaret Rogers.
Two homes for sale in a duplex near the top of the dead-end road are listed for more than $6 million on one side and more than $4 million on the other. There’s been at least one open house there.
“Any kind of device the government can do to empower the sellers of the homes to sell, I’m in favor of,” Brasington said.
