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To understand real estate investment on the Oregon coast, one must accept that the region experiences extreme seasonality, exaggerated economic cycles and periods of abject failure followed by periods of seemingly unjustified success. And all are dramatically affected by Mother Nature’s fickle and sometimes extreme weather patterns.

These factors create extreme risk and extreme reward; we have experienced both.

In our column series, we will share highlights and low points from our 20 years of coastal development experience and explore the factors that contributed to our successes and failures.聽We also will make some educated guesses at what the future may hold for those of us living and working on the edge.

Over our 20 years in Pacific City, we’ve developed three residential subdivisions, the Pelican Pub & Brewery, the Inn at Cape Kiwanda, Stimulus Espresso Caf茅 and the Cottages at Cape Kiwanda. We also have built custom and spec homes. And we started a property management business 鈥� Shorepine Vacation Rentals 鈥� and a real estate brokerage 鈥� Shorepine Properties.

The most important lesson we’ve learned is that developers and/or real estate brokers must find ways to understand what is happening in their markets and what their customers will buy. And they need to learn how to do business creatively.

A great example of this is the Cottages at Cape Kiwanda, which we launched in summer 2007. This oceanfront property is drop-dead gorgeous, featuring townhouse-style units to be sold in fractional ownership. This project seemed like a no-brainer: Who wouldn’t want to buy an affordable piece of paradise in Pacific City?

Now, remember what happened in summer 2007 鈥� the mortgage subprime debacle hit like a ton of bricks. All of the sudden we went from feeling like geniuses to feeling like fools.

We knew at that point that we needed a creative new strategy.聽To make a long story short, we developed a new 鈥淥ne Day Sale鈥� concept. These events bring interested people together in a group format to learn about and seriously consider purchase of a fractional share in an oceanfront vacation home.

They are able to meet and know us personally as developers. And they can become acquainted with the entire hospitality team that will ultimately take care of them and their new vacation home. This is a much more personal and in-depth opportunity, which seems to help people make purchase decisions.

This is a great example of finding a creative way to sell something in the face of a challenging market. As a result of this new strategy, in 2010 we were able to sell a lot of shares 鈥� enough that the property became the highest-selling of its kind in North America, Mexico and the Caribbean.

It’s clear to us that the real estate market has hit the bottom (at least on the central coast). There is a lot of activity now; people want to complete good deals before prices go back up.

In our area, the dollar volume of sales and average prices increased in 2011 from 2010, and that is a clear indicator to us that the market is in recovery. What does that mean for a real estate investor?聽Clearly, it’s time to buy. Seriously.

For more than 20 years, Mary Jones and Jeff Schons have focused on organically growing their Nestucca Ridge family of companies in Pacific City. Contact Mary at 503-550-7194 or [email protected]. Contact Jeff at 503-550-7194 or [email protected].