The Collection Enters Realty Magazine Field

Yet another California realty firm has introduced a glossy magazine to market its houses around the world and to reinforce recognition for its new name.

Entitled The Collection, the full-color magazine will be sent free to 60,000 potential buyers, sellers and agents three times this year by Century City-based Prudential California Realty.

Most of the copies will be hand-delivered to Californians, according to George Rathman, chairman of Prudential California, known until last November as Merrill Lynch Realty.

“Aggressive new sales approaches have become a necessity in California today, with the slowing of the sales pace,” Rathman said. “The magazine also gives our firm greater name recognition, although that wasn’t the primary reason for starting it,” he added.

The distribution of 50,000 copies of each issue in California is the largest and most selective of any real estate showcase magazine distributed in the state, according to Rick Merrill, president of Prudential California’s central region.

About 45,000 copies have been delivered to wealthy households in Southern California--where most of Prudential California’s 79 offices are located--with about 5,000 copies going to similar Northern California households. About 8,500 copies have been provided to more than 4,200 Prudential California sales associates in California.

The firm is associated with Prudential Real Estate Affiliates, based in Costa Mesa, Rathman said. The Prudential, a Newark, N.J.-based insurance and financial services firm, is the parent company.

The first issue of The Collection has 112 pages of photographs and descriptions of 266 California houses from Eureka to San Diego, priced from $142,950 to $15 million.

Predecessors of the publication include Fine Homes, published by Merrill Lynch Realty, and The Collection, started about 10 years ago by Rodeo Realty, according to Merrill. Rodeo Realty is a Prudential California unit that markets houses priced at $1 million and up on the Westside,

Prudential California realtor/associates are charged $150 for each house illustrated and described in the new magazine, Merrill said. He added that $500,000 has been budgeted this year for the publication.

“Our research has shown that single-purpose magazines devoted to housing do the best job in reaching prospects, both potential buyers and potential sellers,” Merrill said. “We’re going to translate portions of the magazines into Japanese and Chinese for distribution by Mitsui Real Estate in Japan and Shin Yih in Taiwan, as well as Prudential Bache International in Hong Kong.”

Barbara Pivnicka of the Roulac Real Estate Consulting Group, San Francisco, said that the cost of producing and distributing the magazine will be worth it if it identifies the renamed Prudential California as a major player in the lucrative California prestige realty scene.

“I give them a lot of credit for clever niche marketing,” she said. “What they’re trying to do is capitalize on a proven direct marketing technique: Going after upscale buyers and sellers.”

The Collection comes less than a year after Jon Douglas Co. launched Properties International, a glossy quarterly magazine that showcases properties in the $1-million-and-up range. A spokeswoman for the Beverly Hills-based Douglas firm said that Properties International is still being published, with about 15,000 copies of each magazine printed, priced at $10 a copy.

Properties International is produced by Prime Publishing Co. Inc., Santa Barbara, which also publishes the six-times-a-year Prime Real Estate magazine, according to publisher Donald V. Fritzen. Prime Real Estate’s circulation is about 41,000 and each copy sells for $3.95. Prime Publishing also produces about five or six other “private title” real estate magazines similar to Properties International.

“Private title magazines are used as listing tools, to differentiate one realty firm from another in a market crowded with prestige firms,” Fritzen said.

Another Southland-based private title magazine, Great Estates Limited Editions Magazine, has been published for three years and showcases prestige houses throughout the nation, marketed by more than 60 “carriage trade” real estate brokers around the nation, according to publisher Kay Coughlin, of Great Estates Inc., Laguna Beach.

The current 92-page issue--the magazine appears twice a year and is largely distributed free to affluent potential buyers and sellers--has Southland houses marketed by firms in areas such as Beverly Hills, San Marino, Santa Barbara, Palm Springs, Woodland Hills, Laguna Beach and Rancho Santa Fe.