
DATE: Saturday, March 15, 1997              TAG: 9703140559

SECTION: REAL ESTATE WEEKLY      PAGE: 04   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Cover Story 

SOURCE: BY JEANNE MOONEY, SPECIAL TO REAL ESTATE WEEKLY 

                                            LENGTH:  137 lines

COVER STORY: IT'S UNUSUAL, EXPENSIVE AND FOR SALE

On a recent Sunday morning, Nancy Bessey planned to attend church and take a family member to brunch.

But her pager hummed during worship service and her plans changed. A real estate agent wanted Bessey to show a group of potential buyers the Church Point Manor House, an 1860s farmhouse remade into a well-appointed bed-and-breakfast. The agent was anxious to get started. When Bessey left the church, she found him waiting outside.

Marketing prestigious and unusual properties such as the Church Point Manor House in Virginia Beach can be demanding and consuming, as Bessey will tell you.

And being chosen to market such a property is something of an honor; it speaks to a seller's trust in his agent's talent.

``It was the chance of a lifetime,'' says Bessey, a real estate agent in The Prudential Decker Realty's Virginia Beach office.

But finding a buyer for an unusual property often is high-stakes, pressure-filled work. It can take months, as Bill Gibbs of Womble Realty in Virginia Beach knows, of costly advertising in newspapers and magazines and repeated showings to curious, but not serious, shoppers. And it can mean juggling a seller's expectations for a price against what the market will bear.

The reward, say agents such as Bessey, comes when a buyer and seller close on a sale and walk away feeling treated fairly. Of course, there is a sales commission, though it often is split between the realty firms involved; the agents get a portion of that split from which they must pay assistants, car phone bills, office costs and all the overhead of running a small business.

``I have to make a living,'' says Bessey. But, she says, ``Money is not what drives me.'' Her incentive? ``To do a good job.''

OFTEN A SLOW PROCESS: And there are those who spend months marketing an unusual property and don't land a buyer. Frederick C. Gabriel Jr., a Virginia Beach-based real estate broker, worked during the winter of 1996 trying to sell a nearly 300-year-old Georgian-style brick manor house on 200 acres by the Nansemond River in Suffolk.

Gabriel was unable to find a buyer willing to pay the asking price of $1.85 million. ``The price was just too high,'' he says.

So how does one move an unusual property?

For starters, by figuring out who might buy the property. Stacy Goode, a real estate agent with Nancy Chandler Associates, calls that target-marketing.

Bessey believed that someone with a large family or an entrepreneur interested in preserving the manor house as a bread and breakfast would be the most likely buyer. That person needed deep pockets. The manor house buildings and land listed for $1.45 million.

Gibbs believes that the person who eventually buys the high-rise Oceanfront condominium he's selling will want to free themselves of maintaining a large, upscale home and opt for a pampered lifestyle at the beach. Chances are good, he believes, the buyer will relocate from outside Hampton Roads. About a fifth of the owners at Oceanside hail from out-of-town.

For three months, Gibbs has been marketing a 2,900-square-foot condo at 401 Atlantic Ave. in Virginia Beach. The home, located on the 12th and 13th floors, has three bedrooms and seven balconies that afford views of the oceanfront, Rudee Inlet and the resort strip.

The home also offers access to an indoor heated swimming pool, steam and sauna rooms, an exercise room and secured parking. It lists for $489,000.

``There's not a lot of buyers walking up and down the street who can afford that,'' Gibbs says.

Gibbs is relying largely on advertising in local realty publications and the World Wide Web. When the weather warms and people are more inclined to journey from out of town to the beach, he plans to advertise in Richmond and Washington, D.C., newspapers.

Gibbs also may lean on the community of golfers he knows to sell this, his first listing. Gibbs is a golf pro and worked 16 years at Red Wing municipal golf course in Virginia Beach.

COSTLY ADS: Goode is not a disciple of out-of-town advertising. ``The public has no idea how expensive each advertisement might be,'' she says. A small ad in a Saturday edition of the New York Times costs more than $1,000, Goode says.

She favors stirring up interest locally by plunking down a yard sign, listing a property with Multiple Listing Service, passing out fliers to other agents, advertising in local realty magazines, newspapers and even newsletters. ``You use every tool that is available,'' Goode says.

Goode also notes that setting a price can be difficult: What can an unsual property be compared with?

Bessey began her job of selling Church Point Manor House by playing rainmaker. ``You call all your best friends in the industry,'' Bessey says. And then some. ``You have to network.''

``The agent always has to draw attention to the property,'' Bessey says.

Bessey listed the property in mid-January. She then spent three days networking, she says, calling brokers, sales associates and business community members. She told them about the Victorian-style 10-bedroom manor house complete with conservatory, restaurant and pub.

She told about its conference center with guest suite and the carriage house, about the swimming pool, tennis court and nearby nature trails. Jahn and Leslie Summs spent more than $1 million to renovate the farmhouse, which they appointed with 100- and 200-year-old paintings and furnishings.

Bessey's next step was to learn about Church Point Manor House, a task which she says took a week. With help from Nonie W. Waller, an interior designer and decorator who helped lead the refurbishing of the manor house, Bessey learned about its history and character.

The Manor House is said to be the site of the first court and the first church in Princess Anne County. As a modern-day bed-and-breakfast, it has been a place for weddings, honeymoons, business retreats, card parties, teas and a murder-mystery dinner.

Bessey soon learned of the Manor House's value to the community. The phone rang constantly with calls from people who wanted to book an event, and were displeased to hear the Manor House was closed. ``We finally had to take the phone off the hook,'' Bessey says.

For two weeks, Bessey showed the property to six different individuals or groups of buyers. Each showing lasted at least 2 1/2 hours. Bessey still had to attend to her other, perhaps more conventional, listings.

Her work on some days began at 7:30 a.m. and stretched until after midnight.

Bessey had planned to advertise the Manor House on the Web. She had also considered advertising in specialty publications to attract the potential bed-and-breakfast buyer. But a deal came together quickly, instead.

The buyer saw the property on a Saturday and made an offer two days later. According to a deed filed Monday in the Virginia Beach courthouse, Mark F. Garcea bought the Manor House for $1.3 million. Garcea, who is president and owner of the Admirals Hockey Club, did not return repeated phone calls from Real Estate Weekly this week.

For now, Gibbs will continue his search for a buyer, while Bessey can review the strategy that helped sell the Manor House.

``This is not a part-time business by any stretch of the imagination,'' says Goode. ``The public doesn't understand that Realtors don't have buyers at the snap of a finger.'' ILLUSTRATION: [Cover, Color photo]

IAN MARTIN/The Virginian-Pilot

File photo by RICHARD L. DUNSTON

The Church Point Manor House in Virginia Beach has a new owner.

Such unusual properties can be a challenge to a real estate agent.

Staff photo by IAN MARTIN

Bill Gibbs hopes an out-of-towner will like the penthouse condo he's

selling on the Oceanfront, also pictured on the cover.

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