The Island home overlooking the New London Bay is a three-bedroom farmhouse built in 1925 on 20 acres of coastal land and it’s going for $1.2 million.
Realtor Wayne MacKinnon of Royal LePage said he was contacted by the Times and at first wasn’t sure it was all true.
“Great Homes and Destinations, it’s a huge publication that they do for homes all over the world,” MacKinnon said. “When they first phone you think they’re just trying to sell you an ad, but we were pleasantly surprised when it came out.”
Getting this kind of real estate coverage doesn’t happen every day.
“In my 20 years, I’ve never seen anything like that before, to get that much exposure,” MacKinnon said. “It puts P.E.I. on the map,” especially in Europe, “because their distribution is greater in Europe than it is anywhere.”
The Prince County realtor said the hits on the Great Homes and Destinations site after just one day were very high.
“It was amazing how many there were,” he said. “The U.S. had a lot of hits but other countries had some really big numbers. It’s really good exposure for the Island for anybody who doesn’t know it or who has never been here.”
According to figures from the Meadowlea StatCounter, the site received nearly 500 hits in just two days.
The United States accounted for 382, followed by Canada with 87. Six hits came from the United Kingdom with five each from the Netherlands and Australia. There were three inquiries from Thailand and two each from Japan, Israel and Azerbaijan. Hits were also recorded from the Asia/Pacific region, Singapore, Hong Kong, Switzerland, Afghanistan and Pakistan.
MacKinnon couldn’t put his finger on the exact reason why P.E.I. was selected for the Times’ publication but did think it had something to do with the Royal LePage listings on his website.
“I think it generated from my website originally where she (the representative from the New York Times) found the home because when you do a search for P.E.I. real estate, I’m always in that top 10 on Google,” he said.
“I was out showing homes… and I got a call and the lady told me her name. She was with the New York Times and said they were looking to do a feature on P.E.I. oceanfront properties and the ins and outs of buying it and what the requirements are.”
She told MacKinnon, “One of your properties has been selected as being the feature home that we would like to do an article on. One thing led to another and within a few days there was a photographer here and interviews being done. It was very quick.
“She told me she does destinations all over the world and they were looking for something in eastern Canada and she has heard a lot about Prince Edward Island. We’re going to link it to some of our sites and use it.”
Wayne, it's been a long time since I've seen you - when I read this I was so happy this would happen to a someone in Realty that I know and like - this will definitely boost your sales & of course help put our Island on the map around the world - Congratulations Nancy