BOSTON (AP) – People who hoped to make easy money by renting their pads to Democratic National Convention fat cats have found themselves begging for scraps.

Almost immediately after it was announced more than a year ago that Boston had landed the political event, city residents started offering their homes at outrageous prices, hoping to cash in on visitors looking for convenient and homey accommodations.

But they’ve found there are few takers, as convention delegates and journalists have opted for hotels. And with the July 26-29 convention just days away, asking prices for private homes, condominiums and apartments are dropping fast.

“It’s the great gold rush hoax of 2004,” said Doug Bates, who has had no bites to his online ad for his Belmont rental.

Bates posted the ad in March and asked $2,000 for his three-bedroom apartment that he and his wife normally rent to visiting professors. He lowered the price to $1,000, but still no response.

“We’d take less now. If someone called and said they’d give us $500 for it, that’s the lowest we’d go,” said Bates, an internet marketing consultant.

The Web site www.bostonapartments.com has posted 300 such ads in the past three months but only three people have called to have them removed from the site, said company owner Eric Boyer.

“Over the last four or five days we’ve been asked to reduce a ton of pricing,” he said. “At the beginning, people thought, here comes the gold rush.”

Asking prices may have been influenced by memories of the 1999 Ryder Cup, when golf enthusiasts paid more than $10,000 to rent homes in Brookline, a community adjacent to Boston, Boyer said.

“We’ve been up front with people since day one that we didn’t believe it would be anything like a Ryder Cup scenario,” said Boyer, who charges $10 per listing, while other sites charge up to $250 to list an ad.

Most of the delegates, politicians, reporters and Democratic activists obtained housing through the Democratic Party, which secured more than 17,000 rooms in about 70 hotels in Boston and surrounding suburbs.

People visiting Boston for the convention are generally part of groups, such as state delegations, and are less likely to spend top dollar for an exclusive home, Boyer and others say.

Still, Boyer’s site and craigslist.org are full of high-priced offerings. One Arlington home is offered at $15,000 for the week of the convention. It boasts more than 3,000 square feet and just 8 miles from downtown Boston.

Michael Doherty, co-owner of CityLife Real Estate, a leading residential real estate firm in Boston, said they had dozens of calls from people wanting to rent their homes. But he’s declined to list them, both for headaches regarding liability, and the prices.

“Most of the people are asking for ridiculous prices. Some have asked for $10,000 and $15,000,” Doherty said.

Not everyone has struck out, however. Beacon Hill resident John Gifford rented his one-bedroom duplex for $1,000 to a Washington-based journalist. He originally asked for $3,000, but dropped and found a renter in early June.

“The problem is everybody got so greedy,” said Gifford, a 29-year-old investment banker. “Everybody out there was looking for $3,000 to $5,000 a week. Your average delegate is coming up is from a Milwaukee. And journalists, most of them don’t have that sort of coin either.”

Another plus, Gifford said, is the journalist’s company is paying for installation of high-speed internet access, which stays after the convention.

Gifford plans to attend a wedding in upstate New York during convention week, and used his $1,000 to rent a home on Cape Cod for the following week. He’s not worried about what he’ll find when he returns home.

“He’s no Hunter Thompson,” he said of the journalist. “I don’t have to worry about him trashing the place.”

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On the Net: Bostonapartments.com: http://www.bostonapartments.com/listings.htm

Craigslist: http://www.craigslist.org

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Associated Press Writer Ken Maguire can be reached at kmaguire(at)ap.org

AP-ES-07-16-04 1740EDT