City launches PR campaign to lure real estate agents
New tactic taken to tout Collinsville schools
Mayor John Miller said the city has carved out a part of "First Day: Celebrating Family," an Aug. 1 family fun fair at the Collinsville Convention Center, specifically to urge invited agents to use the School District in marketing properties.
"We know we have great schools to offer," he said earlier this month. "We need Realtors to."Collinsville Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Wendi Valenti said that about 150 agents are expected to attend the invitation-only banquet and meeting held in conjunction with the Aug. 1 family event.
The four-hour seminar will include information about city services, schools and upcoming projects, and a meet-and-greet with Collinsville High School Principal Eric Flohr and Collinsville Economic Development Commission Chairman Kevin Weinacht.
"It's not just the schools, it's everything we have in the city. It's showing people we are the preferred place to live," said Gary Clark, the city's education liaison, who helped coordinate the event.
Clark, a longtime Collinsville High School teacher, said the idea is to get real estate agents familiar with what the community has to offer - information that they can pass to prospective home buyers. He said agents have overlooked Collinsville in marketing homes to families, many of whom use school districts to direct where they buy.
"We're almost a forgotten city," he said. "But we have all these positive things."
The effort is also to right what has been a steady decline in the number of home sales in Collinsville, which like most of the nation is struggling with too many homes and too few buyers.
Madison County sales dropped about 14 percent from first quarter of 2007 to 2008, the most recent period available, according to the state Association of Realtors. The number was steeper in St. Clair County, around 19 percent, although still far better than the statewide average of 27 percent.
While there are signs of recovery, Clark said the city needs to promote itself the get ahead.
"Everything's a competitive game," he said.
Real estate agent Ingrid Moussalli said the marketing effort makes sense for Collinsville, which has never positioned itself as "premier city to relocate." Schools, especially, weren't effectively promoted, she said.
"It didn't have the reputation of O'Fallon or Edwardsville or Bethalto," she said.
That Collinsville is taking a proactive step is attractive to agents, said Moussalli, who plans to attend the seminar.
"It looks like they're trying real hard," she said.
For Moussalli, an agent since 2000, the more information about schools and other community perks that she can pass onto prospective buyers, the better. "We are really in need of buyers," she said.
