Folks fly past sales centers this time of year, headed toward malls to finish last-minute shopping for gifts instead of homes. Even as 2008 begins, they are likely to swap visits to open houses and model homes for bundling up indoors by the fire.

In a normal market, traffic typically is down during the winter months, said Bryan Cohen, president of Touchstone Homes. But add in the woes of the past year, and selling this winter is even more daunting.

Metro Brokers/GMAC Real Estate (ENLARGE)

Some Nolandwood Lake homes boast a $40,000 bonus

Metro Brokers/GMAC Real Estate (ENLARGE)

Cumberland Estates buyers can save up to $20,000.

Jones & Minear Homebuilders (ENLARGE)

Jones & Minear will kick in a basement for pre-sales.

Christopher Oquendo/Special (ENLARGE)

Joan Smith's Alpharetta home has been on the market since the summer. As an incentive, she's offered the buyers a weekend trip to the Cloister at Sea Island.

(ENLARGE)

\uFEFFSmith

"There are just not enough people out there looking," said Joan Smith, whose Alpharetta home has been on the market since June. "It's a double whammy."

So sellers are playing the role of Santa this year, offering gifts ranging from deep discounts on prices to luxuries like vacations and cars.

"Left unto our own, I don't know that we're quite that Santa-like," Cohen said. "But the current market is providing the buyer [with] an amazing holiday present."

Some builders, for example, want the homes sold before the first of the year, especially if they have been on the market since the summer, for tax purposes. It's not much different from retail stores or car dealerships, Cohen said.

"You want to get most of what you can sell sold and closed by the end of the year," he said.

Pulte Homes wasn't planning to offer new incentives this winter, with Alicia MacPhee, Pulte's Georgia North Division president, noting there isn't a need because they aren't grappling with a large inventory of spec houses. But, she sees other builders needing to sell 100-400 constructed homes.

"You imagine what kind of noose around your neck that would be," she said. Buyers are making their lists (wanting everything from lower prices to free appliances) and checking it twice, and builders and agents are aware of the expectations.

"The market perception is that they should be able to get a great deal," MacPhee said. So sellers need to be thinking more like stores, Cohen said. "At the end of the day, we're still in a retail world, and we're selling a retail product. It just happens to be the most expensive retail product that you are buying," he said. "No different from when car dealerships offer incentives. When other people are offering certain incentives, you have to be competitive."

Incentives this year are the most appealing Cohen has seen since he started in the real estate/development business in the mid-1980s. Touchstone, for example, is offering principal and interest payments for six months and paying closing costs at many of its single-family and townhome communities (to qualify, buyers need to put 5 percent down and meet credit requirements). Last year, it only was offering discounts and closing costs on select homes.

"This year, our incentive is, I think, much broader in that it involved inventory and pre-sale homes, so it gives the buyer a dramatically larger number of choices," he said. "And right now, that's what the buyer wants and expects and is getting."

There is an upside to selling in the winter, agents and builders say.

"You see a lot fewer casual buyers that have less urgency and more of the serious customers," MacPhee said.

Those folks typically are moving here now from out of the area, or their existing home has sold.

"[When you] have icy gray skies, the people that are out in cars looking are only those people that have to pick up a home," said Maryanne Winchester, an agent with Jenny Pruitt and Associates. "The market is narrower, but the prospects are usually better."

She added that despite the holidays, and visits from family, her clients are keeping their homes ready to show at any moment. After mid-January, MacPhee said, people start to put a home search back on their to-do list.

Buyers of Smith's Alpharetta home will receive a luxurious weekend trip to the Cloister at Sea Island. The idea has doubled hits to the listing online, but had not resulted in an offer (as of mid-December).

Where: Nesbit Lakes subdivision (2765 Chandon Place), Alpharetta

What: Two-story home, built in 1996, with five bedrooms, four full and two half baths, a three-car garage and a circular driveway.

How long on the market: Since the summer. She had it listed for sale by owner for a month before listing it with Maryanne Winchester, an agent with Jenny Pruitt and Associates.

How long she's lived there: Six years

Original asking price: $625,000

Current price: $599,000

Why she's selling: Her two children are in college, creating a need for less room. "I'm single now. Having 5,100 square feet for one person seems wasteful to me." Although Smith believes her brick home keeps the maintenance costs lower than other homes of the same size, "when you're constantly paying for homeowners associations and your taxes and water and heat and electric, it seems like I'd rather give it to someone who's needy rather than waste it in this fashion."

