POLAND – When New Hampshire developer Jerry Bowes came up with the idea for an 11-acre, 14-unit condo development for people 55 years old and older, the market was hot and real estate agents and townspeople told him the project would sell out fast.

That was in the summer of 2006.

Today, the model home for Poland Place is finished and two others are under construction. The road is paved, sidewalks are done, the utilities are in. Everything’s ready for the onslaught of buyers predicted last year.

The problem?

“Nobody’s bought anything yet,” Bowes said.

So he’s cut his prices more than $20,000, passing on savings he got when lumber prices dropped. He’s offered to waive buyers’ condo fees for a year, putting another $1,260 in their pockets. He’s including the appliances in any unit sold during the next six months, and he’s giving away $5,000 to $7,000 worth of upgrades, including stainless steel appliances and hardwood floors, to anyone who buys the model.

Such incentives were unheard of last year when houses were snapped up in bidding wars.

Now, with Maine and the nation in a housing slowdown, some developers say they need to get creative just to get people in the door.

“We’re thinking outside the box,” Bowes said.

Many houses. Not many buyers

Over the last few years, the pricey Portland market drove both buyers and builders out of southern Maine. Lewiston-Auburn – the next closest urban area – became suddenly popular with housing developers.

“We’ve probably had more subdivisions in the last three years than we’ve had in 10 years previous,” said David Galbraith, director of planning and permitting for Auburn.

Lewiston and Auburn have approved hundreds of new homes in recent years. At least 10 condo developments and subdivisions are now under construction in Lewiston and Auburn, representing more than 270 new homes in the Twin Cities. Most started last year or before, when the housing market was hot.

“The reality is, things have slowed down,” said Michael Girardin, owner of Auburn-based Blue Horizon Home Builders. “It’s a supply-and-demand scenario here where we kind of have to react to the market.”

In other words: lots of homes, few buyers.

Blue Horizon is in the middle of several building projects in Auburn, including subdivisions on Broad Street, Greenfield Drive and Horizon Drive. Like Bowes, Blue Horizon is also building a condo community for people 55 years old and older, this one on Turner Street in Auburn.

Sales of those condos have gone well. Girardin believes potential buyers have largely been attracted to the project’s intown location and gated-community perks.

But buyers have been in short supply for Blue Horizon’s other subdivisions.

To boost sales, it has cut prices an average of 5 to 7 percent and started offering free upgrades and extras, including appliance packages and flat screen TVs.

“Folks have a little bit of the jitters,” Girardin said.

It’s true outside the Twin Cities, as well.

In Brunswick, Signature Pines, an 84-unit condo development, is offering a few thousand dollars’ worth of free options, such as gas fireplaces.

Also in Brunswick, a high-end subdivision called Botany Place is cutting roughly $20,000 off the base price for units bought in the current building phase.

In Topsham, Smith Farms, a 26-unit condo development, is offering buyers a $10,000 credit toward closing costs or upgrades to spur the next two sales.

But do credits, flat screen TVs and free appliances really get a buyer to sign on the dotted line?

Kelly Wentworth, a real estate agent with Brett Davis Realtors in Yarmouth, isn’t so sure.

She represents Whispering Pines, a $300,000- to $500,000-a-home subdivision in Durham.

Whispering Pines provides new home allowances – letting buyers customize flooring, lighting and other aspects within a certain cost range – but it isn’t offering any free extras.

“I don’t think anybody can give a good enough incentive to bring the buyers out,” Wentworth said. “It all comes down to location and price.”

Rather than give away appliances or a new TV, Wentworth is relying on promotion. A lot of promotion. Online virtual tours, newspaper ads, Web sites, flyers.

“It’s a lot about getting in everyone’s face about what’s out there,” she said.

But there’s a lot of competition to overcome. Not only does Whispering Pines have to contend with other new developments, but it also has to compete with older homes for sale in well-established neighborhoods.

Only three of the subdivision’s 13 to 15 homes have been sold so far. And only four serious buyers have shown interest in the project since August.

“There aren’t people out there. They’re not looking,” Wentworth said. “They may do a drive-by. They’re not calling the office.”

Sold

At Blue Horizon, Girardin agrees incentives won’t suddenly bring out new buyers.

“I don’t think anyone on the buy side is really going to be interested in buying a house because they get a nice little appliance package,” he said.

But he does believe incentives can help get a serious – but waffling – buyer to make a decision.

“For the most part I think it gets people over the edge,” he said.

Andrea Galuza, a real estate agent with Remax Riverside in Topsham, believes those little extras have more power than some people think. She credits incentives – a free gas fireplace, tile floor or granite countertops – for helping to both draw in buyers and get them to sign on the dotted line at Signature Pines in Brunswick.

“They know these are things they might not have gotten or been able to afford to get,” she said. “And they (incentives) keep the value up in the project for the neighbors, as well.”

Units there start at $217,000 and go into the low $300,000s. Of Signature Pines’ 84 units, 69 have been sold and four are under contract. Three of those units went under contract over the last few weeks.

That’s the kind of rush Bowes is going for with his price cuts, waived condo fees and free upgrades at Poland Place. He’s planning to explain all the extras directly to potential buyers when he hosts open houses Nov. 24 and Dec. 8.

With interest rates still low and housing inventory high, he hopes a little creativity will nudge some people his way.

“This is the time to buy,” he said.

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