Print edition: 
A Kansas City-based real estate firm ramped up its pursuit of business this fall, trotting out more than a dozen specialty-property-specific Web pages on its Web site in a bid to increase the company's real estate niches.
United Country Real Estate, with an office in Wichita, is bidding to become the first site to pop up on Google whenever buyers are looking for specialty property, said David Dickey, the company's chief operating officer in Kansas City.
"It's more about the what and not the where," Dickey said. "The what is really important, because we're tapping into buyers living in larger cities and other states. Lifestyle is what we're tapping into."
The specialty-property pages offer everything from bed and breakfasts to equine land to golf courses and historic commercial property.
They represent United Country's business strategy in a down real estate economy — cater to niche buyers and make it easy for them to find the property they want online.
"It's been very advantageous to us on our Web site with the bed and breakfast and the historical properties we focus on, not just in Wichita but statewide," said Steve Wilbur, a broker with the UC Theurer Auction/Realty office at 509 E. Douglas.
"The pie has gotten a lot bigger for us than it used to be, and it's really opened up markets that haven't been at our disposal before."
In addition to the Web pages, the Wichita office has turned to owner and contract financing in the tight credit market, Wilbur said.
"To a certain extent," Wilbur said, "we've been able to circumvent some of the financing issues. Especially with the historic properties, it's almost a foregone conclusion that appraisers are going to want comparables, and there are none. So banks won't lend.
"So we find ourselves looking for sellers with the ability to carry the financing, and we've had some success with that."
With residential and commercial credit tight, brokerages that turn to innovation are better positioned to weather the economic downturn, Dickey said.
"Our niche has always been recreational rural, but we end up selling everything from recreational to farm and ranch to ag land and golf," Dickey said.
It's not unusual in a down economy to see brokerages straying from normal real estate business models, said Walter Molony, a spokesman for the National Association of Realtors in Chicago.
"People do search in these times for niches in our industry, and diversifying is the key to surviving in a down market," Molony said.