What she knew about the market: "I knew it was going to be more difficult. I didn't think it was going to go flat."

What she improved: Smith estimates she spent about $6,000 on changes including new upstairs carpet, repainting the master to a more neutral color and removing outdated drapes, redoing the floors, walls and ceiling in the garage, and staging the home.

How frequently potential buyers are looking: Once every two weeks.

How the Cloisters trip idea came about: Smith and her agent were kicking around ideas for increasing traffic. "I always respond to an offering that will involve a hotel or airfare or something because I love to travel. That's kind of how we figure that most people like to see something new, like to be pampered," she said.

Her attitude: Smith doesn't have a contract on another house, so she isn't under a time constraint. "I truly trust that someone's going to walk in the door and fall in love with this, just like I did. There's a unique individual for every home," she said. After she finishes working for a nonprofit part-time around the start of the year, Smith plans to look for a full-time job, and would like to live close to that workplace, wherever it is.

WRAPPING UP A DEAL

We found 12 Santa-like incentives available from a dozen metro developments:

THE GIFT: $40,000 buyer bonus used any way — price discount, upgrades, closing costs, furniture, lower mortgage payments, finished basement, home theater or a car.

NOT-SO-SECRET SANTA: Kensington Builders, which builds in Nolandwood Lake in Villa Rica, priced from the low $400,000s.

THE GIFT: Free basements on pre-sales.

NOT-SO-SECRET SANTA: McCar Homes, at communities including Cumming's Evans Farms, priced from the $220,000s-$300,000s.

THE GIFT: Free two-year lease on a new BMW Z4, or six months of principal, interest, tax and insurance paid.

NOT-SO-SECRET SANTA: Brickell, an Atlanta community by All Season Homes priced from $549,900-$640,000.

THE GIFT: Up to $15,000 off, plus $5,000 in closing costs.

NOT-SO-SECRET SANTA: Cumberland Estates, a Rock Solid Builders neighborhood in Emerson priced from mid-$400,000s-$500,000s.

THE GIFT: $6,500 buyer bonus, $3,000 toward closing costs and a flat-screen, wall-mounted TV.

NOT-SO-SECRET SANTA: Northpoint Grand in Carrollton, priced from $169,600-$294,600.

THE GIFT: $10,000 for closing costs, upgrades, appliances or purchase price discount.

NOT-SO-SECRET SANTA: Unison Townhomes in Atlanta, priced from $249,900-$294,900.

THE GIFT: Free basement on pre-sales; 5 percent paid in closing costs on inventory homes.

NOT-SO-SECRET SANTA: Jones & Minear Homebuilders, which builds in south Fulton and Fayette counties.

THE GIFT: Two year's homeowners association dues paid, plus $2,000-$4,000 toward closing costs.

NOT-SO-SECRET SANTA: Caroline Street Lofts in Atlanta, priced from the low $200,000s-$300,000s.

THE GIFT: First six months of mortgage payments paid.

NOT-SO-SECRET SANTA: The Villages of LaFayette Park in Fayetteville (participating builders include Chris Dixon & Associates and Mike Harrell & Associates), priced in the low $300,000s.

THE GIFT: $10,000 buyer incentive.

NOT-SO-SECRET SANTA: The Reserve at HaynesBrooke in Alpharetta, priced from the $600,000s-$700,000s

THE GIFT: Finished terrace levels.

NOT-SO-SECRET SANTA: Litchfield community in Roswell (participating builders include Herbert Properties, Fred King Jr. and Crawley Enterprises), priced from the high $900,000s-$2 million.

THE GIFT: Builder will purchase a home buyer's existing home, or buyers can save up to $40,000 on select homes, or use it for a car, finished basement, interior designer, closing costs or no mortgage payments for several months.

NOT-SO-SECRET SANTA: SilverOak, a Summerfield Homes community in Acworth priced from the mid $600,000s-$800,000s.

TIPS FOR RESALES

Don't have the funds to offer incentives? Real estate agents Bryan Eastman and Stokely Weinberg, who have a Web site, www.sellquickamerica.com, recommend three more ways to try to sell:

• Arrange for financial assistance in advance.

Enlisting a qualified mortgage professional prior to listing the home will have you prepared to determine whether potential buyers can qualify for a loan.

• Indicate that you are flexible.

Include the word "flexible" in advertising, to drive traffic.

• Be willing to negotiate.

Remember that buyers expect to negotiate, and it could raise your profit.