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Highlands Today

'Going Coastal' Ad Campaign Taking Shape

Plan Would Target Certain Homeowners On Coasts

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By Jim  Konkoly | Highlands Today

Published: May 21, 2008

SEBRING — When it comes to drumming up business here, the real estate and home building industries in Highlands County may be going coastal.

Builders and Realtors are taking a serious look at funding an advertising campaign targeted at residents of coastal communities, to convince them that they can leave the coast for a better, and cheaper, lifestyle here.

An open meeting for anybody interested in the possible coastal ad campaign is set for 2 p.m. May 29 in the Highlands County Commission chambers.

A month ago, a dozen county and business leaders met to discuss county Commissioner Guy Maxcy's idea of launching a local economic stimulus plan. The idea came out of Maxcy's failed drive for a temporary suspension of impact fees to stimulate the local home building and real estate markets.

County Administrator Carl Cool raised the idea of an advertising campaign to show coastal residents that they can move here, buy a home at a much lower cost, and leave behind skyrocketing coastal problems of high cost-of-living, urban congestion, growing crime and clogged traffic.

Cool told the county commissioners Tuesday that builders and real estate sales people are interested in funding a targeted coastal ad campaign. The two groups also have agreed that they would not ask for public money from the commissioners for the ad campaign.

Will Target A Certain Group
In preliminary talks on the idea a month ago, county and business leaders agreed that any such coastal ad campaign would not take a "shotgun approach." Sending ads – in print, on the Internet, via e-mail or on television or radio – to every household would be ineffective and way too expensive.
Instead, the business leaders talked about a narrowly targeted campaign.

Their target market would be homeowners on the coasts who have more than $100,000 in Save Our Homes credits on their real estate taxes."There's a lot of potential out there to recruit some folks on the coasts to come here," he said. "That would take care of our problem of inventory (of homes for sale that are not selling), and some of those people would want to build a home here instead of buying one.

Recently, county business people have learned that that specific target market could be huge.
"In Palm Beach County alone," Cool told the county commissioners, "there are more than 100,000 property owners with more than $100,000 each in Save Our Homes credits."

That information came from Highlands County Property Appraiser Raymond McIntyre, Cool said.
People with $100,000 in Save Our Homes tax breaks could buy a $200,000 home in Highlands County and pay property taxes on only $100,000.

McIntyre is helping the committee by finding out how you can identify homeowners in a county who have a certain level of Save Our Homes credits.

He investigated Palm Beach County as a test case, and found out how to identify the more than 100,000 people there who have $100,000 or more in Save Our Homes credits.

Cool said if there are 100,000 homeowners with more than $100,000 in Save Our Homes credits in Palm Beach County alone, there must be a huge number in that target audience in other coastal communities such as Miami-Dade County, Fort Lauderdale, Fort Myers, Jacksonville and Tampa-St. Petersburg.

Maxcy said the potential to lure people from the coasts to buy or build a new home here is so great that Realtors and builders might agree to pay for the proposed ad campaign.

"There's a lot of potential out there to recruit some folks on the coasts to come here," he said. "That would take care of our problem of inventory (of homes for sale that are not selling), and some of those people would want to build a home here instead of buying one.

"That would do nothing but stimulate the economy here in Highlands County."

Robert Guedas, a former Realtor who lives in Highlands County, read about the coastal advertising campaign being considered and told Maxcy it is a great idea. Guedas also said he has experience in advertising in the Miami-Dade area and is willing to share it.

Maxcy said the opportunity to substantially lower the cost of your home by moving here from the coasts is not the only attraction of Highlands County.

"It's a lot safer and it's a lot cleaner here, because we don't have the number of folks that are stuffed into concentrated areas" in coastal cities, he said.

"There's a lot of seniors," Maxcy added, "who are moving from the coasts to central Florida because it helps their financial health, and they're finding a better lifestyle, too."

McIntyre is scheduled to speak at the May 29 meeting, which is open to the public.

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